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From: kludge%gitpyr%gatech.CSNET@RELAY.CS.NET.UUCP
Newsgroups: mod.telecom
Subject: Submission for mod-telecom
Message-ID: <8701290138.AA26823@gitpyr.gatech.edu>
Date: Wed, 28-Jan-87 20:38:06 EST
Article-I.D.: gitpyr.8701290138.AA26823
Posted: Wed Jan 28 20:38:06 1987
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Path: gitpyr!kludge
From: kludge@gitpyr.gatech.EDU (Scott Dorsey)
Newsgroups: mod.telecom
Subject: Re: mail-sorting
Message-ID: <2970@gitpyr.gatech.EDU>
Date: 29 Jan 87 01:38:05 GMT
References: <8701271752.AA08915@circe.homer.nj.att.com>
Reply-To: kludge@gitpyr.UUCP (Scott Dorsey)
Organization: Georgia College Of Universal Knowledge
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In article <8701271752.AA08915@circe.homer.nj.att.com> smb@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU@ulysses.UUCP writes:
>I saw some interesting technology on a letter from the Soviet Union.  On
>the envelope (it may have been an aerogram; I don't recall) there were
>six templates for digits, with printed lines indicating where the penstrokes
>should go.  On the back was a sample of how they wanted each digit to look
>when superimposed on that template.  They're apparently called "index numbers",

  Yep.. I've seen them before.  From what I have been told, there is a machine
that makes a pass of the numbers with 3 CDS cells per digit, one on each side
and one in the center.  The pattern produced is used by a big machine with
relays to determine what the number is, and what bin it should be placed in.
Kind of like an old Burroughs card sorter with limited OCR.
  This is what I have gathered from the question I posed to Radio Kiev (who
uses these numbers), and I would not vouch for the quality of this information
at all, for this reason.  But, it is an intersting technology.


-- 
Scott Dorsey   Kaptain_Kludge
ICS Programming Lab (Where old terminals go to die),  Rich 110,
    Georgia Institute of Technology, Box 36681, Atlanta, Georgia 30332
    ...!{akgua,allegra,amd,hplabs,ihnp4,seismo,ut-ngp}!gatech!gitpyr!kludge