JPH0250792A - Card processor - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To execute the unified processing of respective kind cards by providing the processing function of the card of unlimited using number of times with effective period definition. CONSTITUTION:When an effective period is defined to the title device and a card of which the using number of times within the period is not limited and to which using information is added is inserted, the card is carried to a reading/writing means 21 by a carrier means 7 to receive the control of a control means 20. The reading/writing means 21 reads the using information involving the effective period of the card to send it to discriminating means 23. A printing means 16 prints out effective period information on the card when the discriminating means 23 discriminates the card proper, and a display means 5 displays the effective period information. Thus, processing is possible also on the card like a one day ticket card, and a processing mode can be unified.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Object of the Invention] (Industrial Application Field) The present invention relates to a card processing device, and more particularly to a card processing device used as one of the fare payment processing systems of transportation facilities.

(Prior Art) In recent years, card processing devices that use prepaid cards with magnetic information (hereinafter referred to as "cards") have been put into practical use, for example, in bus fare payment processing systems, and have been used to process ordinary and one-time fare payments. We process cards sold for payment of one-month, three-month, etc. commuter passes.

In such conventional devices, charges for one-time users are handled by reduction processing of magnetic information attached to the card, and charges for regular users are handled by reduction processing using a card sold as a commuter pass. This can be handled by checking the date information on the card. However, for example, there is no function to process cards that can be used an unlimited number of times within a certain period (for example, from the day of first use) (also referred to as a "-8 ticket card" under IX). ,
In the past, the above-mentioned ticket valid for a specific period of time was usually not used as a card, but as an ordinary paper ticket with specific date information, amount, etc. attached.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) As described above, the conventional device cannot process, for example, a -8 ticket card, and as a result, there is a problem in that it impedes the unification of fare processing in the bus fare processing system.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a card processing device which is capable of processing cards such as a -8 ticket card and which can unify processing modes.

[Structure of the Invention] (Means for Solving the Problems) The card processing device of the present invention takes in a card with usage information that has a limited validity period and an unlimited number of uses within that period, A conveying means for conveying, a reading/writing means for reading usage information of a card conveyed by the conveying means and rewriting this usage information, a determining means for determining whether or not the usage information read by the reading/writing means is appropriate; a printing means for printing validity period information on the card based on the determination result of the determination means; and a validity period of the card.
The apparatus includes a display means for displaying period information, and a control means for controlling the operation of each of the means based on the determination result of the determination means.

(for production) The operation of the apparatus having the above configuration will be explained below.

When a card with usage information that has a limited validity period and an unlimited number of uses within that period is inserted into this device, this card is transported to the read/write means by a transport means controlled by the restriction means. be done.

The read/write means sends usage information including the validity period of the card to the read/write determination means.

The printing means prints the validity period information on the card when the discriminating means determines that the card is suitable, and at this time, the display means displays the validity period information.

Further, when the determining means determines that the card is not accepted, each means performs an operation different from the above-described operation under the control of the control means.

(Example) Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows the external appearance of the device 1 of this embodiment. This card processing device 1 has a rectangular parallelepiped device main body 2, and a top panel portion 2a of this device main body 2 has a card insertion slot 3.
, a selection switch 4 for selecting various fee processing, etc., a display means 5 using a group of light emitting diodes 5a and a liquid crystal display 5b with six digit segments, and a card ejection port 6 are provided.

FIG. 2 shows the internal configuration of the card processing device 1. Inside the device 1, there is a card conveyor that constitutes a conveying means in an area extending from the vicinity of the card insertion opening 3 to the vicinity of the card ejection opening 6. 7 is provided. This card conveyor 7 is driven by a card motor 8.

Further, a shutter 11 is provided between the card insertion slot 3 and the entrance of the card conveyor 7 and is driven by a card insertion sensor 9 and a shutter solenoid 10 to open and close the card conveyance path. A pick-up sensor 12 is provided at the exit of the card conveyor 7.

A magnetic head 13 as a reading/writing means with the head surface facing upward is provided in the middle part of the card conveyor 7;
A tip sensor 14 located on the left side of the magnetic head 13 in FIG. 2 and a rear end sensor 15 located on the right side of the magnetic head 13 in FIG. 2 are provided.

Roughly to the right of the rear end sensor 15, a thermal printer 16 as a printing means is provided.

Next, the control system of the apparatus of this embodiment will be explained with reference to FIG.

This control system includes a control unit 21 that performs overall control, and information indicating whether the card is valid or invalid (format of magnetic information is the same below).
, date information with a clock function, -8 ticket card, commuter pass card, identification information of the card whose fee information is rewritten every time, usage fee information, and a storage unit 22 that stores the operation program of this device. A control means 20 is provided.

The control section 21 of the control means 20 includes a determination means 23 that determines whether the card is valid or invalid, determines whether it is a day pass card or not, and determines whether the card is used for the first time, that is, determines whether the card is appropriate or not. It is connected.

Roughly speaking, each element of the card processing device 1 described above is connected to the control section 21.

FIG. 4 shows the details of the display means 5. The display means 5 includes four light emitting diodes constituting the light emitting diode group 5a, and a display indicating whether the light emitting diodes are enabled or disabled and marked next to each light emitting diode. A character display 5b is provided for displaying characters such as "Insufficient amount" and "Used amount" and the date.

As shown in FIG. 6(a), the card used for processing by this device has the characters "Prepaid Card - Day Card" written on the upper part of the front side, and a magnetic stripe MS is provided on the back side. , Usage information such as validity period information indicating the validity period (for example, - days) and information on the unlimited number of uses are recorded on this magnetic stripe MS.

Next, the operation of the device having the above configuration is mainly focused on the processing operation of the card (-day pass card), and FIGS. 5 and 6 (a)
), (b) and FIG. 7.

The card in the hand of the card purchaser (bus user) is
It is as shown in FIG. 6(a) already mentioned.

When a user inserts this card into the card insertion slot 3 when paying a bus fare (ST1), this insertion state is detected by the card insertion sensor 9, and the detection result is sent to the control unit 2.
Sent to 1. Based on the detection result, the control unit 21
The card motor 9 is driven in the α direction. As a result, the card conveyor 7 is driven in the X direction and conveys the card so as to pass over the head surface of the magnetic head 13.

At this time, under the control of the control unit 21, the magnetic head 13 moves the validity period (
- day) information is read (ST2>), and the reading result is sent to the control unit 21.

The reading result, information indicating whether the card is valid or invalid, identification information, usage fee information, etc. stored in the storage unit 22 are sent by the control unit 21 to the determination unit 23. As a result, the determination unit 23 first , it is determined whether the card is valid or invalid (for example, whether the shape of the card is appropriate or not) (ST3).

When the determining section 23 determines that the card is invalid, the control section 21 controls the card motor 8. based on the determination result. The card conveyor 7 is reversed and the card is returned to the card insertion slot 3 (ST4).

On the other hand, when it is determined in step 3 that the card is valid, the light emitting diode indicating validity on the display means 5 lights up, and the determination means 23 roughly determines whether or not this card is a one-day pass (5T5). If it is determined that the card is not a -day ticket, each element of this device 1 processes the valid card other than the one-day ticket (commuter pass processing, etc.) under the control of the control unit 21 (ST9), and then , cards other than the -8 ticket are ejected to the card outlet 6 (ST10).

When it is determined in step 5 that the card is a one-day pass, the determining means 23 roughly determines whether the card is used for the first time (ST6), and if the card is not used for the first time, the determination result to that effect is controlled. The information is sent to Department 21. Based on this determination result, the control section 21 causes the liquid crystal display 5b of the display means 5 to display the date of use (for example, May 7, 1963) (ST8).

On the other hand, if it is determined in steps 3 and 4.5 that the card is valid, a -day ticket, and has been used for the first time, the magnetic head 13 moves the card under the control of the control section 21. The date information of the date of use, the time, and the information indicating the used state read out from the storage unit 22 are written in the magnetic stripe MS of the magnetic stripe MS, and the date of use is displayed on the character display 5b of the display means 5. As shown in Figure (b), the year of use is printed on the front of the card by controlling the printing means 16.

Characters indicating the 2nd day of the month are printed (ST7).

Thereafter, this card is ejected to the card ejection port 6 as shown in FIG.

This ejected card becomes a valid card that can be used from day to day, and when it is inserted into the card slot 3 again, it can be immediately determined from the magnetic information re-recorded in step 7 that it is not the first card used, and in this case, Only the date display by the display means 5 in step 7 described above is executed, and then the card is immediately ejected.

Furthermore, if this card is inserted into the card insertion slot 3 the next day, it will no longer be a valid card and will be returned. At this time, a light emitting diode indicating that the display means 5 is disabled may be displayed.

Furthermore, if a card processing device that can read, judge, and write two or more types of magnetic recording methods simultaneously is used, the magnetic information re-recorded in step 7 above will be converted to a different method from the previous method. It is also possible to do so.

For example, an example of converting from the F2F system to the NRZ-1 system can be given.

The present invention is not limited to the embodiments described above, and various modifications can be made within the scope of the invention.

For example, the validity period of the card is not limited to one day as described above, but can be arbitrarily set to three days, three days, etc.

Furthermore, this card can be used not only for the user to purchase and use it, but also as a gift to others.

[Effects of the Invention] According to the present invention described in detail above, there is provided a card processing device which is also equipped with a processing function for cards with a limited validity period and an unlimited number of uses, and is capable of processing various cards in a unified manner. be able to.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is an external perspective view showing an embodiment of the device of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a schematic sectional view showing the internal structure of the device, Fig. 3 is a block diagram showing the control system of the device, and Fig. 4 is the device. 5 is a plan view showing the display means of the device, FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing a state in which the card is ejected from the card ejection port of the device, FIG. 6(a) is a plan view showing the card in this embodiment, and FIG. (b) is a plan view showing a state in which the date is printed on the same card as above, and FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing card processing in the embodiment apparatus. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1... Card processing device, 7... Card transport conveyor, 13... Magnetic head, 16... Printing means, 20
...control means, 23...discrimination means. Agent Patent Attorney Masayoshi Misawa Diagram MS (a) (b) Diagram

Claims (1)

[Claims] A conveyance means that takes in and conveys a card with usage information that has a limited validity period and an unlimited number of uses within that period, and reads and uses the usage information of the card conveyed by this conveyance means. a reading/writing means for rewriting information; a determining means for determining the validity period of the usage information read by the reading/writing means; a printing means for printing validity period information on the card based on the determination result of the determining means; A card processing device comprising: display means for displaying validity period information of the card; and control means for controlling the operation of each of the means based on the determination result of the determination means.