JP2021026699A - Commodity and service providing apparatus with interactive function - Google Patents

Abstract

To provide a commodity and service providing apparatus with an interactive function, allowing presented information to be browsed on a portable terminal owned by a user and capable of providing information with high convenience.SOLUTION: An automatic dispenser 100 with an interactive function as a commodity/service providing apparatus includes: an information acquisition unit 110 that, when information for being browsed by a user is required, acquires the required information; an image encoding unit 111 that encodes the acquired information into an image; and an information providing unit 112 that causes a display unit to display the image obtained by encoding the information, and outputs voice prompting the displayed image to be imaged by a portable terminal owned by the user.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 2

Description

The present invention is an interactive function that allows a user to browse information presented by various devices that provide products and services to unspecified persons, such as vending machines and information providing devices, on a mobile terminal possessed by the user. Related products / services provided equipment.

Patent documents, for example, as inventions that provide various devices such as vending machines and information providing devices that provide predetermined products or services to arbitrary users with large displays and interactive functions to present interactive guidance and advertisements. The invention relating to 1 vending machine is known.

JP-A-2017-68370

Since the above-mentioned various devices such as vending machines and information providing devices can be installed in various places regardless of the installation location such as downtown areas and residential areas, it is required to make these various devices multifunctional and highly functional. There is demand.

However, since the vending machine described in Patent Document 1 is a stationary machine, for example, when the vending machine is provided with a road guidance function, even if the vending machine presents a necessary map or the like to the user. However, there is a problem that if the vending machine is left, the presented map cannot be reviewed.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and a user possesses information presented by various devices that provide goods and services to any user, such as vending machines and information providing devices. The point is to provide products and service providing equipment with an interactive function that can be viewed on a terminal and can provide highly convenient information.

In order to solve such a problem, the product / service providing device with an interactive function according to the invention of claim 1 is a product / service providing device that provides a predetermined product or service to an arbitrary user, and asks the user. A product / service providing device with an interactive function having an interactive function that outputs audio and / or video in response to the user, and the user browses the product / service providing device with the interactive function from the user. When the information for the purpose is requested, the information acquisition unit that acquires the requested information, the image coding unit that encodes the acquired information into an image, and the image that encodes the information are displayed on the display unit. It is characterized by including an information providing unit that outputs a sound prompting the user to take a picture of the image displayed on the display unit with the portable terminal possessed by the user.

The invention according to claim 2 is characterized in that, in the configuration according to claim 1, the information acquired by the information acquisition unit is map information.

In the invention of claim 3, in the configuration of claim 2, the map information is an image of a map showing a route from a place where the product / service providing device with an interactive function is installed to the destination of the user. It is characterized by being information.
The invention of claim 4 is characterized in that, in the configuration according to any one of claims 1 to 3, the information acquired by the information acquisition unit is a campaign code that can be exchanged for a predetermined prize. ..

The invention of claim 5 is the configuration according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the information acquired by the information acquisition unit is used for disaster prevention in an area where the product / service providing device with an interactive function is installed. It is characterized by being information.

The invention of claim 6 is the configuration according to any one of claims 1 to 5, when the request for the information from the user acquired by the information acquisition unit is voice information. A language determination unit for determining the type of language of information is provided, and the information providing unit is characterized in that the information is provided in the language determined by the language determination unit.

According to the configuration of the present invention, the information requested to be viewed by the user is acquired by the information acquisition unit, encoded into an image by the image coding unit, and displayed on the display unit by the information providing unit. With this configuration, the displayed information can be photographed by the user with the mobile terminal owned by the user, so that the information presented by the product / service providing device with the interactive function can be viewed on the mobile terminal possessed by the user. It is possible to provide highly convenient information.

It is a front view which shows typically the appearance of the vending machine with an interactive function which concerns on embodiment. It is a block diagram which conceptually shows the structure of the whole vending machine with an interactive function which concerns on embodiment. It is a flow diagram which conceptually shows the flow of information coding in the vending machine with an interactive function which concerns on embodiment. It is a figure which shows typically the information presentation screen in the vending machine with an interactive function which concerns on embodiment.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a front view schematically showing the appearance of the vending machine 100 with an interactive function as the “product / service providing device with an interactive function” according to the embodiment of the present invention.

The "product / service providing device with an interactive function" of this embodiment is a device for providing a product or service to an arbitrary person, and is installed in a place where an unspecified person comes and goes, and the unspecified person. It is a device that automatically provides a specific product or service to any user in the person. What the "product / service providing device with an interactive function" provides to the user may be only a specific product or a specific service, or may be both a specific product and a specific service.

"Product / service providing equipment with interactive function" is a user's operation by pressing an operation button, touching a touch panel, or inputting voice to a microphone, or a user's face or facial expression photographed by a photographing device such as a CCD camera. The predetermined products and services are automatically provided by using the analysis results of the movements and movements of the lips and lips.

The "product / service providing device with an interactive function" of this embodiment includes image information obtained by photographing the user's face and figure, voice information spoken by the user, contact with the user's keyboard, and operation buttons. By acquiring press operation and keyboard operation information, analyzing the acquired information, and presenting the response information to the user by displaying images and characters, outputting voice, etc., the product desired by the user and Provide services automatically. The "product / service providing device with an interactive function" has a mechanical configuration, an electrical configuration, and an information processing configuration for providing the product or service in such a manner (details will be described later).

The "product / service providing device with an interactive function" of this embodiment provides a product or service to a user by using a so-called interactive service. Specifically, the "product / service providing device with an interactive function" displays characters and images on the display unit 102, and outputs voice from the voice output unit 106 to ask the user a question or prompt the user to input information. The procedure of the user and the user's operation (for example, the user's contact with the touch panel of the "various devices") with respect to the predetermined operation means (not shown) provided in the "product / service providing device with interactive function". By performing the operation of pressing the operation buttons of "various devices", the input operation of the keyboard of "various devices"), and the procedure of acquiring and analyzing the voice information spoken by the user once or multiple times, respectively. Providing products and services desired by users.

The "product / service providing device with an interactive function" of this embodiment is provided with so-called artificial intelligence (AI). The "product / service providing device with an interactive function" is configured to be able to provide a predetermined product or service by providing an interactive service to the user.

Specifically, for example, a "product / service providing device with an interactive function" uses various machine learning methods such as deep learning, and uses data given in advance as so-called teacher data (for example, predetermined input data and predetermined data). It is recorded as correct answer data), and a predetermined training procedure based on this teacher data (for example, the computer is repeatedly made to learn that the predetermined correct answer data is the correct answer for the predetermined input data, and the computer is used. Is a procedure to set a state in which the correct answer can be output even for unknown input data.) By "supervised learning" or a predetermined training procedure without so-called teacher data, the computer can output unknown input data. However, it is configured to provide interactive services to users and provide predetermined products and services by "non-supervised learning" of the training procedure that enables the output of correct answers.

The "product / service providing device with an interactive function" has a configuration for providing a predetermined product or service by performing an interactive service as a device for providing various information to the user of the vending machine 100 with an interactive function. Also used to make it work.

For example, "various devices" contains information for guiding a person from one specific place to another based on a user's question by the above-mentioned "supervised learning" or "unsupervised learning". Is set, and a guidance procedure is set to provide the acquired information to the user. This setting is performed, for example, for the configuration of at least one of the dialogue unit 109, the information acquisition unit 110, and the information providing unit 112, which will be described later.

In addition, for example, "various devices" include specific products and products based on the purchase information of specific products and purchase information of specific services by the above-mentioned "supervised learning" and "unsupervised learning". A procedure is set for acquiring information on a specific prize associated with a specific service and providing the acquired information to the user. This setting is performed, for example, for the configuration of at least one of the dialogue unit 109, the information acquisition unit 110, and the information providing unit 112, which will be described later.

In addition, for example, in "various devices", information for guiding a user (victim) to a specific evacuation center when a specific disaster occurs is acquired, and the acquired information is transmitted to the user (victim). Acquire information necessary for maintaining the life of the user (victim) according to the evacuation guidance procedure to be provided, the passage of time after the disaster occurs, and changes in the situation, and provide the acquired information to the user (victim). Procedures for providing emergency information, etc. are set. This setting is performed, for example, for the configuration of at least one of the dialogue unit 109, the information acquisition unit 110, and the information providing unit 112, which will be described later.

Further, for example, "various devices" are the types of languages spoken by the user based on the characteristics of the speaker's utterance included in the voice information acquired by the above-mentioned "supervised learning" and "unsupervised learning". Is set so that it can be identified. This setting is mainly performed by the language determination unit 113, which will be described later.

The "product / service providing device with interactive function" of this embodiment is, for example, a vending machine for providing food and drink, daily necessities, etc., a ticket vending machine for selling various tickets and tickets, and a user. Automatic information service providing equipment for providing directions to desired destinations and introducing facilities, products and services that meet the user's desired conditions, copy machines and printing machines installed for unspecified users to use Equipment such as washing machines and dryers can be considered.

The places where unspecified people come and go where the "product / service providing equipment with interactive function" of this embodiment is installed are, for example, downtown areas, residential areas, parks, railway station premises and open spaces around stations. , Airports and harbors and surrounding open spaces, shops and department stores, shops, movie theaters and museums, various theme parks and amusement parks, and amusement facilities such as game centers Around public facilities such as public halls and concert halls, around the site, on public roads and private roads and around roads, parking areas on highways, drive-ins along public roads, along public roads including so-called "roadside stations" Commercial facilities, rest facilities, etc. can be considered.

Hereinafter, in this embodiment, for the sake of simplicity, it is assumed that the “product / service providing device with an interactive function” is the vending machine 100, but as described above, the “with interactive function” of this embodiment is used. Needless to say, "product / service providing equipment" is not limited to this vending machine 100.
As shown in FIG. 1, the vending machine 100 with an interactive function of this embodiment has, as an appearance, a display unit 102, a charge input unit 103, and a charge input unit 103 on the front side of a substantially rectangular housing 101 in front view. A product extraction unit 104, a photographing unit 105, an audio output unit 106, and an audio input unit 107 are provided.

The display unit 102 is a so-called "display means", and is a display device provided on the front side of the vending machine 100 with an interactive function. In the present embodiment, the display unit 102 displays an image (various types of information recognized by human vision, including at least one of a still image, a moving image, characters, figures, and the like). As a result, the product sold by the vending machine 100 with an interactive function is guided, and various information is presented by the interactive function described later. The display unit 102 is provided with a touch panel function that detects contact with a user's finger or the like and acquires various operation information of the user such as product selection, so that the display unit 102 can be used as an "operation means" in addition to the "display means". It may also have a function.

The charge input unit 103 is a physical or electrical configuration for inputting a charge when a user purchases a product or service from the vending machine 100 with an interactive function. That is, the charge input unit 103 may have a physical configuration in which a real currency such as money or banknotes is input, or is electronic for paying a charge using well-known electronic money or an IC ticket. It may be a contact type or non-contact type information detection means and / or information input / output means for money or an IC ticket.

The product take-out unit 104 is an opening for taking out the purchased product when the user purchases the product from the vending machine 100 with an interactive function.

The photographing unit 105 is a camera device such as a CCD camera provided on the upper side of the display unit 102 of the vending machine 100 with an interactive function. The photographing unit 105 captures an image of the front or the periphery of the vending machine 100 with an interactive function. The image captured by the photographing unit 105 may be a still image or a moving image.

The audio output unit 106 is a pair of speaker devices provided on both the left and right sides of the above-mentioned photographing unit 105, and outputs audio to the outside of the vending machine 100 with an interactive function.

The voice input unit 107 is a microphone provided in the vicinity of the charge input unit 103, and acquires the voice spoken by the user of the vending machine 100 with an interactive function.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram conceptually showing the overall configuration of the vending machine 100 with an interactive function. As shown in FIG. 2, the vending machine 100 with an interactive function has a display unit 102, a charge input unit 103, a product take-out unit 104, a shooting unit 105, a voice output unit 106, and a voice input unit 107, which are visually recognizable in appearance. In addition to the control unit 108, the control unit 108 includes a dialogue unit 109, an information acquisition unit 110, an image coding unit 111, an information providing unit 112, and a language determination unit 113.

The control unit 108 controls the hardware device of the vending machine 100 with an interactive function to exert a function of providing a predetermined product or service to an arbitrary user. The control unit 108 in the present embodiment is an embedded computer installed inside the housing 101 of the vending machine 100 with an interactive function. In the present embodiment, the computer is executed by reading the program recorded in the secondary storage device of the computer incorporated in the vending machine 100 with an interactive function, loading it into the memory, and executing it by the CPU (central processing unit). It functions as a control unit 108.

The dialogue unit 109 provides a dialogue function with the user. Specifically, the dialogue unit 109 takes a picture of the user with the photographing unit 105, and the voice such as the user asking the vending machine 100 with the dialogue function is input from the voice input unit 107, and the content of the question and the contents of the question are input. It analyzes changes in the user's posture and facial expression, and outputs a response to the display unit 102 and the voice output unit 106 using a machine-learned dialogue model.

The information acquisition unit 110 acquires the information when it is determined that the user desires to view arbitrary information in the dialogue with the user by the dialogue unit 109 described above. In the present embodiment, the vending machine 100 with an interactive function is connected to a wide area network 200 described later, and information is acquired by using a predetermined search service via the wide area network 200.

The information acquired by the information acquisition unit 110 may be any information. Specifically, for example, the information shown in the following (information 1) to (information 4) can be considered. However, the following (information 1) to (information 4) are examples, and the information acquired by the information acquisition unit 110 may be any information other than these.
(Information 1)
Map information showing the route from the place where the vending machine 100 with an interactive function is installed to the destination where the user moves.
(Information 2)
A campaign code that can be exchanged for a given prize by presenting it to a clerk at a specific store (not shown) or by having it read by a code reader (not shown) installed in the store (not shown).
(Information 3)
In the event of a disaster, etc., the area where the vending machine 100 with an interactive function is installed (a narrow area such as a specific address or a specific area, or a wide area such as a municipality, prefecture, or country) such as an evacuation route or an evacuation shelter location .) Disaster prevention information.
(Information 4)
Information obtained by translating / converting the above (information 1) to (information 3) information into a language determined by the language determination unit 113, which will be described later, or a language selected by a language type selection button (not shown).

The image coding unit 111 encodes the information acquired by the information acquisition unit 110 described above into an image. A well-known coding method may be used as the coding method for encoding the information into an image, but as will be described later, since the information encoded in the image is compounded and viewed on the mobile terminal owned by the user, QR It is desirable to use a widely used coding method such as a code (registered trademark). The mobile terminal possessed by the user may be a portable computer such as a smartphone or tablet PC, or may be a mobile phone that can be connected to the wide area network 200 described later. Further, in this embodiment, the image coding unit 111 encodes the information acquired by the information acquisition unit 110 into an image of a two-dimensional code, but the present invention is not limited to this, and a one-dimensional code such as a barcode is used. May be encoded in. Further, the image coding unit 111 is not limited to the two-dimensional code and the one-dimensional code, and can acquire information if it is a code, various image information, or various voice information that the user can acquire with a mobile terminal and utilize the original information. The information acquired by the unit 110 may be converted into any information.

The information providing unit 112 presents the information encoded in the image by the image coding unit 111 described above to the user. Specifically, the information encoded in the image is displayed on the display unit 102, and the voice output unit 106 outputs a voice prompting the user to take a picture of the displayed image with a mobile terminal possessed by the user.

The language determination unit 113 analyzes the voice emitted by the user when the user requests information by voice in the dialogue with the user by the dialogue unit 109 described above, and the user Determine the language to use. The determined language is used when the information providing unit 112 described above provides information to the user. Specifically, for example, the language determination unit 113 analyzes information such as the phonological feature information of the acquired user's uttered voice and the words used, and which language is the language spoken by the user (for example). It has a function to determine whether it corresponds to Japanese, English, French, Chinese (Mandarin), etc.).

In this embodiment, the language determination unit 113 is not provided, and a language type selection button (not shown) for selecting a language type is displayed on the screen of the top page of the display unit 102. Depending on the language selected by the user with the language type selection button (not shown), characters may be displayed, voice may be output, and the acquired spoken voice may be analyzed. When the language determination unit 113 has a function of determining the language type from the utterance of the user, a language type selection button for selecting the language type is displayed on the screen of the top page of the display unit 102 (FIG. (Not shown) need not be displayed. In addition, the language determination unit 113 is provided, and a language type selection button (not shown) is displayed on the screen of the top page of the display unit 102, and the user selects the language type selection button (not shown). The language type and the language type determined by the analysis of the language determination unit 113 may be selectively used in the subsequent processing.

In this embodiment, the vending machine 100 is connected to the wide area network 200. The wide area network 200 is a network such as the Internet, and any information service can be used via the wide area network 200.

In the present embodiment, the vending machine 100 searches and acquires the information by using the predetermined search server 300 via the wide area network 200 when the information acquisition unit 110 acquires the information.

The above is an outline of the entire vending machine 100 with an interactive function in the present embodiment.

Next, the flow of processing from information acquisition to provision of the vending machine 100 with an interactive function in the present embodiment will be described. FIG. 3 is a flow diagram conceptually showing the flow of processing from the acquisition of the information to the provision of the vending machine 100 with an interactive function.

As described above, the vending machine 100 with an interactive function in the present embodiment includes a control unit 108 using an embedded computer, and the flow chart shown in FIG. 2 is a secondary storage of the control unit 108. It is stored in the device as a program in advance. Each of the processes shown in FIG. 2 is executed by reading out the stored program, loading it into the memory of the control unit 108, and executing it by the CPU.

In the present embodiment, the photographing unit 105 of the vending machine 100 with an interactive function constantly photographs the front of the vending machine 100 with an interactive function, and a predetermined condition such that the user stands in front of the vending machine 100 When the condition is satisfied, the dialogue process by the dialogue unit 109 of the control unit 108 is started (see step S101). In the dialogue process according to step S101, the user is photographed by the photographing unit 105, the voice emitted by the user is input by the voice input unit 107, and the response is output to the display unit 102 and the voice output unit 106 by the above-mentioned dialogue model.

In the present embodiment, when the user requests information or the like by voice, the language determination unit 113 performs language determination (see step S102). After the language determination is performed, the response output by the dialogue unit 109 and the information provided by the information providing unit 112 are performed in the determined language.

When the information that the user wants to view is requested in the dialogue with the user by the dialogue unit 109, the information acquisition unit 110 acquires the information (step S103). As described above, in the present embodiment, the vending machine 100 with an interactive function is connected to the wide area network 200, and the information acquisition unit 110 accesses a predetermined search server via the wide area network 200 and is requested by the user. Search and obtain the information you have provided. The information to be acquired may be the information itself requested to be viewed by the user, or may be information indicating the position of the information in the wide area network 200.

After acquiring the information requested by the user, the image coding unit 111 of the vending machine 100 with an interactive function encodes the acquired information into an image (step S104). In the present embodiment, the information provided to the user by the vending machine 100 with an interactive function is the information acquired via the wide area network 200 described above, and can also be acquired from the user's form terminal via the wide area network 200. Possible information. Therefore, the image coding unit 111 encodes not the information itself but a URL (Unified Resource Locator) indicating the position of the information in the wide area network 200 into the image.

The information encoded in the image by the image coding unit 111 is displayed on the display unit 102 by the information providing unit 112 of the vending machine 100 with an interactive function (step S105). At this time, the information providing unit 112 outputs a voice prompting the user to take a picture of the displayed information with the mobile terminal possessed by the user from the voice output unit 106.

FIG. 4 shows a screen configuration when the information providing unit 112 of the vending machine 100 with an interactive function displays an image in which the information desired to be viewed by the user is encoded on the display unit 102 in the present embodiment. It is a figure which shows typically. As shown in FIG. 3, the display unit 102 has a character W101 that interacts with the user, an image W102 displayed on the left side of the character W101, and a sentence that urges the user to take a picture of the image W102 with the user's mobile terminal. W103 is displayed. The image W102 is an image in which the information is encoded by the image coding unit 111 described above.

As described above, in the present embodiment, the information acquired by the information acquisition unit 110 and encoded by the image coding unit 111 on the image indicates the position information of the destination, which indicates the position of the information in the wide area network 220. This is URL information for displaying a Web map (or a Web map to which location information of a destination or the like is added) for displaying an image or the like of the map. When the information obtained by encoding the information of the URL is photographed by the mobile terminal possessed by the user, the image is compounded with the information of the URL by the mobile terminal. When the mobile terminal accesses the URL destination site related to the compounded URL information, the form terminal displays information such as image information provided by the URL destination site. As a result, the user can browse the information presented by the information providing unit 112 even at a place away from the vending machine 100 with an interactive function.

The above is the processing flow of the vending machine 100 with an interactive function in the present embodiment.

In the present embodiment, when the vending machine 100 with an interactive function has a dialogue with the user, when the user requests to view the information, the information acquisition unit 110 acquires the information and the image coding unit. The information is encoded by 111 into an image, displayed by the information providing unit 112 on the display unit 102, and the voice output unit 106 outputs a voice prompting the user to take a picture of the displayed image with a mobile terminal possessed by the user. To do. With this configuration, the information to be viewed by the user or the information indicating the position of the information is encoded into an image, and the user requests the viewing by taking the image with a mobile terminal owned by the user. Information can be viewed from the mobile terminal owned by the user. The user requests the information desired to be viewed from the vending machine 100 with an interactive function, and after taking the encoded image, the user browses the information even if he / she is not in the vicinity of the vending machine 100 with an interactive function. can do.

Although the description of the present embodiment has been described above, the configuration of the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment. For example, in the present embodiment, the vending machine 100 with an interactive function is connected to the wide area network 200, and the information acquisition unit 110 is configured to acquire information using a predetermined search server via the wide area network 200. However, when the information to be presented is limited, the information acquisition unit 110 does not connect the vending machine 100 with an interactive function to the wide area network 200, and the information acquisition unit 110 stores the information in advance in the secondary storage device of the control unit 108. May be obtained.

Further, in the above embodiment, the information provided by the vending machine 100 with an interactive function can be viewed on the user's mobile terminal, but the present invention is not limited to this, and the information provided by the vending machine 100 with an interactive function is not limited to this. The information may be provided to the user by displaying characters or images on the display unit 102 of the vending machine 100 with an interactive function or by outputting voice from the voice output unit 106.

Further, in the above embodiment, the dialogue unit 109, the information acquisition unit 110, the information providing unit 112, and the language determination unit 113 of the vending machine 100 with an dialogue function perform processing using so-called artificial intelligence. A configuration other than the above configuration may perform processing using so-called artificial intelligence, and conversely, at least one of the above configurations may replace the processing using so-called artificial intelligence with a normal computer system. May be performed by.

Other specific configurations are not limited to the present embodiment, and various modifications can be made without departing from the spirit of the present invention.

100 Vending machines (equipment that provides products and services with interactive functions)
101 Housing 102 Display unit 103 Charge input unit 104 Product extraction unit 105 Shooting unit 106 Voice output unit 107 Voice input unit 108 Control unit 109 Dialogue unit 110 Information acquisition unit 111 Image coding unit 112 Information provision unit 113 Language determination unit

Claims (6)

A product / service providing device that provides a predetermined product or service to an arbitrary user and has an interactive function that outputs audio and / or video in response to a user's question. hand,
When the user requests information for viewing by the user from the product / service providing device with an interactive function, an information acquisition unit that acquires the requested information, and an information acquisition unit.
An image coding unit that encodes the acquired information into an image,
An information providing unit that displays an image in which the information is encoded is displayed on the display unit and outputs a voice prompting the user to take a picture of the image displayed on the display unit with a mobile terminal owned by the user.
A product / service providing device with an interactive function, which is characterized by being equipped with. The product / service providing device having an interactive function according to claim 1, wherein the information acquired by the information acquisition unit is map information. The dialogue function according to claim 2, wherein the map information is image information of a map showing a route from a place where the product / service providing device with an dialogue function is installed to the destination of the user. Equipment for providing products and services. The product / service providing device having an interactive function according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the information acquired by the information acquisition unit is a campaign code that can be exchanged for a predetermined prize. The dialogue according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the information acquired by the information acquisition unit is disaster prevention information in an area where the product / service providing device with an interactive function is installed. Equipment that provides products and services with functions. A language determination unit for determining the type of language of the voice information when the request for the information from the user acquired by the information acquisition unit is voice information is provided.
The product / service providing device having an interactive function according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the information providing unit provides the information in a language determined by the language determining unit.

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