JPS6295672A - Data collecting system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain a portable data collecting device for vending machines that can recollect data any number of times if desired, by setting the data clearing conditions in case a fixed time is passed or a request for sales is produced. CONSTITUTION:The route service for a vending machine is carried out periodically once a day, for example, and the time needed for replanishment of goods collection of data, etc., is set at 10min respectively. If the data are not collected in a correct way, the data collecting action is repeated several times. Furthermore the data are not cleared for 20min, for example, after the first collection of data is started. Therefore the same data can be collected repetitively at any number of times for 20min. Then a CPU 62 clears the data stored in a memory 61 based on the time information of a timer 8 when 20min passed. While the data are also cleared when a request for sales is produced as well. Then a malfunction is prevented in such a case where the route service is through in 10min and a customer purchases the goods within 20min.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to a data collection method using a portable data collection terminal device, and in particular to a method for collecting data using a portable barcode reader. The present invention relates to a method for clearing data stored in a data collection device in a method for collecting data.

[Conventional technology]

Data input using a barcode reader is used in a wide range of fields, and an example will be explained with reference to FIG. This is an example in which data is collected using a data collection terminal device 1 having a pen-shaped barcode reader 2. For example, in supermarkets, barcode labels representing product numbers are affixed to name plates placed near displayed products. When placing a replenishment order for a product, the barcode reader 2 scans the barcode label and inputs the product number to be restocked into the data collection terminal device 1.
Enter the number of replenishment orders using the numeric keypad 3. These data are displayed on the display section 4 and also stored in the memory. The data inputted for each product in this way is outputted all at once by connecting the data output section of the data collection terminal device 1 to the main unit of the product ordering system. Many portable data collection terminal devices equipped with such barcode readers are commercially available at relatively low prices and are highly versatile.

On the other hand, management data of vending machines is also being collected using dedicated data collection equipment. That is, vending machines are usually scattered over a wide area, and replenishment of products, collection of coins, etc. are performed at certain regular intervals. When doing this work, sales by product,
Total sales, quantity of replenishment products, etc. are recorded as management data, but data collection equipment is designed to automatically collect a large amount of management data in a short and easy manner without the hassle of such bookkeeping. be. Conventionally, this data collection device, unlike the above-mentioned barcode reader, automatically collects management data of the vending machine by electrically or optically coupling it to a control section including its storage section. there were. However, the interface condition for this combination is
Currently, the specifications of data collection equipment are not standardized and differ depending on the manufacturer. An operator company whose business is to replenish products in vending machines uses vending machines from different manufacturers, and because each manufacturer has a different interface, they have to carry multiple types of data collection equipment. It was causing economic and inconvenience.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

For such automatic data collection from vending machines, it is preferable to use the above-mentioned commercially available standardized portable data collection terminal device in terms of usability, cost, etc. However, this is difficult to implement because the connection interfaces are not unified as described above.

In view of these problems, the present invention aims to easily and quickly collect data from data collection devices such as vending machines by using a portable data collection terminal device equipped with a portable barcode reader. The present invention aims to provide a method for clearing data from a data collection device that enables highly reliable data collection in a data collection method that allows data collection to be performed with high reliability.

[Means for solving problems]

The data collection method according to the present invention includes a control unit for each data collection device that converts the data to be collected into a time-series optical signal that is the same as the reflected light obtained by optically scanning a barcode, and transmits the signal. , comprising a timer that performs a timekeeping operation on the condition that data collection starts, and a detector that detects the occurrence of an event that changes the data content, and converts the time-series optical signal into an electrical signal with a portable barcode reader. The present invention is characterized in that data is collected, and the data in the data collecting device is cleared when either the output of the clocking means after a certain period of time or the output of the detecting means is output.

〔Example〕

An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to a case where data is collected from a vending machine using a portable data collection terminal device equipped with a pen-shaped barcode reader.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the coupling relationship between a data sending section and a portable data collection terminal device installed in a vending machine, and the vending machine itself is not shown. The data sending section 5 is composed of a control section 6 and a light emitting element 7. The control unit 6 stores management data to be sent to the portable data collection terminal device in a built-in memory (not shown).

The storage method of this management data is the same as the conventional one, and its explanation will be omitted. The data sending unit 5 also includes an insertion unit 51 of a pen-shaped barcode reader 2 provided in the data collection terminal device 1.
The light emitting element 7 is provided in this insertion portion 51. This light emitting element 7 generates an optical signal that is the same as the scanning reflected light obtained when a barcode is scanned by a barcode reader, and this will be described later.

The pen-shaped barcode reader 2 has a built-in light beam emitting section, and sends out the beam through a ball lens 21 provided at the tip. When a barcode is scanned with the ball lens 21, the reflected light from the barcode surface is reflected by the ball lens 21.
The light is focused into the barcode reader 2 through the barcode reader 2. The collected light is converted into an electrical signal by a photoelectric conversion section within the barcode reader 2, and this electrical signal is sent to the main body of the data collection terminal device. The data collection terminal device processes the incoming electrical signals and decodes the data represented by the barcode. The configurations and operations of the barcode reader and data collection terminal device main body as described above are well known, and detailed explanations thereof will be omitted.

In this embodiment, when collecting data from a vending machine, the pen-shaped barcode reader 2 is inserted into the insertion section 51.

The light emitting element 7 is provided at a position facing the ball lens 21 of the inserted barcode reader 2. As a result, the optical signal from the light emitting element 7 is focused into the barcode reader 2 by the ball lens 21, and converted into an electric signal by a photoelectric conversion section (not shown). Note that the barcode reader 2 sends out a scanning beam of light through a ball lens 21 , and when this light ray illuminates the light emitting element 7 , reflected light is captured through the ball lens 21 . If this level is large, the light signal from the light emitting element 7 becomes noise, so the positional relationship between the light emitting element 7 and the ball lens 21 is set so that the reflected light from the light emitting element 7 is sufficiently weak. This can be realized, for example, by moving the installation position of the light emitting element 7 away from the focal position of the ball lens 21.

The optical signal from the light emitting element 7 is the same as the reflected light obtained when the barcode is scanned by a beam of light in the barcode reader 2, and this will be explained below.

Figure 4 shows J A N (Japanese Artic
This is an example of a barcode symbol based on the LE Number) standard.

When the barcode reader 2 touches and scans the barcode 10 in the direction of the arrow, the photoelectric conversion unit in the barcode reader 2 generates a time-series electric signal (partially shown) as shown in FIG.
is obtained. Note that the photoelectric conversion section includes a binarization circuit, and the signal shown in FIG. 5 is a binarized digital signal. The data collection terminal device uses a built-in microprocessor to perform predetermined processing on digital signals and collects information (usually
digit string information).

FIG. 2 shows a schematic configuration of the control unit 6 and the portable data collection terminal device in a block diagram.

The control unit 6 includes a memory 61 that stores management data for the vending machine, a microprocessor 62 that reads data from the memory 61, and performs predetermined processing.
It has a drive section 63 that controls blinking of the light emitting element 7 based on the signal from the microprocessor 62. The microprocessor 62 is connected to the vending machine main body 100 and the PIO
(parallel output LSI) 9,
It inputs and outputs status information of the microprocessor, product selection section, product delivery section, etc. (not shown) built into the vending machine main body 100, combines it with the timer 8 as a timekeeping means, and further based on data from the memory 61. It outputs a signal similar to the electrical signal obtained by photoelectrically converting the scanning reflected light of the barcode.

The light rays sent out from the light emitting element 7 by blinking control based on this signal are focused by the ball lens 21 onto the photoelectric conversion element 22 and converted into an electric signal. This electrical signal is the amplifier 23
and is amplified by the binarization circuit 24 as If l IF, I
It is converted into a digital signal of T Q f#, and this °91
)? , uOu are decoded by the microprocessor 1) and stored in the memory 12. The data stored in the memory 12 is read out to an external device as needed. The timer 8 as a time measuring means is a time measuring means capable of measuring the passage of time, and the microprocessor 62 can read the passage of time from the timer 8.

The barcode symbol may be a black bar or a black bar depending on the standard.
The number and configuration of white bars are determined, so the microprocessor 62 sends a signal to the drive unit 63 in a format in which one piece of management data out of a series of data from the memory 61 corresponds to one barcode symbol. to make.

International standards have already been established for barcode symbols; for example, there are common standards such as UPC in the United States, EAN in Europe, and JAN in Japan. In addition, NW-
Several standards such as 7 and Code 39 have been established. A typical portable data collection terminal device has a barcode reading function that complies with the various standards mentioned above. For this reason, the control unit 6 also has a blinking control method for the light emitting element 7 that corresponds to the various standards mentioned above, and by specifying the barcode standard as necessary, it can be set to correspond to the specified barcode standard. Since optical signals are sent out, interface specifications can be standardized.

By the way, since the data transmission in the above embodiment is unidirectional, the data sending section 5 has a drawback in that it cannot confirm whether the sent data has been correctly received. Barcodes usually include an error detection code, and the data collection terminal device that reads and decodes barcodes can detect whether the barcode has been read correctly and notify the operator by displaying the code or by sounding a buzzer. can. Therefore, if the sent data is not received correctly, data collection can be performed again. In this way, when re-collecting data until it is correctly received, the question becomes when to clear the data stored in the memory 61. In other words, when storing collected data as a difference from the previous data collection, it is necessary to clear the data every time data is collected, but if data collection requests are issued repeatedly as described above, the data The sending unit 5 is not allowed to clear the data after the data sending is completed.

The conditions for data clearing in this embodiment are as follows. For example, if the route service cycle of a vending machine is once a day, and the time spent replenishing products, collecting payments, and collecting data at one vending machine is 10 minutes, the first step is to collect data. , If data is not collected correctly, the same operation will be repeated several times. It is assumed that data will not be cleared for a certain period of time, for example 20 minutes, after this first data collection is started.

Therefore, the same data can be collected over and over again for 20 minutes. Then, when 20 minutes have passed, the microprocessor 62 clears the data stored in the memory 61 based on the time information from the timer 8.

If the route service ends in, say, 10 minutes, and then a normal vending machine is running, and a customer purchases a product before the 20 minutes have elapsed, the sales data will be cleared after the 20 minutes have elapsed. Errors occur in the data.

Therefore, if a sales request is made even before 20 minutes have elapsed, a sales request signal is transmitted from the vending machine main body 100 to an input terminal of the PIO 9 as a detection means.
It is transmitted to the microprocessor 62 as an interrupt signal from the PIO. It is assumed that the microprocessor 62 clears the previous data before starting the sales operation, and newly stores the cleared data. Since the vending operation of the vending machine main body 100 is a well-known technique, internal blocks are omitted in FIG. 2.

As explained above, by setting the conditions for data clearing to be either one of two reasons, namely, the passage of a certain period of time or the occurrence of a sales request, data collection can be re-collected as many times as necessary, and There is an effect that the vending machine can operate without any trouble after the collection is completed, and the data can still be cleared reliably.

In the above embodiment, a vending machine is considered as the data collecting device, but similar effects can be obtained by using it as a data clearing condition in other data collecting devices. The two causes for data clearing conditions in general data collection equipment can be restated as follows. That is, the conditions are (1) a certain period of time has elapsed after the start of the data collection operation, and (2) an event that changes the stored data has occurred.

In the above embodiment, a pen-shaped barcode reader is used, but it goes without saying that the present invention is applicable to any data collection terminal device equipped with a portable barcode reader. Furthermore, the data collecting device is not limited to vending machines.

PIO9 in the above embodiment is a microprocessor 62
However, in so-called single-chip microprocessors, the PIO function may be included internally, but the same effect can be obtained.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, according to the present invention, by using a portable data collection terminal device equipped with a commercially available pen-shaped barcode reader of standard specifications, a data collection method using optical coupling from the data collection target device and a reliable data collection method can be achieved. Accordingly, it is possible to efficiently and economically realize a data clearing method for a data collecting device that allows highly accurate data collection. That is, in data collection equipment such as vending machines that are already installed, it may be difficult to add and modify the data sending unit later. Even in such cases,
If you use a portable data collection terminal equipped with a barcode reader and use a normal barcode scanning data collection method, you can, for example, input a product code by scanning the barcode printed on the product or by entering the product name. Accurate data can be collected in a short time by scanning a barcode correspondence table.

In this way, in the data collection method according to the present invention, the same data collection terminal device can be used in common not only when the data collection device is equipped with a data transmission section, but also when it is not equipped with a data transmission section. The effect is that work efficiency can be improved by collecting data and transferring it to the master device all at once.

Further, due to standardization in which the optical coupling signal standard is defined by the internationally standardized bar code standard, there is an effect that a large number of models can be selected as a portable data collection terminal device. For example, when a lower-priced portable data collection terminal device becomes available, an economical data collection system can be created by adopting it.

Furthermore, since it has a data clearing operation that enables repeated data collection, it is possible to solve the drawbacks caused by unidirectional data transmission.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a coupled state of a data collection device and a portable data collection terminal device in order to explain the data collection method in an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram of the method of the present invention, and FIG. The figure is a schematic diagram of an example of a portable data collection terminal device, Figure 4 is a diagram showing an example of a barcode symbol, and Figure 5 is a part of an electrical signal obtained by optically scanning this with a barcode reader. Diagram showing. 1... Portable data collection terminal device 2... Pen-shaped barcode reader 6... Control unit 7... Light emitting element 8... Timing means 9... PIO Figure 1 Figure a Figure 4 Figure 6 - L Shelf - Procedural amendment (spontaneous) December 13, 1985 1. Indication of the case 1985 Patent Application No. 235533 2. Title of the invention 6. Amendment Relationship with the case of a person who does
70) 24-121) 4. Date of amendment order Amendment specification 1 Name of the invention Data collection method 2 Claims (1) Data to be collected is reflected light obtained by optically scanning a barcode Each data collecting device is equipped with a data sending unit that converts the data into the same time-series optical signal and sends it out, and also includes a timekeeping unit that performs a timing operation on the condition that data collection starts, and detects the occurrence of an event that changes the data content. A detecting means is provided, and data is collected by converting the time-series optical signal into an electric signal at Banynier's Embankment, and when either the output of the clocking means after a certain period of time or the output of the detecting means is output. A data collection method characterized by clearing the data in the data collection device. 3. Detailed Description of the Invention [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a data collection method using a data collection device,
In particular, the present invention relates to a method for clearing data stored in a data collecting device in a method of collecting data stored in the data collecting device using a barcode reader. [Prior Art] Data input using a barcode reader is used in a wide range of fields, and one example will be explained with reference to FIG. This is an example in which data is collected using a portable data collection terminal device 1 having a pen-shaped barcode reader 2. For example, in supermarkets, barcode labels representing product numbers are affixed to name plates placed near displayed products. When placing a replenishment order for a product, the barcode reader 2 scans the barcode label and inputs the product number to be restocked into the data collection terminal device 1.
Enter the number of replenishment orders using the numeric keypad 3. These data are displayed on the display section 4 and also stored in the memory. The data inputted for each product in this way is outputted all at once by connecting the data output section of the data collection terminal device 1 to the main unit of the product ordering system. Many portable data collection terminal devices equipped with such barcode readers are commercially available at relatively low prices and are highly versatile. On the other hand, management data of vending machines is also being collected using dedicated data collection equipment. That is, vending machines are usually scattered over a wide area, and replenishment of products, collection of coins, etc. are performed at certain regular intervals. When doing this work, sales by product,
Total sales, quantity of replenishment products, etc. are recorded as management data, but data collection equipment is designed to automatically collect a large amount of management data in a short and easy manner without the hassle of such bookkeeping. be. Conventionally, this data collection device, unlike the above-mentioned barcode reader, automatically collects management data of the vending machine by electrically or optically coupling it to a control section including its storage section. there were. However, the interface condition for this combination is
Currently, the specifications of data collection equipment are not standardized and differ depending on the manufacturer. An operator company whose business is to replenish products in vending machines uses vending machines from different manufacturers, and because each manufacturer has a different interface, they have to carry multiple types of data collection equipment. It was causing economic and inconvenience. [Problems to be solved by the invention] For automatic data collection from vending machines, it is preferable to use the above-mentioned commercially available standardized portable data collection terminal device in terms of usability, price, etc. . However, this is difficult to implement because the connection interfaces are not unified as described above. In view of these problems, the present invention provides a reliable data collection method that uses a data collection device equipped with a barcode reader to easily and quickly collect data from a data collection device. The aim is to provide a data clearing method for data collecting equipment that allows highly accurate data collection. [Means for Solving the Problems] The data collection method according to the present invention includes a control unit that converts the data to be collected into a time-series optical signal that is the same as reflected light obtained by optically scanning a barcode, and transmits the signal. is provided for each data collection device, and further includes a timer that performs a timer operation on the condition that the data collection starts, and a detector that detects the occurrence of an event that changes the data content, and a barcode reader that reads the time-series optical signal. The apparatus is characterized in that the data is collected by converting it into an electrical signal at the timer, and the data in the data collecting device is cleared when either the elapsed time output of the clocking means or the output of the detecting means is output. do. [Embodiment] An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to a case where data is collected from a vending machine using a portable data collection terminal device equipped with a pen-shaped barcode reader. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the coupling relationship between a data sending section and a portable data collection terminal device installed in a vending machine, and the vending machine itself is not shown. The data sending section 5 is composed of a control section 6 and a light emitting element 7. The control unit 6 stores management data to be sent to the portable data collection terminal device in a built-in memory (not shown). The storage method of this management data is the same as the conventional one, and its explanation will be omitted. The data sending unit 5 also includes an insertion unit 51 of a pen-shaped barcode reader 2 provided in the data collection terminal device 1.
The light emitting element 7 is provided in this insertion portion 51. This light emitting element 7 generates an optical signal that is the same as the scanning reflected light obtained when a barcode is scanned by a barcode reader, and this will be described later. The pen-shaped barcode reader 2 has a built-in light beam emitting section, and sends out the beam through a ball lens 21 provided at the tip. When a barcode is scanned with the ball lens 21, the reflected light from the barcode surface is reflected by the ball lens 21.
The light is focused into the barcode reader 2 through the barcode reader 2. The collected light is converted into an electrical signal by a photoelectric conversion section within the barcode reader 2, and this electrical signal is sent to the main body of the data collection terminal device. The data collection terminal device processes the incoming electrical signals and decodes the data represented by the barcode. The configurations and operations of the barcode reader and data collection terminal device main body as described above are well known, and detailed explanations thereof will be omitted. In this embodiment, when collecting data from a vending machine, the pen-shaped barcode reader 2 is inserted into the insertion section 51. The light emitting element 7 is provided at a position facing the ball lens 21 of the inserted barcode reader 2. As a result, the optical signal from the light emitting element 7 is focused into the barcode reader 2 by the ball lens 21, and converted into an electric signal by a photoelectric conversion section (not shown). Note that the barcode reader 2 sends out a scanning beam of light through a ball lens 21 , and when this light ray illuminates the light emitting element 7 , reflected light is captured through the ball lens 21 . If this level is large, the light signal from the light emitting element 7 becomes noise, so the positional relationship between the light emitting element 7 and the ball lens 21 is set so that the light reflected from the light emitting element 7 is sufficiently weak. This can be realized, for example, by moving the installation position of the light emitting element 7 away from the focal position of the ball lens 21. The optical signal from the light emitting element 7 is the same as the reflected light obtained when the barcode is scanned by a beam of light in the barcode reader 2, and this will be explained below. Figure 4 shows J A N (Japanese Artic
This is an example of a barcode symbol based on the LE Number) standard. When the barcode reader 2 contacts and scans the barcode reader in the direction of the arrow, the photoelectric conversion section in the barcode reader 2 generates a time-series electric signal (partially shown) as shown in Fig. 5.
is obtained. Note that the photoelectric conversion section includes a binarization circuit, and the signal shown in FIG. 5 is a binarized digital signal. The data collection terminal device uses a built-in microprocessor to perform predetermined processing on digital signals and collects information (usually
digit string information). FIG. 2 shows a schematic configuration of the control unit 6 and the portable data collection terminal device in a block diagram. The control unit 6 includes a memory 61 that stores management data for the vending machine, a microprocessor 62 that reads data from the memory 61, and performs predetermined processing.
It has a drive section 63 that controls blinking of the light emitting element 7 based on the signal from the microprocessor 62. The microprocessor 62 is connected to the vending machine main body 100 and the PIO
(parallel input/output LSI) 9,
It inputs and outputs status information of the microprocessor, product selection section, product delivery section, etc. (not shown) built into the vending machine main body 100, combines it with the timer 8 as a timekeeping means, and further based on data from the memory 61. It outputs a signal similar to the electrical signal obtained by photoelectrically converting the scanning reflected light of the barcode. Based on this signal (blinking control), the light beam sent out from the light emitting element 7 is focused on the photoelectric conversion element 22 by the ball lens 21 and converted into an electric signal. This electric signal is sent to the amplifier 23.
It is amplified by the binarization circuit 24 and converted into a digital signal of 1) 1ZlF01F, and this It l If, f
The time series signal of lQ°' is decoded by the microprocessor 1) and stored in the memory 12. The data stored in the memory 12 is read out to an external device as necessary. The timer 8 as a time measuring means is a time measuring means capable of measuring the passage of time, and the microprocessor 62 can read the passage of time from the timer 8. The barcode symbol may be a black bar or a black bar depending on the standard.
The number and configuration of white bars are determined, so the microprocessor 62 sends a signal to the drive unit 63 in the form of one piece of management data out of a series of data from the memory 6e in a format that corresponds to one barcode symbol. Create. International standards have already been established for barcode symbols; for example, there are common standards such as UPC in the United States, EAN in Europe, and JAN in Japan. In addition, NW-
Several standards such as 7 and Code 39 have been established. A typical portable data collection terminal device has a barcode reading function that complies with the various standards mentioned above. For this reason, the control unit 6 also has a blinking control method for the light emitting element 7 that corresponds to the various standards mentioned above, and by specifying the barcode standard as necessary, it can be set to correspond to the specified barcode standard. Since optical signals are sent out, interface specifications can be standardized. By the way, since the data transmission in the above embodiment is unidirectional, the data sending section 5 has a drawback in that it cannot confirm whether the sent data has been correctly received. Barcodes usually include an error detection code, and the data collection terminal device that reads and decodes barcodes can detect whether the barcode has been read correctly and notify the operator by displaying the code or by sounding a buzzer. can. Therefore, if the sent data is not received correctly, data collection can be performed again. In this way, when re-collecting data until it is correctly received, the question becomes when to clear the data stored in the memory 61. In other words, when storing collected data as a difference from the previous data collection, it is necessary to clear the data every time data is collected, but if data collection requests are issued repeatedly as described above, the data The sending unit 5 is not allowed to clear the data after the data sending is completed. The conditions for data clearing in this embodiment are as follows. For example, if the route service cycle of a vending machine is once a day, and the time spent replenishing products, collecting payments, and collecting data at one vending machine is 10 minutes, the first step is to collect data. , If data is not collected correctly, the same operation will be repeated several times. It is assumed that data will not be cleared for a certain period of time, for example 20 minutes, after this first data collection is started. The same data can be collected over and over again during a 20-minute run. Then, when 20 minutes have passed, the microprocessor 62 clears the data stored in the memory 61 based on the time information from the timer 8. If the route service ends in, say, 10 minutes, and then a normal vending machine is running, and a customer purchases a product before the 20 minutes have elapsed, the sales data will be cleared after the 20 minutes have elapsed. Errors occur in the data. Therefore, if a sales request is made even before 20 minutes have elapsed, a sales request signal is transmitted from the vending machine main body 100 to an input terminal of the PIO 9 as a detection means.
It is transmitted to the microprocessor 62 as an interrupt signal from PIO. Before starting the vending operation, the microprocessor 62 clears the previous data and newly stores the cleared data.As for the vending operation of the vending machine main unit lOO, the internal block is is omitted in Figure 2. As explained above, by setting the conditions for data clearing to be either one of two causes, namely, the elapse of a certain period of time or the occurrence of a sales request, data can be cleared as many times as necessary. This has the effect that the data collection can be restarted, and the vending machine can operate as a vending machine without any trouble after the data collection is completed, and the data can still be cleared reliably.In the above embodiment, the vending machine is used as the data collection device. However, the same effect can be obtained by using it as a condition for data clearing in other data collecting devices.The two causes for data clearing conditions in general data collecting devices can be rephrased as follows. In other words, these conditions are (1) the elapse of a certain period of time after the start of the data collection operation, and (2) the occurrence of an event that changes the stored data.In the above embodiment, a pen-shaped barcode reader was used, but the present invention It goes without saying that this is applicable to all data collection devices equipped with a barcode reader.In addition, the data collection device is not limited to vending machines.The PIO 9 in the above embodiment is a microprocessor. 62
However, in so-called single-chip microprocessors, the PIO function may be included internally, but the same effect can be obtained. As explained above, according to the embodiment of the present invention, by using a portable data collection terminal device equipped with a commercially available pen-shaped barcode reader of standard specifications, a data collection method using optical coupling from a data collection target device is used. In addition, it is possible to efficiently and economically realize a data clearing method for a data collecting device that enables highly reliable data collection. That is, in data collection equipment such as vending machines that are already installed, it may be difficult to add and modify the data sending unit later. Even in such cases, if you use a portable data collection terminal equipped with a barcode reader and use the normal barcode scanning data collection method, for example, inputting a product code can be done without the information printed on the product. Accurate data can be collected in a short period of time by scanning the barcode that is available or by scanning a correspondence table between product name and barcode. As described above, in the data collection method according to the embodiment of the present invention, the same data collection terminal device can be used not only when the data collection target device is equipped with a data sending unit, but also when it is not equipped with the data transmission unit. The effect is that work efficiency can be improved by collecting data from both sources and transferring the data to the parent device all at once. Further, due to standardization in which the optical coupling signal standard is defined by the internationally standardized bar code standard, there is an effect that a large number of models can be selected as a portable data collection terminal device. For example, when a lower-priced portable data collection terminal device becomes available, it can be used to create a highly compatible and economical data collection system. Furthermore, since it has a data clearing operation that enables repeated data collection, it is possible to solve the drawback of unidirectional data transmission. Furthermore, since signal transmission is optically coupled, there is no electrical interference between the data collection device and the data collection device, and highly reliable signal transmission can be achieved. In the above description, the data collection device has been described as being of a portable type, but substantially the same effects can be obtained even if the data collection device is not necessarily of a portable type. [Effects of the Invention] According to the present invention, by using a data collection device equipped with a commercially available barcode reader, data clearing conditions are established that enable repeated data collection by optical coupling based on the data format of the international standard barcode standard. It is possible to obtain data collection methods efficiently, economically, and with high compatibility and reliability. 4. Brief explanation of the drawings Fig. 1 is a diagram showing a coupled state of a data collection device and a portable data collection device in order to explain the data collection method in an embodiment of the present invention, and Fig. 2 is an outline of the method of the present invention. Block configuration diagram, Figure 3 is a schematic diagram of an example of a portable data collection device, Figure 4 is a diagram showing an example of a barcode symbol, and Figure 5 is an electric signal obtained by optically scanning this with a barcode reader. A diagram showing part of a signal.

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) Each data collection device is equipped with a data transmission unit that converts the data to be collected into a time-series optical signal that is the same as the reflected light obtained by optically scanning a barcode, and then starts data collection. It is equipped with a timekeeping means that performs a timekeeping operation under the condition of , and a detection means that detects the occurrence of an event that changes the data content, and a portable barcode reader converts the time-series optical signal into an electrical signal and collects data. , on the other hand, a data collection method characterized in that data in the data collection device is cleared when either the elapsed time output of the timer or the output of the detection means is output.