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One option would use special bar codes to track the flow of individual envelopes in much the same way that package delivery businesses like Federal Express and United Parcel Service follow packages. The Postal Service is also following the lead of other delivery companies and using technology to add new features to the seemingly simple process of delivering a letter.
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The Postal Service hopes to increase this rate to 50 percent with a new software version that will be installed in time to handle the Christmas rush, he added. Kupert said the current software recognized about 37 percent of the handwritten addresses today.
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From this, we can create a lexicon of every street that has a house with that number in the ZIP code, and the computer picks the best match.
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We have an excellent digit recognizer so we can recognize the ZIP code and correlate the city and state, said Ed Kupert, a manager of image-handling technology for the Postal Service. This time, the correct bar code is sprayed on each envelope so it can be sorted at local post offices.īoth the printed-character and handwritten-character recognition packages rely heavily on a large database containing every address in the country. Then the batch of envelopes with addresses that were hard to read are processed again. If these computers cannot read the address, the image of the address is finally given to a human, who reads it and types it into the system. First, a Silicon Graphics computer tries to interpret the image with more sophisticated algorithms (mathematical approaches) that take several seconds to search for an answer. If the computer cannot recognize the address in the short amount of time available to it - perhaps because the address is handwritten - the letter and the digital image of the address are put aside for off-line processing. Many smaller branches and local post offices have cheaper, faster sorting devices that can read only bar codes. machines distributed throughout the country at different sorting centers.
These extra chips run a stripped-down version of Linux that the Postal Service customized for high-speed parallel processing of addresses.
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Today, each machine is equipped with 11 additional 200-megahertz Pentium Pro chips that analyze the address images together. The original computer machines doing this job relied upon VAX minicomputers, which were manufactured by the old Digital Equipment computer company that is now a division of Compaq. Finding the answer in this short amount of time is called on-line processing. When letters without bar codes go into the first sorting machine, the computers try to interpret the address in the fraction of a second between when the letter passes by the camera and when it passes by an ink-jet printer that sprays on bar codes in fluorescent ink. machines handle 40,000 envelopes an hour and 80 percent of machine-printed mail we read. Bill Dowling, a vice president for engineering at the Postal Service, said, Our on-line O.C.R. Today, the post office is concentrating on building even more sophisticated computer systems, with advanced optical character recognition (O.C.R.) technology, that will read handwritten envelopes. A computer interprets the images, finds the best matching addresses and directs a printer to mark bar codes on the envelopes to speed further sorting. Mail without bar codes but with printed addresses is handled by large mail-sorting machines with built-in cameras for taking pictures of addresses. Mail with bar codes goes directly to machines that can read the codes. The machines direct the path of a letter with house-level precision. Most bulk mail, like bills, is printed with bar codes that are representations of ZIP codes and easy for computers to understand. The post office now uses computerized sorting machines to route most of the mail. Last year, letter carriers delivered 630 million pieces of mail a day. It usually melds with the old, allowing both to do what they do best. The fact is that new technology rarely destroys the old.
The answer is that it won't compete directly, but it will keep applying the same kind of computer power that underlies E-mail and other electronic wizardry to the task of moving paper mail. Many have been wondering whether something known colloquially as snail mail can compete. The world of E-mail, Web pages and software downloads seems to offer everything the old paper-based world of information delivers but offers it almost instantaneously. IF there is one institution that would seem to be threatened by the information superhighway, it's the United States Postal Service.
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