JP2017083928A - Billing system of pay electric apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a billing system of a pay electric apparatus that improves a disadvantage of a billing system using a valuable card, reduces initial investment costs, and can improve operation costs.SOLUTION: An electric apparatus control board 3 of a television set 7 contains therein a microcomputer (not shown) made up of an IC chip such as a memory and a CPU for operating a system application to perform timer control. The microcomputer takes out a command from the built-in memory to perform calculation, transmits a signal to the television set 7, an electric apparatus, via an interface circuit, and performs reading and calculation processing of individual recognition information data and a valuable data frequency stored in a USB memory 10, i.e. an external storage medium connected to a USB slot 5.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 2

Description

  The present invention relates to a billing system used when various types of electric equipment such as televisions, videos, and refrigerators installed in hospitals and hotels are used for a fee.

  Conventionally, in hospitals, etc., as a technology for paying charges for viewing electric equipment installed in hospital rooms by inpatients, such as televisions, billing systems that use valuable card-type timers such as magnetic cards and IC cards, and the center of networks A server-based billing system is used.

  As a value card charging method such as a magnetic card, for example, an addition / subtraction reader / writer device including a storage device for storing settlement data, an output interface for outputting the stored settlement data, and an output interface A payment amount is updated for a postpaid card and a prepaid card that can store total payment amount data and personal identification data, and includes a management computer having an input interface for inputting the output settlement data and a display device. Charging system (see Patent Document 1).

  When an IC card that records the viewable frequency and the like is inserted into the card insertion / ejection slot, the viewable frequency is read by the reader / writer unit, and the control unit controls the television so that it can be used. An IC card timer device with a built-in electric device in which the TV is controlled so as not to be viewed when the time is measured and the viewable frequency of the IC card is subtracted and the viewable frequency disappears (see Patent Document 2).

  On the other hand, a billing system using a network is connected to a private network, holds a connection account of an end user entering the private network as personal authentication information, and performs billing processing. A content server that holds an applet, a mobile phone that enters a private network, authenticates to the billing server, and performs billing processing. The billing applet that is connected to the mobile phone in a separable manner with a dedicated cable and that is downloaded to the content server when content is requested After confirming the connection account on the mobile phone, the billing server performs billing processing. If the content server confirms billing processing, the PC (pa Coarsely braided computer) and Internet billing systems with (e.g., see.), Etc. Patent Document 3 have been proposed.

JP 2012-221017 A JP 2000-315281 A JP 2006-190038 A

  Certainly, a billing system using a valuable card such as a magnetic card has the merit that it can be easily introduced with less restrictions on the installation location of the operating device. However, the magnetic card timer as an initial investment cost and the maintenance cost of the magnetic card and the magnetic card timer as the operation cost are disadvantageous.

In addition, the billing system using the central server of the network has the disadvantage that the investment cost for maintaining the initial installation environment is high, but has the advantage that the operation cost is low. For this reason, the magnetic card system is mainly used in hospitals and the like using existing buildings, and the server system is increasing in hotels and the like because the communication environment can be improved at the time of building the building.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a charging system for a charged electrical device that can improve the shortcomings of the current charging method using valuable cards, reduce the initial investment cost, and improve the operating cost.

  Therefore, according to the present invention, in a charging system for pay electrical equipment, a USB is used as a storage medium for storing a charging system application including charging information for individual authentication information, charging information including at least an available time or charging value, and charging time for a subtraction time or subtraction amount. The first feature is to use a memory. The second feature is that the individual authentication information and the billing information are encrypted. Furthermore, the paying electrical device is a TV, and a USB memory is connected to the USB slot of the TV, so that the billing application is installed in the built-in memory of the TV and can be set for billing on the TV screen. The third feature is that the available remaining time or the billing value balance can be displayed on the liquid crystal display unit provided in. Furthermore, the fourth feature is that the charged electrical device is operated based on the billing information stored in the USB memory by the application installed from the USB memory. In addition, a fifth feature is that the TV and the refrigerator are electrically connected by wire or wirelessly, and the refrigerator can be operated based on the billing information stored in the USB memory. A sixth feature is that a charging application including charging settings and charging information are stored in separate USB memories. Furthermore, a seventh feature is that a charging information charging device for writing purchased charging information in the USB memory is provided.

  Here, it is widely performed to add a new function to an electronic device by connecting the USB connection device to the electronic device having the USB slot. A USB memory is well known as a USB connection device. A USB memory is excellent in portability due to its small size, has a high data read / write speed, and is rapidly spreading due to an increase in capacity. In the present invention, this USB memory is used as a valuable data storage medium.

With the above configuration, the present invention has the following excellent effects.
(1) Compared with a system using a valuable card such as a conventional magnetic card, a dedicated magnetic card timer is not required, so the initial investment can be reduced and a dedicated memory is used. Maintenance costs are not incurred. This can also be reduced because the magnetic card occupying the largest proportion of the operating cost is not necessary.

It is a block diagram which shows the apparatus outline | summary of the charging system which concerns on this invention. 1 is a block diagram of a charging system according to the present invention. It is a flowchart which shows the adjustment process of the charging system which concerns on this invention.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described based on examples shown in the drawings.

  As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, a television 7 having a power supply 2 connected to a commercial power supply by a power outlet 1, and a refrigerator 8 having a power supply 2 similarly connected to a commercial power supply by the power outlet 1. The electric device control boards 3 can be electrically connected to each other by wire or wireless using the signal cable 9.

  The electrical device control board 3 of the television 7 is provided with a USB slot 5 and a microcomputer (not shown) including an IC chip such as a memory and a CPU for operating a system application for performing timer control. Instructions are fetched from the built-in memory, computation is performed, and signals are transmitted to the television 7 which is an electrical device through an interface circuit, and at the same time, individual recognition information stored in the USB memory 10 which is an external storage medium connected to the USB slot 5 Data and valuable data frequencies are read and calculated.

  The electric device control board 3 of the television 7 performs arithmetic processing on the valuable data frequency read by the microcomputer to the time frequency, rewrites the data by addition / subtraction, and also determines the presence / absence of the USB memory 10, the availability of the individual information, and the usage frequency. It has a determination means for confirming the presence / absence, and the determination means allows the television 7 to be viewed only when it can be used, and subtraction or addition of valuable data frequency is performed according to the use time. In other words, the billing system application has a judgment means that can confirm the presence / absence of the USB memory 10 or the presence / absence of the usage frequency, and activates the TV function only when it is available, sends a timer signal when it is activated, and sets the usage time. In response, it functions as a timer that calculates in the built-in memory.

  A USB memory 10 as a valuable data storage medium used in this embodiment includes a rectangular parallelepiped housing, a USB connector 10b protruding from the housing, a liquid crystal display device 10a provided on the upper surface of the housing, and a built-in housing. It consists of flash memory. The USB connector 10b is composed of a metal cylinder formed in a square cylinder shape and a terminal board on which USB terminals are arranged. The flash memory is an electronic component built in the housing of the USB memory 10 and is a storage element that can electrically rewrite data.

  Normally, the USB memory 10 can be used as an auxiliary storage device of a PC by inserting a USB connector 9b into a USB slot 5 provided in a PC (personal computer) or the like. Many TVs 6 in recent years are equipped with a USB slot 5 in order to be connected to an external storage device such as a recording hard disk.

  The USB slot 5 has a slot-side terminal board inside. When the USB connector 10b is inserted into the USB slot 5 of the television 7, the USB terminal is electrically connected to the terminal on the slot side terminal board. Thereby, it becomes possible to access the flash memory in the USB memory 10 from the television 7 side, and it is possible to read and write data stored in the flash memory.

  The liquid crystal display unit 10a of the USB memory 10 displays the billing information stored in the flash memory as a multi-digit number, and counts up and down each time the billing information increases or decreases. That is, the USB memory 10 has a control circuit that performs display control of the liquid crystal display unit 10a and a storage area that stores billing information.

  That is, there is an area for storing charging information in the storage area of the flash memory, and the control circuit of the USB memory 10 reads the charging value data from the storage area of the charging information in the flash memory and stores it in the liquid crystal display unit 10a. Display. Thus, when the USB memory 10 is inserted into the USB slot 5, the remaining usable time or billing balance data at the previous use time is displayed on the liquid crystal display unit 10a.

  That is, when the USB memory 10 is inserted into the USB slot 5 of the television 7, control is performed to update the charging value data stored in the flash memory to a value obtained by subtraction or addition. As a result, the remaining balance or billing amount due to the use of the valuable data on the television 7 is displayed. That is, when the television 7 is turned on and viewing is started, the billing balance displayed on the liquid crystal display unit 10a is gradually updated. For example, immediately after the USB memory 10 is inserted into the USB slot 5, if the number of balances displayed on the liquid crystal display unit 10 a is “1000”, this number is subtracted from “900” or “ The display is added to “1100”. In this embodiment, billing information such as balance display and viewable time can be displayed on the display 4 of the television 7 at the same time.

  The USB memory 10 stores an individual authentication number and a billing system application in addition to the billing information. These pieces of information are preferably encrypted. For example, in the accounting system application, in addition to the authentication command and the authentication data including the encryption that can be executed only when the authentication command is successful, the charge amount is subtracted from the balance amount of the valuable data only when the authentication data is successfully authenticated. Or, an encryption decryption command to be added is implemented.

  As shown in the flowchart of FIG. 3, when a valid USB memory 10 is connected to the USB slot 5 of the television 7 (step S1), the processing shown in the flowchart is sequentially performed to turn on the power of the television 6 (step S2). ) The billing system application installed from the USB memory 10 in the built-in memory of the television 7 is activated (step S3). At the same time, the power source of the refrigerator 7 is turned on and electric power is supplied from the commercial power source (step S10). At the same time, when it is detected that the refrigerator 8 is turned on (step S4), power is supplied to the television 7 (step S5). Next, processing is performed in the built-in memory of the television 7, and calculation processing and frequency adjustment processing of frequency subtraction or addition are performed according to the usage time (step S6). That is, the valuable frequency data stored in the USB memory 10 is processed in time units, and the valuable frequency data is rewritten. When the USB memory 10 is removed from the USB slot 5 of the television 7, the power of the television 7 is turned off (step S7). At the same time, the power supply to both electric devices is stopped, and calculation processing of value data and frequency subtraction or addition are performed. The settlement process is stopped (step S8), and the power is cut off (step S9).

  Note that the unit time for the number of valuables may be set automatically by loading the system condition setting application installed in the USB memory 10 into the built-in memory of the television 7, and the system setting condition is as follows. In the case of the prepayment method, it is subtracted, and when the remaining number is exhausted, it is disabled, or in the case of the prepayment method, the addition method is used, and a dedicated valuable data charger 11 is used. Read the usage frequency and settle it. Then, the valuable data stored in the USB memory 10 is digitized and displayed on the liquid crystal display unit 10 a of the USB memory 10 and the display 4 of the television 7. The display position on the display 4 is arbitrary. The billing unit price and the like are set using a terminal such as a PC on the administrator side.

  That is, by inserting the USB memory 10 into the USB slot 5 of the television 7, the billing application is installed in the built-in memory of the television 7 and the billing information can be viewed on the screen of the television 7. At the same time, the refrigerator 8 can be operated based on the billing information stored in the USB memory 10. In other words, as described above, since both the television 7 and the refrigerator 8 are electrically connected to each other by the wired or wireless connection using the signal cable 9 between the electrical device control boards 3, the USB memory 10 is connected to the television. When the USB memory 10 is inserted into the USB slot 5, the power is turned on. When the USB memory 10 is removed from the USB slot 5, the power is turned off.

  The gist of the present invention is that an existing USB slot of an electronic device is used, and a USB memory that can be connected to the USB slot is used as a valuable data storage medium, thereby eliminating the need for a magnetic card or an IC card. Therefore, the design can be freely changed without departing from the gist of the present invention. For example, the charging application and charging information may be stored in separate USB memories. In addition, by installing a timer function in the USB memory itself, it may be possible to provide a function for merely turning on / off the power supply of the electric device without installing the billing application on the electric device side.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Commercial power outlet 2 Power supply device 3 Electric equipment control board 4 Display (TV screen)
5 USB slot 6 Cooling mechanism 7 Television 8 Refrigerator 9 Signal cable 10 USB memory 10a Liquid crystal display 10b USB connector 11 Valuable data charger

Claims (7)

In a charging system for a charged electric device, a USB memory is used as a storage medium for storing individual authentication information, charging information including at least an available time or charging value, and a charging system application including a subtraction time or subtraction amount Billing system. 2. The charging system according to claim 1, wherein the individual authentication information and the charging information are encrypted. The chargeable electrical device is a TV, and by connecting the USB memory to the TV's USB slot, the billing application is installed in the TV's built-in memory and can be set for billing on the TV screen. 4. The charging system according to claim 1, wherein the remaining available time or the charging value balance can be displayed on the liquid crystal display unit. The charging system according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the charged electrical device is operated based on the charging information stored in the USB memory by an application installed from the USB memory. The charging system according to claim 3 or 4, wherein the TV and the refrigerator are electrically connected by wire or wirelessly, and the operation of the refrigerator is enabled by the charging information stored in the USB memory. 6. The charging system according to claim 1, wherein a charging application including charging settings and charging information are stored in separate USB memories. The charging system according to any one of claims 1 to 6, further comprising a charging information charging device for writing the purchased charging information in the USB memory.

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