JP2001266229A - Automatic vending machine - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To easily pay money to a prepaid card on an automatic vending machine which enables an article to be purchased by using the prepaid card. SOLUTION: A card reader-writer 9 is built in a paper money discriminating machine 3 and a money reception button 11 for switching money paying for article purchase to card money paying is provided, and a paying amount is written to the prepaid card by the card reader-writer 9 when the money paying button 11 is operated, the prepaid card is inserted into a prepaid card insertion slot 8 provided in the card reader-writer 9, and cash is paid.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a vending machine capable of purchasing goods using a card.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A vending machine configured so that a product can be purchased using a card other than cash can be used in that the product can be obtained as long as the card is possessed without cash. It is convenient for the person. One of the cards currently available in vending machines is a prepaid card. The prepaid card is recorded with a considerable amount of money in advance, and if the included amount is consumed, the card must be disposable or recharged to the card. This deposit usually requires the use of a deposit machine separate from the vending machine. This is because vending machines do not have enough space to house a deposit machine.
In order for the user to make full use of the card when using a vending machine, it is desirable that the mechanism be such that the user can easily deposit the card again on the spot, for example, when the balance is exhausted.

[0003]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to make it possible to easily deposit money into a prepaid card in a vending machine in which goods can be purchased using the prepaid card.

[0004]

According to the present invention, in order to solve the above-mentioned problems, a card reader / writer is incorporated in a bill validator, and a deposit button for switching a deposit for merchandise purchase to a card deposit is provided. The operation, the insertion of the prepaid card into the prepaid card insertion slot provided in the card reader / writer, and the insertion of cash allow the card reader / writer to write the inserted amount into the prepaid card.

[0005]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS In the present invention, a bill validator and a card reader / writer are integrated into one, and a bill is inserted into a bill insertion slot or a prepaid card is inserted into a prepaid card insertion slot and an operation of a product selection button is performed. When the payment is made, a deposit signal and a selection signal are transmitted to the vending machine main control unit as a product purchase, a deposit button for switching the deposit for product purchase to a card deposit is operated, bills are inserted into a bill slot and prepaid. When the prepaid card is inserted into the card insertion slot, it is preferable that the inserted amount is paid into the prepaid card and a card payment signal is transmitted to the vending machine main controller.

[0006]

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. FIG. 1A is a configuration diagram of a control system of a vending machine of the present invention, FIG. 1B is a front view of a main part thereof, and FIG. 1C is a side view. 1
Is a main control unit of the vending machine, 2 is a coin slot, 3 is a coin discriminator, and an output terminal thereof is connected to an input terminal 4 of the main control unit 1. 5 is a bill insertion slot, 6 is a bill validator, and its output end is connected to the input end 7 of the main control unit 1. 8 is a prepaid card insertion slot, 9 is a card reader / writer, and its output terminal is connected to the input terminal 10 of the main control unit 1. 1
Reference numeral 1 denotes a card deposit button, which is connected to the input terminal 12 of the main control unit 1. A return button 13 also functions as a prepaid card ejection button. Reference numeral 14 denotes a first memory in the main control unit 1, which stores coins, bills, and deposits made by prepaid cards for purchasing goods. Reference numeral 15 denotes a second memory in the main control unit 1, which stores a deposit amount to a prepaid card.

As shown in FIGS. 1b and 1c, a bill validator 6, a bill slot 5, a prepaid card slot 8,
The card reader / writers 9 are arranged vertically one above the other, so that the card reader / writers 9 are integrally and compactly incorporated in the vending machine main body.

Next, the operation of the vending machine of the present invention will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. There is no difference in the purchase operation of goods when cash is used. When purchasing a product with a prepaid card, the prepaid card is inserted into the prepaid card insertion slot 8 (step S1) according to the flow on the left side of the figure, and the amount included in the card is read by the card reader / writer 9. The remaining amount is checked (step S2), the main controller 1 compares the sales price of the product handled by the vending machine (step S3), and the lamp of the selectable product button for sale is turned on. (Step S4). Next, the user selects a product, and the product is carried out (step S5).
At the same time, a command to reduce the price of the purchased product is sent from the main control unit 1 to the card reader / writer 9, the card reader / writer 9 writes the remaining amount on the card, and the card is discharged to the prepaid card insertion slot 8. The amount paid for purchasing the product is stored in the first memory 14 as sales.
This flow is no different from the conventional one.

FIG. 2 shows the payment to the prepaid card.
It is done along the flow on the right. First, a prepaid card is inserted into the prepaid card slot 8 (step S
6) When the deposit button 11 is pressed (step S7), a signal indicating that the card has been deposited is sent to the second memory 15 of the main controller 1. The card reader / writer 9 reads the amount of money included in the card, and checks whether the amount exceeds the upper limit of the card (step S8). If the amount exceeds the upper limit, the card is inserted into the prepaid card slot 8. The card is ejected (step S9), and it is not allowed to deposit any more money on the card. If it is less than the upper limit (step S8), payment can be made. When a bill is inserted from the bill insertion slot 5 (step S10), the bill is discriminated by the bill discriminating machine 6 and if it is determined that the bill is true, the main controller 1 calculates the sum of the present amount of the card and the received amount. It is confirmed whether or not the amount exceeds the upper limit of the card (step S11). If the amount is less than the upper limit, a command is issued to the card reader / writer 9 to write the inserted amount to the card, and the amount is written to the card.
(Step S12). The second memory 15 stores the amount of money deposited in the card. When the return button 13 is pressed (step S13), the card is ejected to the prepaid card insertion slot 8 (step S14). In this case, if the return button 13 is not pressed, the process returns to the step 8 for confirming the card upper limit amount. If the upper limit is exceeded in step S11, the inserted bill is discharged (step S11).
15), it is warned that the input amount is too large, and the process returns to step S10 for inserting a bill.

[0010] The amount of money deposited into the card is 1000
It is preferable to prevent a small amount of money from being deposited in yen units, but in some cases, it is also possible to allow a small amount of money to be deposited on a prepaid card, which is not limited to 1000 yen units. As a result, the coins possessed can be arranged in the prepaid card, which is convenient for the user. In the same manner as in the case of bills, depositing by coins is performed through the steps of operation of a deposit button, insertion of coins into the coin slot 2, and discrimination by the coin discriminator 3. The upper limit of the card is set to prevent creation of a high-priced card, but it is not always necessary to set the upper limit of the card in an environment in which no problem occurs with the high-priced card. In this case, the step of checking the upper limit of the card amount in the flowchart of FIG. 2 is omitted. It is preferable from the viewpoint of sales management that the main control unit stores the amount of money deposited into the card and the amount of sales by normal product purchase separately.

[0011]

According to the present invention, a bill validator and a card reader / writer are integrated and housed in a limited space inside the vending machine so that the card can be deposited in the vending machine. Therefore, a low-cost prepaid card system is provided, and the user can deposit the prepaid card with a vending machine without going to the place where the depositing machine is installed. Enhanced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a control system, b is a front view of a main part thereof, and c is a side view of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart of the operation of the embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Vending machine main control part 2 Coin insertion slot 3 Coin identification machine 4 Input end of main control part 5 Bill insertion slot 6 Banknote identification machine 7 Input end of main control part 8 Prepaid card insertion opening 9 Card reader / writer 10 Main control part Input terminal 11 Card deposit button 12 Input terminal of main control unit 13 Return button 14 First memory 15 Second memory

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A card reader / writer incorporated in a bill validator, a deposit button for switching a deposit for merchandise purchase into a card deposit, operation of the deposit button, and insertion of a prepaid card into a prepaid card slot provided in the card reader / writer. A vending machine characterized in that an inserted amount is written on a prepaid card in a card reader / writer by insertion and insertion of cash. 2. The vending machine according to claim 1, wherein a bill validator, a card reader / writer and a deposit button are integrated.