JP6912108B2 - Seat usage optimization system - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a seat utilization optimization system.

When a customer uses a food court or coffee shop, he / she may purchase a product but cannot sit because the seat is not available. Even if a customer is waiting for a seat to become available, he / she may not know which seat will be available next and may be robbed by another customer who comes later. Depending on the store, customers may be asked to reserve a seat before purchasing the product, but in some cases they only carry valuables as luggage to secure a seat, so they cannot secure a seat. There is also. In addition, customers who do not purchase products at food courts and use only seats may not be able to use customers for appropriate purposes, which is disadvantageous for stores.

In order to perform more efficient seat vacancy management, Patent Document 1 includes a plurality of equipment terminals and a control device, and the equipment terminals include their own equipment identification information in response to a predetermined termination operation. The vacant equipment management system that transmits the information to the control device is disclosed.

Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2017-037384

However, even such a vacant facility management system is insufficient for efficient seat management, and it is considered that further efficiency improvement is necessary.

The present invention has been made to solve such a problem, and an object of the present invention is to provide a seat utilization optimization system capable of performing more efficient seat management.

The seat utilization optimization system according to one aspect of the present invention communicates with a seat management terminal that manages seats in a facility, a desktop terminal installed for each table in the facility, the seat management terminal, and the desktop terminal. A possible seat utilization optimization system with a customer-owned mobile terminal,
The seat management terminal has a wireless communication function and has a wireless communication function.
The mobile terminal acquires and displays the seat usage status in the facility from the seat management terminal by wireless communication, and when the number of users is input, transmits the ID information of the own terminal to the seat management terminal.
The seat management terminal transmits information on the temporary reservation to the mobile terminal with available seats as a temporary reservation state based on the number of passengers received, and stores the ID information in association with the temporarily reserved seat. death,
The desktop terminal has an identification mark reading function, reads the identification mark on the receipt issued when the customer purchases a product at a store in the facility, and receives the temporary reservation information from the mobile terminal by wireless communication. Then, the information regarding the identification mark and the information regarding the provisional reservation are transmitted to the seat management terminal, and the information is transmitted to the seat management terminal.
The seat management terminal receives the information regarding the identification mark and the information regarding the temporary reservation, and if it is determined that the information regarding the identification mark is valid, the seat in the temporary reservation state is set to the reserved state.

According to the present invention, it is possible to provide a seat utilization optimization system capable of performing more efficient seat management.

It is a figure which shows the schematic structure of the seat use optimization system which concerns on Embodiment 1. FIG. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the seat management terminal which concerns on Embodiment 1. FIG. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the desktop terminal which concerns on Embodiment 1. FIG. It is a flowchart explaining the operation flow of the seat use optimization system which concerns on Embodiment 1. FIG. It is a figure explaining how a user holds a mobile terminal over a seat management terminal installed at the entrance of a food court. It is a figure explaining the transition of the screen of a mobile terminal when a user inputs the number of users. It is a figure explaining how the seat is temporarily secured on the screen of the mobile terminal. It is a figure explaining an example of the receipt issued at the food court shop. It is a figure which shows the table which installed the desktop terminal. It is a figure after the seat of the temporarily reserved state is secured on the screen of a mobile terminal. It is a figure after the reserved seat on the screen of a mobile terminal is released. It is a figure before the reserved seat on the screen of a mobile terminal is released. It is a figure after the reserved seat on the screen of a mobile terminal is released.

Embodiment 1
Hereinafter, Embodiment 1 of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
An outline of the seat utilization optimization system according to the first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.
The seat utilization optimization system 1 includes a seat management terminal 10 installed near the entrance of a food court, which is an example of a facility, a desktop terminal 40 installed at each table 41 of the food court, a seat management terminal 10, and a desktop terminal. It includes a mobile terminal (for example, a smartphone) 20 owned by a user (customer) 2 who can communicate with the 40. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the seat management terminal 10. The seat management terminal 10 includes a control unit 100, a communication unit 110, two short-range wireless communication units 14 (14a, 14b), and three cameras 12 (12a, 12b, 12c). Of the three cameras 12, two (12a, 12b) are for photographing the customer when temporarily securing a seat, and one (12c) is for photographing the customer leaving the facility. The control unit 100 is composed of, for example, a CPU, and controls each of the constituent parts of the seat management terminal 10. The seat management terminal 10 functionally has a seat management function, a short-range wireless communication function, a face recognition function, and a communication function. Each of these functions is realized by the control unit 100 executing the program stored in the storage unit 101. FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the desktop terminal 40. The desktop terminal 40 includes a control unit 400, a communication unit 410, a short-range wireless communication unit 420, and a camera 412. The control unit 400 is composed of, for example, a CPU, and controls each of the constituent parts of the desktop terminal 40. The desktop terminal 40 functionally has an image recognition function, an identification mark reading function, and a communication function. Each of these functions is realized by the control unit 400 executing the program stored in the storage unit 401. The seat management terminal 10 has a short-range wireless communication function for short-range wireless communication with the mobile terminal 20 and the like by the short-range wireless communication unit 14, a face recognition function by the camera 12, and a communication function for communicating with the desktop terminal 40 by the communication unit 110. And. That is, the seat management terminal 10 can take a picture of the customer's face and acquire a face image when the customer holds the mobile terminal 20 over. The communication between the seat management terminal 10 and the desktop terminal 40 may be wireless communication or wired communication. The facility describes, by way of example, a food court, but is not limited to this. That is, the facility may be a restaurant, a cafe, a meeting space, a business negotiation space, or the like. The seat management terminal 10 includes a short-range wireless communication unit 14 that uses Bluetooth (registered trademark), Bluetooth (registered trademark) LE standard, NFC, or the like as a component for short-range wireless communication. Although the seat management terminal 10 is installed near the entrance of the food court, the short-range wireless communication unit 14 may be installed near the entrance. The portion of the seat management terminal 10 other than the short-range wireless communication unit 14 may not be installed near the entrance. Further, the seat management terminal 10 may have a wireless LAN communication function instead of the short-range wireless communication function, and may wirelessly communicate with the mobile terminal 20.

When the user (customer) holds the mobile terminal 20 over the seat management terminal 10 at the entrance of the food court, the mobile terminal 20 acquires and displays the seat usage status of the food court from the seat management terminal 10 by short-range wireless communication. When the user inputs the number of users (here, three people) on the screen displayed on the mobile terminal 20, the number of users and the ID information of the mobile terminal are transmitted to the seat management terminal 10.

The seat management terminal 10 temporarily secures available seats based on the received number of passengers and the ID information of the mobile terminal, transmits the temporary reservation information to the mobile terminal 20, and captures a customer's face image by the camera 12. Acquire and store it in association with the temporarily reserved seat. When there are a plurality of customers, the seat management terminal 10 acquires and stores facial images of any one customer or all the customers. As shown in FIG. 1, the seat management terminal 10 itself may be provided with the camera 12, and as will be described later, the seat management terminal 10 and the seat management terminal 10 may be located in another place (for example, the ceiling of the facility) via a network. A connected camera may be installed.

The desktop terminal 40 has an image recognition function and an identification mark reading function (camera 412), and an identification mark (for example, a barcode or a QR code (registered trademark)) on a receipt issued when a customer purchases a product. To read. The identification mark includes the identification code of the store that issued the receipt and information on the date and time when the receipt was issued. Further, when the desktop terminal 40 receives the temporary reservation information from the mobile terminal 20 by short-range wireless communication, the desktop terminal 40 transmits the identification mark information and the temporary reservation information to the seat management terminal 10. The desktop terminal 40 may have a wireless LAN communication function instead of the short-range wireless communication function, and may wirelessly communicate with the mobile terminal 20. The seat management terminal 10 receives the identification mark information and the provisional reservation information, and determines the validity of the store identification code and the receipt issuance date and time of the identification mark information. In the seat management terminal 10, the store identification code exists in the store identification code list in the facility, and the receipt issuance date and time is within a predetermined time (for example, within 30 minutes before and after the temporary seat reservation time). If so, it is judged that it is legitimate, and the seat in the temporarily reserved state is set in the reserved state. Further, the seat management terminal 10 transmits the information of the reserved seat to the desktop terminal 40 that has transmitted the identification mark information and the temporary reservation information. The identification mark includes the identification code of the store that issued the receipt and the identification code of the receipt, and the seat management terminal 10 inquires the POS (Point Of Sales) terminal of the store in the facility about the validity of the receipt. May be good. The receipt referred to here is not limited to the receipt issued on paper, and may be an electronic receipt displayed on the mobile terminal 20.

Thereby, it is possible to provide a seat utilization optimization system capable of performing more efficient seat utilization management.

The operation flow of the seat utilization optimization system according to the first embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a state in which a user holds a mobile terminal over a short-range wireless communication unit 14 of a seat management terminal installed at the entrance of a food court.

As shown in FIG. 5, the user 2 who is a customer who uses the food court has his / her own mobile terminal (for example, a smartphone) in the short-range wireless communication unit 14 of the seat management terminal 10 installed at the entrance / exit 13 of the food court. Hold 20 over (step S1). Further, the seat management terminal 10 is provided with a camera 12, takes a picture of the face of the user 2 holding the mobile terminal 20 over, and stores the face image. The storage unit for storing the face image may be provided inside the seat management terminal 10, or may be an external storage unit connected to the seat management terminal 10 via a network. Although the food court is shown to have one entrance / exit 13 in FIG. 5, the exit and the entrance may be provided at different locations.

When the user 2 acquires the seat usage status of the food court via the mobile terminal 20, the seat usage status is displayed on the mobile terminal 20 (step S2).

As shown in FIG. 6, the guidance is displayed on the mobile terminal 20, and the user 2 can input the number of users according to the guidance (step S3). The left figure of FIG. 6 is an example of an input screen of the number of users displayed on the screen of the mobile terminal 20. Further, as shown in the right figure of FIG. 6, the mobile terminal 20 can select and display a screen showing the seat usage status.

When the user inputs the number of users (here, eight people), the mobile terminal 20 transmits the number of users and the ID information of the mobile terminal 20 to the seat management terminal 10 (step S4).

The seat management terminal 10 temporarily reserves available seats for the input number of passengers based on the seat usage status, and transmits the temporary reservation information to the mobile terminal 20 (step S5). As shown in FIG. 7, the color of the temporarily reserved seat is changed on the screen of the mobile terminal 20 (for example, from white to yellow). Two tables for eight people are temporarily secured. The usage status of each seat is displayed in different colors so that it can be recognized. In this example, red is reserved, yellow is reserved by oneself, blue is reserved by another person, and white is vacant. Is set to.

The seat management terminal 10 acquires a face image of the user's face held over the mobile terminal 20 and stores it in association with the seat (table) temporarily secured in step S5 (step S6). In this example, the seat management terminal 10 stores the seats in association with the two temporarily reserved tables.

As shown in FIG. 9, the user 2 attaches the receipt 30 of the product purchased at the food court shop 31 to the camera 412 of the desktop terminal 40 of the temporarily reserved seat before or after the temporary reservation of the seat. When held up, the camera 412 of the desktop terminal 40 reads the identification mark 34 (see FIG. 8) on the receipt 30 and receives the temporary reservation information from the mobile terminal 20 (step S7). In this example, it may be held over the camera 412 of the desktop terminal 40 of either of the two temporarily secured tables. The receipt 30 may be issued on paper or may be digitized and displayed on the mobile terminal 20. In this way, each store has a receipt issuing terminal (POS terminal) that issues a receipt to the customer who purchased the ordered product. In the case of an electronic receipt, the receipt issuing terminal can transmit the electronic receipt to the mobile terminal 20 owned by the customer.

If the user 2 does not come to the temporarily reserved seat even after a predetermined time (for example, 30 minutes) has passed since the temporary reservation, that is, the seat management terminal 10 cannot receive the identification mark information and the temporary reservation information from the desktop terminal 40. In that case, the seat management terminal 10 invalidates the temporary reservation state.

The desktop terminal 40 transmits the identification mark information and the temporary reservation information to the seat management terminal 10 (step S8). The seat management terminal 10 receives the identification mark information and the temporary reservation information, and determines the validity of the store identification code and the receipt issuance date and time included in the identification mark information. In the seat management terminal 10, the store identification code exists in the store identification code list in the facility, and the receipt issuance date and time is within a predetermined time (for example, within 30 minutes before and after the temporary seat reservation time). If so, it is judged that it is legitimate, and the seat in the temporarily reserved state is set in the reserved state. Further, the seat management terminal 10 transmits the information of the reserved seat to the desktop terminal 40 that has transmitted the identification mark information and the temporary reservation information. As described above, when it is confirmed that the user 2 has come to the temporarily reserved seat, the color of the temporarily reserved seat changes from yellow to red as shown in FIG. 10, and the user 2 sits at the table. Seats are reserved for use.

When the user 2 holds the mobile terminal 20 over the desktop terminal 40 of the seat after use, the seat management terminal 10 receives the ID information of the mobile terminal 20 from the desktop terminal 40, and the seat reservation is released (step S9). ). In this example, it may be held over the desktop terminal 40 of either of the two temporarily secured tables. As a result, as shown in FIG. 11, the display of the seat changes from red to white, and the seat is in an unused state.

On the other hand, as shown in FIGS. 12 and 13, when the user has disappeared from the table but the seat reservation has not been released (that is, when the user 2 has forgotten to release the seat), the desktop terminal 40 The end of use is determined by the camera 412 of the above, and the seat reservation is canceled (step S10). That is, the camera 412 of the desktop terminal 40 confirms that there is no user in the corresponding seat and that the user does not have any belongings, and that fact is transmitted from the desktop terminal 40 to the seat management terminal 10. When the seat management terminal 10 receives this notification and further confirms with the camera 12 of the seat management terminal 10 that the user whose face image is registered has left the food court, the seat reservation is canceled. Further, the seat management terminal 10 transmits the seat release information to the desktop terminal 40. When the seat management terminal 10 receives a notification from the desktop terminal 40 that there is no user in the seat and that the user does not have any belongings, the seat management terminal 10 may cancel the seat reservation. In addition, in FIGS. 12 and 13, the display indicating the user is added to the figure displayed on the screen of the mobile terminal in order to make the explanation easy to understand, and is added to the figure displayed on the screen of the mobile terminal. Is not displayed.

In the first embodiment, the camera 12 that performs face recognition and image recognition is mounted on the seat management terminal 10, and the camera 412 is mounted on the desktop terminal 40, but the present invention is not limited thereto. For example, a camera connected to the desktop terminal 40 via a network (wired or wireless network) is installed on the ceiling of the food court to recognize the face of a customer near the entrance of the food court and perform face recognition near the table. You may be aware of the presence of the customer and the luggage. Alternatively, a camera may be installed on the ceiling of the food court to recognize the presence of customers and luggage near the table, and the camera 12 described above may perform face recognition for customers near the entrance of the food court. ..

The desktop terminal 40 is provided with display means such as an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) and an LED (light emitting diode), and can distinguish between a vacant seat state (unused state), a temporarily secured state, and a secured state (used state). It may be displayed on.

In the first embodiment described above, the seat management terminal 10 is installed at the entrance of the food court, and the user holds the smartphone over the seat management terminal 10 and inputs the number of passengers to select a seat based on the seat usage status. It can be temporarily secured. The position of the temporarily reserved seat is displayed on the user's smartphone. In this system, the seat can be used by holding the smartphone over the desktop terminal installed on the table and the receipt when the user purchased at the food court so that the seat cannot be used for purposes other than the purpose of using the food court. Become. If the seat is full when the smartphone is held over the seat management terminal, the user's smartphone will display whether to wait or cancel the seat, and if the seat is waiting, the seat will be displayed when the seat becomes available. Send the position information of the seat to the user who wants to use it. After the user uses the seat, the seat reservation state is released by holding the smartphone over the desktop terminal installed on the table again. Since there is a possibility of returning without holding the smartphone, the image recognition by the camera that shoots the food court is used to release the seat reservation state after the user disappears.

According to the seat usage optimization system according to the first embodiment described above, the user can reduce the trouble of searching for a vacant seat by managing the seat usage status by the seat management terminal. Since the smartphones are registered on the system in the order in which they are held over the seat management terminal and the user is notified of the temporary reservation, only the user who received the notification can use the corresponding seat and seat with other users. It is possible to avoid securing troubles. When it is crowded, a notification will be sent to the smartphone when the seat is temporarily reserved, so you can go to purchase the product with the seat reserved, and although you ordered the food, the waiting time until the seat becomes available is long and the food is cooked. It is possible to prevent the situation where the food gets cold or grows. By using the receipt when using the food court, it is possible to reduce the situation where a user other than the original purpose of the food court secures a seat and cannot use it for the purpose of eating and drinking.

Next, the second embodiment will be described.
The seat utilization optimization system of the second embodiment is different from the seat utilization optimization system of the second embodiment in the following points, and is the same in other respects.
(1) The seat management terminal 10'does not have a camera. That is, the seat management terminal 10'does not have a face recognition function and does not acquire a customer's face image.
(2) The desktop terminal 40'has a code reader. That is, the desktop terminal 40'has an identification mark reading function and does not have an image recognition function.
The seat utilization optimization system of the second embodiment can also perform more efficient seat management as in the seat utilization optimization system of the first embodiment.

In the above example, the program can be stored and supplied to a computer using various types of non-transitory computer readable medium. Non-transitory computer-readable media include various types of tangible storage media. Examples of non-temporary computer-readable media include magnetic recording media (eg, flexible discs, magnetic tapes, hard disk drives), magneto-optical recording media (eg, magneto-optical discs), CD-ROMs (Read Only Memory), CD-Rs, CD-R / W, DVD (Digital Versatile Disc), BD (Blu-ray (registered trademark) Disc), semiconductor memory (for example, mask ROM, PROM (Programmable ROM), EPROM (Erasable PROM), flash ROM, RAM ( Random Access Memory)) is included. The program may also be supplied to the computer by various types of transient computer readable medium. Examples of temporary computer-readable media include electrical, optical, and electromagnetic waves. The temporary computer-readable medium can supply the program to the computer via a wired communication path such as an electric wire and an optical fiber, or a wireless communication path.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment, and can be appropriately modified without departing from the spirit.

1 Seat usage optimization system 2 User 10 Seat management terminal 11 Wall 12 Camera 13 Doorway 14 Short-range wireless communication unit 20 Mobile terminal 30 Receipt 31 Store 32 Store name 33 Date and time 34 Identification mark 40 Desktop terminal 41 Table 42 Chair 100 Control unit 101 Storage unit 110 Communication unit 400 Control unit 401 Storage unit 410 Communication unit 412 Camera 420 Short-range wireless communication unit

Claims (10)

A customer-owned seat management terminal that manages seats in a facility where a plurality of stores are installed, a desktop terminal installed for each table in the facility, and a seat management terminal and the desktop terminal that can communicate with each other. It is a seat usage optimization system equipped with a mobile terminal.
The seat management terminal includes a wireless communication function and a short-range wireless communication unit provided near the entrance of the facility .
When the mobile terminal is held over the short-range wireless communication unit, the seat usage status in the facility is acquired and displayed from the seat management terminal by wireless communication, and when the number of users is input, the ID information of the own terminal is input. And send it to the seat management terminal
The seat management terminal transmits information on the temporary reservation to the mobile terminal with available seats as a temporary reservation state based on the number of passengers received, and stores the ID information in association with the temporarily reserved seat. death,
The desktop terminal has an identification mark reading function, reads the identification mark on the receipt issued when the customer purchases a product at a store in the facility, and receives the temporary reservation information from the mobile terminal by wireless communication. then, send the information on the provisional securing the information on the identification marks before Symbol seat management terminal,
The seat management terminal receives information on the identification mark and information on the temporary reservation, and if it determines that the information on the identification mark is valid, the seat in the temporary reservation state is set in the reserved state. .. The seat use optimization system according to claim 1, wherein the seat management terminal has a camera, and when a seat is temporarily secured, an image of a customer's face is acquired and stored in association with the temporarily reserved seat. If the seat management terminal cannot receive the identification mark information and the temporary reservation information even after a predetermined time has elapsed from the temporary reservation of the seat from the desktop terminal, the temporary reservation information is invalidated. , The seat utilization optimization system according to claim 1 or 2. The seat usage suitability according to claim 1 or 2, wherein when the seat management terminal receives the ID information of the mobile terminal from the desktop terminal when the seat is reserved, the seat is changed to the vacant seat state. System. When the seat management terminal recognizes that there are no customers and luggage in the reserved seat and recognizes that the customer who was using the seat has left the exit, the seat is placed in the unused state. , The seat use optimization system according to claim 2. The seat utilization optimization system according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the identification mark is a barcode or a QR code (registered trademark). The receipt, electronic receipt der displayed by the receipt or the portable terminal is issued on paper is, each of the plurality of stores, that having a receipt issuing terminal for issuing the receipt, claim 1 The seat usage optimization system according to any one of 6. The seat utilization optimization system according to any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein the desktop terminal includes a display means for identifiablely displaying a vacant seat state, a temporarily reserved state, and a reserved state. The seat utilization optimization system according to any one of claims 1 to 8, wherein the desktop terminal has a camera. The seat utilization optimization system according to claim 2 or 5, wherein the camera is provided on the ceiling of the facility.

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