KR100188437B1 - Electronic funds transfer meter and funds transfer method - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to an electronic money transfer meter and a method for transferring money, the electronic money transfer meter comprising: an IC card reading unit configured to read an IC card so that funds can be transferred to a user fee through an IC card; A display unit configured to display an operation menu and a processing result of the meter to a user; A keypad having a function key for selecting an operation menu of the meter, a numeric key, and a money transfer processing key, and receiving a user's input through the keys; Communication module for transmitting and receiving data with public service institutions and financial institutions; A memory unit for storing a remote control and operation program of the meter through a communication network from a public service institution and a financial institution; And a meter controller which controls the IC card reader, the display unit, the keypad unit, the memory unit and the communication module, and executes a program stored in the memory unit.

According to the present invention, it is possible to reduce the manpower of public institutions and to promote more efficient public fund management and consumer convenience.

Description

Electronic Fund Transfer Meters and Fund Transfer Methods

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a meter, and more particularly, to an electronic money transfer meter and a method of transferring money, which provide a function of measuring usage, calculating a fee, and displaying a fee, as well as a money transfer function using an IC card.

Currently, various utility bill measuring instruments (electricity, gas, water, etc.) simply consist of a cumulative counter for calculating usage. The consumer can only know the usage amount from the cumulative counter and cannot know the charge for the used amount. The fee payment procedure is as follows. First, measurement personnel in public service agencies measure or use remote meter reading by consumers at regular intervals. After that, the measured data is converted into a usage fee for computerized processing, and individual bills for the usage fee are sent to the consumer. The consumer checks the billing history of the invoice and pays the fee individually through the bank window within the designated period.

As mentioned above, the current utility meter is composed only of a cumulative counter that displays only the amount of usage. Therefore, in order to charge an individual fee each month, many operation personnel and several steps are required. In addition, there is insufficient inspection and self-diagnosis of utility meter. In other words, there is no way to check or adjust abnormality remotely in case of partial defect or error in measuring instrument.

And there is a problem in the billing and payment procedures. In other words, due to the complexity of the current utility billing and payment process, invoices may not be issued within the designated fee payment period.In the case of invoices being lost in the process of being delivered to consumers, the cumbersome procedures and fees that require reissuance of the bills are required. There is a lot of inconvenience that you have to pay the late fee if you do not pay within the specified period.

The present invention was created to solve the above-mentioned problems of using the meter, and improves the current utility system and utility meter to improve the efficiency of utility service operation of public service institutions and promote consumer convenience. In order to be able to do so, the purpose of the present invention is not only to provide usage measurement, usage fee calculation, and usage fee display function by period, but also to provide an electronic money transfer meter and a method of transferring money with an IC card fund transfer function.

1 shows an example of the overall system configuration to which the present invention is applied.

2 shows a block diagram of one embodiment of an electronic money transfer meter in accordance with the present invention.

Figure 3 shows a flow chart of the installation and initialization process of the electronic money transfer meter in accordance with the present invention.

4 is a flowchart illustrating the operation and processing of the electronic money transfer meter according to the present invention.

Electronic funds transfer meter according to the present invention for achieving the above object is an IC card reading unit for reading the IC card to be able to transfer funds for the fee through the IC card; A display unit configured to display an operation menu and a processing result of the meter to a user; A keypad having a function key for selecting an operation menu of the meter, a numeric key, and a money transfer processing key, and receiving a user input through the keys; Communication module for transmitting and receiving data with public service institutions and financial institutions; A memory unit for storing a remote control and operation program of the meter through a communication network from a public service institution and a financial institution; And a meter controller which controls the IC card reader, the display unit, the keypad unit, the memory unit and the communication module, and executes a program stored in the memory unit.

And the operating program of the memory unit includes: royalty calculation and recording means for calculating and recording royalty; Electronic money transfer means for electronically processing the money transfer; And security maintenance and self-check means for maintaining the security of the user and performing the self-check of the meter.

In order to achieve the above another object, a money transfer method using an electronic money transfer meter includes: checking whether a card is input; Checking whether the card password matches the meter password; Processing royalties; And communicating with the value-added communication network to display a result of processing the corresponding amount on the screen.

The processing of the payment of the royalties may include: checking whether the payment of the royalties is the date of payment of the royalties; Checking whether the fee was paid in the previous month if the fee was not paid; If the fee has been paid in the previous month, displaying the fee for use up to now; And adding the late fee to the previous month's fee if the fee has not been paid in the previous month and displaying it on the screen.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. In order to configure the electronic money transfer meter to solve the problem of the fee processing system using the current utility bill meter, it is necessary to calculate the usage and fee by period and perform the money transfer processing function of prepaid, debit, and postpaid cards. In addition, these meters must be distributed, and these meters are interconnected with the central control system of the relevant public institutions (public service institutions, financial institutions) through existing public telephone lines or specific leased line (PSTN, ISDN) networks. It should be made available.

Figure 1 shows an example of the overall system configuration to which the present invention is applied, the overall system is IC card 100, electronic money transfer meter 110, the central system 120 of the financial institution, public service organization The central system 130 is made of. The IC card 100 is a prepaid, debit, and postpaid card that is becoming more and more common, and has a larger storage capacity and security than a magentic card. The electronic money transfer meter 110 calculates the usage and fee for each period and performs the funds transfer processing function of the IC card, and the corresponding public institution (public service institution, public service agency, etc.) through an existing public telephone line or a specific leased line (PSTN, ISDN) network. Interconnected with the central system of financial institutions). The central system 120 of the financial institution is connected to the electronic money transfer meter 110 through the PSTN or ISDN network to transfer the usage fee through the financial institution. The central system 130 of the public service organization is also connected through the PSTN or ISDN to manage the storage. The central system 130 of the public service organization refers to a central control system installed in public service organizations such as electric safety corporation, water resources corporation, and gas corporation, and shares information through the PSTN and ISDN networks.

Figure 2 shows a block diagram of an embodiment of an electronic money transfer meter according to the present invention, IC card reader 200, LCD module 210, meter controller 220, keypad 230, It consists of a memory unit 240, a DC power supply unit 250 and a communication module 260.

The IC card reader 200 reads an IC card as an interface device based on an international standard IC card standard, so that funds can be transferred to a user fee through an IC card. The LCD module 210 is a display unit and displays an operation menu and a processing result of the meter to the user. The keypad unit 220 includes a function key for selecting an operation menu of the meter, a numeric key, and a money transfer processing key, and receives a user input through the keys. The communication module 260 transmits and receives data to and from public service organizations and financial institutions through telephone lines and leased lines using a modem. The memory unit 240 stores a remote control and operation program of the meter through a communication network from a public service organization and a financial institution, and provides a storage area for modifying or supplementing the operation program. The meter control unit 220 is a block for overall control of the electronic money transfer meter, the IC card reader 200, LCD module 210, keypad 230, memory 240 and the communication module 260 ), An operating program stored in the memory unit 240, and internally includes a ROM (ROM) 222, a RAM (RAM) 224, and a controller (controller) 226. The DC power supply unit 250 supplies AC power required to the meter by using AC power as an input.

And the remote control and operation program of the meter through a communication network from the public service institutions and financial institutions stored in the memory unit 240 has a function of calculating and recording the fee, electronic money transfer function and security maintenance and self-check function.

The calculation and recording function of the usage fee is calculated by calculating the monthly usage of the meter (base rate, tax savings, arrears, etc.), and recording the cumulative amount of the usage and charges of the last month to complete the payment within the payment period. If not, it is a function that automatically calculates and displays the late fee according to the late fee calculation method.

And the electronic money transfer function should be able to output the usage fee and whether or not to pay during the payment period on its own display screen and inform the status of the money transfer while clearing the usage and fee of the meter when the user's payment is completed. This function allows you to search the transaction and transaction details.

In addition, the security maintenance and self-check function notifies the communication failure situation when the financial institution's system goes down or the central service system's central system occurs in the process of paying royalties. It is a function to perform the history, backup and self-check functions.

3 is a flowchart illustrating a process of installing and initializing a meter, which will be described below. First, check whether the password of the meter is specified (step 300), and if the password is specified, check whether the password is changed (step 310).

If the password is not specified, it is reported whether the card has been input (step 320), and if so, all memory in which the initial data in the meter is stored is cleared (step 330). Then, the initial value is set (step 340). The initial value is as follows. The date of installation of the meter, the amount used in the past (usage before installing the meter), the password of the card as the instrument password, the setting of the late fee setting rate, the basic fee, and the date of the payment date of the fee.

When the initial value of the meter is set as described above, the operation and the process of the meter will be described with reference to FIG. First, check whether the card is input through the IC card reader 200 (step 400), and if the card is input, input the password of the card through the keypad 230 and check whether the password of the card and the password of the meter match. (Step 410) If the password matches, check whether the fee is paid (step 420); if it is the date of payment, convert the amount of the fee for the current month and display it on the screen (step 460). Or, the previous month (Monthly month) to check whether you paid the fee (step 430), if you did not pay the fee calculated by adding the late fee to the monthly fee and display it on the screen through the LCD module 210 (450) In step 440, if the fee is paid, the fee is displayed on the screen (step 440). On the other hand, by checking whether to pay the fee displayed on the screen in the steps 450 and 460 (step 470), if the payment is to be communicated with the bank through the value-added communication network using the communication module 260 to process the corresponding amount on the screen The processing result is displayed (step 480), and the process ends. If you do not pay the fee, exit immediately.

According to the present invention, the meter for the simple measurement of the amount of usage is used to measure the amount of usage, calculation of usage fee, usage fee display function and the electronic money transfer function using the IC card which is becoming more and more common, and the existing public telephone line or a specific dedicated line By implementing the network system interconnected by relevant institutions (public services, finance), it can reduce the manpower of public institutions and promote more efficient public fund management and consumer convenience.

Claims (4)

An IC card reader for reading an IC card so that funds can be transferred through the IC card; A display unit configured to display an operation menu and a processing result of the meter to a user; A keypad having a function key for selecting an operation menu of the meter, a numeric key, and a money transfer processing key, and receiving a user input through the keys; Communication module for transmitting and receiving data with public service institutions and financial institutions; A memory unit for storing a remote control and operation program of the meter through a communication network from a public service institution and a financial institution; And And a meter controller that controls the IC card reader, the display unit, the keypad unit, the memory unit, and the communication module, and executes a program stored in the memory unit. According to claim 1, wherein the operating program of the memory unit Royalty calculation and recording means for calculating and recording royalties; Electronic money transfer means for electronically processing the money transfer; And Electronic money transfer meter, characterized in that it consists of security maintenance and self-inspection means to maintain the security of the user and to perform the self-check of the meter. In a method of transferring funds using an electronic money transfer meter, Checking whether a card is input; Checking whether the card password matches the meter password; Processing royalties; And And displaying the result of processing the corresponding amount on the screen by communicating with the value added communication network. 4. The method of claim 3, wherein processing the royalty payment Checking whether the fee for use is paid and displaying the current fee for use on the screen if the fee is paid; Checking whether the fee was paid in the previous month if the fee was not paid; If the fee has been paid in the previous month, displaying the fee for use up to now; And And if the fee is not paid in the previous month, adding the late fee to the previous month and displaying the late fee on the screen.