JP2004220466A - Atm corner congestion state presenting system and method, program for making computer execute this method, and recording medium having this program recorded thereon - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To inform customers of the congestion state of ATM corners located around areas designated by the customers. <P>SOLUTION: A server 11 receives, from a sensor 10 installed in ATM corners, congestion information indicating the degree of congestion of an ATM corner involved, and stores the received congestion information in a congestion information database 21. When a customer accesses the server 11 via a communication network 30 by use of a customer's terminal 31 to request the browsing of the congestion information, the server 11 transmits, to the customer's terminal 31, the congestion information on the ATM corners involved in an area designated by the browsing request. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO&NCIPI

Description

[0001]
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an ATM corner congestion status presentation system and method for presenting a congestion status for an ATM corner designated by a customer to a customer terminal. The present invention also relates to a program for causing a computer to execute such a method and a recording medium on which the program is recorded.
[0002]
[Prior art]
Most of the visitors to the banks are ATM users, and according to a survey conducted by the applicant, ATM users account for nearly 90% of the visitors. Then, the ATM users tend to concentrate on a specific period or time zone (for example, lunch break time on payday). For this reason, the ATM corner is particularly crowded in such a time / time zone, and the waiting time becomes extremely long, thereby increasing user dissatisfaction. In order to eliminate such user dissatisfaction, it is conceivable to reduce congestion by expanding ATM corners such as adding ATMs. However, the expansion of the ATM corner requires a lot of space and cost, which causes a problem that the burden on the bank is large. In addition, the number of non-operating ATMs increases during a time when the number of users is small, resulting in waste of equipment. Becomes large.
[0003]
Meanwhile, Patent Literature 1 discloses a system for presenting a congestion situation in a specific store to a customer.
[0004]
[Patent Document 1]
JP 2001-306933 A
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
However, the system described in Patent Literature 1 aims at providing congestion information to a customer who intends to go to a specific store or the like. On the other hand, there are many ATM corners, such as bank branches, convenience stores, and other places throughout the city. Customers want to go to an ATM corner that is vacant near the current location instead of a specific ATM corner. Is usually the case. Therefore, simply providing the congestion information of a specific ATM corner by applying the system of Patent Document 1 cannot be said to be a highly convenient service for the customer.
[0006]
The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and it is an object of the present invention to be able to notify a customer of the congestion status of each ATM corner existing around an area designated by the customer.
[0007]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
In order to achieve the above object, an ATM corner congestion status presentation system of the present invention includes: means for receiving congestion information indicating the degree of congestion of a corresponding ATM corner from a sensor installed at each ATM corner;
Congestion information providing means for providing congestion information for each ATM corner corresponding to the area specified by the browsing request to the browsing at the customer terminal in response to the congestion information browsing request from the customer terminal accessed via the communication network. And the following.
ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, the congestion situation of the ATM corner around the area | region designated by the customer can be shown to a customer based on the congestion information detected by the sensor installed in each ATM corner.
[0008]
In the present invention, the congestion information providing means may transmit a screen displaying the congestion status at the location of each ATM corner on the map including the designated area to the customer terminal. In this way, the customer can check the congestion status of each ATM corner on the map screen through the customer terminal.
[0009]
Further, in the present invention, a means for registering a communication contact of a customer who wants to be notified that congestion has been alleviated for each ATM corner, and when the congestion state of a certain ATM corner has been alleviated to a predetermined congestion degree, Means for performing communication to the effect that congestion at the ATM corner has been alleviated to the registered communication contact about the ATM. By doing so, it is possible to notify a desired customer that the congestion at the ATM corner has been alleviated at the timing at which the congestion at the ATM corner has been alleviated to a predetermined congestion degree. For this reason, the customer can go to the ATM corner after the congestion of the ATM corner he wants to use is alleviated, so that the customer can effectively use the time. As a result, it is considered that customer dissatisfaction with the congestion of the ATM corner can be reduced.
[0010]
Further, in the present invention, means for storing the received congestion information in a database together with information on the corresponding date and time,
When there is a request for browsing past congestion information specifying an ATM corner and a date from a customer terminal accessed via a communication network, the specified ATM corner falls under each time zone of the specified date. Means for reading congestion information from the database, generating a screen showing the degree of congestion for each time zone, and transmitting the screen to the terminal of the customer.
In this way, not only can the latest congestion information at each ATM corner be provided to the customer, but also past congestion information can be presented to the customer by time zone. Therefore, for example, from the past congestion information such as yesterday, the same day of the last week, and the same day of the last month, the customer can check the congestion time zone of each ATM corner. It is possible to predict when the congestion will be alleviated.
[0011]
In the present invention, the congestion information browsing request may specify an area around a current position detected by a position detection function of the customer terminal. In this way, the customer can check the location of the nearby ATM corner and the congestion information without knowing the current location.
[0012]
BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION
Hereinafter, a system according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described. The system according to the present embodiment provides customer terminals such as mobile phones and personal computers with congestion information at ATM corners provided in financial institutions such as banks, credit unions, post offices, and convenience stores.
[0013]
FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram of the system of the present embodiment. As shown in the figure, the system of this embodiment includes a server 11 managed by a financial institution. The sensor 10 is connected to the server 11 via a communication line. Further, a customer terminal 31 is connected to the server 11 via a communication network 30 such as the Internet. The customer terminal 31 may be a personal computer, a mobile terminal having a function of connecting to the communication network 30, a mobile terminal such as a PDA, or a car navigation device.
[0014]
The sensors 10 are installed on ceilings, floors, walls, entrances, and the like of each ATM corner, detect the congestion status from the queue length or the number of ATM users, and report the detection result to the identification number of the ATM corner. With the server 11. Specifically, the sensor 10 is constituted by, for example, a sensor that senses a human body, and determines the queue length or the number of people by detecting the human body of a customer waiting in line at an ATM corner to determine congestion. Detect the situation. As a sensor for detecting a human body, an infrared sensor, an ultrasonic sensor, a sensor for detecting a human body by the weight of the floor, or the like can be used. Further, as the sensor 10, a unit that captures an image of an ATM corner with a camera and detects a congestion state from the captured image may be used.
[0015]
The sensor 10 outputs the detection result of the congestion state as a stepwise value such as “A” (congested), “B” (normal), “C” (vacant), and the like. . In that case, it is preferable to detect the congestion status from the length of the queue in consideration of the number of ATMs installed in the ATM corner. Alternatively, the sensor 10 may output data of the queue length or the number of persons as a detection result, and the server 11 receiving the detection result may grasp the congestion degree from the detection result.
[0016]
The server 11 receives the congestion information and the identification number of the ATM corner from the sensor 10 at appropriate time intervals, and sends the information to the customer terminal 31 accessed via the communication network 30 within the area designated by the customer. Services such as displaying and presenting the congestion status of the ATM corner on a screen. The server 11 may be constituted by a single computer, or may be constituted by a plurality of computers connected to each other via a network.
[0017]
The server 11 is provided with a congestion information database 21, an ATM information database 22, a map information database 23, and a contact database 24. The congestion information database 21 stores congestion information for each ATM corner. That is, the server 11 records the congestion information received from each sensor 10 in the congestion information database 21 in association with the identification number of the ATM corner. At this time, the reception date and time of the congestion information are also recorded, so that a change in the daily congestion status depending on the time zone can be presented to the customer terminal 31 as described later. The sensor 10 may transmit the current date and time to the server 11 together with the identification number of the ATM corner and the congestion information, and record the current date and time in the congestion information database 21. The ATM information database 22 records the location (for example, latitude, longitude and address) and identification number of each ATM corner, and the map information database 23 records map information. Further, the contact database 24 records the communication contact information (mail address) of the customer terminal 31 which has registered for receiving a notification service (details will be described later) when congestion has been alleviated for each ATM corner. ing.
[0018]
FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a flow of a process for providing the ATM terminal congestion information to the customer terminal 31 accessing the server 11. As shown in the figure, when the customer accesses the server 11 from the customer terminal 31 (S101), the server 11 displays an area designation screen for designating the area where the user wants to view the congestion status of the ATM corner on the customer terminal 31. It transmits (S102). On this region designation screen, the region may be designated by, for example, the name of a municipal or the like, or a desired region may be designated on a wide area map. When a desired area is designated on the area designation screen, information indicating the designated area is transmitted to the server 11 (S103). In response to this, the server 11 reads the map information corresponding to the designated area from the map information database 23 (S200), and transmits the identification number and position information of each ATM corner existing within the map information to the ATM. The information is read from the database 22 (S201), and the latest congestion information of the ATM corner corresponding to the read identification number is read from the congestion information database 21 (S202). Then, based on the read map information, ATM corner position information, and congestion information, a screen displaying a mark indicating the degree of congestion is generated at a position on the map corresponding to the location of the ATM corner (S203). Is transmitted to the customer terminal 31 (S104).
[0019]
FIG. 3 shows an example of a congestion state screen displayed on the customer terminal 31. As shown in the figure, a map around the area selected by the customer is displayed, and a mark indicating the congestion state is displayed at the position of each ATM corner on the map. This mark indicates, for example, that "x" indicates congestion, "▲" indicates that it is normal, and "●" indicates that it is vacant. The present invention is not limited to this, and may be represented by a symbol such as “A”, “B”, “C”, or the display color may be changed according to the congestion state, such as red, yellow, and blue.
[0020]
Further, the map displayed on the customer terminal 31 may be enlarged or reduced. Specifically, when an operation of requesting enlargement or reduction is performed on the customer terminal 31, the server 11 transmits a screen in which the map is enlarged or reduced to the customer terminal 31 accordingly. Similarly, when it is desired to look around the map displayed on the customer terminal 31, the display range of the map may be moved in the direction designated by the customer.
[0021]
In the above description, the customer designates a desired area and a map around the designated area is displayed. However, if the customer terminal 31 is a terminal having a function of detecting the current position, the customer terminal 31 A map around the displayed current position may be displayed. In this case, since the customer does not need to specify the area, even if he / she does not know the current location on the go, he / she can know the installation positions of the ATM corners around the current location. There is an advantage that the congestion status can be checked.
[0022]
The system of this embodiment also has a function of performing the following two services. That is, (1) a contact address is registered for an ATM corner desired by a customer, and when congestion at the ATM corner is alleviated, an e-mail indicating that congestion is alleviated is transmitted to the contact address. The service and (2) a service for providing the customer terminal 31 with the congestion status for each time zone of the day specified by the customer for the ATM corner specified by the customer. In order to make these functions available to customers, for example, when any ATM corner position displayed on the map on the congestion information display screen shown in FIG. Transmits to the customer terminal 31 a menu screen for selecting “contact registration” or “past congestion information” as a service item.
[0023]
When the customer selects “contact registration” on the menu screen, the server 11 transmits a screen for registering a contact mail address to the customer terminal 31. Then, the mail address input on this screen is recorded in the contact database 24 in association with the identification number of the corresponding ATM corner. When the designated ATM corner is vacant at the time of registering the e-mail address (for example, when the congestion degree is “C” (vacant) or “B” (normal)), the server 11 A message such as "The designated ATM corner is vacant and cannot be registered." Is transmitted to the customer terminal 31 so as not to register it in the contact database 24.
[0024]
FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a flow of processing for performing communication to the registered customer communication contact information indicating that congestion in the ATM corner has been alleviated. As shown in the figure, the server 11 monitors the latest congestion information transmitted from the sensor 10 at each ATM corner, and determines whether the congestion has been reduced to a predetermined degree for each ATM corner. (S400). For example, when the congestion degree is represented by “A” (congested), “B” (normal), and “C” (vacant), when it becomes “B” (normal), it is determined that the relaxation has occurred. As a result, with respect to the ATM corner determined to have reduced the congestion degree (Yes), the congestion is reduced to all the contact mail addresses recorded in the contact database 24 in association with the identification number of the ATM corner. An e-mail containing a message indicating that the message has been sent (for example, “The designated ATM corner is available” is transmitted) (S301). After sending the mail, the server 11 deletes the registered mail address from the contact database 24.
[0025]
When the customer selects “past congestion information” on the menu screen, the server 11 transmits a screen for specifying a date to the customer terminal 31. On this screen, the date can be designated as, for example, "Yesterday,""Same day of last week,""Same day of last month,""Same day of last year." Based on the date input on this screen and the identification number of the corresponding ATM corner, the server 11 reads the congestion information in each time zone of the date from the congestion information database 21 and displays a graph showing the congestion status for each time zone. Generate Then, a time-based display screen for displaying the generated graph is transmitted to the customer terminal 31.
[0026]
FIG. 5 shows an example of a display screen for each time zone. In the figure, the horizontal axis indicates the time zone, and the vertical axis indicates the congestion degree. In the present embodiment, the congestion degree is represented by three congestion degrees of “very congested”, “normal”, and “vacant”. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and may be represented by two or four or more levels. Is also good. Further, instead of the graph displayed on the customer terminal 31, the congestion information may be presented in a table format in which the congestion degree is represented by numerical values, symbols, characters, or the like.
[0027]
As for the past congestion information, not only the information for each time zone on a specific day but also the congestion information for a past predetermined period (for example, the past week or the past month) in the time zone designated by the customer is presented. You may make it. For example, congestion information for the past week in a time zone such as lunch break (12:00 to 1:00) is displayed.
[0028]
As described above, according to the system of the present embodiment, it is possible to present to the customer terminal 31 the congestion status of each ATM corner existing around the area designated by the customer. Therefore, the ATM user can avoid the crowded ATM corner and the time zone, and can use the nearby unused ATM corner or the ATM corner during the idle time. Therefore, according to the present embodiment, the frequency of use of the ATM corner is leveled both temporally and regionally, and as a result, congestion in the ATM corner can be reduced.
[0029]
In addition, since the position and congestion information of the ATM corner around the area specified by the customer are displayed, even in an unfamiliar land such as a business trip destination or a travel destination, the installation position of the nearby ATM corner and their congestion status can be confirmed. In that sense, it is possible to provide services that are extremely convenient for customers. As described above, when the customer terminal 31 is a terminal having a function of detecting the current position, by providing congestion information of the ATM corner around the current position, the customer terminal 31 can be used when the customer does not know the current position. Also, it is possible to confirm the installation positions of the ATM corners around the current location and the congestion state thereof.
[0030]
Further, the system of the present embodiment also provides a service for transmitting a mail notifying that the congestion in the ATM corner has been alleviated to the applicant at the timing when the congestion in the ATM corner has been alleviated. By using this service, the customer does not need to check the congestion status many times until the congestion at the ATM corner he wants to use is eased, which is convenient.
[0031]
Further, the system of the present embodiment also provides a service of presenting past congestion information at each ATM corner by time zone. By using this service, the customer can predict the vacant time zone of the ATM corner to be used.
[0032]
On the other hand, the system of the present embodiment also has the advantage that even for financial institutions such as banks and shinkin banks, the congestion can be reduced without increasing investment in the ATM corner by leveling the use frequency of the ATM corner. There is.
[0033]
As described above, according to the present embodiment, it is possible to realize a system that has great advantages for both the customer and the financial institution.
[0034]
【The invention's effect】
ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, the congestion state about each ATM corner existing around the area | region designated by the customer can be notified to the customer.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram of a system according to an embodiment.
FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the flow of processing for providing ATM terminal congestion information to a customer terminal accessing a server.
FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of a congestion state screen displayed on a customer terminal;
FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a flow of processing for performing communication to a registered customer communication contact address indicating that congestion in an ATM corner has been alleviated.
FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of a screen displaying a congestion state for each time zone of an ATM corner on a certain past day.
[Explanation of symbols]
Reference Signs List 10 Sensor 11 Server 21 Congestion information database 22 ATM information database 23 Map information database 24 Contact database 30 Communication network 31 Customer terminal

Claims (8)

Means for receiving congestion information indicating the degree of congestion at the corresponding ATM corner from a sensor installed at each ATM corner;
Congestion information providing means for providing congestion information for each ATM corner corresponding to the area specified by the browsing request to the browsing at the customer terminal in response to the congestion information browsing request from the customer terminal accessed via the communication network. The ATM corner congestion status presentation system characterized by comprising: 2. The ATM corner congestion according to claim 1, wherein the congestion information providing means transmits a screen displaying the congestion status at the location of each ATM corner on the map including the designated area to the customer terminal. Situation presentation system. Means for registering a communication contact of a customer who wishes to be notified that congestion has been alleviated at each ATM corner;
When the congestion state of a certain ATM corner is reduced to a predetermined congestion degree, the registered communication contact point for the ATM corner is provided with means for performing communication indicating that the congestion of the ATM corner has been reduced. The ATM corner congestion status presentation system according to claim 1 or 2. Means for storing the received congestion information in a database together with information on the corresponding date and time,
When there is a request for browsing past congestion information specifying an ATM corner and a date from a customer terminal accessed via a communication network, the specified ATM corner falls under each time zone of the specified date. 4. A means for reading congestion information from the database, generating a screen indicating the degree of congestion for each time zone, and transmitting the screen to the customer terminal. ATM corner congestion status presentation system. The ATM corner congestion situation according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the congestion information browsing request specifies an area around a current position detected by a position detection function of the customer terminal. Presentation system. Receiving congestion information indicating the congestion status of the corresponding ATM corner from a sensor installed at each ATM corner;
Providing, in response to a congestion information browsing request from a customer terminal accessed via the communication network, congestion information about each ATM corner corresponding to the area specified in the browsing request for browsing at the customer terminal. An ATM corner congestion status presentation method characterized by being executed. A program for causing a computer to execute the method according to claim 6. A recording medium on which the program according to claim 7 is recorded.

Images