JP2008216694A - Counter apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a counter apparatus that can display image information of advertisement etc., by using a side face of a counter and enables display contents thereof to accurately be recognized irrelevantly to an obstacle such as a person and a body nearby the side face. <P>SOLUTION: A display unit 2 and a sensor 3 are provided on the side face 1b of the counter 1, the obstacle X such as the person and body present in front of the display unit 2 is detected, and a permissible display area of the image information among the whole display area of the display unit 2 is variably set according to a detection result of the sensor 3. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a counter device having a display function.

  Counters for customer service installed in stores such as clothes stores, electronics stores, banks, etc., are flat like walls and have a wide side surface. This aspect can be used as an eye-catching advertising surface and can advertise stores and products.

  For example, it is conceivable to attach a panel on which an advertisement (pictogram or the like) is printed to the side of the counter. However, in this case, the contents of the advertisement are limited to information printed on the panel. Although it is possible to replace the panel, it is necessary to prepare multiple types of panels, and it is necessary to select one panel from among them, or to replace the selected panel with the panel that is installed. It becomes a big burden for the store and the operator.

Therefore, it is conceivable to provide a display such as a liquid crystal on the side of the counter, and display a plurality of image information for advertisement prepared in advance while appropriately switching on the display. In addition, when adopting a display, measures such as removing unnecessary display contents according to the distance between the display and the person can be considered so that even a person away from the display can accurately recognize the display contents (for example, patents) Reference 1)
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-271283

  There are obstacles such as people and objects near the side of the counter. For this reason, even if the image information for advertisement is displayed on the side display or the like, there are many cases in which the display content cannot be accurately recognized due to an obstacle.

  The present invention has been made in consideration of the above circumstances, and its purpose is to display image information such as advertisements using the side of the counter, and to display the display contents for obstacles such as people and objects near the side. It is an object of the present invention to provide a counter device capable of accurately recognizing any object.

  A counter device according to a first aspect of the present invention is a counter, a display unit provided on a side surface of the counter, for displaying image information, a detection unit for detecting an obstacle existing in front of the display unit, and the display unit Setting means for variably setting the allowable display area for the image information in accordance with the detection result of the detection means.

  According to the counter device of the present invention, it is possible to display image information such as advertisements using the side of the counter. Moreover, the display content can be accurately recognized regardless of obstacles such as people and objects near the side.

[1] First embodiment
Hereinafter, a first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the counter device. Reference numeral 1 denotes a counter used for customer service in a store, which has an upper surface 1a for placing an object and a side surface 1b used as an advertising surface.

  The side surface 1b is provided with a display unit (display means) 2 using a liquid crystal display or the like so as to cover almost the entire region, and is present in front of the display unit 2 at the upper edge of the side surface 1b. A sensor (detection means) 3 for detecting an obstacle with infrared light or ultrasonic waves is provided.

A control circuit of the counter device having such a configuration is shown in FIG.
Connected to a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 10 are the display unit 2, the sensor 3, a ROM 11 for storing control programs, a RAM 12 for storing data, a hard disk drive (HDD) 13 as storage means, and an operation unit 14. Yes. The hard disk drive 13 stores a large amount of image information such as advertisements.

  The CPU 10 has the following means (1) to (4) as main functions.

  (1) Setting means for variably setting an allowable display area for image information among all display areas of the display unit 2 according to the detection result of the sensor 3. Specifically, among all display areas of the display unit 2, an area facing the obstacle detected by the sensor 3 is determined as a non-display area, and an area other than the non-display area is set as the allowable display area.

  (2) Timer means for measuring date and day of the week.

  (3) Selection means for selecting any of the image information in the hard disk drive 13 according to the date / time or day of the week by the timer means.

  (4) Control means for displaying the selected image information by changing its size or position in the set allowable display area among all display areas of the display unit 2.

Next, the operation will be described.
As shown in FIG. 1, when there is no obstacle such as a person or an object in front of the display unit 2, the entire display area of the display unit 2 is set as an allowable display area, and the advertisement corresponding to the current date and time or day of the week Are displayed in the entire display area of the display unit 2.

  As shown in FIG. 3, when an obstacle X such as a person or an object appears in a state of covering the left side of the entire display area of the display unit 2, the presence and position of the obstacle X is detected by the sensor 3. Based on this detection, a left area facing the obstacle X is determined as a non-display area among all display areas of the display unit 2, and a right area other than the non-display area is set as an allowable display area. Then, the image information of the advertisement corresponding to the current date and time or day of the week is displayed in the set allowable display area with the size changed or the position changed.

  For example, any two of the plurality of pieces of image information shown in FIG. 1 displayed in the entire area of the display unit 2 are moved to the right area of the display unit 2 and displayed in a reduced state as shown in FIG. Is done.

  As shown in FIG. 4, when the obstacle X appears in a state covering almost the center of the entire display area of the display unit 2, the presence and position of the obstacle X are detected by the sensor 3. Based on this detection, among the entire display areas of the display unit 2, the substantially central area facing the obstacle X is determined as the non-display area, and the left and right areas other than the non-display area are set as the allowable display areas. Is done. Then, the image information of the advertisement corresponding to the current date and time or day of the week is displayed in the set allowable display areas with the size or position changed.

  For example, any two of the plurality of pieces of image information shown in FIG. 1 displayed in the entire area of the display unit 2 are moved and reduced to the left area and the right area of the display unit 2 as shown in FIG. Displayed with status.

  As described above, the display unit 2 and the sensor 3 are provided on the side surface 1 b of the counter 1, the obstacle X such as a person or an object existing in front of the display unit 2 is detected, and the image of the entire display area of the display unit 2 is displayed. By variably setting the permissible display area of information according to the detection result of the sensor 3, it is possible to display image information such as advertisements using the side surface 1b of the counter 1 and to promote advertisement with high eye-catching regarding stores and products. In addition, the display contents can be accurately expressed and recognized regardless of the obstacle X such as a person or an object near the side surface 1b.

[2] Second embodiment
In the second embodiment, the sensor 3 detects the obstacle X existing in front of the display unit 2 and detects the distance to the obstacle X.

  The CPU 10 has the following means (11) to (14) as main functions.

  (11) Of all the display areas of the display unit 2, an area facing the obstacle X detected by the sensor 3 is set as a non-display area, and an area other than the non-display area is set as an allowable display area. Setting means for variably setting the sizes of the non-display area and the allowable display area according to the distance detected by the sensor 3.

  (12) Timer means for measuring date and day of the week.

  (13) Selection means for selecting any of the image information in the hard disk drive 13 according to the date and time or day of the week by the timer means.

(14) Control means for displaying the selected image information by changing the size or position in the set allowable display area of the entire display area of the display unit 2.
Other configurations are the same as those of the first embodiment. Therefore, the description is omitted.

  For example, as shown in FIG. 4, when an obstacle X such as a person or an object appears at a position corresponding to approximately the center of the entire display area of the display unit 2, the presence and position of the obstacle X is detected by the sensor 3. In addition, the distance to the obstacle X is detected by the same sensor 3. Based on these detection results, of the entire display area of the display unit 2, the substantially central area facing the obstacle X is set as a non-display area, and the left and right areas other than the non-display area are respectively allowed display areas. Is set. The sizes of the non-display area and the allowable display area are variably set according to the distance from the display unit 2 to the obstacle X.

That is, as the distance from the display unit 2 to the obstacle X is shorter, the non-display area and the allowable display area are set larger, and as the distance from the display unit 2 to the obstacle X is longer, the non-display area and the allowable display are set. Each area is set smaller.
In this way, by changing the size of the non-display area and the allowable display area in consideration of the change in the visual field range based on the perspective of the person who views the display unit 2, the person who views the display unit 2 can display the displayed image. You can see the whole information without fail.

  Other operations and effects are the same as those of the first embodiment. Therefore, the detailed description is abbreviate | omitted.

In each of the above embodiments, the shape of count 1 is not limited, and any shape can be applied.
In addition, this invention is not limited to each said embodiment, A various deformation | transformation implementation is possible in the range which does not change a summary.

The external appearance perspective view of one Embodiment. The block diagram which shows the control circuit of one Embodiment. The figure which shows an example of the relationship between the obstruction and permissible display area in one Embodiment. The figure which shows the other example of the relationship between the obstruction and allowable display area in one Embodiment.

Explanation of symbols

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Counter, 1a ... Upper surface, 1b ... Side surface, 2 ... Display unit (display means), 3 ... Sensor (detection means), 10 ... CPU, 13 ... Hard disk drive (storage means), X ... Obstacle

Claims (5)

A counter,
Display means provided on a side surface of the counter and displaying image information;
Detecting means for detecting obstacles existing in front of the display means;
A setting means for variably setting an allowable display area of the image information among all display areas of the display means according to a detection result of the detection means;
A counter device comprising: Storage means for storing image information;
Control means for displaying the image information in the storage means by changing the size or position in an allowable display area set by the setting means among all display areas of the display means;
The counter device according to claim 1, further comprising: Storage means for storing a plurality of image information;
Selecting means for selecting any of the image information in the storage means according to the date and time or the day of the week;
Control means for displaying the image information selected by the selection means in a size change or position change in an allowable display area set by the setting means among all display areas of the display means;
The counter device according to claim 1, further comprising: The setting unit determines a region facing the obstacle detected by the detection unit as a non-display region among all display regions of the display unit, and sets a region other than the non-display region as the allowable display region. The counter device according to claim 1. The detection means detects an obstacle existing in front of the display means and a distance to the obstacle,
The setting unit sets a region facing the obstacle detected by the detection unit as a non-display region among all display regions of the display unit, and sets a region other than the non-display region as the allowable display region. Then, the sizes of the non-display area and the allowable display area are variably set according to the distance detected by the detection means,
The counter device according to claim 1.

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