JP2009223641A - Merchandise price control device for vending machine - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a merchandise price control device for a vending machine for satisfactorily changing a price of merchandise whose content and price is different depending on time. <P>SOLUTION: A merchandise price control device 10 for a vending machine for controlling the change of the price of merchandise stored in a main cabinet 1 is provided with: a sold-out detection switch 13 which is turned on when the merchandise is sold out, while being turned off when the sold-out state is reset, to detect whether or not the merchandise is sold out or not; and a main control part 20 for changing the price of the merchandise to a predetermined price when the current date exceeds a preset scheduled supply date, and the detection result of the target merchandise is switched from the on-state to the off-state by the sold-out detection switch 13. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a product price control device for a vending machine, and more particularly to a product price control device for a vending machine that controls a change in the price of a product stored in the machine.

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, the following is known as a product price control device for a vending machine that controls a change in the price of a product stored in the machine. For example, it is applied to vending machines that sell cigarettes, etc., and the date when the product sales price is changed and the new price after the change are memorized. The product price control device automatically changes to the new price (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

JP 2002-216222 A

  By the way, in recent years, the products sold by vending machines have also been diversified, and vending machines that sell products with different contents and prices depending on the time, such as newspapers in the morning and evening, even on the same day. A machine has also been proposed.

  In the product price control device as described above, if the current time exceeds the implementation date, the price is automatically changed to the new price, so that the product content and price differ depending on the time on the same day However, there is a risk that the product price may be changed even if the replacement of the product is not confirmed, and the product price may not be changed satisfactorily.

  An object of the present invention is to provide a commodity price control device for a vending machine capable of favorably changing prices even for products whose contents and prices differ according to time in view of the above circumstances. To do.

  In order to achieve the above object, a product price control device for a vending machine according to claim 1 of the present invention is a product price control device for a vending machine that controls a change in the price of a product stored in the machine. The sold-out detection means for detecting whether or not the product is sold out and the current date and time are set in advance while the product is in an on-state when the sold-out state is released while the sold-out state is released. Control means for changing the price of the product to a predetermined price when the scheduled replenishment date is exceeded and the detection result of the target product by the sold-out detection unit is switched from the on state to the off state. It is characterized by that.

  According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a commodity price control device for a vending machine according to the first aspect, further comprising price display means for displaying the price of the commodity stored in the machine, wherein the control means comprises a commodity When the price of the product is changed, the price after the change of the product is displayed on the price display means.

  According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided the commodity price control apparatus for a vending machine according to the first or second aspect, wherein the control means is set separately from the column number for accommodating the commodity in the apparatus. The virtual column number and the price of the settable product are stored in association with each other, and the price of the product is changed by switching the virtual column number.

  According to the present invention, the sold-out detection means is turned on when the product is sold out, and is turned off when the sold-out state is released to determine whether the product is sold out. If the current date and time exceeds the preset replenishment scheduled date and the result of detection of the target product by the sold-out detection unit is switched from the on state to the off state, the price of the product is preset. Since the price is changed to the determined price, it is possible to change the product price after confirming the replacement of the product. Accordingly, there is an effect that the price can be favorably changed even for products having different contents and prices depending on time.

  Exemplary embodiments of a commodity price control device for a vending machine according to the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

  1 and 2 are perspective views simply showing a vending machine to which a commodity price control apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention is applied. FIG. 2 is a control of the vending machine shown in FIG. It is a block diagram which shows a system. The vending machine exemplified here sells newspapers (morning and evening editions), for example, and includes a main body cabinet 1 and a front door 2. Although the present embodiment shows a vending machine that uses newspapers as sales products, the product price control device of the present invention is not applied only to vending machines that sell newspapers, but magazines. The present invention may also be applied to vending machines that sell recording media such as CDs and CDs.

  The main body cabinet 1 is configured in a box shape having an open front surface by appropriately combining steel materials. Although not clearly shown in the drawing, a product (newspaper) to be sold is stored in a predetermined storage mechanism (column) inside the main body cabinet 1.

  The front door 2 is disposed on one side of the main body cabinet 1 so as to open and close the front opening of the main body cabinet 1, and can completely close the front opening of the main body cabinet 1 when it is closed. It is.

  On the front surface of the front door 2, a coin insertion slot 3, a bill insertion slot 4, a coin return slot 5, a product selection button 6, a product takeout port 7 and a price display (price display means) 11 are provided. The coin insertion slot 3 is an opening for inserting coins, and the banknote insertion slot 4 is an opening for inserting banknotes. A plurality of product selection buttons 6 (three in the illustrated example) are provided for selecting a product. The product outlet 7 is an opening for taking out a product, and in this embodiment, three are provided. The price display 11 displays the price of the product to be sold. In the present embodiment, the price display 11 is provided in the same number as the product selection button 6 and the product outlet 7.

  Here, in the present embodiment, the vending machine to be applied sells three types of newspapers, and is stored in three columns inside the main body cabinet 1, respectively. The product selection button 6, the product outlet 7 and the price display 11 correspond to the products stored in the column 1, and the middle product selection button 6, the product outlet 7 and the price display 11 are stored in the column 2. The product selection button 6, the product outlet 7 and the price display 11 in the lower row correspond to the products stored in the column 3.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the commodity price control apparatus 10 applied to such a vending machine includes the price display unit 11, the clock unit 12, a sold-out detection switch (sold-out detection means) 13, and a main control unit 20. It has. The clock unit 12 measures time and indicates the current date and time.

  The sold-out detection switch 13 is provided for each column and detects whether or not the product in the corresponding column is sold out. More specifically, it is turned on when the product in the corresponding column is sold out, and turned off when the sold-out state is released.

  The main control unit 20 performs processing according to a program given in advance, and comprehensively controls the operation of the commodity price control apparatus 10 in accordance with input information from the clock unit 12 and the sold-out detection switch 13. The main control unit 20 includes a time determination unit 21, a sold-out determination unit 22, and a display control unit 23.

  The time determination unit 21 determines whether or not the current date and time input from the clock unit 12 has exceeded a preset scheduled replenishment date and time. Here, it is assumed that the scheduled replenishment date and time is appropriately stored in the memory 15 or the like, and is set to, for example, 3:00 am for supplementing the morning edition and 3:00 pm for supplementing the evening edition.

  The sold-out determination unit 22 determines whether each column is in a sold-out state according to input information from the sold-out detection switch 13. Specifically, it is determined whether the sold-out detection switch 13 has been switched from the on state to the off state or has been switched from the off state to the on state.

  The display control unit 23 causes the price display 11 to display a preset price. Here, the preset price is stored in the memory 15 in a state related to the scheduled replenishment date and time, and the price of the product in each column after 3 am, the price of the product in each column after 3 pm Is decided.

  FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the contents of processing that is repeatedly performed every predetermined time cycle in the main control unit 20 of the commodity price control apparatus 10 described above. Hereinafter, the operation of the commodity price control apparatus 10 will be described with reference to this figure.

  The main control unit 20 of the commodity price control apparatus 10 determines whether or not the current date and time input from the clock unit 12 through the time determination unit 21 has exceeded a preset scheduled replenishment date and time (step S101).

  When the current date and time exceeds the scheduled replenishment date and time (step S101: Yes), the main control unit 20 determines whether or not the sold-out detection switch 13 has been switched from the on state to the off state through the sold-out determination unit 22 ( Step S102).

  This determination will be described. For example, when a product replenisher such as a route man exceeds the scheduled replenishment date and time and the front door 2 is opened to replenish products in each column, the sold-out detection switch 13 is turned on to indicate a sold-out state. . Then, after replenishing the products in each column, when the front door 2 is closed and the front opening of the main body cabinet 1 is completely closed, the sold-out detection switch 13 is released from the sold-out state. It will be in the off state indicating that. Therefore, determining whether or not the sold-out detection switch 13 has been switched from the on state to the off state determines whether or not a commodity has been replenished to each column.

  When the sold-out detection switch 13 is switched from the on state to the off state (step S102: Yes), the main control unit 20 sets the price set in advance through the display control unit 23 to the price display 11 corresponding to each column. It is displayed (step S103). As an example of this price display, as shown in FIG. 4, the price display 11 displays the price (column 1: 150 yen, column 2: 120 yen, column 3: 230 yen). As shown in FIG. 5, the price display 11 displays a preset price (column 1: 80 yen, column 2: 50 yen, column 3: 230 yen). After changing the price in this way, the main control unit 20 ends the current process.

  As described above, in the commodity price control apparatus 10 of the vending machine according to the present embodiment, the main control unit 20 determines that the current date and time exceeds the preset scheduled replenishment date and the sold-out detection switch 13 is turned on. When the state is switched to the off state, the price of the product is changed to a predetermined price. Therefore, it is possible to change the product price after confirming the replacement of the product. Therefore, it is possible to satisfactorily change the price even for products having different contents and prices according to time.

  The preferred embodiment of the present invention has been described above, but the present invention is not limited to this, and various modifications can be made.

  For example, in the present invention, the virtual column number set separately from the column number for storing the product and the price of the settable product are stored in the memory in association with each other, and the product price change in step S103 is performed. When performing, as shown in FIG. 6, the price of the product may be changed by switching the virtual column number. According to this, when totaling sales, detailed tabulation such as by column, by morning edition, by evening edition, etc. becomes possible.

  In the embodiment described above, the presence or absence of replenishment is confirmed in the on / off state of the sold-out detection switch 13, but in the present invention, in addition to the detection result of the sold-out detection means, detection of the open / closed state of the front door You may make it confirm the presence or absence of goods replenishment also considering a result.

  In the embodiment described above, the vending machine to be applied is a cash-compatible one, but a vending machine that is equipped with a reader / writer and is compatible with electronic money may be applied.

  As described above, the product price control device for a vending machine according to the present invention is useful for controlling the change in the price of the product stored in the machine.

1 is a perspective view showing a vending machine to which a commodity price control apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention is applied. It is a block diagram which shows the control system of the vending machine shown in FIG. It is a flowchart which shows the processing content which the main control part shown in FIG. 2 implements. It is explanatory drawing which shows the price display state before a price change. It is explanatory drawing which shows the price display state after a price change. It is explanatory drawing which shows the other example of a price change.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Commodity price control apparatus 11 Price display 12 Clock part 13 Sold out detection switch 15 Memory 20 Main control part 21 Time judgment part 22 Sold out judgment part 23 Display control part

Claims (3)

In the product price control device of the vending machine that controls the change of the price of the product stored in the machine,
A sold-out detecting means for turning on when the product is sold out, and being turned off when the sold-out state is released to detect whether the product is sold out,
When the current date and time exceeds a preset scheduled replenishment date and the detection result of the target product by the sold-out detection means is switched from the on state to the off state, the price of the product is changed to a predetermined price And a vending machine product price control device. Price display means to display the price of the goods stored in the aircraft,
2. The commodity price control device for a vending machine according to claim 1, wherein when the price of the commodity is changed, the control means displays the price after the change of the commodity on the price display means.   The control means stores the virtual column number set separately from the column number for storing the product in the plane and the settable product price in association with each other, and switches the virtual column number to change the price of the product. The commodity price control apparatus for a vending machine according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the commodity price control apparatus is changed.

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