JP2002063632A - Automatic vending machine managing system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an automatic vending machine managing system which can be provided at low cost and with high security. SOLUTION: When accessing an automatic vending machine database 202 of a managing server 200 from a portable communication terminal 300 through the Internet 402, the portable communication terminal 300 is authenticated by referring to a portable communication terminal database 208. Besides, an identification information managing part 209 of the managing server 200 periodically transmits a password made usable after a change to the portable communication terminal 300, and when a change permission is received from the portable communication terminal 300, the password is changed.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a centralized management system for vending machines installed in various places, and more particularly to a system using a portable communication terminal.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in a centralized management system for vending machines of this kind, the operation status and sales of each vending machine are established by connecting vending machines installed in various places to a management host through a unique network. The status is managed centrally by the management host. This network uses a dedicated line such as a wired or wireless network. In addition, the management host is accessible to the mobile communication terminal, and an administrator who replenishes and maintains the vending machine can refer to various information managed by the management host using the mobile communication terminal. can do.

[0003]

By the way, in this kind of vending machine management system, it is necessary to prevent various information managed by the management host from leaking to a third party.
Therefore, in the conventional vending machine management system, the communication between the mobile communication terminal and the management host is connected by a dedicated line to construct a closed network, whereby the mobile communication terminal to be used is specified in advance, whereby the third party can be used. To prevent unauthorized access to the management host. However, introduction of a dedicated line required a great deal of cost.

[0004] The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide a vending machine management system which can be realized with high security and at low cost.

[0005]

According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a management means for centrally managing a vending machine connected to a plurality of vending machines arranged at various locations via a network. And a remote management control means for connecting to the portable communication terminal and controlling access to the management information of the vending machine from the portable communication terminal, wherein the remote management control means comprises: Storage means for storing identification information of the mobile communication terminal that permits the communication, and the mobile communication terminal based on the identification information received from the mobile communication terminal at the start of communication with the mobile communication terminal and the identification information stored in the storage means. The present invention proposes a device characterized by comprising an authentication means for performing authentication.

According to the present invention, the identification information of the portable communication terminal is stored in the storage means in advance, and the authentication is performed by the authentication means based on the identification information and the identification information received from the portable communication terminal. Unauthorized access can be prevented beforehand. In addition, since security is ensured by the authentication means, a network in which an unspecified number of people participate instead of a dedicated line network can be adopted as a communication path between the portable communication terminal and the remote management control means. . Thereby, the cost of system construction can be reduced.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the vending machine management system according to the first aspect, the remote management control means periodically changes the identification information of the portable communication terminal stored in the storage means. It is proposed that the portable communication terminal is provided with an identification information changing means for notifying the identification information after the change.

According to the present invention, the identification information of the portable communication terminal is periodically changed, and the identification information is notified to the portable communication terminal, so that the security is further improved. That is,
Even if the identification information is eavesdropped by a third party, the identification information is changed after a lapse of a predetermined period, so that the third party cannot access the remote management control means even using the eavesdropped identification information. .

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the vending machine management system according to the second aspect, the identification information changing means together with the changed identification information is required for connection from the portable communication terminal to the remote management control means. The present invention proposes a mobile communication terminal in which address information of the remote management control means is notified to the mobile communication terminal.

According to the present invention, the portable communication terminal is notified of the address information of the remote management control means together with the identification information usable after the change, so that the access from the portable communication terminal to the remote management control means can be made reliably and easily. Can be done.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the vending machine management system according to any one of the second and third aspects, the identification information changing means sets the identification information usable after the change prior to the change of the identification information. Transmitting the identification information stored in the storage means to the identification information transmitted to the mobile communication terminal after transmitting the change permission notification from the mobile communication terminal to the mobile communication terminal; Suggest.

In the second and third aspects of the present invention, the identification information transmitted from the remote management control means to the portable communication terminal may not be received by the portable communication terminal for some reason. According to the fourth aspect of the invention, the change of the identification information stored in the storage unit is performed after receiving the change permission notification from the portable communication terminal that has received the identification information. Thus, even when the portable communication terminal cannot receive the identification information, it can reliably connect to the remote management control unit using the previous identification information.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a vending machine management system according to any one of the first to fourth aspects, wherein the communication between the portable communication terminal and the remote management control means is performed. The route is proposed to be characterized by including the Internet.

[0014]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A vending machine management system according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a vending machine management system, and FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of a mobile communication terminal database.

As shown in FIG. 1, the vending machine management system includes a plurality of vending machines 100 scattered in various places,
Vending machine 10 via vending machine network 401
0 and a management server 200 for centrally managing the vending machine 100 by connecting to the management server 2 via the Internet 402, the gateway server 403, and the wireless communication network 404.
00 and a portable communication terminal 300 to be connected.

The vending machine 100 is provided with an interface (not shown) for connecting to the management server 200 via a vending machine network 401, and is used to store merchandise sales information such as the number of sold merchandise, the number of remaining merchandise, and the sales amount. In addition, device information such as the operation status of the device and a failure can be transmitted to the management server 200.

The management server 200 has a communication control unit 2 as a connection interface with the vending machine network 401.
01, a vending machine database 202 in which merchandise sales information and device information of the vending machine 100 are stored, and data sent from each vending machine 100 are stored in the vending machine database 202 and the vending machine database 202 A vending machine centralized management unit 203 for accessing data 202 to manage and analyze data; The vending machine central management unit 203 can be operated from an input device 204 such as a keyboard, and management / analysis results can be output to an output device 205 such as a CRT or a printer.

The management server 200 has a communication control unit 20 which is a connection interface with the Internet 402.
6 and a remote management control unit 207 for controlling access to the stored information in the vending machine database 202 from the portable communication terminal 300 connected via the Internet 402.
And a mobile communication terminal database 208 storing various information of the mobile communication terminal 300 accessible to the remote management control unit 207; and identification of the mobile communication terminal 300 among the various information stored in the mobile communication terminal database 208. An identification information management unit 209 that manages information is provided.

The remote management control unit 207 requests the portable communication terminal 300 requesting connection to transmit identification information, and stores the identification information transmitted from the portable communication terminal 300 and the portable communication terminal database 208. Based on the identification information, whether connection from the portable communication terminal 300 is possible or not is determined. As a specific form of the remote management control unit 207, the connection with the portable communication terminal 300 is established via the Internet 4.
Since the communication route goes through 02, an example using an http server is given. In this case, the CGI
(Common Gateway Interface) and vending machine database 202 and portable communication terminal database 20
Access 8

The portable communication terminal database 208 stores various information on the portable communication terminal 300 that is permitted to access the remote management control unit 207. Specifically, FIG.
As shown in the figure, the terminal ID 501 of the mobile communication terminal 300,
A mail address 502, an identification number 503 relating to access to the remote management control unit 207, a password 504, a temporary password 505, and a validity period 506 of the password are stored. Here, the terminal ID 501 is an identification number individually assigned to all portable communication terminals regardless of whether or not the remote management control unit 207 is accessed. The mail address 502 is an address that can be transmitted and received via the Internet 402. The identification number 503 and the password 504 are identification information for determining whether or not access to the remote management control unit 207 is possible as a pair. The temporary password 505 is temporarily generated when the password 504 of the identification information is periodically changed as described later. The valid period 506 indicates a period during which the password 504 is valid.

The portable communication terminal 300 is a wireless portable terminal such as a PDC terminal, a GSM terminal, and a PHS terminal, and is a terminal capable of data communication. This portable communication terminal 300
Is housed in a wireless communication network 404, and can be connected to the Internet 402 via a gateway server 403 that interconnects the wireless communication network 404 and the Internet 402. Also, the mobile communication terminal 300
Has a Web browser and a mail client. The form of the mobile communication terminal 300 may be a mobile phone or a small computer device such as a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) terminal.

Next, the operation of the management server 200 in the vending machine management system will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 3 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the remote management control unit 207, and FIG.
5 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of FIG.

As shown in FIG. 3, when the portable communication terminal 300 receives a connection request via the Internet 402, the remote management control unit 207 sends an identification number 503 and a password to the portable communication terminal 300 as identification information. 504 is requested (step S1). Then, when the identification number 503 and the password 504 are received from the portable communication terminal 300 (step S2), it is confirmed whether the portable communication terminal having the identification number 503 is registered in the portable communication terminal database 208, and the password is further confirmed. The mobile communication terminal is authenticated by 504 (step S3). If the mobile communication terminal 300 is authenticated, the vending machine database 20
2 is made accessible (step S4).

According to the above steps, the manager who replenishes and maintains the vending machine has the portable communication terminal 300 connected to the management server 200, and inputs the identification number 503 and the password 504, thereby obtaining the vending machine database. Various information stored in the storage unit 202 can be accessed.

In the above-described series of steps, the identification number 503 and the password 504 are input after the portable communication terminal 300 first connects to the remote management control unit 207. In such a case, the mobile communication terminal 30
By inputting the URL (Uniform Resource Locator) of the remote management control unit 207 on the Internet 402 to 0, the connection to the remote management control unit 207 is established.
That is, if the URL of the remote management control unit 207 is “htt
p: //www.xxxxx.co.jp/i/login.asp "
What is necessary is just to input the description of RL into the browser of the mobile communication terminal 300.

By the way, there is a method in which an arbitrary character string is included in the URL to transmit the character string from the client to the server. By using this method, the identification number 503 and the password 504 can be transmitted when the mobile communication terminal 300 connects to the remote management control unit 207. For example, in the above example, if the identification number 503 is “AAAA” and the password 504 is “XXXX”, the mobile communication terminal 300
`` Http://www.xxxxx.co.jp/i/login.asp?A
By inputting “AAA + XXXX”, the identification number 503 and the password 504 can be transmitted to the remote management control unit 207. That is, steps S1 and S2 can be omitted.

Next, the operation of the identification information management unit 209 will be described. The identification information management unit 209 determines the validity period 50 of the mobile communication terminal database 208 as time passes.
6 is updated (step S11).

Next, it is determined whether any of the various information stored in the portable communication terminal database 208 does not have a valid period 506 (step S12). Then, a temporary password 505 is generated (step S13). Then, the temporary password 505 is transmitted to the portable communication terminal 300 (step S14). Here, the temporary password 5
05 is the mail address 302 of the mobile communication terminal 300
Send as mail to. Then, when the permission of the password change is notified from the portable communication terminal 300 that has received the mail, the contents of the password 504 of the portable communication terminal 300 in the portable communication terminal database 208 are changed to the contents of the temporary password 505 (step S15). , S
16). Finally, the validity period 50 of the mobile communication terminal 300
6 is set to a predetermined period (for example, 30 days) (step S
17).

According to the above steps, when a predetermined period has elapsed since the password constituting the identification information was last changed, the password usable after the next change is transmitted from the identification information management unit 209 to the portable communication terminal 300 by e-mail. Is done. When the user of the mobile communication terminal 300 permits the identification information management unit 209 to change the password in response to the mail, the password 504 of the mobile communication terminal database 208 is changed to the contents of the password transmitted by the mail. Thereafter, when accessing the remote management control unit 207 from the mobile communication terminal 300, the password received by the mail may be used.

As described above, the portable communication terminal 30
0 to the remote management control unit 207 when the identification number 5
03 and the password 504, the mail transmitted from the identification information management unit 209 to the mobile communication terminal 300 includes the U number including the identification number 503 and the temporary password 505.
It is preferable to describe RL. That is, the access from the mobile communication terminal 300 to the remote management control unit 207 becomes reliable and easy.

As described in detail above, in the vending machine management system according to the present embodiment, the administrator
00, the management server 200 is connected to the management server 200 via the Internet 402 and sends out the identification number 503 and the password 504 as identification information.
The user can access the vending machine database 202 managed at 00. That is, since the mobile communication terminal 300 is authenticated when accessing the vending machine database 202, unauthorized access by a third party can be prevented. In addition, since security is secured by the authentication means, access via the Internet 402, which is a network in which an unspecified majority participates, is possible. Thereby, the cost of system construction can be reduced.

In the vending machine management system according to the present embodiment, the password 504 used for authentication of the portable communication terminal 300 is periodically changed, so that the password 504 is intercepted by a third party. Even in this case, after the predetermined period has elapsed, the password 504 eavesdropped by the third party is used.
, The vending machine database 202 cannot be accessed. That is, the security level is high.

Further, in the vending machine management system according to the present embodiment, a temporary password 505 that can be used after the change is transmitted to portable communication terminal 300, and after the change is permitted from portable communication terminal 300, the password is changed. Since the password 504 is changed with the contents of the provisional password 505, even if the portable communication terminal 300 cannot receive the provisional password 505 for some reason, the vending machine database 2 is transmitted from the portable communication terminal 300 using the previous password 504.
02 can be accessed.

In the present embodiment, the password is periodically changed for each portable communication terminal 300. However, the password may be changed as needed rather than periodically. In addition, the changed password is transmitted to the mobile communication terminal 30.
Although a mail is used as a means for notifying 0, other means may be used.

[0035]

As described above in detail, according to the first aspect of the present invention, the identification information of the portable communication terminal is stored in the storage means in advance, and the identification information and the identification information received from the portable communication terminal by the authentication means. The authentication is performed based on the third party, so that unauthorized access by a third party can be prevented. In addition, since security is ensured by the authentication means, a network in which an unspecified number of people participate instead of a dedicated line network can be adopted as a communication path between the portable communication terminal and the remote management control means. .
Thereby, the cost of system construction can be reduced.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the identification information of the portable communication terminal is periodically changed, and the identification information is notified to the portable communication terminal, so that the security is further improved. That is, even if the identification information is eavesdropped by a third party, the identification information is changed after a predetermined period of time, so that the third party cannot access the remote management control means even using the eavesdropped identification information. Becomes

Further, according to the third aspect of the present invention, the portable communication terminal is notified of the address information of the remote management control means together with the identification information usable after the change, so that the portable communication terminal transmits the address information to the remote management control means. Access can be performed reliably and easily.

In the second and third aspects of the present invention, the identification information transmitted from the remote management control means to the portable communication terminal may not be received by the portable communication terminal for some reason. According to the fourth aspect of the invention, the change of the identification information stored in the storage unit is performed after receiving the change permission notification from the portable communication terminal that has received the identification information. Thus, even when the portable communication terminal cannot receive the identification information, it can reliably connect to the remote management control unit using the previous identification information.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a vending machine management system.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of a mobile communication terminal database.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of a remote management control unit in the management server.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of an identification information management unit in the management server.

[Explanation of symbols]

100: vending machine, 200: management server, 202: vending machine database, 203: vending machine central management unit, 207: remote management control unit, 208: portable communication terminal database, 209: identification information management unit, 300: Mobile communication terminal

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A vending machine connected to a plurality of vending machines arranged at various locations via a network for centrally managing the vending machine, and a vending machine connected to a mobile communication terminal and connected to the vending machine. A vending machine management system comprising: a remote management control unit for controlling access to management information of a vending machine; wherein the remote management control unit comprises: a storage unit for storing identification information of a portable communication terminal to which connection is permitted; Vending machine management comprising: authentication means for authenticating the mobile communication terminal based on the identification information received from the mobile communication terminal at the start of communication with the communication terminal and the identification information stored in the storage means. system. 2. The identification information for periodically changing identification information of a mobile communication terminal stored in the storage means and notifying the mobile communication terminal of identification information usable after the change. The vending machine management system according to claim 1, further comprising a change unit. 3. The identification information changing means transmits, to the mobile communication terminal, address information of the remote management control means necessary for connection from the mobile communication terminal to the remote management control means, together with identification information usable after the change. 3. The vending machine management system according to claim 2, wherein a notice is given. 4. The identification information changing means transmits identification information usable after the change to the mobile communication terminal prior to the change of the identification information, and stores the change information after a change permission notification is returned from the mobile communication terminal. 4. The vending machine management system according to claim 2, wherein the identification information stored in the means is changed to the identification information transmitted to the portable communication terminal. 5. The vending machine management system according to claim 1, wherein a communication path between the portable communication terminal and the remote management control means includes the Internet.