Moving scribbled mail along
Article Abstract:
The US Postal Service is soliciting bids for computer-based artificial intelligence and sophisticated optical scanning technology that will enable machines to comprehend and classify the millions of handwritten letters that pass through the system each day. Handwritten mail accounts for 20 percent of current daily volume of 555 million pieces of mail, and the Postal Service wants a system by 1995 that can read at least half of it. AT&T, IBM, TRW Inc, Westinghouse Corp, Litton Industries Inc and AEG Corp are all vying for the contract, which may be awarded by 1993. The commercial uses for handwriting recognition include credit card companies and banks. The move towards automation has caused 40,000 Postal Service jobs to be eliminated since the 1980s. Machine sorting is considerably less expensive, costing about $3 per one thousand letters. The cost rises to $40 per thousand when people must read the addresses.
Publication Name: The New York Times
Subject: News, opinion and commentary
ISSN: 0362-4331
Year: 1992
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Computers speed up Post Office service
Article Abstract:
The US Postal service is automating its customer service through the use of computer terminals that weigh and calculate postal costs of packages, automatic teller machines that sell stamps and computerized self service centers. About 54,000 computer terminals are installed at postal clerk stations and the Post Office estimates all clerks will have the terminals by the end of 1990. The terminals, called Integrated Retail Terminals, are welcomed by the clerks, who claim the speed of the computers helps cut down customer lines. The self-service centers, called Infopost and Autopost, are currently in test sites. These machines answer customer questions, assign postal rates to parcels, sell stamps and speak in English and Spanish. New self-adhesive postage stamps are being sold through automatic teller machines in another Post Office automation experiment.
Publication Name: The New York Times
Subject: News, opinion and commentary
ISSN: 0362-4331
Year: 1989
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Testing the telecommute
Article Abstract:
Bell Communications Research (Bellcore) engineer David LaPier telecommutes 50 miles two days a week to his office in Red Bank, NJ, from the laundry room of his home in Summit, NJ, using an Apple Macintosh computer and modem hooked up to a new Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) line. Lapier's unusual work-at-home (WAH) arrangement is part of a pilot project to demonstrate the usefulness of ISDN services, which, derided as 'innovations subscribers don't need,' are currently offered by less than half of the local telephone networks in the US. Using Group Technologies Inc's Aspect groupware product, LaPier can trade cursor control with coworker Lynn Case to word process the same document while carrying on a simultaneous voice conversation over a single ISDN line.
Publication Name: The New York Times
Subject: News, opinion and commentary
ISSN: 0362-4331
Year: 1993
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