JPH0363897A - Automatic article circulator - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To automatize the collection, rack movement, and loading of a circulation article such as a video cassette, etc., by providing a control means which compares the old loading data with new loading data of the circulation article and executes the collection, rack movement, and loading of the circulation article by driving an article input/output device. CONSTITUTION:The control means 24 which compares the old loading data with the new loading data of the circulation article and executes the collection, rack movement, and loading of the circulation article by driving the article input/output device 31 is provided. At this time, when the old loading data of the circulation article and the new loading data generated newly are inputted to an article circulator, the control means 24 collates both data, and automatically performs the collection(discharge), rack movement, and loading of the circulation article. In such a way, it is possible to accurately perform the switching of an old article with a new article in spite of the skill level of a clerk, and to prevent such mistake that another circulation article is collected, or the article is moved to or loaded on an incorrect rack accidentally.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (a) Industrial field of application The present invention is applicable to, for example, a video rental device that rents out video cassettes, in which rental items stored in storage shelves are taken out and rented out to customers for use. This invention relates to an automatic item lending machine that returns and stores rental items returned by customers in a storage shelf.

(B) Conventional technology The operation of the video rental device in the above example is as follows:
When the customer inserts their card and operates the function key in rental mode, the video cassette selection input is allowed, and once the selection is confirmed, the video cassette is ejected and the card is returned by paying the fee. .

In addition, when returning the video cassette, if the customer inserts the card in their possession and operates the return mode function key, the video cassette can be returned. will be returned.

By the way, with such a video cassette device, it is necessary to replace the video cassettes (7) and update the video works at regular intervals. Video cassettes are loaded into storage shelves and moved according to the lending rate, but the conventional method of processing is as follows:
The staff arranged and executed the placement of the works based on the list of works to be taken home (list of works to be lent), the list of works to be moved to the shelves, and the list of newly loaded works.

(c) Problems to be solved by the invention However, the conventional method described above is naturally inefficient as it takes a lot of steps and time, and if the technical level of the staff is low, it is difficult to avoid mistakes in loading video cassettes. This problem easily occurred, and there were problems such as the wrong work being lent to the customer during subsequent lending operations.

In view of the above-mentioned problems, this invention enables
To provide an automatic article lending machine that automatically collects, moves, and loads loaned articles such as video cassettes and the like.

(d) Means for Solving the Problems This invention drives an article take-out device to take out rental articles stored in a storage shelf based on a rental article lending instruction or a rental article return instruction. An automatic article lending machine that executes a lending process of discharging the borrowed articles to the take-out and return port, and a return process of returning and storing the rented articles returned to the take-out and return port in the storage shelf, wherein the old loading data of the rented articles is The automatic article lending machine is characterized in that it is equipped with a control means that drives the article loading/unloading device to perform collection, shelf movement, and loading of the rented article by comparing the new loading data with the new loading data.

(E) Effect According to the present invention, by inputting the old rental article loading data and the newly created new loading data into the article automatic lending machine, the control means compares both data and determines the rental article. Automatically controls collection (discharge), shelf movement, and loading.

(f) Effects of the invention Therefore, it is possible to accurately replace old and new rental items regardless of the technical level of the staff member, and it is possible to prevent mistakes such as erroneously collecting other rental items or moving or loading them to the wrong shelf. Time reliability can be dramatically increased.

(g) Examples An embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail below based on the drawings.

The drawings show a video rental device as an example of an automatic item lending machine, and in FIG.
is provided with vertical and horizontal storage shelves 12-... that are shielded by panels 1■ on the front part, and video cassettes are stored in each storage shelf 12-. /<Shelf number a is written on the flannel part.

Moreover, a video cassette take-out/return port 13 is formed in a part of these storage shelves 12 .

Further, a display 1.5 made of a CRT is provided on the upper right side of the front panel 12, and the display 15 displays necessary items such as operating procedures or selection items for the customer.

Function key 16 at the bottom of the above-mentioned display 15
specifies set modes such as lending mode, return mode, return/rent mode in which lending is performed at the same time as return, and attendant mode for collection, shelf movement, and loading in the exchange process of old and new video cassettes, and further, When selecting and borrowing a video cassette from the cassette storage shelf 12 described above, the numeric keypad 17 at the bottom is used to input the shelf number a.

The card insertion slot 18 inserts the card given to the customer,
This card has rental data magnetically recorded in addition to the customer's unique identification data such as the customer's membership code number.

The coin slot 19 and the bill slot 20 are used to insert appropriate coins to pay usage charges or additional charges, the change discharge port 21 discharges change, and the receipt discharge port 22 discharges receipts.

FIG. 2 shows a control circuit of the video rental apparatus 10, and the control section 24 is composed of, for example, a CPU.
includes a ROM 25 and a RAM 26, the ROM 25 stores a program for controlling the various parts in order to drive and control the video rental apparatus 10, and the RAM 26 stores necessary data and constitutes a rental file.

The keyboard unit 27 has the aforementioned function key 1.
6. Includes a numeric keypad 17, and manually inputs operation signals from these keys.

The card reader 28 reads data magnetically recorded on a card inserted into the aforementioned card insertion slot 18, that is, a card given to a customer, or magnetically writes new data.

The money processing unit 29 determines the authenticity and denomination of the coins or banknotes inserted into the coin input slot 19 and the bill input slot 20, calculates the input amount, and releases change to the change output port 21 when necessary. .

The printer unit 30 prints out rental data including usage fees and additional fees on journals and receipts.
The receipt is discharged to the above-mentioned receipt discharge port 22, and when the video cassette is replaced, the replacement data is printed and recorded on the receipt or journal.

The cassette loading/unloading device 31 is located inside the video rental device, and is used to transport and load/unload video cassettes across the cassette storage shelves 12 and the take-out/return port 13, and also to transport video cassettes between the cassette storage shelves. Also performs movement. For such transportation, the cassette loading/unloading device 31 is equipped with a barcode reader 32 for reading the barcode attached to the outer surface of the video cassette. In this case, the barcode represents the work number of the video cassette.

The memory card 33 sends new work conditions (work name,
When a new menu is input as the memory card 33, the control unit 24 compares the stored data of the old memory card with the data of the new memory card. Then, video works to be collected are divided into 0 video works to be moved to shelves, and 0 video works to be newly loaded.

Collection, shelf movement, and loading of video cassettes by inserting a new memory card are performed in the attendant mode, and this attendant mode can be set using the aforementioned function key 16 or by using the function key 16 of the video rental device 10 shown in FIG. A door key switch 35 is provided on the front door 34 shown, and an attendant key switch 36 is provided inside the door opened by operating the key switch 35, and settings are made by operating the attendant key switch 36.

FIG. 3 shows an example of data arrangement on a memory card 33. This memory card 33 is of a battery backup type with a capacity of several tens of kilobits, and is removable. As shown in FIG. Data such as a barcode number and rental fee are written on the memory card, and it is normally connected to the control unit 24, but it can be replaced with a new memory card.

The video cassette collection, shelf movement, and loading processing operations of the video rental apparatus 10 configured as described above will be explained with reference to the work exchange flowchart shown in FIG.

First, the function key 16 is used to instruct the attendant mode. When not using the function key 16, open the door 34 with the door key switch 35, instruct the attendant mode with the internal attendant key switch 36, then press the YES button to input that you want to replace the memory card with a new one, and display The memory card 33 is exchanged as the device 15 guides the execution of the exchange (steps nl, n2.n3.n4, device 15.n6.n7).

When the exchange is executed, the display 15 displays the new memory card contents, so when the YES button is pressed after confirmation, the contents are printed on the receipt and journal, and then the receipt is ejected. Also, if the door 34 is open, it will guide you to close it (steps n8.n9.nlo, nil
, n12. nl 3, n 14. n 15.
n16).

When there are video cassettes to be collected due to the memory card exchange described above, the video cassettes are taken out one by one and ejected into the return port 13, and the number of remaining video cassettes to be ejected is decremented and displayed on the tableware 15 ( Step n1.7.n18°n19).

Next, when all releases are completed and there are no more works to be collected and there are video cassettes to be moved to the shelf, the video cassettes are similarly moved one by one to the shelf, and the remaining number of video cassettes to be moved to the shelf is Display 15 while reducing the number of books
(Steps n20.n21.n22).

Next, when all the shelf movement processing is completed and there is a new video cassette to be loaded, the display 15 guides the insertion of the cassette into the take-out and return opening 13.

This loading is performed for each video cassette, and during this time each video cassette is checked for defects, and defective cassettes are ejected.

In addition, even if the video cassette is a normal video cassette, if it is currently being loaned out, the same video work will be duplicated, so in this case as well, it will be discharged as unstorable (steps n23.n24.n25゜n26.n27). .n28.n
29. n30. n31).

When all the processes of collection, shelf movement, and loading are completed in this way, the executed processing data is printed on the receipt and journal, only the receipt is released, and the executed processing data is also transmitted to the host computer. End (step n32.n33゜n 34.n 35.n
36).

In this way, when exchanging new and old video cassettes, collection, shelf movement, and loading are all performed automatically by the video cassette device itself, so the staff only have to replace the memory card and press the buttons afterward, allowing the operator to cut the video. exchange means are greatly reduced and expedited, and human errors in retrieval, shelving and loading are avoided.

In the configuration of this invention, the article loading/unloading device corresponds to the cassette loading/unloading device 31 of the above-mentioned embodiment, similarly, the loading data is stored in the memory card 33, and the control means is the control unit 2.
Although the present invention corresponds to 4, the present invention is not limited to only the configuration of the embodiment, including other configurations.

Although an embodiment of the present invention has been described using a video rental device as an example, the present invention is not limited to this and can be widely applied to automatic article lending machines.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

The drawings show an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 1 is a front view of a video rental device, FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a control circuit of the video rental device, FIG. 3 is a data arrangement diagram of a memory card, and FIG. 4 is a flowchart diagram when exchanging a video cassette. 10...Video rental device 12...Cassette storage shelf 24...Control unit 31...Cassette loading/unloading device 33...Memory card arrangement Figure 4 ('e-2)

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) A lending process of driving an article loading/unloading device to take out the rented article stored in the storage shelf and release it to the take-out/return port based on a command to rent out the rented article or a command to return the rented article; The automatic article lending machine executes a return process of returning and storing the rented article returned to the take-out and return port in the storage shelf, and the machine compares old loading data and new loading data of the rented article, and returns the rented article to the storage shelf. An automatic article dispensing machine comprising a control means for collecting, moving, and loading articles by driving the article loading/unloading device.