JP3100183B2 - Vending machine and vending machine information management system - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a vending machine for beverage products and tobacco, and a vending machine information management system.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, the number of vending machines for beverage products and cigarettes has been gradually increasing for the purpose of promoting sales, because they do not take up much space for installation and there are no restrictions on sales time. It is in. On the other hand, simply by inserting coins or bills, it is easy to purchase the desired product,
The number of users is increasing. Current vending machines display a sample of products to be sold on the front in the form of a display, and a user looks at the display, selects a product, and purchases by inserting coins or bills.

[0003]

As described above, the conventional vending machine has a function of merely selling beverage products and cigarettes, but the number of installed products and the number of users are taken into consideration. Then, it can be said that it is inevitable to only sell. For this reason, there has been a demand for an effective usage method that makes use of the number of installed devices and the number of users. The present invention has been made in order to solve the above-described problems, and is not limited to the sale of various products, but also has an automatic communication function that can perform effective information transmission by having various information transmission functions. It is an object to provide a vending machine and a vending machine information management system.

[0004]

A vending machine information management system according to the present invention for solving the above-mentioned conventional problems comprises a vending machine and an information management device for transmitting and receiving various information to and from the vending machine. The vending machine has a display means for displaying various display information, a receiving means for receiving display information transmitted from the information management device, and a display means for receiving the display information received by the receiving means. Display control means for displaying, the information management device, the storage unit for storing display information to be displayed on the display means of the vending machine, the display information in the storage unit to the receiving means of the vending machine It is characterized by comprising transmitting means for transmitting. A vending machine information management system according to a second aspect is characterized in that the vending machine is provided with a control switch for operating the display control means upon insertion of a coin and displaying information on the display means. A vending machine according to claim 3, a display means for displaying various display information, a storage unit for storing the various display information,
Display control means for extracting display information from the storage unit and displaying the information on the display means. Claim 4
Is characterized by comprising a control switch for operating the display control means upon insertion of a coin and displaying information on the display means.

[0005]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a vending machine information management system according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is an external view of the vending machine. This vending machine information management system is composed of a vending machine 1 and an information management device 2 for transmitting and receiving various information between the vending machine 1. The vending machine 1 is for selling beverage products such as juice or cigarettes, for example, a display unit 10 for displaying various display information, a transmitting / receiving unit 11 for receiving information,
A display control unit 12 that performs display control of the display unit 10 and a control switch 13 are provided. The vending machine 1 has a general appearance in which a display unit 31 in which products to be sold are arranged on the front as shown in FIG. 2 and an outlet 32 for purchased products is provided below the display unit 31. In addition,
The internal mechanical configuration is not different from the conventional one, so that the description is omitted.

As shown in FIG. 2, the display unit 10 is disposed at a position above the display unit 21 of the product disposed at the front of the vending machine 1 so that a user of the vending machine 1 can easily see the product. The display unit 10 displays various kinds of display information sent from the information management device 2, and is configured by integrating a large number of light emitting elements such as LED elements. Display control unit 12
Has a memory 15 for temporarily storing display information to be displayed on the display unit 10. The control switch 13
It is interlocked with the coin (or bill) input unit 33 of the vending machine 1, and when a coin is inserted into the input unit 33,
The display control unit 12 is turned on to operate the display control unit 12. The information management device 2 is installed in a management center or the like that manages the vending machine 1. The information management device 2 includes a transmission / reception unit 21 that exchanges information with the transmission / reception unit 11 of the vending machine 1 by wire or wirelessly, and a display unit 10. A storage unit 22 for storing display information to be displayed and an input unit 23 such as a keyboard are provided. The information in the storage unit 22 is appropriately transmitted from a management center or the like via the transmission / reception unit 21 and updated.

Next, the operation of the vending machine information management system configured as described above will be described. When a coin is inserted into the insertion section 33 of the vending machine 1, the control switch 13
N, and a control signal is sent to the display control unit 12. The memory 15 of the display control unit 12 stores the transmitting and receiving unit 1 in advance.
A part of the display information stored in the storage unit 22 of the information management device 2 transmitted through the storage unit 1 is stored. In response to a control signal from the control switch 13, the display control unit 12 sends the display information stored in the memory 15 to the display unit 10 for display. The display is as shown in FIG. The content of the information to be displayed is not limited to the weather forecast as shown in FIG. 2, but may be, for example, news, sports information, town information, and the like. in this case,
It is also possible to provide a timer that displays information on the display unit 10 for a fixed time and automatically turns off the display after the time has elapsed.
The content of the display information in the memory 15 of the display control unit 12 is to be rewritten as needed by the information management device 2.
In addition, information other than the information stored in the storage unit 22, such as temporary information, is input from the input unit 23 such as a keyboard at any time, sent to the vending machine 1, and displayed. In the above embodiment, the control switch 13 is provided to display information only when a coin is inserted. However, the control switch 13 is not provided, and the information sent from the information management device 2 is not provided. May be constantly displayed on the display unit 10 or a timer may be provided to periodically display the timer. Further, in the embodiment, the case where the information management apparatus 2 and the vending machine 1 are connected one-to-one has been described, but it can be said that a plurality of vending machines 1 can be connected to one information management apparatus 2. Not until.

FIG. 3 shows an embodiment of a vending machine for displaying information in a so-called stand-alone manner. The vending machine 40 has a storage unit 44 storing information to be displayed by itself in addition to a display unit 41, a display control unit 42, and a control switch 43. Further, since the information is not received from the information management device, the transmitting and receiving unit is not provided. Regarding the operation, by inserting a coin, the display control unit 12 reads information from the storage unit 41 and displays the information on the display unit 10. Also in this case, it is possible to provide a timer for displaying information on the display unit 10 for a fixed time and automatically turning off the display after the lapse of time. Further, the control switch 43 may not be provided, and the information in the information storage unit 44 may be constantly displayed on the display unit 41, or a timer may be provided to periodically display the information.

[0009]

As described above, according to the vending machine and the vending machine information management system of the present invention, various kinds of information are appropriately displayed on the display means provided in the vending machine. The machine can be used effectively. This also makes it possible to supply information very effectively due to an increase in the number of vending machines installed and the number of users thereof.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a vending machine information management system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an external view of a vending machine according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a vending machine according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1,40 vending machine 2 information management device 10,41 display unit 11 transmission / reception unit 12,42 display control unit 13,43 control switch 21 transmission / reception unit 22,44 storage unit

Claims (4)

(57) [Claims] 1. A vending machine and an information management device for transmitting and receiving various information to and from the vending machine, wherein the vending machine has display means for displaying various display information;
Receiving means for receiving display information transmitted from the information management device; and display control means for displaying the display information received by the receiving means on the display means. A vending machine information management system comprising: a storage unit for storing display information to be displayed on the display unit; and a transmission unit for transmitting the display information in the storage unit to a reception unit of the vending machine. 2. The vending machine according to claim 1, wherein said vending machine includes a control switch for operating said display control means upon coin insertion and for displaying information on said display means. Machine information management system. 3. A display device comprising: display means for displaying various display information; a storage unit for storing the display information; and display control means for extracting display information from the storage unit and displaying the display information on the display means. Vending machine. 4. The vending machine according to claim 1, further comprising a control switch for operating said display control means by inserting a coin and displaying information on said display means.