JPH01100692A - Prevention of card inadvertently left for vending machine - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To prevent a purchaser from leaving a card by not bringing an article into a selling state before the card is taken out from a return port. CONSTITUTION: When a purchaser inserts a card to the machine, a card information reader 2 discriminates the validity of the card and lights a display lamp of an article selection button 4. However, the sale of the article is not yet available in this state and even when th button 4 is depressed, no article is delivered. Then the card is returned and when it is confirmed that the card is extracted by a card detector 3, the sale enable state is reached. Even when the card is not extracted regardless of the lapse of a prescribed time, a take-out forget displav device 5 makes electric lighting, sounding or voice indication or the like. Thus, the card left is surely prevented.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for preventing forgetting to remove a card in a vending machine that sells products based on an ID card, that is, an identification card inserted into the machine.

Conventional technology Conventionally, in vending machines that were able to sell products such as food tickets based on ID cards, when the ID card was inserted into the machine, the information recorded on the card was read,
If the card is determined to be valid, the vending machine is set to be ready to sell products. At this time, if the vending machine sells multiple types of products, the product selection button is enabled and waits for the purchaser to press the button. When the button is pressed, the product is sold and the card is returned.

Problems to be Solved by the Invention However, with such conventional products, the purchaser often forgets to take out the card after receiving the product because the purchaser is so focused on pressing the buttons and picking up the product. There was a point.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to solve these problems and to reliably prevent forgetting to take out a card.

Means for Solving the Problems In order to solve the above problems, the present invention provides a vending machine that sells products based on an ID card inserted into the machine, which reads the information when the card is inserted into the machine. A device that returns the card to the return slot, maintains the product in an unsellable state while the card remains in the return slot, and sets the product in a sellable state when the card is removed from the return slot. It is.

By doing this, the product is not ready for sale unless the purchaser takes out the card from the return slot, so it is reliably prevented that the purchaser forgets to take out the card when purchasing the product.

Embodiment FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a vending machine for implementing the method of the present invention. Here, 1 is a control device such as a microcomputer, and this control device 1 includes a card information reading device 2 and a card detection device 3 for detecting whether or not a card is present in the card return slot.
and a plurality of product selection buttons 4 are connected. The control device 1 also includes a forgotten display device 5 that displays when a product purchaser has forgotten to take out the card returned to the return slot, and a product delivery device that sends the purchased product out of the machine. 6 is connected.

FIGS. 3(a) to 3(C) show details of the card information reading device 2. Here, 11 is an ID card, and personal information is magnetically recorded on the plastic card body. In the card information reading device 2, reference numeral 12 denotes a card insertion/return slot, and a pair of drive rollers 1 are provided on the inside of the machine from the insertion/return slot 12 for taking the card 11 into the machine and ejecting it out of the machine.
3.13 is provided. 14.14 is drive roller 1
3. 13 is a guide roller for sandwiching the card 11; 15 is a guide member for guiding the movement of the card 11.

A magnetic head 16 for reading information recorded on the card 11 is provided between both drive rollers 13,13. The card 11 is guided to the magnetic head 16 by a guide roller 17. Near the insertion and return port 12,
A pair of brake rollers 18,19 are provided. This brake roller has one roller 18 with a spring 20
By being pressed by the other roller 19, the card 11 is held in a depressed state.

The card detection device 3 is provided between the brake rollers 18, 19 and the drive roller 13 closer to the input and return port 12. The guard detection device 3 is composed of, for example, a light emitter 21 and a light receiver 22 as shown in the figure, and these light emitter 21 and light receiver 22 are arranged so as to face each other across the moving path of the card 11. It's being bought.

Next, the operation based on the above configuration will be explained with reference to FIG.

When the operation is started in step 31, the card 11 is inserted in step 32. This is shown in Figure 3 (a
), the product purchaser inserts the card 11 into the insertion/return slot 12, and the card 11 pushes open the brake rollers 19 and reaches the position of the drive roller 13 through the insertion operation. Then, the drive row 513 and the guide roller 14 take the card 11 further into the machine, and the card information is read by the magnetic head 16 as shown in FIG. Determination of validity is performed.

If the card 11 is determined to be valid, step 34
As shown in , the display lamp of the product selection button 4 lights up. However, at this stage, the vending machine is still set to a state in which it cannot sell the product, and even if the purchaser presses the product selection button 4, the product will not be sold.

Next, in step 35, the card 11 is returned. As shown in FIG. 3(C), this means that the drive roller 1
3 is reversed and the card 11 is inserted and returned to the return slot 12. At this time, insert and return port 1
Card 11 immediately after leaving drive roller 13 on the side closer to 2
remains at the speed given by the drive roller 13, and if no precautions are taken, there is a risk that it will fly out of the machine from the insertion/return port 12 due to inertial force. but,
The card 11 that has left the drive roller 13 is braked by the pressing force based on the brake rollers 18 and 19, and is stopped at the insertion and return opening 12. The pressing force of the spring 20 is adjusted so that the card 11 stops at an appropriate position.

In this state, in step 36, the insertion and return port 1 is
The presence or absence of the card 11 in No. 2 is determined. That is,
After the card 11 is returned in step 35, the card 11 is not inserted or removed from the return slot 12 even after a certain period of time has elapsed, and the card detection device 3 as shown in FIG. If the existence of the card 11 is confirmed by the step 37, this fact is displayed.

This display is performed by the forgotten-to-remove display device 5, such as an electric light display such as a lamp, a sound display such as a buzzer, or an audio display, and continues until the purchaser takes out the card 11. Moreover, at this time, the vending machine is still set to a state in which it cannot sell the product, and even if the product selection button 4 is pressed ignoring the display, the product will not be sold.

When the purchaser takes out the card 11 and the presence of the card 11 is no longer detected by the card detection device 3, the product can be sold for the first time in step 38. When the purchaser presses the product selection button 4 in this state, product selection information based on this is read. Then, in step 39, sales processing is performed, and the selected product is sent out from the product delivery device 6. The operation then ends at step 40.

If it is determined in step 33 that the card 11 is invalid and the product cannot be sold using the card 11, the card 11 is returned in step 41 and the process immediately proceeds to step 40.

Effects of the Invention As described above, according to the present invention, products are not sold unless the card is removed from the return slot, so forgetting to take out the card can be reliably prevented.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a flowchart for explaining one embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a schematic structure of a vending machine for implementing the present invention, and FIG. 3 is a card information reading in FIG. FIG. 3 is a detailed diagram of the device. 1... Control device, 2... Card information reading device,
3... Card detection device, 11... ID card, 12
...Insertion and return port. Agent Yoshihiro MorimotoFigure 1

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. In vending machines that sell products based on ID cards inserted into the aircraft, once the card is inserted into the aircraft, the information is read and the card is returned to the return slot. A method for preventing forgetting to remove a card in a vending machine, characterized by maintaining a state in which a product cannot be sold while the card is in use, and setting a state in which the product can be sold when the card is taken out from a return slot.