WO2002013145A1 - Systeme pret a l'emploi reconfigurable dynamiquement - Google Patents

Systeme pret a l'emploi reconfigurable dynamiquement Download PDF

Info

Publication number
WO2002013145A1
WO2002013145A1 PCT/US2001/024317 US0124317W WO0213145A1 WO 2002013145 A1 WO2002013145 A1 WO 2002013145A1 US 0124317 W US0124317 W US 0124317W WO 0213145 A1 WO0213145 A1 WO 0213145A1
Authority
WO
WIPO (PCT)
Prior art keywords
turnkey
data
user
central server
remote central
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Ceased
Application number
PCT/US2001/024317
Other languages
English (en)
Inventor
Flavio M. Manduley
Current Assignee (The listed assignees may be inaccurate. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of the list.)
Pitney Bowes Inc
Original Assignee
Pitney Bowes Inc
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Pitney Bowes Inc filed Critical Pitney Bowes Inc
Priority to AU2001281014A priority Critical patent/AU2001281014A1/en
Publication of WO2002013145A1 publication Critical patent/WO2002013145A1/fr
Anticipated expiration legal-status Critical
Ceased legal-status Critical Current

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Classifications

    • G—PHYSICS
    • G06—COMPUTING OR CALCULATING; COUNTING
    • G06Q—INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
    • G06Q30/00—Commerce
    • G06Q30/02—Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
    • G—PHYSICS
    • G07—CHECKING-DEVICES
    • G07B—TICKET-ISSUING APPARATUS; FARE-REGISTERING APPARATUS; FRANKING APPARATUS
    • G07B17/00—Franking apparatus
    • G07B17/00016—Relations between apparatus, e.g. franking machine at customer or apparatus at post office, in a franking system
    • G07B17/00024—Physical or organizational aspects of franking systems
    • G—PHYSICS
    • G07—CHECKING-DEVICES
    • G07B—TICKET-ISSUING APPARATUS; FARE-REGISTERING APPARATUS; FRANKING APPARATUS
    • G07B17/00—Franking apparatus
    • G07B17/00016—Relations between apparatus, e.g. franking machine at customer or apparatus at post office, in a franking system
    • G07B17/0008—Communication details outside or between apparatus
    • G—PHYSICS
    • G07—CHECKING-DEVICES
    • G07B—TICKET-ISSUING APPARATUS; FARE-REGISTERING APPARATUS; FRANKING APPARATUS
    • G07B17/00—Franking apparatus
    • G07B17/00016—Relations between apparatus, e.g. franking machine at customer or apparatus at post office, in a franking system
    • G07B17/00024—Physical or organizational aspects of franking systems
    • G07B2017/00048—Software architecture
    • G—PHYSICS
    • G07—CHECKING-DEVICES
    • G07B—TICKET-ISSUING APPARATUS; FARE-REGISTERING APPARATUS; FRANKING APPARATUS
    • G07B17/00—Franking apparatus
    • G07B17/00016—Relations between apparatus, e.g. franking machine at customer or apparatus at post office, in a franking system
    • G07B17/0008—Communication details outside or between apparatus
    • G07B2017/00153—Communication details outside or between apparatus for sending information
    • G07B2017/00161—Communication details outside or between apparatus for sending information from a central, non-user location, e.g. for updating rates or software, or for refilling funds

Definitions

  • the present invention pertains to the control of turnkey devices for printing on media or for copying printed material, and more particularly to the remote control of the capabilities, features, and modes of execution of such devices.
  • a printing or copying turnkey device such as a mailing machine (including a postage meter) for printing postage on a mailpiece
  • the customer or the marketing group selling the turnkey device
  • the device is provided in the corresponding configuration, i.e. it is provided with corresponding hardware (including electronics) and software, including both configuration and other data as well as software that controls the device according to the configuration and other data.
  • the device data could include, for example, a motion profile for regulating how the device executes a machine cycle. If a customer (or marketing) incorrectly assesses the customer's needs, or if these needs change, the hardware and software must be modified or replaced.
  • a customer is going to purchase a mailing machine, the customer must decide whether the mailing machine is to include a scale to automatically weigh a mailpiece and determine the proper postage. In addition, the customer will guess the processing speed (in mailpieces per minute) that is needed to satisfy the customer's needs.
  • a mailing machine is then provided with the hardware and software corresponding to the requirements anticipated by the customer.
  • Such a mailing machine is a turnkey system in that there is essentially no adjustment to be made; it works only one way. If the features and ⁇ a Stlilities must be changed to more closely meet the customer's needs, then new modules (hardware and software) must be provided to the customer in replacement " )f, or in- addition to, existing modules.
  • What is needed is a system for enabling a customer to remotely adjust or alter (turn on or off) the features and capabilities of a turnkey device, such as a mailing machine, without having to add corresponding modules or replace existing modules, and without transforming the turnkey device into a more complex (harder to use) device. Being able to remotely change or alter the features of a turnkey device would give great flexibility to the operator of the turnkey device.
  • the present invention provides a dynamically reconfigurable turnkey system, including a turnkey device, responsive to commands from a user for performing a task according to instructions stored in the turnkey device, for providing a request to alter the device capabilities and performance in response to instructions provided by the user, and further responsive to reconfiguration data for altering the device capabilities and performance; and also including a remote central server for providing the reconfiguration data in response to the request to alter the capabilities and performance of the turnkey device.
  • the turnkey device also provides job summary data
  • the remote central server receives the job summary data and makes the job summary data available to the user of the remote central server to enable data mining by the user of the job summary data.
  • the remote central server then provides to the turnkey device suggested alterations in the configuration of the turnkey device indicated by the user based on the data mining by the user.
  • the turnkey system is a photocopier or the turnkey device is a mailing equipment device such as a mailing machine.
  • the turnkey system also includes turnkey device core elements, for providing core features, performance, and activating optional features and performance in response to configuration data; optional elements for providing optional features and performance in response to commands by the turnkey device core elements activating the optional features and performance; configuration data element for providing a current configuration indicating specific optional features and performance, responsive to the reconfiguration data provided by the remote central server; and a device communication element for providing the request to alter the capabilities and performance of the turnkey device in response to instructions provided by the user, and for receiving the reconfiguration data provided by the remote central server.
  • the turnkey device is a meter having embedded memory, and in some embodiments of this aspect of the invention, the turnkey device is a mailing machine, and the meter is a postage meter.
  • the remote central server includes a server communication element for communicating with the turnkey device and a configuration control element for providing the reconfiguration data to the turnkey device in response to an indication to provide new configuration data for the turnkey device and an indication of what new configuration data to provide.
  • the present invention provides a turnkey system with the entire hardware needed for any feature (function) of the turnkey system but with software only for a selected set of features (functions). Included in the hardware is an amount of non-volatile RAM adequate to store the software needed for a typical set of features, but not for holding simultaneously the software for all possible features. If a customer would like to alter the set of features, then the software for the different features may be downloaded and stored in replacement for some or all of the software for the existing features.
  • the same non-volatile RAM is used for a wide range of different applications, and the operator of the turnkey system is able to change or alter the functionality of the turnkey system (e.g., by downloading software for new functions as needed) so that the turnkey system may be configured for different applications.
  • Fig. 1 is a block diagram of a system including a turnkey device (e.g., a mailing machine with a postage meter) and a remote central server that reconfigures the turnkey device either in response to requests from a user of the turnkey device, or autonomously, based on goals for cost and performance of the turnkey system; and
  • Fig. 2 is a block diagram of a turnkey device according to the present invention indicating the components of the turnkey device as being either core or optional hardware, either core or optional software (not necessarily all of the software required to execute all functions the device hardware is capable of performing), or an optional meter (e.g., a postage meter in case the turnkey device is a mailing machine) with its own (nonvolatile) memory.
  • a turnkey device e.g., a mailing machine with a postage meter
  • a remote central server that reconfigures the turnkey device either in response to requests from a user of the turnkey device, or autonomously, based on goals
  • a turnkey device 12 according to the present invention is shown in telecommunication with a remote central server 14.
  • the turnkey device could be, for example, a mailing machine, but is, in general, a document processing machine, and so could also be a photocopier machine or a document sorting machine.
  • Turnkey device 12 includes core elements 24, which are either hardware or software, and optional elements 22, which are also either hardware or software. Turnkey device 12 includes all of the hardware core elements and all of the hardware optional elements that would ever be used by device 12. In addition, device 12 includes all software core elements needed by the turnkey device. However, in the preferred embodiment, optional software elements are downloaded from the remote central server 14 as needed, at the discretion of a user of the turnkey device, usually depending on the job to be performed by the turnkey device.
  • device 12 may be a mailing machine and its next job may be to measure the values of parameters that determine what postage is to be applied to mailpieces and to affix the appropriate postage on each of the mailpieces.
  • device 12 a mailing machine in this particular case
  • the motivation for adjusting the speed depending on the number of mailpieces is that a higher speed causes greater wear of device 12.
  • a device communication element 25 would then send a message over a telecommunications system 15 to the remote central server 14 based on the indicated reconfiguration in the configuration motion profile data store 23.
  • the telecommunications system may be, for example, the Internet or a proprietary communication system using a subscriber phone line.
  • the request to download software to reconfigure device 12 for different functionality is received by remote central server 14 via server communication element 33, which provides the request to a configuration control element 32.
  • configuration control element 32 When configuration control element 32 receives such a request, it examines a customer database 31 that includes the current configuration of device 12 (as well as the supply order history for the turnkey device and its preventive maintenance scheduling) so as to determine whether the request for the different functionality is compatible with the current configuration of device 12.
  • configuration control element 32 determines that the request for different functionality is compatible with the current configuration, element 32 will extract from an available options data store 34 the software corresponding to the request of functionality and provide the software to device 12 via telecommunication system 15 using server communication element 33 to interface with the telecommunication system.
  • Data store 34 includes the actual instructions and associated operations data (including e.g. postage rates and motion control profiles) for enabling any of the functions of the hardware or software components of device 12.
  • device 12 stores in job summary data memory 26 a summary of recent jobs performed by device 12.
  • the summary data of recent jobs includes not simply the number of documents (such as mailpieces) processed and the document characteristics (size and weight or thickness of the documents) but also, optionally, more specific information about the job, such as, for example, if the job is a mailing to individuals according to a specific set of criteria.
  • Device communication element 25 in this mode of operation examines the job summary data 26 and periodically transfers to the remote central server 14 via the telecommunication system 15 any new job summary data.
  • Remote central server 14 then makes the job summary data available for inspection by a user via a server user interface 35.
  • the job summary data should be detailed enough to allow a user to inspect the job summary data and then make suggestions for better meeting the needs of customers.
  • An inspection of job summary data that is sufficiently detailed for that purpose is called here data mining.
  • the job summary data is stored in the customer database 31 , and the user of remote central server 14 may indicate messages to be communicated to device 12 as a result of the data mining of the job summary data.
  • Such messages might, for example, suggest to the operator of device 12 that device 12 is not being used optimally because, for example, small jobs are being processed at an unnecessarily high processing speed, or that device 12 is likely to run out of one or another consumable (for example ink or envelopes), or that the user of device 12 might benefit from considering an upgrade to a more advanced device 12 capable of routinely handling processing at higher processing speeds that may be selected by the user.
  • Such messages are received by the device communication element 25 of device 12 and stored in the configuration and motion profile data store 23.
  • the device user interface 21 is organized to periodically examine the configuration and motion profile data store 23 and to indicate on a display provided as part of the device user interface 21 the messages sent from remote central server 14.
  • the configuration and motion profile data store 23 includes an indication of the current configuration of device 12, the software for executing the software of the optional functions, as well as operating data, including for example, in the case of a mailing machine, postal rates based on either weight or based on other metric parameters such as a combination of weight and size, as well as any motion profile data used by the optional functions.
  • the term motion profile data is used here to indicate data that coordinates the motion of different machines of device 12 to accomplish different processing operations performed by device 12. Referring now to Fig. 2, device 12 is shown in terms of its hardware and software elements. In this drawing, device 12 includes core hardware elements 41 with one element being core random access memory (RAM) 41'. Device 12 also includes core software elements 42 (stored in core RAM 41').
  • device 12 includes optional hardware elements 45 and some or all of the corresponding software, the corresponding software also being stored in core RAM 41'.
  • Device 12 is provided with all core hardware elements 41 , with all core software elements 42, and with all optional hardware elements 45, but with only those optional software elements 46 ordered by a user when first procuring device 12.
  • Optional software 46 for performing different optional functions than the optional software that is originally ordered may be downloaded by the user from the remote central server 14, as described above.
  • the different optional software 46 is loaded in the same core RAM as the core software elements 42.
  • Device 12 typically does not include sufficient core RAM 41' to host all possible optional software as well as all core software. Thus, in case of a user requesting a new configuration of device 12, it is possible that some of the existing optional software will be overwritten by the optional software indicated by the requested reconfiguration.
  • device 12 also optionally includes meter hardware 43, which in turn includes a meter having its own (non-volatile) RAM 43', separate from core RAM 41'.
  • device 12 includes meter software 44 stored in the meter
  • RAM 43' In an embodiment where device 12 is a mailing machine, the meter hardware and software would be that for a postage meter.

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  • Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • Business, Economics & Management (AREA)
  • Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
  • Accounting & Taxation (AREA)
  • Development Economics (AREA)
  • Finance (AREA)
  • Strategic Management (AREA)
  • Game Theory and Decision Science (AREA)
  • Marketing (AREA)
  • Economics (AREA)
  • General Business, Economics & Management (AREA)
  • Entrepreneurship & Innovation (AREA)
  • Theoretical Computer Science (AREA)
  • Information Transfer Between Computers (AREA)

Abstract

L'invention concerne un système prêt à l'emploi reconfigurable dynamiquement (11), tel qu'une machine de traitement de courrier ou une photocopieuse. Ce système comprend un dispositif prêt à l'emploi (12) sensible aux commandes d'un utilisateur permettant d'effectuer une tâche selon des instructions stockées dans le dispositif prêt à l'emploi, et de fournir une demande destinée à modifier les capacités et le rendement du dispositif en réponse aux instructions données par l'utilisateur. Le dispositif est également sensible aux données de reconfiguration en réponse à la demande de modification des capacités et du rendement du dispositif. Ledit système comprend également un serveur central éloigné (14) servant à acheminer les données de reconfiguration en réponse à une demande destinée à modifier les capacités et le rendement du dispositif prêt à l'emploi. Ce dernier renferme tous les éléments matériels nécessaires pour effectuer n'importe laquelle des fonctions exécutables, mais ne comporte que les éléments logiciels destinés à un ensemble choisi de fonctions. L'utilisateur du dispositif prêt à l'emploi télécharge, à partir du serveur central éloigné (14), les éléments logiciels requis pour différents ensembles de fonctions. Dans certains modes de réalisation, le dispositif prêt à l'emploi (12) fournit également des données de schéma d'emploi (26), le serveur central éloigné (14) recevant ces données de schéma d'emploi (26) de façon à les mettre à la disposition de l'utilisateur du serveur central éloigné (14), d'où une exploration des données de schéma d'emploi (26) par l'utilisateur du serveur central éloigné (14). Ce dernier confère alors au dispositif prêt à l'emploi (12) les modifications de configuration indiquées par l'utilisateur sur la base de l'exploration des données.
PCT/US2001/024317 2000-08-04 2001-08-03 Systeme pret a l'emploi reconfigurable dynamiquement Ceased WO2002013145A1 (fr)

Priority Applications (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
AU2001281014A AU2001281014A1 (en) 2000-08-04 2001-08-03 Dynamically reconfigurable turnkey system

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
US63251700A 2000-08-04 2000-08-04
US09/632,517 2000-08-04

Publications (1)

Publication Number Publication Date
WO2002013145A1 true WO2002013145A1 (fr) 2002-02-14

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PCT/US2001/024317 Ceased WO2002013145A1 (fr) 2000-08-04 2001-08-03 Systeme pret a l'emploi reconfigurable dynamiquement

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WO (1) WO2002013145A1 (fr)

Cited By (1)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
EP1659490A1 (fr) 2004-11-11 2006-05-24 Francotyp-Postalia GmbH Méthode pour fournir des services entre des systèmes de traitement de données

Citations (4)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US5459670A (en) * 1992-05-15 1995-10-17 Johnson & Hayward, Inc. System and method for processing international mail
US5612884A (en) * 1989-03-23 1997-03-18 F.M.E. Corporation Remote meter operation
US6081795A (en) * 1997-12-18 2000-06-27 Pitney Bowes Inc. Postage metering system and method for a closed system network
US6098058A (en) * 1997-12-18 2000-08-01 Pitney Bowes Inc. Postage metering system and method for automatic detection of remote postage security devices on a network

Patent Citations (4)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US5612884A (en) * 1989-03-23 1997-03-18 F.M.E. Corporation Remote meter operation
US5459670A (en) * 1992-05-15 1995-10-17 Johnson & Hayward, Inc. System and method for processing international mail
US6081795A (en) * 1997-12-18 2000-06-27 Pitney Bowes Inc. Postage metering system and method for a closed system network
US6098058A (en) * 1997-12-18 2000-08-01 Pitney Bowes Inc. Postage metering system and method for automatic detection of remote postage security devices on a network

Cited By (2)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
EP1659490A1 (fr) 2004-11-11 2006-05-24 Francotyp-Postalia GmbH Méthode pour fournir des services entre des systèmes de traitement de données
US7606264B2 (en) 2004-11-11 2009-10-20 Francotyp-Postalia Gmbh Method and arrangement for providing services between data processing devices

Also Published As

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