JPH02281829A - Terminal equipment of data collecting/allotting system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To always secure one or more abnormal communication lines and to surely transfer and receive an optical signal by dispersing and providing plural light emitting elements or light receiving elements on a terminal. CONSTITUTION:Plural terminals 2 are arranged, and three master machines 6A-6C are attached in the upper part. Also, for instance, the terminal 2A has three light sending/receiving devices 11A-11C having the directivity for sending and receiving an optical signal to and from each master machine 6A-6C, respectively, and these sending/receiving devices contain a light emitting element 12, a light receiving element 13 and a light receiving/emitting circuit. In such a way, since plural light emitting elements 12 or light receiving elements 13 are placed by dispersing them in different positions of the terminal 2, even if a path of some light emitting element or light receiving element is shielded, or the light emitting element or the light receiving element causes a fault, the data transmission by an optical signal is executed surely by a different path.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] (Industrial application field) The present invention relates to a terminal for a data collection and distribution system.

(Prior Art) There are vending machines that sell various goods using cash or prepaid cards, and service providing machines that provide various services. Such vending machines and service providing machines can be understood as terminals.

Various information is given to the above terminal from the control/processing device. Further, various types of information from such terminals, such as information such as sales quantities and sales amounts, are taken into the control/processing device and various aggregation processes are performed.

(Task Tg to be Solved by the Invention) In order to exchange various information between the terminal and the control/processing device, conventionally, so-called wired connections have been made using wire lines or optical fiber lines. In the case of such a wired connection, there are various problems caused by it, such as the need for complicated wiring work, the wiring work becoming more complicated as the number of terminals increases, and the difficulty of wiring when adding terminals or moving. - Once wired, the movement of the terminal is restricted; furthermore, when wire is used for wiring, it is susceptible to external noise; If optical fiber wires are used to make them less susceptible to damage, there are various drawbacks such as difficulty in branching and wiring work.

The present invention has been made in view of the above, and its purpose is to:
In order to resolve the various difficulties caused by the wired connection mentioned above,
To provide a terminal of a data collection and distribution system capable of reliably transmitting information from the terminal to the control/processing device without being affected by obstructions even when communicating between the control/processing device and the terminal by optical wireless. There is a particular thing.

(Means for Solving the Problems) The terminal of the first data collection and distribution system of the present invention collects sales information, etc. from terminals that sell various goods or provide various services using cash or prepaid cards. In the terminal of the data collection and distribution system, in which various types of information are emitted into space as optical signals from a light emitting element, and the optical signals are received by a receiver of a control/processing section, a plurality of light emitting elements are used as the light emitting elements. It is constructed by distributing and disposing the objects at different locations.

The terminal of the second data collection and distribution system of the present invention controls and
In the terminal of the data collection and distribution system, the optical signal from the transmitter of the processing unit is received by a light receiving element of a terminal that sells various goods or provides various services with taxes or prepaid cards, The light-receiving element is configured such that a plurality of light-receiving elements are distributed and arranged at different positions.

(Function) A plurality of light-emitting elements or light-receiving elements are distributed and arranged at different positions on the terminal. Therefore, even if the light emitting element of one set and the receiver or between the light receiving element and the transmitter of one set is shielded or malfunctions, the optical signal will be transmitted reliably in the other set. Or received.

(Embodiment) FIG. 3 is an overall schematic diagram of a data collection and distribution system to which the present invention is applied. In the figure, the upper half of the line L-L shows the control/processing unit 1, and the lower half shows the terminal 2 as an embodiment of the present invention. The control/processing unit 1 communicates with the terminal 2 using optical signals.

The terminals 2 are various vending machines and various service providing machines. The terminal 2 communicates with the control/processing unit 1 using optical signals.

More specifically, the control device 4 of the control/processing unit 1 sends a transmission request signal containing ID data to a specific terminal 2 to the base device 6.6. Send to... Sometimes there is only one parent device. Each main unit 6 emits a request signal having an infrared ray emitting element into space in response to the transmission request signal.

The transmission request signal from the optical transmitter 6a of each base unit 6 is sent to the terminal (
It is received by the optical receiver 2a of the slave device 2. If it is determined that the ID data in the transmission request signal is its own, it moves on to the next transmission operation. That is, after adding an error control code to various types of transmission data requested to be transmitted and subjecting them to predetermined modulation, the data is emitted into space as an optical signal from the optical transmitter 2b.

The transmission data from the terminal 2 is sent to the pre-reception 1 = part 6b of each base unit 6.
received at After the received transmission data is subjected to predetermined processing, only the data determined to have been properly received is collected in the collection/distribution device 5.

The collection and distribution device 5 further processes the collected data, and if it is determined that there is no error, the control device 4
It is also sent to the center 3 upon request. The control device 4 and the center 3 perform processing such as predetermined aggregation.

FIG. 4 shows terminals 2, 2. . . . A plurality of base units 6A to 6C are installed above (for example, on the ceiling). For example, if we pay attention to a certain terminal 2A, this terminal 2A is connected to each base unit 6A to 6C.
and 3 with directivity to transmit and receive optical f5 individually.
It has two light transmitters and receivers (IIA to 11C in FIG. 1).

As can be seen from FIG. 5, by arranging a plurality of light transmitters and receivers for two terminals, more than one communication path can be secured at all times. It is also possible to direct a plurality of light transmitters and receivers toward the same base unit.

FIG. 1 shows an example of the appearance of the terminal 2A. As can be seen from FIG. 1, this terminal 2A has the above-mentioned three light transmitters and receivers 118 to 11C. These light transmitters and receivers include a light emitting cord 12, a light receiving element 13, and a light receiving and emitting circuit. The light transmitter/receiver 11A is connected to the base unit 6A and the light transmitter/receiver 1
1B transmits and receives optical signals to and from the base unit 6B, and the light transceiver 11C transmits and receives optical signals to and from the base unit 6C, respectively. Each of the light transmitters and receivers 11A to IIC has a light emitting element 12 and a light receiving element 13, respectively.

This terminal 2A is an example of a vending machine for a certain item, and when money is inserted into the money slot 15 or a prepaid card is inserted into the card insertion slot 16, the item is obtained at the item takeout port 18. It will be done.

The inside of this terminal 2A is schematically shown in FIG. The light transmitters/receivers 11A to 11C include a light receiving/emitting circuit, and the light receiving/emitting circuit is connected to the circuit 23. The optical signal received by the light-receiving element 13 is transmitted to the circuit 23 as an electric signal, and conversely, the electric signal from the circuit 23 is emitted into space from the light-emitting cable 12 as an optical signal via the light-receiving/receiving circuit. A card reading section 21 for reading a prepaid card inserted into the card insertion slot 1-6 is also connected to the circuit 23. A sales mechanism 22 is provided inside the article outlet 18. Such a terminal 2A is placed on the floor or on a stand.

Such a usage state of the terminal 2A is shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, for example. When a person stands in front of this terminal 2A and attempts to purchase an item, as can be seen from FIGS. This becomes impossible due to the shielding of However, as can be seen from FIG.
It is possible to transmit and receive optical signals between the transmitter/receiver 11C and the base unit 6C. Therefore, a route for transmitting and receiving optical signals between the terminal 2A and any of the base units is secured.

FIG. 7 shows different examples of arrangement of the light transmitter/receiver 11 with respect to the terminal. That is, a plurality of light transmitters and receivers 11.
11. ... are arranged, and their light transmitters and receivers 11, 11 .
. . , are directed to an arbitrary base unit 6.

FIG. 8 shows a plurality of terminals 6, 6. . . is a top view showing an example of how the light transmitter/receiver 11 is attached when they are arranged in close contact with each other. In this case, each terminal 6, 6 . ... and a small number of light transmitters and receivers 11゜11, ...
Arbitrarily selected terminal 2, 2. It is attached to...

FIG. 9 and FIG. hJ410 show examples of how to attach the light transmitter/receiver when the position of the light transmitter/receiver is restricted due to the characteristics of the terminal's sales organization, etc.

In this case, the light emitting element 12 and the light receiving element 13 are arranged vertically in a row on both sides on the front surface of the terminal 2, and these elements 12.1
One receiving/emitting circuit 25 serves as the third receiving/emitting circuit. Each light-emitting cable 12 and light-receiving element 13 is directed toward an arbitrary separate base unit 6.

In the above embodiment, multi-directional communication is shown, but only information such as sales is sent from the terminal, or f4ai! The same applies to the case of one-way communication such as sending a person's command etc. to a terminal.

(Effects of the Invention) According to the present invention, even in a system in which data is transmitted from a terminal to a control/processing device or vice versa by optical wireless, a plurality of light emitting elements or light receiving elements are distributed in the terminal. Therefore, even if the path of a certain light-emitting element or light-receiving element is blocked or a certain light-emitting element or light-receiving element fails, data transmission by optical signals can be reliably performed through a different path.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective explanatory view of one embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a schematic longitudinal sectional side view thereof, FIG. 3 is an overall configuration diagram of a system to which the present invention is applied, and FIG. 4 is an illustration of the apparatus shown in FIG. 1. FIG. 6 is a plan view and side view showing an example of the use of the device in FIG. 1, FIG. 7 is a perspective view of a different embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. Plan view of still another embodiment of
Figures 1 and 10 are a front view and a vertical side view of still another embodiment of the present invention. 1... Control/processing unit, 2, 2A... Terminal, 6, 6A
~6C... Master unit, 11. IIA-11C... Light transmitter/receiver, 12... Light emitting element, 13... Light receiving element.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. Emit various information such as sales information from a terminal that sells various goods or provides various services using cash or prepaid cards into space as an optical signal from a light emitting element, In the terminal of the data collection and distribution system, the optical signal is received by a receiver of the control/processing section, wherein a plurality of light emitting elements are distributed and arranged at different positions as the light emitting element. A terminal for the collection and distribution system. 2. A data collection and distribution system in which the optical signal from the transmitter of the control/processing unit is received by the light-receiving element of the terminal that sells various goods or provides various services with tax or prepaid cards. The terminal of the data collection and distribution system, wherein the terminal includes a plurality of light-receiving elements distributed and arranged at different positions as the light-receiving element.