Patent · US Expired

System having a character generator for printing encrypted messages

US4637051A · kind A · utility

207Cited by
14References
49Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventor

Key dates

Filing dateJul 18, 1983
Grant dateJan 13, 1987
Priority date
Expiry dateJul 18, 2003

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG07B2017/00725
  • WIPO fieldControl
  • WIPO sectorInstruments

Abstract

A system for the metering of encrypted postage and similar indicia includes a device for printing such indicia and a device for reading such indicia. The printing is accomplished with a dot matrix printer driven by signals obtained from a character generator and an encryption circuit. The reading is accomplished by correlating received characters against a stored array of symbols to determine the presence of a symbol and the comparison of the separated coded data with a reference code to determine the accuracy of the printed material. Thereby, forgery and alteration is inhibited. Alphanumeric characters are utilized for both the data and the code, a group of characters for the data being separated from a group of characters for the code to allow for the reading of the data, while readily extracting the remaining characters for verification purposes.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.