JP2005182180A - Electronic receipt system and electronic receipt check system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a recheck mechanism by a shopper oneself in an electronic receipt presented from a shop. <P>SOLUTION: The mechanism outputs the electronic receipt without performing authentication, by automatically identifying a variety of communication interfaces held by a portable electronic device 104 when inserting it into a radio wave shielded communication BOX 105. On the other hand, the device 104 with the electronic receipt received thereby scans a purchased article by using an article scanning function, acquires information on the article by using communication equipment installed in the shop to compare the information with the content of the electronic receipt. If a difference is recognized as the result of the comparison, a warning screen is displayed to point out imperfection of account settling. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to an electronic receipt system and an electronic receipt check system.

  Conventionally, as a technique for outputting sales transaction data as an electronic receipt, for example, there is a technique for transmitting and receiving sales transaction data using means having a function of authenticating an individual, e-mail, via the Internet (for example, see Patent Document 1). ).

  Further, a technique for transmitting and receiving electronic receipt information after performing terminal authentication processing through wireless communication is also known (see Patent Document 2).

  In addition, mobile phones are generally known as portable electronic devices having a function of storing electronic data in a storage medium using a communication medium, and a function of electronically scanning product identification information in these portable electronic devices A mobile phone with a barcode reader to which a barcode reader function is added is known (see, for example, Patent Document 3).

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-77064 JP 2002-312853 A JP 2000-209146 A

  However, the technique described in Patent Document 1 needs to have a function of acquiring an e-mail address of a shopper in advance or registering an e-mail address in a store database in advance. In addition, there is a problem with respect to obtaining an email address.

  The technique described in Patent Document 2 is characterized in that wireless communication is used as an interface of a portable electronic device that outputs an electronic receipt. However, it lacks versatility in that the form of the interface is limited. In addition, the electronic receipt output device automatically determines the interface of the portable electronic device by inputting various kinds of interfaces, so that authentication information is input to the electronic receipt receiving device owned by itself to authenticate the portable electronic device. Thus, there is a problem that a function for outputting an electronic receipt without causing a manual operation of a shopper to transmit to a POS terminal is insufficient.

  Further, the techniques described in Patent Document 1 and Patent Document 2 use electronic receipts from the viewpoint of convenience of reception and saving of paper resources, but there is a problem that the validity of the electronic receipt itself cannot be checked.

  The technique described in Patent Document 3 uses a barcode reader as means for electronically scanning product identification information, but has a problem that there is no means for scanning by other methods such as image recognition. In addition, when the barcode reader is activated during communication, it has a function to immediately transmit the barcode data read from the barcode reader, but the product information for the transmitted data can be received, There is a problem that there is no means for checking the validity of the electronic receipt received at the time of purchasing the product based on the received information.

  An object of the present invention is to provide a convenient and reliable electronic receipt check system.

  To check the validity of the electronic receipt, the function for electronically scanning the product identification information on the medium that receives the electronic receipt, the function for transmitting the scanned information as electronic data using a communication medium, and the transmitted product It is necessary to compare the electronic receipt received from the store using the function of receiving the price and value-added information from the identification information, and display the difference information using the display device. Furthermore, not only electronic receipts but also human settlement at the cash register has a problem in that there are a lot of human errors and affects creditworthiness.

  In order to achieve the above object, the present invention comprises a communication-only device for placing a portable electronic device when a store-side POS device outputs a receipt in purchasing a product, and the communication-only device includes the communication-only device. An electronic receipt is required without performing authentication operations by using communication means that require communication to be established all at once using various communication methods that a portable electronic device is supposed to be able to receive. Is output. If there is no portable electronic device, output to a paper receipt as before.

  When purchasing merchandise, when the store-side POS device outputs a receipt, the customer-side portable device receives the data using the communication medium when handling the contents of the receipt as electronic data for transmission via the communication medium. In a system that establishes communication with an electronic device and outputs product sales transaction information as an electronic receipt, it automatically determines the various communication functions of the portable electronic device on the customer side, and performs operations for authentication. Electronic receipts can be output without doing so.

  In addition, the communication line established with the communication device installed in the merchandise purchase store using the function that can electronically scan the identification information of the merchandise that has been settled at the cash register The product information such as price and value-added information corresponding to the product identification information is received as electronic data using a function that can be transmitted via the communication medium and the electronic data can be stored in the storage medium using the communication medium and stored in the storage medium. Accumulate, extract differences from electronic receipts using received data, display difference information when differences occur, and notify merchandise purchasers of differences . As a result, it is possible to check whether or not a price discount service has been received by double settlement of products and bulk purchase of a plurality of products. The display highlights only the differences.

  As described above, according to the present invention, when outputting a receipt of a merchandise sales transaction in purchasing a merchandise, the system for transmitting the merchandise sales transaction information as digitized data using a communication medium Various communication functions of a portable electronic device that receives using a medium are automatically determined, and transmission and reception of digitized data can be performed without performing an authentication operation using a communication means that can establish communication. The product sales transaction information can be output as an electronic receipt.

  In addition, the portable electronic device that has received the output electronic receipt acquires the price and added value information of the product from the in-store database using the scanning function and communication function of the portable electronic device itself, and at the time of checkout at the cash register By comparing with the received electronic receipt, the consistency of the electronic receipt can be checked. As a result, it is possible to check whether or not a price discount service has been received by double settlement of products and bulk purchase of a plurality of products. In addition, the service of obtaining accurate electronic receipts provides the store with confidence and gives consumers peace of mind.

  An electronic receipt check system according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1A is a block diagram showing a system configuration example of an electronic receipt check system according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1A, an electronic receipt check system according to the present embodiment includes a product database 101 in which product information and value-added information are registered, and a server 102 that extracts product information that meets search conditions. POS device 103 that performs checkout at cash register, portable electronic device 104, communication BOX device 105 provided for transmitting electronic receipt from POS device 103 to portable electronic device 104, and communication medium not found And a wireless communication device 107 in the store that communicates with the portable electronic device 104 to obtain product information scanned by the portable electronic device 104. And an in-store LAN 108 that connects the POS device 103 and the in-store wireless communication device 107 to the server.

  FIG. 1B is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of portable electronic device 104 according to the present embodiment. As shown in FIG. 1B, the portable electronic device 104 includes a communication function 104a, a commodity scanning function (scanner) 104b, an electronic data processing function (CPU) 104c, and an electronic data display function (monitor) 104d. Yes.

  First, a procedure for creating an electronic receipt will be described. When the shopper takes the product he / she wants to purchase to the cash register and performs checkout at the cash register, the POS device 103 scans the bar code attached to the product to obtain product information, and passes through the in-store LAN 108. Then, the server 102 is made to search for the price of the scanned product. The server 102 extracts the price from the product database 101 and returns electronic data to the POS device 103. The POS device 103 creates a receipt based on the returned electronic data. When scanning of all purchased products is completed, the communication BOX device 105 provided with the communication device checks whether or not the portable electronic device 104 exists.

  As a check method of the portable electronic device 104, it is preferable to use the communication BOX device 105 for preventing radio waves for wireless communication from spreading. When the portable electronic device 104 is inserted into the communication BOX device 105, communication establishment is attempted by various communication methods that the portable communication device 104 can have such as infrared communication and Bluetooth, and communication can be established within a certain time. Are considered to be capable of outputting an electronic receipt, and the POS device 103 outputs an electronic receipt to the portable electronic device 104.

  The portable electronic device 104 may be lent to a registered customer, or may be a device in which the above functions are added to a cellular phone owned by a general customer. good. Note that the communication method is not limited to wireless communication, and the means for connecting the communication BOX 105 and the portable electronic device 104 may be wired as long as the device can transmit and receive electronic data by contact. At this time, since communication can be established only with the portable electronic device 104 included in the communication BOX 105, authentication processing is not required. If there is no communication means that can be established within a certain period of time, it is output to the printing apparatus 106 as a paper receipt.

  Next, a process in which the shopper checks the consistency between his / her shopping and the display described on the electronic receipt will be described. A shopper scans a purchased item using his portable electronic device 104. The scanning method may be a method of analyzing a recognition mark for scanning represented by a barcode, or a product is photographed using a camera function provided in a portable electronic device, and the product is scanned by an image recognition function. There are methods. The product information acquired by scanning the product purchased by the portable electronic device 104 is the product information scanned via the in-store LAN 108 when the portable electronic device 104 can establish communication with the wireless communication device 107. The server 102 is made to search for the price. The server 102 extracts the price from the product database 101 and returns electronic data of product information to the portable electronic device 104 via the in-store LAN 108 and the in-store wireless communication device 107. The portable electronic device 104 compares the returned electronic data with the electronic receipt, extracts the difference, displays the difference, and transmits the difference information to the server 102 through the in-store wireless communication device 107 and the in-store LAN 108. be able to. As a result, if there is a mistake in the product name or price, it can be checked at the place of purchase.

  As described above, product information (product price) is checked using the POS device 103 when the electronic receipt is issued, and reconfirmation is performed using the portable electronic device 104 during the confirmation process by the shopper. By doing so, it is possible to perform a check on the purchased product through two different routes.

  FIG. 2 shows a plan view of the POS device 103 and the communication BOX 105 and a three-dimensional image of the communication BOX 105. The POS device 103 outputs a paper receipt when a portable electronic device is not found, a scanning unit 201 that scans product information, a cash register unit 202 that performs checkout processing, a communication BOX 105 that transmits and receives electronic receipts, and the like. Device 106. The communication BOX 105 is a box-type device covered with a radio wave shield wall, and includes a wired or contact type interface.

  In addition, as a communication means between the POS device 103 and the portable electronic device 104, a method of performing via the communication BOX in consideration of wireless communication has been exemplified. However, a cradle is installed in the communication BOX, The electronic device 104 may be placed in a cradle so that information can be exchanged automatically or connected by a wired cable. That is, the communication means for sending data to the POS system does not matter.

  FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an example of the flow of processing for comparing two types of product information obtained using the electronic receipt and the communication facility of the purchasing store and extracting the difference. First, when an action indicating start is performed by the portable electronic device, it is confirmed whether or not an electronic receipt is present (step 305). This is for determining whether the scanning timing is before or after the settlement at the cash register.

  If there is no electronic receipt, it can be determined that scanning is in progress before the checkout at the cash register (while shopping). The processing at this time will be described below. First, a product is scanned by the scanning function of the portable electronic device (step 301). Next, the portable electronic device establishes wireless communication with the communication device 107 in the store, and transmits scan information to the communication device 107 (step 302). The device connected to the communication device 107 in the store searches the in-store database based on the received scan information and acquires the price of the product (step 303). At this time, if value-added information such as discount information by bulk purchase is attached, the information is also acquired. The acquired information is returned to the portable electronic device 104 that has transmitted the scan information through the communication device 107 in the store (step 304). The returned merchandise data may be displayed in the same manner as the electronic receipt display format (step 306), or may be stored in a storage medium in the portable electronic device 104 only. This process is repeated for the products to be purchased (step 307), and then the checkout using the POS device 103 is performed at the cash register to receive an electronic receipt. During settlement at this cash register, a difference check process from step 310 to step 314, which will be described later, may be performed on the POS device 103 side (step S308). And you may move to the difference content final check process (step 315) mentioned later.

  If there is an electronic receipt, it is determined that the payment at the cash register by the POS device has already been completed, and a difference display can be performed every time one product is scanned. In this process, first, a list for display in which product names and prices are paired is created from electronic receipt information as a comparison source, and the product list is displayed on the display unit of the portable electronic device 104 based on the list. Is displayed (step 309).

  Next, the product scanning function and the communication function of the portable electronic device 104 are used to perform the same processing as when there is no electronic receipt (steps 301 to 304) to obtain product information. When the product information is obtained, the information is compared with the electronic receipt. First, it is checked whether or not the scanned product exists in the electronic receipt (step 310). If it exists, it is checked whether or not the price of the product is correct (step 311). If the product does not exist or the price of the product is different from the price obtained by scanning, the content is highlighted and displayed on the display unit of the portable electronic device 104 (step 312). If they are the same (if there is no difference), the price obtained by scanning may be displayed side by side with the display of the electronic receipt for confirmation (step 313). Processing such as erasing may be performed. When the product information is scanned, related information related to the scanned product, such as price transition and other service information, may be obtained together.

  In this way, when all the purchased products have been scanned (step 314), all products for which the product name or price is wrong can be confirmed on the display unit. When the action indicating the end is performed by the portable electronic device 104, the screen is switched, the comparison calculation process regarding the difference between the calculation result of the tax, the discount at the time of purchasing a plurality of products, and the difference is performed, and the result is displayed ( Step 315). A check is made to see if there is a difference (step 316). If there is a difference, a warning notification screen is displayed (step 317). If there is no difference, the process ends (END).

  FIG. 4 compares two types of product information, that is, electronic receipt and information obtained using the communication equipment of the store, and there was an electronic receipt in the display unit of the portable electronic device 104 when extracting the difference. It is a figure which shows the example of a display in a case (after settlement). When the process of extracting the difference starts, first, a list of product names and prices created for display from the electronic receipt is displayed (reference numeral 401). When scanning starts and the price of the scanned product is acquired from the in-store database, the presence of the product name and the appropriateness of the price are checked. If there is no problem, the price obtained by scanning is displayed in the normal display (code 402). If there is a defective product, it is displayed so that it can be distinguished from other products. For example, some highlighting is performed (reference numeral 403). When the process of extracting the difference is completed, the difference from the result of calculating the tax and the discount when purchasing a plurality of products is displayed (reference numeral 404). If there is a difference, it is possible to highlight the portion where the difference has occurred (reference numeral 405), or to display a warning screen or notify the user by voice.

  As described above, according to the embodiment of the present invention, when a receipt of a merchandise sales transaction is output in the purchasing stage of the merchandise, the merchandise sales transaction information is transmitted as electronic data using a communication medium. System automatically determines various communication functions of portable electronic devices that receive using communication media, and exchanges information individually using communication means that can establish communication. It is possible to send and receive computerized data without outputting the product sales transaction information as an electronic receipt.

  In addition, the portable electronic device that has received the output electronic receipt acquires the price of the product and value-added information from the in-store database using the scanning function and communication function of the portable electronic device 104 itself, and settles it at the cash register. By comparing with the electronic receipts received from time to time, the integrity of the electronic receipt can be checked. As a result, it is possible to check whether or not a price discount service has been received by double settlement of products and bulk purchase of a plurality of products. In addition, the service that can obtain an accurate electronic receipt allows the store side to gain trust, and the consumer can purchase the product with a sense of security. In addition, it is possible to form an electronic receipt output system compatible with various communication interfaces of electronic receipt receiving devices, and to improve the consistency and reliability of electronic receipts by a mechanism to recheck received electronic receipts by itself. It is possible to save paper resources and improve the convenience of bookkeeping such as household account book.

  In addition, in the electronic receipt system according to the present embodiment, for example, if a campaign is performed in which a premium is given when a certain amount of money is purchased or a specific product is purchased, how much is purchased and how much You can also shop while displaying whether a premium is earned or points are accumulated, improving the sales on the store side, increasing the consumer's willingness to purchase, and increasing the enjoyment of shopping it can.

  As described above, in the present embodiment, when the electronic receipt cannot be obtained, it is output to the paper receipt. In this case, the paper receipt and the result of scanning by itself are visually observed, for example. It can also be confirmed.

  The present invention can be applied to the purchase of tickets related to events and service tickets in addition to the purchase of products. Since authentication can be performed reliably, it is more effective when applied to purchasing expensive products.

FIG. 1A is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of an electronic receipt check system according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 1B shows a schematic configuration of a portable electronic device according to this embodiment. It is a block diagram. It is a block diagram which shows the structural example of an electronic receipt output device. It is a flowchart figure which shows the flow of a process at the time of comparing two kinds of merchandise information of electronic receipt information and the information obtained using the communication equipment of a purchasing store, and extracting a difference. It is a figure which shows the example of a display transition in a portable electronic device at the time of comparing two types of merchandise information of electronic receipt information and the information obtained using the communication equipment of a purchasing store, and extracting a difference.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 101 ... Product database, 102 ... Product information search server, 103 ... POS device, 104 ... Portable electronic device, 105 ... Communication BOX, 106 ... Paper receipt printing device, 107 ... In-store wireless communication device, 108 ... In-store LAN, 201 ... POS device scanning unit 202... POS device registering unit 301... Product scanning process 302... Scan information transmission process 303 ... product information search process 304 304 product information receiving process 305. Electronic receipt confirmation process 306. Display processing, 307: Scan processing end determination, 308: Electronic receipt initial state display processing, 309: Product name existence check processing, 310: Price check processing, 311 ... Difference partial emphasis display processing, 312 ... Comparison display processing, 313 ... Total Difference display processing, 317 ... warning screen display processing, 401 ... product list display screen , 402 ... comparison display screen, 403 ... differential emphasis screen, 404 ... total comparison display screen, 405 ... total difference display screen.

Claims (5)

A product database for registering product-related information;
A server that searches the product database and extracts product related information that meets the search conditions;
A POS terminal connected to the server and performing a checkout process at the cash register;
A portable electronic device carried by a customer having a function of acquiring product-related information and a communication function;
It is a unique communication path between the POS terminal and the portable electronic device during the checkout process, and the server searches the product database based on the product information acquired from the portable electronic device by the POS terminal. An electronic receipt system comprising: a communication box that provides a communication path for sending electronic receipt information that associates a purchased product with a price to the portable electronic device via the communication path.   2. The communication box according to claim 1, further comprising: means for automatically detecting a type of communication means included in the portable electronic device; and means for outputting the electronic receipt by the detected communication means. The electronic receipt system described.   3. The in-store wireless communication device for connecting the portable electronic device and the server to send the product related information acquired by the portable electronic device to the server. The electronic receipt system described. A portable unit comprising: a scanning unit that scans product identification information; a communication unit that transmits and receives information including scanned information; a storage unit that stores the scanned information; and a display unit that displays the stored information An electronic device;
A server associated with the portable electronic device, wherein the communication unit receives an electronic receipt corresponding to a purchased product and a price at a cash register, and is obtained by scanning the product already settled at the cash register with the scan unit. Product information including the price corresponding to the product identification information is received by the communication unit, stored in the storage unit, received by the communication unit, and stored in the storage unit And a difference extraction unit for extracting a difference between the second data based on the electronic receipt,
An electronic receipt check system comprising: a display control unit that performs control to display difference information on the display unit when a difference is extracted by the difference extraction unit. A portable unit comprising: a scanning unit that scans product identification information; a communication unit that transmits and receives information including scanned information; a storage unit that stores the scanned information; and a display unit that displays the stored information A method for checking an electronic receipt by an electronic device,
Receiving electronic receipts corresponding to purchased products and prices by the communication unit at a cash register;
Sending the merchandise identification information obtained by scanning the merchandise already settled at the cash register by the scan section, receiving merchandise information including a price corresponding to the merchandise identification information by the communication section, and storing the merchandise information by the storage section; ,
Extracting the difference between the first data received by the communication unit and stored in the storage unit and the second data in the electronic receipt;
An electronic receipt checking method comprising: displaying a difference information when a difference occurs between the first data and the second data.

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