JPH067955B2 - Letter processing device - Google Patents

Description

Description: TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a letter processing apparatus for aligning and accumulating letter directions.

[Technical background of the invention and its problems]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a postal stamp for a postal matter is detected and postmarked, and after the postmark, the postal letters are aligned and accumulated. However, a letter, such as direct mail, to which a stamp is not attached does not detect a mark or the like that should be detected by an apparatus for detecting a normal stamp that is usually used. For this reason, in the conventional apparatus, a letter such as a direct mail which is not affixed with a stamp cannot be processed although it is a normal letter, which is a great obstacle to the automated processing of a mail letter.

[Object of the Invention]

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide a letter processing apparatus capable of processing a letter such as a direct mail without a stamp attached thereto.

[Outline of Invention]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention determines the supply means for supplying a letter, the conveying means for conveying the letter supplied by the supplying means, and the presence / absence of a red frame of the letter conveyed by the conveying means. A red frame determining means, a pattern determining means for determining the presence or absence of a design in an area to which the stamp of the letter conveyed by the conveying means should be attached, and a stamp of the letter conveyed by the conveying means are detected. A stamp detecting means, and a letter for which the stamp is detected by the stamp detecting means and a letter for which the pattern determining means determines that the letter exists
And a second stacking means for aligning and stacking the directions of the letters which are not judged by the pattern judging means to have the pattern and are judged by the red frame judging means to have the red frame, and The collecting means for collecting letters which are not judged by the judging means to have the design and the red frame not being judged by the red frame judging means, are arranged according to the presence or absence of the red frame and the presence or absence of the design. By controlling the first stacking unit, the second stacking unit, and the removing stacking unit, it is possible to process a letter such as a direct mail which is not attached with a stamp.

Example of Invention

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of an automatic arranging and stamping machine to which the present invention is applied. A supply unit 10 for supplying a letter is provided, and a letter placed in an upright position is not shown but is taken out. It is taken out sequentially by the device. A first transport path 11 for transporting a letter is formed from the supply unit 10 to the stamping devices 90A and 90B which will be described later. Design detection devices 20A and 20B are provided above and below the first transport path 11, respectively.

The pattern detection devices 20A and 20B have the same configuration and are roughly divided into a detection unit 21, a red frame determination unit 30, and a pattern determination unit 45 as shown in FIG. Explaining the detection unit 21, the letter is conveyed on the conveying path, and a light source 22 for irradiating the conveyed letter with light is provided above the conveying path, and the letter P by the light source 22 is provided.
A dichroic mirror 23 that disperses the reflected light is provided. The dichroic mirror 23 reflects only the light of the wavelength of the red component and transmits the other light. An imaging lens 24 for imaging the light reflected or transmitted by the dichroic mirror 23,
Reference numerals 25 are provided in the dichroic mirror 23 in the light reflection direction and the light transmission direction, respectively. The imaging lens 24 focuses the red component wavelength light reflected by the dichroic mirror 23 on the line sensor 26, and the imaging lens 25
Forms an image of the light transmitted through the dichroic mirror 23 on the line sensor 27. The line sensors 26 and 27 are provided on the side opposite to the dichroic mirrors when viewed from the imaging lenses 24 and 25, and are formed by arranging photoelectric conversion elements such as CCDs in parallel. Then, the line sensor 26, 27 detects the letter design as an electric signal according to the intensity of the reflected light. Line sensor 2
The outputs of 6 and 27 are input to amplifiers 28 and 29.
The amplifiers 28 and 29 have line sensors 26 and 27, respectively.
The optical signals of wavelengths in the red region and the optical signals of wavelengths other than the red region are input from and are amplified to a voltage of a predetermined level. On the other hand, a letter detector 37 including a photocell 35 and a lamp 36 is provided above and below the conveyance path upstream of the light source 22, and the letter detector 37 is provided.
The operation of the pattern detection device is controlled by the operation of. With the above configuration, the detection unit 21 scans the letter in the direction orthogonal to the transport direction and detects the reflected light as an electric signal.

Next, the red frame determination section 30 will be described. The output of the amplifier 28 is connected to one input terminal of the difference detection circuit 31, and the output of the amplifier 29 is input to the other input terminal of the difference detection circuit 31. ing. The difference detection circuit 31 includes an amplifier 28,
The output of the difference detection circuit 31 that outputs the difference between the red component signal and the signal other than the red component input from 29 is input to one input terminal of the binarization circuit 32, and the other of the binarization circuit 32. The output terminal of the slice level transmission circuit 33 is input to the input terminal of. The binarization circuit 32 is configured to output "1" when the signal input from one input terminal has a higher level than the level signal input from the other input terminal. The output of the binarization circuit 32 is connected to one input terminal of the AND circuit 34.
On the other hand, the letter detector 3 including a photocell 35 and a lamp 36 on the upper side and the lower side of the conveying path upstream of the light source, respectively.
7 is provided, and the output of the letter detector 37 is input to the timing signal generating circuit 38. The timing signal generating circuit 38 outputs a signal indicating the detection area of the letter in synchronization with the conveyance of the letter. . That is, as shown in FIG. 3, the letter being conveyed is in a state as shown by P _{1 to} P ₄ depending on the conveying direction and the front and back directions, and the signal Y indicating the detection area of the red frame in the front in the conveying direction. ₁₃ and a signal Y ₂₄ indicating the detection area of the red frame in the rear of the conveying direction are output from the first output terminal and the second output terminal, respectively. The first output terminal of the timing signal generating circuit 38 is connected to one input terminal of the OR circuit 39 and the AND circuit 40, and the second output terminal of the timing signal generating circuit 38 is the other input terminal of the OR circuit 39. It is connected to one input terminal of the circuit 41. The output terminal of the OR circuit 39 is input to the other input terminal of the AND circuit 34. The AND circuit 34 receives the binarized detection signal and the area designating signal and outputs the AND. The output of the AND circuit 34 is input to the red frame determination circuit 42. The red frame determination circuit 42 receives a detection signal in the area designated by the area designation signal, and determines whether or not a red frame exists depending on whether or not a predetermined number of input signals are detected at a predetermined interval. . The output of the red frame determination circuit 42 is the AND circuit 40,
It is connected to the other input terminal of 41.

Explaining the design determination unit 45, the output terminal and the fourth output terminal of the above-mentioned timing signal generating circuit 38 are signals for designating the design detection region in the front of the letter shown in FIG. It outputs Y ₁₃ ′ and a signal Y ₂₄ ′ that signals the detection area of the pattern at the rear in the transport direction. The third output terminal and the fourth output terminal of this timing signal generating circuit are input to one input terminal and the other input terminal of the OR circuit 47. The output terminal of the OR circuit 47 is connected to the first input terminal of the AND circuit 50. The output of the letter detector 37 described above is input to the second timing signal generation circuit 48, and the second timing signal generation circuit 48 receives the signal from the letter detector 37 and is orthogonal to the letter conveyance direction. A signal indicating the scanning area in the direction is output. The two output terminals of the second timing signal generation circuit are connected to one input terminal and the other input terminal of the OR circuit 49. OR circuit 49
Is connected to the second input terminal of the AND circuit 50. The output terminals of the amplifiers 28 and 29 are binarization circuits 5
1, 52 are also connected to one input terminal, and the other input terminals of the binarization circuits 51 and 52 are connected to the first output terminal and the second output terminal of the second slice level transmission circuit 53, respectively. Has been done. The output terminals of the binarization circuits 51 and 52 are connected to the input terminals of the OR circuit 54,
The output terminal of is connected to the third input terminal of the AND circuit 50. The output of the AND circuit 50 is input to the design determination circuit 55. The output of the pattern determination circuit 55 is connected to one input terminal of each of the AND circuits 56 and 57. The other input terminal of the AND circuit 56 is connected to the third output terminal of the first timing signal generation circuit 38, and the other input terminal of the AND circuit 57 is the fourth output terminal of the first timing signal generation circuit. Connected with. The output terminals of the AND circuits 40 and 41 are connected to the output terminals A and B for controlling the stamping device and the integrated unit, respectively, and are also connected to one of the input terminals of the AND circuits 58 and 59. The other input terminals of 58 and 59 are connected to the output terminals of the AND circuits 56 and 57. The output terminals of the AND circuits 58 and 59 are connected to the output terminals C and D for controlling the stamping device and the stacking unit.

Stamp detection devices 60A and 60B are provided in front of the pattern detection devices 20A and 20B in the transport direction so as to face the transport path. The stamp detecting devices 60A and 60B have a structure as shown in FIG. That is, a light source 62 that irradiates light in a letter is provided above the conveyance path, and a first lens 63 that condenses the light emitted from this light source and irradiates it in a letter is provided between the conveyance path and the light source. A second lens 64 that collects the reflected light and guides it to a slit 65 to be described later is provided in the direction in which the light radiated in a letter is reflected, and a slit 65 is further provided in the reflection direction side. The dichroic mirror 66 that reflects only the light of the red component wavelength and the dichroic mirror 6 that reflects only the light of the blue component wavelength are located in front of the slit 65 in the light reflection direction.
7 and a dichroic mirror 68 that reflects only the light of the wavelength of the green component are sequentially provided. Photocells 69, 70, 71 for detecting the reflected light from these dichroic mirrors 66, 67, 68 are provided, and the outputs of the photocells 69, 70, 71 are amplifiers 72, 73,
It is amplified by 74 and input to the stamp judgment circuit 75. The stamp determining circuit 75 receives signals of red component, blue component, and green component, and determines the presence or absence of a stamp from these signals. With these configurations, the letter is optically scanned, and as shown in FIG. 6, within a region A _{1 having} a predetermined height Y from the letter reference plane a and a width from one end to X in the letter feeding direction. It is configured so that the presence or absence of a stamp can be detected. And the stamp detection device 60A
Whether there is a stamp in the lower left area A ₁ of the letter shown in the figure is detected, whether or not there is a stamp in the bottom left of A _{1 'in} the rear surface of area A ₁ by the stamp detector 60B is detected.

A second conveyance path 12 for reversing the letter is formed in the subsequent stage of the stamp detection devices 60A and 60B. In the second transport path, the transport belt for sandwiching the letter is twisted and inverted at the central portion of the transport path. The second transport path is branched from the first transport path to invert the letter, and then merges into the first transport path again. Is configured to.

The stamp detection devices 80A, 8A and 8B have the same configuration as the stamp detection devices 60A, 60B at a stage subsequent to the confluence of the second transport path 12.
OB is provided to face the upper side and the lower side of the transport path, respectively. And these stamp detection devices 80A, 80B
As a result, the letters are not detected by the stamp detecting devices 60A and 60B in the preceding stage, and the letter areas A ₁ and A
If the stamp is attached in ₁ ', the stamp is detected.

Stamping devices 90A and 90B are provided above and below the transport path in front of the stamp detecting devices 80A and 80B in the transporting direction, respectively, so that stamps can be stamped on a letter. This stamping device 9
Numerals 0A and 90B control whether or not to stamp a letter according to the detection results of the stamp detection devices 80A and 80B and the pattern detection devices 20A and 20B.

A stacking unit 100 is provided at the end of the first carrying path in front of the imprinting devices 90A and 90B in the carrying direction. The stacking unit 100 is composed of stacking chambers 101 to 105, and the stacking units 100 are sorted and stacked in each stacking chamber according to the type of a letter.

A switchback unit 106 is formed in front of the stacking unit 100 in the transport direction so as to branch from the first transport path and reverse the letters in the longitudinal direction and then stack the stack in the stacking chamber 104.

Next, the operation of this device will be described. The letters placed on the supply unit 10 are sequentially taken out to obtain the design detection devices 20A, 2
Transported to 0B. The pattern detection device 20A scans the upper surface of the letter, and the pattern detection device 20B scans the lower surface of the letter.
Therefore, as for the letters P ₁ and P ₂ shown in FIG. 3, which have a red frame on the upper surface of the letter, the red frame is detected by the red frame determination unit of the pattern detection device 20A, and the letters P ₃ and P ₃ shown in FIG. letter, such as P ₄ is to detect the red frame by red frame determining unit of the design detection device 20B. The operation of detecting the red frame will be described. First, the letter is illuminated by the light source 22 while being conveyed, and the reflected light of the letter is divided into two optical paths by the dichroic mirror 23. The reflected light of the red component wavelength is formed by the imaging lens 2
The reflected light having a wavelength other than the red color component is detected by the line sensor 26 via the image sensor 25 and the line sensor 27 via the imaging lens 25. The signal of the wavelength of the red component detected by the line sensor 26 is amplified by the amplifier 28, and the component signals of the components other than the wavelength of the red component detected by the line sensor 27 are amplified by the amplifier 29. The red component signal and the signals other than the red component amplified by the amplifiers 28 and 29 are signals as shown in FIG. That is, when scanning the portion where the red frame is present, the signal of the red component is characteristic in the portion other than red, for example, the zip code, and becomes the signal c shown in FIG. 7, and the signal other than the red component is on the letter. The signal becomes a characteristic signal in all parts and becomes a signal b shown in FIG. The signal b is a characteristic signal in all parts of the letter, and the signal c is a characteristic signal in parts other than the red part of the letter. Therefore, if the difference between these signals is taken, the red color of the letter The part becomes a characteristic signal and becomes a signal d shown in FIG. Then, the difference detection circuit 31 outputs the difference between the signal b and the signal c.
The output signal d of this difference detection circuit is a detection signal in the red portion, and the signal d is compared with the level signal f generated from the slice level generation circuit 33 by the binarization circuit 32. The binarization circuit 32 binarizes the signal d by outputting "1" when the signal d is larger than the level signal f and outputs "0" when the signal d is smaller than the level signal f. A signal such as the signal e shown in the figure is output. The binarized red portion of the signal e is input to the red frame judgment circuit 42 only in the area designated by the area designating signals Y ₁₃ and Y ₁₄ (shown in FIG. 3) by the AND circuit 34. The red frame determination circuit 42 determines the presence or absence of a red frame based on whether or not a predetermined number of detection signals e in the red portion have been detected at a predetermined interval. When it is determined that a red frame exists, "1" is output and the red frame is output. When it is determined that there is no frame, "0" is output. Red frame judgment circuit 4
The output of 2 is the area designating signal Y by AND circuits 40 and 41.
_{Ands with 13} , Y ₂₄ . When the output of the output terminal A is "1", it means that there is a red frame in front of the letter in the transport direction, and when the output of the output terminal B is "1", it is behind the letter in the transport direction. This indicates that there is a red frame. Further, in the pattern detection unit 45, the binarization circuits 51 and 52 convert the red component signal b and the signal c other than the red component into the slice level signal g (the second slice level signal g output from the second slice level generating circuit 53). It is binarized depending on whether or not it is larger than that shown in FIG. The binarized red component signal and the signals other than the red component are
As shown in FIG. H, the AND circuit 50 is connected via the OR circuit 54.
Entered in. The first input terminal of the AND circuit 50 outputs a signal Y ₁₃ ′, which is output from the timing signal generation circuit 38 and indicates the detection area of the design in the front of the letter in the conveyance direction.
Then, a signal Y ₂₄ ′ indicating the pattern detection area in the rear of the transport direction is input. Further, the second input terminal of the AND circuit 50 is provided with a signal X ₂ , which indicates the detection area of the pattern below the direction orthogonal to the transport direction of the letter output from the timing signal generation circuit 48 as shown in FIG. X
₃ and signals X ₁ and X ₄ designating the detection area of the pattern above in the direction orthogonal to the transport direction of the letter. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 6A ₁ , only the detection signal in the area where the stamp is to be attached is input to the design determination circuit 55. The design determination circuit 55 detects whether or not there is a design from the input detection signal.
When a design as shown in the drawing is drawn in the area where the stamps are attached, the detection signal when this design is scanned at the portion j shown by the alternate long and short dash line in FIG. 8 becomes a signal k, A binary signal obtained by comparing this with the slice level signal g is formed as a signal h. In the pattern determination circuit 55, a signal in the stamp pasting area is input, and it is determined whether or not there is a design by whether or not there is a change in brightness. The letter passing through the design detecting devices 20A and 20B is detected by the stamp detecting device 60A for the presence or absence of a stamp on the upper surface of the letter, and the stamp conveying device 60B for detecting the presence or absence of a stamp on the lower surface of the letter, and thus the letter P shown in FIG. _The stamps attached to the upper surface of the letter such as ₁ and P ₂ are detected by the stamp detecting device 60A, and the stamps attached to the lower surface of the letter such as P ₃ and P ₄ are A stamp is detected by the stamp detecting device 60B. At this time, the stamp detection device 6
Numerals 0A and 60B respectively detect whether or not a stamp is present within the predetermined areas A ₁ and A ₁ ′ from the reference transport surface a as shown in FIG. The letters P ₂ and P ₃ for which no stamp is detected are sent to the reversing unit so that the stamp sticking position is within the detection area.
The letter for which the stamp has been detected is conveyed as it is through the first conveying path 11. Therefore, the first transport path 11 and the second transport path 12
Letters at the confluence with all are P ₁ or P ₄ shown in FIG.
Are aligned in the same direction as. Stamp detection device 80A, 80B
Detects whether or not a stamp is affixed to the letter sent from the first and second conveyance paths, like the stamp detection device,
The letter whose stamp is detected by the stamp detecting device 80A is stamped by the stamper 90A, and the letter whose stamp is detected by the stamp stamping device 80B is stamped by the stamper 90B.
Then, among the stamped letters, the stamps attached are express stamps, which are accumulated in the accumulating chamber 102 or the accumulating chamber 103 according to the transport direction, and among the ordinary stamps, the stamp detecting device 80A stamps the stamps. Those detected are directly accumulated in the accumulation chamber 104, and those detected by the stamp detecting device 80B are accumulated in the accumulation chamber 104 via the switchback unit 106. In addition, the stamp is not detected, but the red frame and the design are detected by the pattern detection devices 20A and 20B, the red frame and the design are detected in front of the letter, that is, the output signal to the output terminal c. The existing ones are stamped by the stamping device 90A and stacked in the stacking chamber 104. The red frame and the pattern detected by the pattern detection devices 20A and 20B are detected by the imprinting device 90B when the red frame and the pattern are detected in the backward direction of the letter, that is, the output terminal D outputs. After being stamped, they are accumulated in the accumulation chamber 104 via the switchback unit 106. Further, stamps were not detected, but those in which only the red frame was detected by the pattern detection devices 20A and 20B were not stamped, and those in which the red frame was detected in the forward direction of the letter, that is, there was an output only at the output terminal A. Are directly accumulated in the accumulating chamber 105, and those in which a red frame is detected behind the letter in the conveying direction, that is, those having an output only at the output terminal B are accumulated in the accumulating chamber 105 via the switchback unit 106. To be done. Then, the letter for which neither the red frame nor the stamp can be detected is sent to the reject collection chamber 101.

As described above, according to this embodiment, even a letter such as a direct mail without a stamp attached can be processed by detecting the red frame. Further, since the collected letters are arranged in the same direction, subsequent manual processing can be performed smoothly.

In the present embodiment, the imprinting is performed on the red frame and the design detected, but the present invention is not limited to this, and the design is detected without imprinting the stamp not detected. It is also possible to make subsequent processing smooth by classifying and collecting objects, those in which only the red frame was detected, and those in which nothing was detected, and the point is on the letter. It is sufficient that the pattern is detected and the arrangement is controlled by this detection signal.

〔The invention's effect〕

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to align and collect even letters such as direct mail without stamps attached.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a configuration of a pattern detection device, FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an area designating signal in a conveyance direction of a letter, and FIG. 4 is a letter. The figure which shows the area | region designation | designated signal in the direction orthogonal to a conveyance direction, FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a stamp detection apparatus, FIG. 6 is a figure which shows the stamp detection area, FIG. 7 is a figure which shows the detection signal of a red frame, FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a detection signal of a design. 10 ... Supplying unit, 11 ... First conveying path, 20A, 20
B ... Design detection device, 80A, 80B ... Stamp detection device, 90, 90B ... Stamping device, 100 ... Stacking device.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A supply means for supplying a letter, a conveying means for conveying the letter supplied by the supplying means, and a red frame determining means for determining the presence or absence of a red frame of the letter conveyed by the conveying means. A pattern determination unit that determines the presence or absence of a design in an area to which the stamp of the letter conveyed by the conveyer should be attached; and a stamp detection unit that detects the stamp of the letter conveyed by the conveyer, A first stacking unit that aligns and stacks the letter in which the stamp is detected by the stamp detecting unit and the direction of the letter in which the design is determined to be present by the pattern determining unit, and the design determining unit determines that the design is present. A second stacking unit that aligns and stacks the directions of the letters that are not included and is determined by the red frame determining unit to have the red frame; and the pattern determining unit. And a rejection stacking unit that collects letters that have not been determined by the red frame determination unit to be present by the red frame determination unit.