System and method of electronic and physical mail categorization and targeted delivery

Abstract

Embodiments include systems and methods of a service that allows hard copy and electronic media customers to proactively specify, across a broad range of categories, the hard copy mail and/or electronic media mail that they would or would not like to receive. Embodiments include methods and systems configured to allow customers of delivery services to customize the flow of physical items such as hard copy or other letters or parcels, for delivery or electronic media mail from mailers based on highly specific customer-designated criteria. The delivery service acts as a trusted third party to serve as the intermediary between the recipient of the items and mailers to provide privacy and manage a repository for a customer-selected criteria database. In addition, one embodiment provides verification and/or identification that mail being sent meets the customer's designated criteria.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method of processing items to be delivered, the method comprising:
 receiving, in a system having a processor, a virtual address comprising data defined by a mail recipient that is other than a physical address or a mailing address of the recipient;   generating, by a processor, a first hash based on the virtual address;   storing, in a database, the first hash;   associating, by a processor, the first hash with a delivery address;   reading address information from a surface of an item to be delivered;   extracting, by a processor, the addressing information from the received item;   generating, by a processor, a second hash based on the read address information;   searching, by a processor, the database using the second hash to identify a corresponding first hash;   determining, by a processor, a delivery address for the item to be delivered, wherein the delivery destination for the item to be delivered is the delivery address associated with the corresponding first hash; and   applying indicia of the delivery address to the item to be delivered.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein generating the first hash comprises generating a cryptographic hash. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein generating the cryptographic hash comprises calculating a SHA-1 value. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein reading address information from a source associated with the item to be delivered comprises reading the information using an optical reader. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 4 , wherein reading the information using an optical reader comprises reading the information using an optical character recognition device. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein applying indicia of the delivery address to the item comprises applying a mailing label to the item, wherein the mailing label has displayed thereon indicia of the delivery address of the item. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the delivery address comprises one of a mailing address or a physical address. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the address information comprises data other than a name of an intended recipient of the item and other than geographic indicia. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the addressing information comprises arbitrary character data defined by the intended recipient of the item. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the database further comprises data indicative of delivery preferences associated with at least one category and the first hash. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 10 , further comprising:
 determining a category associated with the item;   accessing delivery preferences for the first hash from the database; and   providing the item for delivery based on the delivery preferences.   
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein the delivery preferences include requesting physical delivery. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein the delivery preferences include requesting electronic delivery 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 13 , wherein mail is converted to electronic format prior to electronic delivery. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 14 , wherein a piece of mail is converted to electronic format through scanning. 
     
     
         16 . A system for processing items to be delivered, the system comprising:
 a non-transitory computer readable medium comprising executable instructions that when executed by a processor cause the processor to perform the steps of:
 receiving a virtual address comprising data defined by a recipient that is other than a physical address or a mailing address of the recipient; 
 generating a first hash based on the virtual address; 
 storing, in a database, the first hash; 
 associating, in a database, the first hash with a delivery address; 
 reading address information from an item to be delivered; 
 generating a second hash based on the read address information; 
 searching the database using the second hash to identify a corresponding first hash; 
 determining a delivery address for the item to be delivered, wherein the delivery address for the item to be delivered is the delivery address associated with the corresponding first hash; and 
 applying indicia of the delivery address to the item to be delivered. 
   
     
     
         17 . The system of  claim 16 , wherein the processor is configured to generate the first hash by generating a cryptographic hash. 
     
     
         18 . The system of  claim 17 , wherein the processor is configured to generate the first hash by calculating a SHA-1 value. 
     
     
         19 . The system of  claim 16 , wherein the processor is configured to read the address information from the item to be delivered using an optical reader that images a surface of the item. 
     
     
         20 . The system of  claim 19 , wherein the processor is configured to read the address information by using an optical character recognition device. 
     
     
         21 . The system of  claim 16 , wherein the processor is configured to provide data for printing a mailing label to be applied to the item, and wherein the mailing label has displayed thereon indicia of the delivery address associated with the item. 
     
     
         22 . The system of  claim 16 , wherein the delivery address comprises one of a mailing address or a physical address. 
     
     
         23 . The system of  claim 16 , wherein the address information comprises data other than a name of an intended recipient of the item and other than geographic indicia. 
     
     
         24 . The system of  claim 16 , wherein the address information comprises character data previously received from the intended recipient of the item. 
     
     
         25 . The system of  claim 16 , wherein the database further comprises data indicative of delivery preferences associated with at least one category and the first hash. 
     
     
         26 . The system of  claim 25 , wherein the processor is further configured to:
 determine a category associated with the item to be delivered;   access delivery preferences associated with the first hash from the database; and   provide delivery instructions for the item based on the delivery preferences.   
     
     
         27 . A system for processing items to be delivered, the system comprising:
 a non-transitory computer readable medium comprising executable instructions that when executed by a processor cause the processor to perform the steps of:
 receiving a virtual address comprising data defined by a recipient that is other than a physical address or a mailing address of the recipient; 
 generating a first hash based on the virtual address; 
 storing, in a database, the first hash; 
 associating the first hash with delivery preference information; 
 receiving an item to be delivered having address information on a surface thereof; 
 reading the address information from the surface of the item to be delivered; 
 generating a second hash based the read address information; 
 searching the database using the second hash to identify a corresponding first hash; 
 determining the delivery preference information for the item to be delivered, wherein the delivery preference information for the item to be delivered is the delivery preference information associated with the corresponding first hash; and 
 providing delivery instructions for the item to be delivered based on the determined delivery preference information. 
   
     
     
         28 . The system of  claim 27 , wherein the processor is further configured to:
 determine a category associated with the item to be delivered;   provide delivery instructions for the item to be delivered based on the determined delivery preference information and the determined category.   
     
     
         29 . The system of  claim 27 , wherein the determined delivery preference information comprises geographically related delivery preference information. 
     
     
         30 . The system of  claim 29 , wherein the delivery preference information comprises geographically related delivery preference information.