JP2012057371A - Locker system with user authentication function - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a locker system with user authentication functions which records the histories of unlocking/locking a door and carrying-in/carrying-out articles together with the identification information of a person who unlocks the door.SOLUTION: The locker system with user authentication functions includes; a locker body 2 in which a door 18 is installed at the opening of an article storage room 12 and locking means 24 is provided for locking the door; a control unit 30 which reads biological information of a person who performs an unlocking operation to the door 18, verifies the biological information against authentication information and transmits an unlocking signal to the locking means 24 in response to the unlocking operation only when an authentication is successful; and a management unit 50 which stores the histories of locking-unlocking operations to the door 18 transmitted from the control unit and the identification information of a person unlocking the door on the time basis. The control unit 30 further has an article sensor 34 which can detect carrying-in articles to a detection area A in the article storage room 12 and carrying-out articles from the area. The management unit 50 displays the information of the locking-unlocking operation to the door transmitted by the control unit 30 and the information of the carrying-in and carrying-out articles in such a manner that the order of each operation is clarified.

Description

  The present invention relates to a locker system with a user authentication function.

  For example, when a specific person wants to use an expensive machine, an article such as a medicine or confidential document that requires safety management, a locker is locked and a key is given to a plurality of users. However, if one of the users loses the key, the security of the goods cannot be guaranteed.

  In order to eliminate such inconvenience, a system that authenticates a person who has been registered in advance using biometric information such as fingerprints, physical features, and veins and permits the unlocking of the locker door has been proposed (Patent Document 1). 0054 and paragraph 0002 of Patent Document 2).

  On the other hand, in addition to lockers, there has been proposed a technique for permitting a worker who has been biometrically authenticated to unlock a door and storing the ID thereof in order to prevent the sales of the vending machine from being stolen (Patent Document 3).

  There has also been proposed a method in which a load applied to an article display board such as jewelry is measured by a weight sensor and an alarm is issued if the load does not return within a certain time after the article leaves the display board (Patent Document 4).

  It is also a joint locker device that temporarily deposits the courier service, the delivery person inserts the authentication card, opens the door, detects that the article has been delivered by the weight sensor, and the slip inserted by the delivery person into the device It is known that the weight of the article and the delivery time are printed (paragraph 0024 of Patent Document 5), and the time when the user accepts the article and closes the door (paragraph 0018) is known.

JP 2002-260073 A JP 2010-009364 A JP2003-232154 JP 10-304954 A JP 05-098857

  The locker systems of Patent Documents 1 and 2 permit a person who has been biometrically authenticated to unlock the door, but the responsibility when an article is lost is not clear.

  In the case of Patent Document 3, the person who unlocks the door remains in memory, but since the entry / exit of the article is not monitored, it is difficult to specify the time when the article is lost even if the article is lost.

  The method of Patent Document 4 considers theft when an article is separated from the display board for a certain period of time. However, this method is not applicable to ordinary lockers where the usage time of articles varies.

  The system of patent document 5 memorize | stores the time which closed the door, treating it as the receipt time of a delivery. In the case of temporary delivery of parcels, there will be no inconvenience even if such handling is done, but the situation is different when confidential materials are stored in a locker and shared.

  In that case, opening the door does not necessarily mean taking out the article. For example, even if the door is opened, there is a possibility that another person is taking out the target article, or the door different from the target place may be opened by mistake.

  It is also desirable to monitor inappropriate use such as excessive consumption in chemical stores.

  A first object of the present invention is to make it possible to manage a door unlocking / unloading / taking-out history and user information in a locker system capable of authenticating a user.

  A second object of the present invention is to enable recording of the time of bringing in and taking out an article in a locker system with a biometric authentication function having the above management function.

  A third object of the present invention is to enable a change in the weight of stored articles to be stored in a locker system with a biometric authentication function having the above management function.

The first means is
A locker body 2 provided with a door 18 at the opening of the article storage chamber 12 and provided with locking means 24 for locking the door;
It has a control unit 30 that reads the biological information of the person who performs the unlocking operation of the door 18 and sends an unlocking signal to the locking means 24 according to the unlocking operation only when authentication is established by comparing with the authentication information, A controller mechanism 28 formed so as to store the history of unlocking and unlocking of the door 18 and the identification information of the unlocker formed by the control unit in the management unit 50 over time;
The control unit 30 further includes an article sensor 34 that can detect the bringing-in of the article into the detection area A in the article storage chamber 12 and the taking-out of the article from the detection area A,
The management unit 50 has a function of storing information on each event of door locking / unlocking, bringing in an article, and taking out an article transmitted by the control unit 30 so that at least the order of occurrence of each event can be known. Have.

  This means proposes to provide an article sensor 34 for detecting the taking-in and taking-out of an article as shown in FIG. 2 in a locker system capable of storing a biometric authentication of a user and a history of door locking / unlocking. By identifying an individual who took out an article using biometric authentication, it is possible to stimulate each user's sense of responsibility and avoid loss of the article or unnecessarily long take-out.

  A “locker” is an equipment storage facility with a lockable door. “Biometric authentication” can adopt a conventionally well-known method as described later. The “article sensor” is not limited to the pressure-sensitive sensor and the gravity sensor in the illustrated example, and an optical sensor or the like may be used. The “controller mechanism” includes a control unit that controls opening and closing of the locker body door and the authentication device, and a management unit that stores necessary information. In the example of FIG. 2, the control unit is incorporated in the locker body and the management unit is provided outside the locker body. In this case, necessary information (history, etc.) is temporarily stored in the control unit separately from the management unit. You may make it do. Further, for example, when the present invention is applied to one locker, the control unit may include a management unit. In addition, the management unit stores information so that the order of locking / unlocking / carrying-in or taking-out of articles can be understood. Needless to say, bringing or taking out articles may be stored as a matter accompanying the locking operation (see Table 2). It is not essential to store the time of each event.

  The second means has the first means, and the controller mechanism 28 stores the time when the article was taken out and the time when the article was brought in, or the time when the door was locked and the time when the door was unlocked. And

  This means proposes that the controller mechanism (management unit or control unit) stores the time necessary for specifying the usage time of the article. Although it is best to store the time when the article is taken out and the time when the article is brought in, each time of locking and unlocking the door may be stored instead.

The third means includes the second means, and the detection area A is a placement surface for placing an article,
The article sensor 34 continues the amount of information indicating that the article is on the detection area, such as the position and load of the article placed in the detection area A, at least when the door is unlocked. It is formed so as to detect the carry-in of the article to the detection area A and the take-out of the article from the detection area A by the change in the amount of information.

  The means proposes to continuously observe information indicating the location of the article. Thereby, carrying in and taking out of an article can be detected accurately. The anti-theft effect is enhanced because the presence or absence of an article is confirmed when the door is unlocked. A pressure sensor or weight sensor that detects the load pressure of the article, or a sensor (such as an optical sensor) that detects that the article occupies a part of the space can be used.

The fourth means includes third means, and the article sensor 34 has a function of detecting the load pressure of the article placed in the detection area A.

  The means proposes to detect the load pressure of the article and store the pressure fluctuation as an indication of the carry-in and take-out of the article. Either a pressure sensor (FIG. 5) that senses a change in pressure in a binary manner or a weight sensor (FIG. 9) that can be detected as a continuous amount can be used. Since the article remains in the record simply by lifting the article from the detection area, it is possible to more reliably detect the taking out of the article.

The fifth means includes the fourth means, and the article sensor 34 has a function of measuring the load of the article, and records changes in the load by opening and closing the door 18 and bringing in and taking out the article. At the same time, it is configured to be stored in the controller mechanism 28.

  In this means, since the change in load is recorded in the controller mechanism (management unit or control unit) by the weight sensor shown in FIG. 9, the consumption status of the consumables can be recorded. The system administrator can grasp the consumption status of the article without opening the locker door, and the management of the article such as the replenishment of the article becomes easy.

  According to the invention relating to the first means, since the taking-in or taking-out of the article is stored together with the history of the door opening / closing record and the operator authentication record, the article can be managed accurately.

  According to the invention relating to the second means, since the time of locking / unlocking the door and bringing in or taking out the article is recorded, the use time of the article can be accurately grasped.

  According to the third aspect of the invention, since the presence / absence of the article is continuously monitored in the open state, it is clear whether or not the article is present when the door is opened, and the article is more reliably detected. Can be managed.

  According to the fourth aspect of the invention, since a change in the load pressure of the article in the detection area is detected, it is possible to more accurately grasp the take-out of the article.

  According to the fifth aspect of the invention, since the measured change in the weight of the article is stored in the controller mechanism 28, the consumption status of consumables such as medicines can be clearly identified.

It is a front view in the state where a part of doors of the locker system concerning a 1st embodiment of the present invention was opened. FIG. 2 is a partially transparent side view of the system of FIG. 1 with all doors closed. It is a front view in the state where the goods storage room of the system of Drawing 1 was opened. FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of the article storage chamber of FIG. 3 with a door closed. It is a longitudinal cross-sectional view in the state which closed the door of the article | item storage chamber of FIG. It is a longitudinal cross-sectional view in the state which closed the equipment storage chamber of the system of FIG. It is explanatory drawing of the communication line of the principal part of the system of FIG. FIG. 2 is a configuration explanatory diagram of the system of FIG. 1. It is a longitudinal cross-sectional view in the open state of the article | item storage chamber of the locker system which concerns on the 2nd Embodiment of this invention.

  1 to 8 show a rocker system according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

  This locker system includes the locker body 2 shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the controller mechanism 28, the management unit 50 shown in FIG. 2, and the communication line 60 shown in FIG.

  Although only one locker body 2 is shown in FIG. 1, a plurality of locker bodies 2 and the control unit 30 can be managed by one management unit 50.

  The locker body 2 is formed by a casing 3, doors 16 and 18, and locking means 24.

  The casing 3 is formed of a plurality of vertical plate portions 4 and a horizontal plate 6 that intersect each other when viewed from the front as shown in FIG. 1, and a back plate portion 8 that closes the rear surfaces of the vertical plate portions and the horizontal plate. Yes.

  In the illustrated example, one of the plurality of recesses defined by the vertical plate portion 4 and the horizontal plate 6 is an equipment storage chamber 10 for incorporating a control unit described later, and the remaining recesses are the article storage chamber 12. Is formed. The configuration of this illustrated example can be changed as appropriate.

  In the illustrated example, the horizontal plate 6 has a double plate structure in which a lower plate portion 6a and an upper plate portion 6b are connected with a certain gap as shown in FIG. The sensor can be stored. An appropriate number (two in the illustrated example) of through holes 7 are formed in the upper plate portion 6b. The upper surface of the upper plate portion around the through hole is a detection area A that also serves as an article placement surface. In FIG. 3, reference numeral C denotes an article storage tool such as a case. Articles such as documents can be placed in the article storage tool and placed in the detection area.

  The door 16 is pivotally attached to the opening of the equipment storage chamber 10 and the door 18 is pivotally attached to the opening of the article storage chamber 12 by a pivot shaft 20. A mounting recess 17A and a mounting hole 17B for assembling each facility are formed in each of the upper and lower portions of the door 16 for the facility storage chamber. The article storage room B and the door 18 constitute an article storage B.

  As shown in FIG. 4, the locking means 24 is formed of an engaging portion (electronic lock) 24a capable of projecting an engaging arm and an engaged portion 24b that is a receiving portion of the engaging arm. One is provided on the door side and the other is provided on the inner surface side of the article storage chamber.

  The locking means 24 is unlocked by a signal from a control device described later. Thereby, the door 18 can be opened. When the door is closed, the locking means 24 is locked by a signal from a control device described later. Note that the door may be automatically locked when the door is closed, but at that time, the lock means 24 is configured to transmit a signal notifying that the door is locked.

  The controller mechanism 28 includes a control unit 30 and a management unit 50 as shown in FIG.

  As shown in FIG. 8, the control unit 30 includes a first biometric authentication sensor 32, an article sensor 34, a control device 40, and an operation panel 42 including an IO device 46.

  In the illustrated example, the control unit 30 is incorporated in the locker body 2, but each element of the control unit excluding the article sensor may be provided separately from the locker body 2.

  The first biometric authentication sensor 32 has a function of reading biometric information from a human body and sending it to the control device side. The first biometric authentication sensor 32 may employ a conventionally known method such as the above-described fingerprint / vein authentication or physical feature authentication. In the following example, a fingerprint authentication method will be described as an example. In the illustrated example, as shown in FIG. 1, the first biometric authentication sensor 32 is disposed in the mounting recess 17 </ b> A of the door 16 for the equipment storage chamber.

  The article sensor 34 is a pressure-sensitive sensor in the present embodiment, and has a pressure-sensitive input protrusion 36 that protrudes upward as shown in FIG. The pressure sensitive sensor is housed in a horizontal plate 6 that is the bottom of the article housing chamber 12, and an input protrusion 36 projects from the through hole 7.

  The pressure-sensitive sensor binaryly discriminates the state of the article as “present” if the load pressure of the article is a certain value or more and “absent” if it is less than the certain value. The determination result is transmitted to the management apparatus via the control apparatus in this embodiment or directly if necessary.

  In the illustrated example, the control device 40 and the operation panel 42 are integrally coupled as shown in FIG. 6 and are fitted in the mounting holes 17B of the door 16 for the equipment storage chamber. Of course, the control device 40 and the operation panel 42 may be arranged separately. The operation panel 42 shown in FIG. 1 has a button 43 that represents the number of the article storage B that the locker body has, and a display panel 44 that displays operation procedures and the like.

  The main function of the control device 40 is to permit operation of the operation panel 42 only to a person registered in advance. That is, the control device 40 collates the biometric information transmitted from the first biometric authentication sensor 32 with the biometric information data stored in advance in the memory. The control device 40 transmits an unlocking command to the corresponding locking means 24 in response to an input from the operation panel 42 only when both are collated.

  The other functions of the control device 40 store four basic information in the control device 40: unlocking the door 18, locking the door 18, and detecting the presence or absence of the article. And transmission to the management device 56.

  These pieces of information may be transmitted sequentially, or may be temporarily stored in the control device 40 and transmitted in response to a request from the management device 56.

  Further, in correspondence with each basic information, supplementary information (for example, the time when the matter was performed) necessary for managing the article can be transmitted together with the basic information. The time of each matter is, for example, the time at which an unlocking command / locking command is transmitted for unlocking / locking, and the time at which a load pressure change signal is received from the article sensor 34 for the presence / absence of the article. Good.

  Further, the supplementary information may include operator identification information for each matter. The unlocking, bringing in the article, taking out the article, and the locking from the unlocking of the door to the locking again are performed by a person who has been biometrically authenticated for the unlocking. The control device 40 may be configured so that the ID of the operator is the identification information of the operator of each matter.

  The supplementary information may be associated with the basic information by the following management apparatus.

  The management unit 50 includes a second biometric authentication sensor 52, a display unit 54, and a management device 56, as shown in FIG.

  The second biometric authentication sensor 52 is for collecting authentication information for collating with the biometric information collected by the first biometric authentication sensor 32.

  The display means 54 is a device (such as a CRT or a liquid crystal panel) that displays the output of the management device 56.

  The management device 56 can be constituted by a management computer, for example, and has a storage means 58 such as a database. The storage means 58 can store basic information on which the system is operated, such as the authentication information described above, and management information such as locking / unlocking / carrying in / out of the article in the locker body 2. it can.

  The record of the management information is schematically shown in Table 1 below. This table may be displayed by the display means 54 described later. In this table, the unlocked state of the door is indicated as OFF, the locked state is indicated as ON, and “present” indicates that the article is in the detection area, and “no” indicates that the article is not in the detection area.

  By expressing these pieces of information over time, the state of the article can be managed accurately. In the example of the table above, the article storage case No. For operator 2, the operator X unlocks the door and takes out and locks the article, then the operator Y unlocks the door, but locks it without taking anything out, and finally the operator X unlocks the door. It turns out that it locked and returned the article.

  In Table 1 above, bringing in and taking out articles is handled as information different from unlocking and locking, but for example, unlocking and locking are used as basic information, and taking in and taking out articles is taken as basic information. It may be supplementary information for the unlocking operation (see Table 2).

  The management device 56 preferably has a function of displaying each piece of information as described above. However, the above table is only an example. It is only necessary to display the history of each information, and the display method can be changed as appropriate.

  The communication line 60 includes signals and information between the locking means 24 and the control unit 30, between the control unit 30 and the management unit 50, between each device inside the control unit 30, and between each device inside the management unit 50. Is a means for transmitting. The illustrated communication line 60 is wired, but may be a wireless system.

  FIG. 7 shows the wiring of the portion of the communication line 60 that passes through the locker body 2. Reference numeral 62 denotes a connection terminal for connection to a line on the management device 56 side, and a cable extending from the connection terminal 62 penetrates a part of the casing 3 and accommodates equipment along the vertical plate portion 4 in the illustrated example. The control device 40 of the chamber 10 is reached. Cables are also wired between the control device 40 and the article sensor 34 or between the control device 40 and the locking means 24, respectively.

  According to the above configuration, the fact that the door 18 is unlocked and the article is taken out from the detection area A, or the article is brought (returned) into the detection area A and locked is recorded so that the operator can be specified. Therefore, when an article is lost or taken out for a long time, it is possible to easily identify a person who has taken it out.

  As a means for user authentication, for example, the authentication card of Patent Document 5 cannot be used, but there is a possibility that the card may be lost or temporarily illegally used by another person. By adopting biometric authentication, the accuracy of management by a combination of authenticated user information and article entry / exit information is improved.

  The system of the present invention is not merely a combination of a biometric authentication function and a function for confirming the entry / exit of an article by a sensor. The focus is on management. Furthermore, by dividing the inside of one article storage into a plurality of detection areas, it is possible to reduce the inconvenience that a plurality of articles stored in the article storage are not noticed for a long time.

  Hereinafter, other embodiments of the present invention will be described. In these descriptions, the description of the same configuration as that of the first embodiment is omitted.

  FIG. 9 shows a main part of a locker system according to the second embodiment of the present invention. In the present embodiment, the article sensor 34 is changed from the pressure-sensitive sensor of the first embodiment to a weight sensor, and changes in the load of the article are recorded together with the history.

  An article mounting table 38 is attached to the tip of the input protrusion 36 of the article sensor 34. In the present embodiment, the upper surface of the article mounting table is the detection area A.

  The management information recording in this embodiment is schematically shown in Table 3 below. By comparing the weight when the operator X takes out the article with the weight when the operator X returns the article, the amount of the consumed article can be determined.

By keeping the weight of the article in record, the following advantages arise.
(A) It is possible to accurately grasp the tendency of the consumption status of an article. For example, it is easy to replenish the article without excess or deficiency.
(B) Since it is possible to trace who consumed how much, over a certain period of time, it is possible to encourage the user to save consumption of goods.
(C) For example, when managing multiple books or documents in a case, when the weight changes between taking out and bringing in, some of the taken out documents are lost (or extra The document may be confused.

[Example 1]
(1) The locker body 2 of the present invention has an article storage B that can be locked by a locking means, and may be, for example, a furniture such as a cabinet or a bag, or a unit integrated with a building facility. .
(2) The control device 40 of this system is a plurality of control computers that control the unlocking of an appropriate number (including one) of the article storage boxes B, and the management device 56 is linked to the plurality of control computers. Thus, a single management computer that exhibits various functions (including server functions) can be obtained.
(3) That is, master data (database and biometric authentication data) necessary for the unlocking operation by the control device 40 can be created by the management device 56 and transmitted to each control device 40 by a master data distribution process.
(4) With this function, each control device 40 can operate even when the management device is not operating.

[Example 2]
(1) The management device 56 can manage a plurality of locker bodies (library, valuable storage, changing room locker, etc.) having different uses. For example, the title of the screen representing the operation history as shown in Tables 1 to 3 ("Bookstore", "medicine store", etc.) can be displayed and changed.
(2) The management device 56 is a function for at least a system administrator to register a user, a function for registering information on a locker body, a function for monitoring the status of each article storage B, and the unlocking of each article storage B・ Has a function to monitor the history of locking and bringing in / out items. It is assumed that the management device 56 can set how many functions can be used for each administrator.

[Example 3]
(1) The number of users who can perform the unlocking operation on each control device 40 may be one or more.
(2) In the authentication operation by the control device 40, password input may be requested in addition to biometric authentication. After the user performs the biometric authentication procedure and the password input, the control device 40 can perform an unlock display or an error display on the display board 44.

2 ... Locker body 3 ... Casing 4 ... Vertical plate 6 ... Horizontal plate
6a ... Lower plate portion 6b ... Upper plate portion 7 ... Through hole 8 ... Back plate portion 10 ... Equipment storage chamber 12 ... Article storage chamber 14 ... Engagement portion 16, 18 ... Door 17A ... Mounting recess 17B ... Mounting hole 20 ... Pivot Attached shaft 24 ... Locking means 24a ... Engagement part 24b ... Engaged part 28 ... Controller mechanism 30 ... Control part 32 ... First biometric authentication sensor 34 ... Article sensor 36 ... Input protrusion 38 ... Article placement table 40 ... Control Device 42 ... Operation panel 43 ... Button 44 ... Display panel 46 ... IO device 50 ... Management unit 52 ... Second biometric authentication sensor 54 ... Display means 56 ... Management device 58 ... Storage means 60 ... Communication line 62 ... Connection terminal A ... Detection area B ... Goods storage C ... Goods storage

Claims (5)

A locker body (2) provided with a door (18) at the opening of the article storage chamber (12) and provided with locking means (24) for locking the door;
The control unit (30) that reads the biological information of the person who performs the unlocking operation of the door (18) and sends an unlocking signal to the locking means 24 in response to the unlocking operation only when authentication is established by comparing with the authentication information. And a controller mechanism (28) formed to store the lock / unlock history and unlocker identification information of the door (18) formed by the control unit in the management unit (50) over time. ,
The control unit (30) further detects an article sensor that can detect the bringing-in of an article into the detection area (A) in the article storage chamber (12) and the taking-out of the article from the detection area (A) ( 34)
The management unit (50) can know at least the order of the occurrence of each event of the door locking, unlocking, article bringing and article taking events transmitted by the control unit (30). A locker system with a user authentication function, characterized by having a function of storing.   The user authentication according to claim 1, wherein the controller mechanism (28) stores a time when the article is taken out and a time when the article is brought in, or a time when the door is locked and a time when the door is unlocked. Locker system with function. The detection area (A) is a placement surface for placing an article,
The article sensor (34) has an amount of information indicating that the article is on the detection area, such as the position and load of the article placed in the detection area (A), and at least the door is unlocked. It is characterized in that it is continuously measured in a state where it is present, and it is formed so as to detect the bringing-in of the article into the detection area (A) and the taking-out of the article from the detection area (A) by the change in the amount of information. The locker system with a user authentication function according to claim 2.   4. The locker system with a user authentication function according to claim 3, wherein the article sensor (34) has a function of detecting a load pressure of an article placed in the detection area (A).   The article sensor (34) has a function of measuring the load of the article, and changes in the load are stored in the controller mechanism 28 together with the opening / closing of the door (18) and the recording of the taking-in and taking-out of the article. The locker system with a user authentication function of Claim 4 characterized by the above-mentioned.