JP2024046095A - Automatic ticket vending system - Google Patents

Abstract

[Problem] To provide an automatic ticket vending system that can reduce the burden on the ticket buyer even if there is a misrecognition when extracting the name of the departure or arrival station through voice recognition of the speech of the ticket buyer. [Solution] Voice data acquired by a handset 13 from the speech of the ticket buyer is sent from the automatic ticket vending machine 1 to an AI server 23, and the AI server 23 uses voice recognition to extract names that are highly likely to be the name of the departure or arrival station. If the station with the extracted name cannot be found in the station database 21a and the station name has been misrecognized, the AI server 23 refers to a station name conversion table 23a and corrects the estimated station name corresponding to the misrecognized name to the departure or arrival station and presents it to the ticket buyer, thereby reducing the burden on the ticket buyer that is required to correct the departure and arrival stations. [Selected Figure] Figure 2

Description

The present invention relates to an automated ticket vending system that sells tickets to people who wish to purchase tickets via a ticket vending machine.

Railroads and other passenger transport companies are promoting the automation and efficiency of ticket issuing at stations as an effort to deal with the decline in the working population due to the low birthrate and aging population, to reduce operating costs, and to improve the convenience of ticket purchasing. In this context, ticket vending machines that allow ticket buyers to speak to operators at remote call centers have been introduced to streamline the process at ticket counters. There is a high demand for such ticket vending machines, and as the number of installed machines increases, the number of users is also on the rise, which has led to problems with the workload caused by the increased number of calls to operators and the increased wait time for customers to be served. As a result, a ticket vending machine has been proposed that can assist ticket buyers in purchasing tickets without relying on an operator and without compromising the convenience of ticket buyers (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

The ticket vending machine described in Patent Document 1 converses with a person who wishes to purchase a ticket using synthesized speech, recognizes the voice of the person who wants to purchase a ticket, extracts the name of the destination station, facility name, etc. from the character data obtained, and then sends the ticket vending machine to the ticket vending machine. Since the ticket information is displayed on the screen, ticket section information and other information can be automatically entered without the need for ticket purchasers to directly operate the ticket vending machine.

JP2008-204351A

However, the ticket vending machine described in Patent Document 1 only displays on the display screen ticket buttons corresponding to station names (e.g., "Hakata" and "Hakata Minami") that contain a word (e.g., "Hakata") that matches the destination station recognized from the user's voice. In other words, the ticket vending machine described in Patent Document 1 is premised on the fact that correct information about the destination station has been acquired through voice recognition, and does not anticipate any measures to prevent inconvenience to ticket buyers in the event that there is a misrecognition of the character data obtained through voice recognition. If the correct station name is not displayed on the ticket vending machine due to a misrecognition of the character data, the ticket buyer must themselves correct the station name to the correct one, which is more annoying than purchasing a ticket with the assistance of an operator.

Additionally, if there is a station that has the same sound as the station name spoken by the ticket purchaser, there are many cases where the ticket vending machine's voice recognition cannot convert the name into appropriate character data. Therefore, if information can be presented that takes into consideration the existence of Douon Station, convenience for those who wish to purchase tickets can be improved.

In addition, if there are stations with different pronunciations but the same spelling, if the person buying a ticket mispronounces the station name, the voice recognition on the ticket machine will not be able to arrive at the correct answer. Therefore, if information can be presented that takes into account the existence of stations with the same spelling, convenience for people buying tickets can be increased.

Therefore, the present invention provides an automated system that can reduce the burden on ticket purchasers even if there is a misrecognition when extracting the name of the departure station or destination station by voice recognition of the utterances of the ticket purchaser. The purpose is to provide a ticket sales system.

In order to solve the above problems, the system includes a ticket vending machine installed at a ticket office that sells tickets, and a system center that centrally manages ticket sales by each ticket vending machine. An automatic ticket vending system that sells tickets to people who want to buy tickets, the machine recognizes the utterances of the person who wants to buy tickets from a communication means installed in the ticket vending machine and the voice captured through the communication means, and generates language text data. a station name extraction means for extracting at least a name with a high probability of being a station name of a departure station and/or a destination station by morphologically analyzing the linguistic text data obtained by the voice recognition means; and a station name determining means that refers to a station database to determine whether or not a station with a station name corresponding to the extracted name extracted as a station name by the station name extracting means exists; A station name conversion table that is made into a database by associating misrecognized names that may be recognized with estimated station names that are presumed to be the original station names, and the station name determination means determine that there is a station name that corresponds to the extracted name. station name correction means for correcting the estimated station name corresponding to the incorrectly converted name that is the same as the extracted name to the station name of the departure station and/or destination station by referring to the station name conversion table when it is determined that the station name conversion table is not correct; The present invention is characterized by comprising section presenting means for presenting a ticket section based on the station name determined by the station name determining means and/or the station name corrected by the station name correcting means to the ticket purchase applicant.

In the above configuration, the station name conversion table associates homophonic stations whose names are homophonic to the estimated station name and/or homophonic stations whose names are homophonic to the estimated station name with the estimated station name, and when the station name correction means corrects the extracted name to the estimated station name by referring to the station name conversion table, if there are homophonic stations and/or homophonic stations whose names are homophonic to the estimated station name, all of them are set as correction candidate stations, and the section presentation means may present all of the correction candidate stations received from the station name correction means so that the ticket purchaser can select from them.

In the above configuration, the station name conversion table associates station-specific information that can uniquely determine the same-sounding station and the station with the same notation corresponding to the estimated station name with the same-sounding station and the station with the same notation, and The station name extraction means has a function of extracting the station-specific information that can uniquely determine the correction candidate station by morphologically analyzing the linguistic text data; If the information has been extracted, if there is a station name among the correction candidate stations that can be uniquely determined from the station-specific information, the corresponding correction candidate station may be corrected to the station name of the departure station and/or destination station. good.

Furthermore, in the above configuration, the station name conversion table associates a station with the same sound as the actual station name in the station database and/or a station with the same notation as the actual station name, with the actual station name. and when the station name determining means determines that a station name corresponding to the extracted name exists, the station name correction means refers to the station name conversion table to determine the same-sounding station corresponding to the actual station name and/or It is determined whether or not there is a station with the same notation, and if there is a station with the same name and/or a station with the same notation that corresponds to the actual station name, all of them are set as correction candidate stations, and the section presenting means All the correction candidate stations received from the station name correction means may be presented to the ticket purchase applicant so that they can be selected.

In the above configuration, the station name conversion table associates the homonymous station and the homophonic station with station-specific information that can uniquely determine the homonymous station and the homophonic station that correspond to the real station name, the station name extraction means has a function of extracting the station-specific information that can uniquely determine the correction candidate station by morphological analysis of the language text data, and the station name correction means may, when the station-specific information has been extracted by the station name extraction means, correct the corresponding correction candidate station to the station name of the departure station and/or the destination station if the correction candidate station includes a station name that can be uniquely determined from the station-specific information.

According to the automated ticket vending system of the present invention, if the voice recognition means erroneously recognizes the name of the departure station and/or the arrival station extracted from the speech of the ticket buyer, the station name correction means refers to the station name conversion table and presents the corrected station name to the ticket buyer, thereby reducing the burden on the ticket buyer.

1 is a schematic diagram showing an embodiment of an automatic ticket vending system according to the present invention; FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of an automatic ticket vending machine. This is a first flow chart showing a first example of the process of selecting departure and arrival stations using the AI assistance function. It is a flowchart of the second stage showing a first example of a departure/arrival station selection process using the AI assist function. FIG. 3 is a screen image diagram of a customer operation display displaying a departure station. This is a screen image of a customer operation display showing the arrival station. This is a latter part of a flowchart showing a second example of the process of selecting departure and arrival stations using the AI assistance function. FIG. 6 is a screen image diagram of a customer operation display that selectably presents correction candidate stations for the destination station. This is a latter part of a flowchart showing a third example of the process of selecting departure and arrival stations using the AI assistance function. It is a flow chart showing a process of selecting a destination station using an AI assist function. This is a screen image of a customer operation display device that displays selectable candidate stations for the destination station.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the attached drawings. Figure 1 shows a schematic configuration of an embodiment of an automatic ticket vending system S, in which a station 1 (ticket vending counter), a system center 2, and a call center 3 are interconnected via a ticket vending network N1 and an assistant network N2.

At station 1, an automatic ticket vending machine 10 is installed, which has a ticket selling function that sells a ticket specified by the user when operated by the user, and an operation support function that includes at least a microphone, speaker, and camera, and can be operated by a person who wishes to purchase a ticket (hereinafter simply referred to as a user). In addition, each automatic ticket vending machine 10 is assigned a unique identification number so that each individual machine can be identified, and by using this identification number, it is possible to identify all the automatic ticket vending machines 10 included in the automatic ticket vending system S.

As described below, the ticket vending machine 10 is equipped with a touch-screen display and operation panel, a ticket outlet for dispensing tickets, a cash slot for inserting the purchase fee, and a card slot for inserting a credit card or other card for settlement, and the user can sequentially perform each step of the ticket selling operation by operating the display and operation panel. When selling tickets, the machine communicates with the system center 2 connected via the ticket selling network N1, and receives various information such as the availability of reserved seats from the ticket selling operation control server 21, and sends the determined ticket selling information to the ticket selling operation control server 21.

The automatic ticket vending machine 10 also includes a customer service camera that displays users, a speaker that outputs audio from the operator of the call center 3, a microphone that sends the user's voice to the call center 3, and a provided application form and discount certificate. Equipped with a document camera to take pictures of documents such as documents, and an application form collection slot for collecting application forms and discount certificates. Input information from customer service cameras and microphones (information for supporting users) is sent via the assist business network N2 to an audio/video terminal used by the operator of the call center 3 selected by the call center server 22 of the system center 2. 31, and an operator operates the reservation/ticketing terminal 32 in response to the user's request, thereby assisting the user in purchasing tickets. Note that the audio/video information supplied from the audio/video terminal 31 of the call center 3 is also supplied to the automatic ticket vending machine 10 of the station 1 via the assist business network N2, and the audio/video information from the operator of the call center 3 is automatically transmitted. displayed on the ticket vending machine 10.

Further, the automatic ticket vending system S of the present embodiment is equipped with an AI automatic response function as a function to support the user of the automatic ticket vending machine 10 without involving the operator of the call center 3. By connecting the AI server 23 installed in the system center 2 to the automatic ticket vending machine 10 at the station 1 via the assist business network N2, it is possible to use AI to provide customer service in the same way as a counter or operator. and reduce the burden on operators. In addition, since the AI automatic response function uses the user's utterances (voice), a consent screen regarding the use of voice is first displayed, and after the user consents, customer service using voice begins. With AI assist, the ticket sales operation management server 21 selects a route suitable for the user's request by asking the user for requirements such as departure station, arrival station, date and time of use, and number of people, and the automatic ticket vending machine 10 makes a proposal for the ticket to purchase. . When the user confirms the purchase details and makes a payment, the automatic ticket vending machine 10 performs ticket issuing processing and the ticket is delivered to the user.

Although it is possible to connect station 1, system center 2, and call center 3 with a single network, if a separate ticket sales network N1 for normal ticket sales processing and an assist network N2 for audio/video support are provided, the support and ticket sales processing operations can be separated, and a malfunction or accident in one network can be prevented from affecting the other network and causing further problems, thereby improving the reliability of the entire automated ticket vending system S. Furthermore, constructing the ticket sales network N1 and the assist network N2 as physically separate networks has the advantage that it is easier to add audio/video support functions later to an existing automated ticket vending system that already has the ticket sales network N1.

As shown in FIG. 2, the automatic ticket vending machine 10 is equipped with a control unit 11 that controls the entire device, a customer operation display unit 12 that is equipped with a display panel that displays various information for purchasing tickets and a touch panel that accepts input operations by customers, a handset 13 that is a communication means for using the AI assist function, a memory unit 14 that permanently stores processing programs and the like for the control unit 11 to function and stores temporary information generated during the processing, a communication unit 15 that communicates with the ticket sales operation general server 21 and the AI server 23 of the system center 2, a coin unit 16, a bill unit 17, and a card processing unit 18 that process the purchase price, and a ticket issuing unit 19 that issues the ticket desired by the customer based on the input contents input by operating the customer operation display unit 12 and the information managed by the ticket sales operation general server 21.

The control unit 11 is composed of, for example, a CPU, and is configured to issue tickets of types that can be handled by the automatic ticket vending machine 10 based on a predetermined control program (for example, a program stored in the storage unit 14). It executes processing and is the heart that controls the entire automatic ticket vending machine 10.

The customer operation display unit 12 is composed of a large touch panel display arranged so that the operation display surface 121 appears at a position (see FIG. 2) that enhances the customer's operability and visibility. When a fingertip or the like touches an operation area such as a button image drawn on the display screen, the touch panel can detect the contact with the operation area, so it is treated as a button operation. Note that, instead of using a large and expensive touch panel display like the customer operation display 12, operation buttons etc. are appropriately arranged close to the left and right side edges and the upper and lower edges of the display without a touch panel. By guiding the customer to operate any button within the display screen displayed on the display device, the customer's input operation can be accepted by monitoring the sensor output of each button.

The handset 13 is provided near the customer operation display 12 (e.g., to the left) and is a communication means that the user uses while looking at the customer operation display 12 to pick up the user's speech (voice data). Note that instead of the handset 13, a sound collecting microphone or the like may be provided as a communication means to cut out surrounding environmental noise and capture the user's speech.

The storage unit 14 is a functional unit that stores various information and programs for the control unit 11 to perform ticket issuing control. For example, a semiconductor memory such as a ROM or a RAM can be used as the storage unit 14. The storage unit 14 also has a function of storing and retaining various information input through customer operations temporarily or for a certain period of time.

The communication unit 15 is a functional unit that communicates with the system center 2, call center 3, etc., and can perform two-way communication using an appropriate communication protocol. Note that a first communication section specialized in communication functions corresponding to the ticket vending business network N1 and a second communication section specialized in communication functions corresponding to the assist business network N2 may be provided.

The coin section 16 and the bill section 17 are functional sections for processing payments in cash when a ticket is issued. The coin section 16 handles the deposit and withdrawal of coins through the coin insertion slot and coin ejection slot. The bill section 17 handles the deposit and withdrawal of bills through the bill insertion slot and bill receipt slot. The card processing section 18 is a functional section for processing payments by card when a ticket is issued. Cards that can be used for payment processing include credit cards and prepaid IC cards. A card is inserted through the card insertion slot and security authentication such as a PIN number is performed using the numeric keypad. When payment processing is completed, the card is returned through the card insertion slot, and a receipt for card use, usage details, etc. are ejected from the ticket insertion/receiving slot.

The ticket issuing unit 19 is capable of issuing tickets etc. as desired by the user, and is a functional unit that issues tickets (Shinkansen reserved seat tickets, conventional line reserved seat tickets, Shinkansen unreserved seats, conventional line unreserved seats, main line and existing transfer reserved seat tickets, main line and existing transfer reserved seat tickets, Shinkansen single tickets, reserved only tickets (excluding free type), boarding change tickets, etc.) after the payment process is completed. Note that issuing a ticket means printing visible information in Japanese or English on the printed side and ejecting the ticket with magnetic data recorded on the magnetic side from the ticket insertion/receiving slot. At this time, a receipt etc. may also be output.

The ticket vending machine 10 in the ticket vending system S of this embodiment allows users to purchase tickets and the like not only by operating it themselves or with assistance from an operator at the call center 3, but also with AI assistance provided by the functions of the AI server 23 in the system center 2.

The AI server 23 is equipped with AI equipped with a voice recognition function and an intent understanding function. The voice recognition function recognizes the voice spoken by the user and converts it into language. There are various ready-made voice recognition functions, and tuning is performed to improve the recognition rate of station names and railway terminology so that voice recognition suitable for the automatic ticket vending system S is possible. The voice to be recognized is not limited to Japanese, and the system may have a voice recognition function that supports other languages. The intent understanding function is a function that understands the intent of the content spoken by the user based on the results of the voice recognition. Based on the results of the intent understanding and the current customer service situation, the next customer service action to be performed is determined, and guidance is given to the user, the screen is updated, and an inquiry is made to the ticket sales business supervision server 21. The AI model implemented in the AI server 23 may be an automatic learning model or a learned model.

In AI assist, it is important to be able to accurately recognize the user's request from the user's utterances. In particular, when determining the boarding section, if the recognition accuracy of the departure station and destination station is poor, the user will have to be asked to rephrase the words many times, or the user will have to correct them themselves, which can be rather troublesome. It makes the user feel that way. Therefore, in the automatic ticket vending system S of this embodiment, in order to improve the recognition accuracy of the station names of departure stations and destination stations, for example, the AI server 23 includes a voice recognition means, a station name extraction means, a station name determination means, and a station name conversion table 23a. , station name correction means, etc. were provided.

The voice recognition means recognizes the user's utterance from the voice taken in through the telephone receiver 13 as a communication means, and converts it into linguistic text data. The station name extraction means extracts at least names that are highly likely to be the station names of the departure station and destination station by morphologically analyzing the linguistic text data obtained by the voice recognition means. Morphological analysis is the process of dividing a sentence written in a natural language into the smallest units (= morphemes) that have meaning in the language, and determining the part of speech and changes in each. This can be done by word decomposition processing of sentences using pattern matching using , or word decomposition processing using scoring using probabilistic language models such as hidden Markov models. The station name determination means refers to the station database 21a managed by the ticket sales operation management server 21 to determine whether or not there exists a station with a station name corresponding to the extracted name extracted as a station name by the station name extraction means. The station name conversion table 23a is a database in which misrecognized names that may be misrecognized by the voice recognition means and estimated station names that are presumed to be original station names are associated with each other. In addition, as misrecognized names, the main ones may be extracted based on the misrecognition examples in the process of generating language text data from speech by the speech recognition means, or names that may be misrecognized may be extracted. You may choose a wide range of kanji readings. When the station name determining means determines that there is no station name corresponding to the extracted name, the station name correction means refers to the station name conversion table 23a and calculates the estimated station name corresponding to the incorrectly converted name that is the same as the extracted name as the departure station. or the station name of the destination station.

The station names of the departure station and destination station whose recognition accuracy has been improved in this way are passed to the automatic ticket vending machine 10, and the section presentation means selects the section of the ticket based on the station name determined by the station name determination means or the station name corrected by the station name correction means. is presented to the user.

Here, a first example of the process of selecting a departure station and a destination station using the AI assist function realized by cooperation between the automatic ticket vending machine 10 and the AI server 23 will be explained based on FIGS. 3 to 6.

For example, when the AI assist is started by a user operating the ticket vending machine 10, a voice (for example, "I want to go from Kyoto to Kouma deikikitai") is input from the handset 13, and the voice data is sent to the AI server 23. The AI server 23 converts the voice data into language text data of a mixture of kanji and kana (for example, "I want to go from Kyoto to Kouma deikikitai") using voice recognition. This language text data is subjected to morphological analysis to extract "Kyoto" as the departure station. The station database 21a is referenced to confirm whether there is a station with a name that matches this extracted name "Kyoto", and the confirmed "Kyoto" is sent to the ticket vending machine 10 as the departure station. As shown in FIG. 5, the customer operation display 12 of the ticket vending machine 10 displays "Kyoto" as the departure station.

Next, the AI server 23 extracts "Anti" as the destination station by morphological analysis of the language text data. It checks the station database 21a to see if there is a station with a name that matches the extracted name "Anti", and if it determines that there is no matching station, the AI server 23 checks the station name conversion table 23a. When it refers to "Anti" as a misrecognized name that may cause the voice recognition means to misrecognize the station name, it finds that "Fuchu" corresponds to the estimated station name that is presumed to be the correct station name, so it corrects the destination station name from "Anti" to "Fuchu" and transmits "Fuchu" to the automatic ticket vending machine 10 as the arrival station name. As shown in FIG. 6, the customer operation display 12 of the automatic ticket vending machine 10 displays "Fuchu" as the arrival station.

In the above-described example of selecting the departure station and destination station, only the misrecognized name and the estimated station name are made to correspond to each other in the station name conversion table 23a, but the station name conversion table 23a is not limited to this. If there is a station with the same sound as the estimated station name, or a station with the same notation that has the same notation as the estimated station name, the estimated station name may be associated with the same name, the station with the same notation, and the station name conversion table 23a. When using such a station name conversion table 23a, when correcting an extracted name to an estimated station name by referring to the station name conversion table 23a, if there are stations with the same sound or the same spelling corresponding to the estimated station name, all of them are corrected. is transmitted to the automatic ticket vending machine 10 as a correction candidate station. The section presentation means of the automatic ticket vending machine 10 presents all correction candidate stations received from the station name correction means so that the user can select them.

For example, FIG. 7 shows a second example of the process of selecting a destination station using an AI assist function that uses a station name conversion table 23a different from that shown in FIG. Here, in the station name conversion table 23a, the same-sounding stations and stations with the same notation that correspond to the estimated station name "Fuchu" are associated, so all of the same-sounding stations and stations with the same notation (Fuchu (Tokushima Prefecture), Kokufu (Aichi Prefecture), Prefecture), Fuchu (Tokyo), Fuchu (Kyoto Prefecture), and Fuchu (Hiroshima Prefecture)) are sent to the automatic ticket vending machine 10 as correction candidate stations. As shown in FIG. 8, the customer operation display 12 of the automatic ticket vending machine 10 that has received all correction candidate stations from the AI server 23 displays "Fuchu (Tokushima Prefecture)" and "Kokufu (Aichi Prefecture)" as arrival station candidates. ”, “Fuchu (Tokyo)”, “Fuchu (Kyoto Prefecture)”, and “Fuchu (Hiroshima Prefecture)” are displayed for selection.

In this way, if there is a station with the same sound as the station name uttered by the AI assist user, there may be cases where the voice recognition of the automatic ticket vending system S cannot convert it into appropriate character data, but the presence of the station with the same sound is taken into consideration. User convenience can be improved by presenting information. In addition, if there are stations with different pronunciations but the same notation, if the user misreads the station name, the voice recognition of the automatic ticket vending machine 10 will not be able to reach the correct answer, but considering the existence of stations with the same notation, User convenience can be improved by presenting information.

In addition, in the station name conversion table 23a, the station location (e.g., prefecture name) is associated with the homophonetic station and homophonetic station as station-specific information that can uniquely determine the homophonetic station and homophonetic station corresponding to the estimated station name. In other words, even if the station desired by the user as the departure station or arrival station is a homophonetic station or homophonetic station, if the station location is known, the departure station or arrival station desired by the user can be determined. Therefore, the station name extraction means has a function of extracting station-specific information that can uniquely determine the correction candidate station by morphological analysis of the language text data, and the station name correction means, when the station name extraction means has extracted station-specific information, corrects the corresponding correction candidate station to the station name of the departure station or arrival station if the correction candidate station has a station name that can be uniquely determined from the station-specific information.

For example, FIG. 9 shows a third example of the process of selecting a destination station using the AI assist function using the same station name conversion table 23a as shown in FIG. Here, in the station name conversion table 23a, stations with the same sound and the same notation corresponding to the estimated station name "Fuchu" are associated with the station location. Then, the AI server 23 uses the fact that ``Tokushima'' is extracted as station-specific information by morphologically analyzing the linguistic text data (for example, ``I want to go from Kyoto to the Tokushima station''), and uses the same sound "Fuchu (Tokushima Prefecture)" from all stations and stations with the same notation (Fuchu (Tokushima Prefecture), Kokufu (Aichi Prefecture), Fuchu (Tokyo), Fuchu (Kyoto Prefecture), Fuchu (Hiroshima Prefecture)) Since it can be selected, "Fuchu (Tokushima Prefecture)" is sent to the automatic ticket vending machine 10 as the destination station. As shown in FIG. 6, "Fuchu" station is displayed on the customer operation display 12 of the automatic ticket vending machine 10 as the arrival station.

In this way, by extracting station-specific information that can uniquely determine the station name of the extracted name extracted from the user's utterance or the estimated station name obtained by referring to the station name conversion table 23a, multiple correction candidate stations can be extracted. One station name that is likely to match the user's wishes can be selected from among them.

In the process of selecting the destination station using the AI assist function described above, when the extracted name in the linguistic text data is not an actual station name, the station name conversion table 23a is referred to to check correction candidates. The correction process using the conversion table 23a is not limited to this. For example, considering the case where the name misrecognized by the voice recognition means corresponds to the name of an existing station (actual station name), a station with the same sound as the existing station name and a station with the same notation as the actual station name, A station name conversion table 23a that corresponds to actual station names is used. When the station name determining means determines that a station name corresponding to the extracted name exists, the station name correction means refers to the station name conversion table 23a to determine whether there is a station with the same sound or a station with the same notation that corresponds to the actual station name. If there are stations with the same sound or the same notation corresponding to the actual station name, all of them are sent to the automatic ticket vending machine 10 as correction candidate stations. The section presentation means of the automatic ticket vending machine 10 presents all correction candidate stations received from the station name correction means so that the user can select them.

The process of selecting a destination station using the AI-assisted function is shown in FIG. 10. When the voice data of "Sendaimade" acquired through the handset 13 of the automatic ticket vending machine 10 is supplied to the AI server 23, it is recognized as "Sendaimade" by the voice recognition function. By performing morphological analysis on this, "Sendai" can be acquired as the extracted name of the destination station, and it can also be confirmed in the station database 21a that "Sendai" is an actual station. Then, the AI server 23 checks the station name conversion table 23a that associates actual station names with homonymous stations and homonymous station names, and transmits all homonymous stations and homonymous stations that correspond to the actual station name "Sendai" (Sendai (Miyagi Prefecture), Kawauchi (Kagoshima Prefecture)) to the automatic ticket vending machine 10 as correction candidate stations. On the customer operation display 12 of the automatic ticket vending machine 10 that has received all the correction candidate stations from the AI server 23, "Sendai" and "Kawauchi" are displayed as selectable arrival station candidates, as shown in FIG. 11.

In this way, even if the extracted name extracted from the user's speech is an actual station, the information is presented while taking into consideration the possibility of misrecognition, thereby improving the convenience of the user. The station name conversion table 23a, which associates the actual station names with homonymous stations and homonymous stations, may be provided with station-specific information that can uniquely determine the homonymous stations and homonymous stations, and the station name extraction means may have a function of extracting station-specific information that can uniquely determine the correction candidate station by morphological analysis of the language text data. If the station-specific information has been extracted by the station name extraction means, and if the correction candidate station has a station name that can be uniquely determined from the station-specific information, the station name correction means corrects the corresponding correction candidate station to the station name of the departure station or the arrival station. For example, if the user's speech is "Miyagino Sendaimade", it is recognized by voice recognition as "To Sendai in Miyagi", and the arrival station "Sendai" and the station-specific information "Miyagi no" can be obtained. Therefore, by selecting "Sendai" as the destination station, which matches the station-specific information, from among the corrected candidate stations (Sendai (Miyagi Prefecture), Sendai (Kagoshima Prefecture)) obtained from the station name conversion table 23a, the desired destination station can be presented without bothering the user.

The above describes an embodiment of the automatic ticket vending system according to the present invention based on the attached drawings, but the present invention is not limited to this embodiment, and may be implemented by converting publicly known, existing equivalent technical means within the scope of the claims.

S Automatic ticket vending system 1 station (ticket office)
10 automatic ticket vending machine 12 customer operation display 13 telephone receiver 2 system center 21 ticket vending operation management server 21a station database 23 AI server 23a station name conversion table

Claims (5)

An automated ticket vending system including a ticket vending machine installed at a ticket booth that sells tickets, and a system center that comprehensively manages the sales of tickets by each ticket vending machine, and sells tickets to a person who wishes to purchase a ticket via the ticket vending machine,
A communication means provided in the ticket vending machine;
a speech recognition means for recognizing speech of the person who wishes to purchase a ticket from the speech captured through the communication means and converting the speech into language text data;
a station name extraction means for extracting at least station names that are highly likely to be the names of departure stations and/or arrival stations by performing a morphological analysis of the language text data obtained by the speech recognition means;
a station name determination means for determining whether or not there is a station having a name corresponding to the extracted name extracted as the station name by the station name extraction means by referring to a station database;
a station name conversion table in which a misrecognized name that may be misrecognized by the voice recognition means is associated with an estimated station name that is estimated to be the correct station name,
a station name correction means for correcting the estimated station name corresponding to the same erroneously converted name as the extracted name to a station name of a departure station and/or a destination station by referring to the station name conversion table when the station name determination means determines that there is no station name corresponding to the extracted name;
a section presentation means for presenting to the ticket purchase applicant a section of a ticket based on the station name determined by the station name determination means and/or the station name corrected by the station name correction means;
An automatic ticket vending system comprising: The station name conversion table associates a station with the same sound as the estimated station name and/or a station with the same notation as the estimated station name, with the estimated station name,
When correcting the extracted name to the estimated station name with reference to the station name conversion table, the station name correction means corrects all of the same-sounding stations and/or stations with the same notation that correspond to the estimated station name. As a candidate station,
The section presentation means presents all the correction candidate stations received from the station name correction means so that the ticket purchase applicant can select them.
The automatic ticket vending system according to claim 1, characterized in that: the station name conversion table associates station-specific information that can uniquely determine the homonymous station and the homonymously written station corresponding to the estimated station name with the homonymous station and the homonymously written station;
The station name extraction means has a function of extracting the station-specific information capable of uniquely determining the corrected candidate station by performing a morphological analysis on the language text data,
When the station-specific information has been extracted by the station name extraction means, if a station name that can be uniquely determined from the station-specific information is included in the correction candidate stations, the station name correction means corrects the corresponding correction candidate station to the station name of a departure station and/or a destination station.
3. The automatic ticket vending system according to claim 2. The station name conversion table associates homonymous stations, which have station names the same as real station names in the station database, and/or stations that have the same spelling as the real station names, with the real station names;
When the station name determination means determines that a station name corresponding to the extracted name exists, the station name correction means refers to the station name conversion table to determine whether or not there is a homophone station and/or a homograph station corresponding to the actual station name, and when there is a homophone station and/or a homograph station corresponding to the actual station name, sets all of them as correction candidate stations;
The section presentation means presents all of the correction candidate stations received from the station name correction means so that the ticket purchaser can select from the corrected candidate stations.
3. The automatic ticket vending system according to claim 1 or 2. The station name conversion table associates station-specific information that can uniquely determine the same-sounding station and the station with the same notation corresponding to the actual station name with the same-sounding station and the station with the same notation,
The station name extraction means has a function of extracting the station-specific information that can uniquely determine the correction candidate station by morphologically analyzing the linguistic text data,
If the station-specific information has been extracted by the station-name extracting unit, and if there is a station name among the correction candidate stations that can be uniquely determined from the station-specific information, the station name correction means selects the corresponding correction candidate station. Correct the station name of the departure station and/or destination station,
The automatic ticket vending system according to claim 4, characterized in that:

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