JPH04184592A - Account settling device for card - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enable an account settling device for card to store all transaction data by limiting the number of cards usable per one transaction when the remaining capacity of a transaction data storing memory becomes smaller than a prescribed amount and providing a standby storing area in corresponding to the number of cards. CONSTITUTION:After a near-end detection circuit 5 detects that the remaining capacity of a transaction data storing memory 4 becomes smaller than a prescribed amount, a card settling number limiting circuit 6 limits the number of card usable per one transaction to a prescribed number and, at the same time, a standby storing area is provided in corresponding to a prescribed number of cards. Accordingly, settled accounts can be stored up to prescribed number at the time of settling account in one transaction. Therefore, the occurrence of such a trouble that storage of transaction data in the transaction data storing memory 4 becomes impossible while one transaction is made with a prescribed number of cards can be eliminated.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Summary] Regarding a card payment device that performs card payments, when the remaining capacity of the transaction data storage memory that stores transaction data is low, the number of cards that can be used in one transaction is limited. The purpose of the present invention is to store all transaction data from a plurality of predetermined cards used in transactions in a transaction data storage memory, and includes a payment amount registration section for registering transaction amounts, and a payment amount registration section for inputting cards and registering them in the payment amount registration section. a card payment processing unit that deducts the amount from the card and records the remaining amount on the card; a transaction data storage memory that stores transaction data settled by the card payment processing unit, one transaction per card; and a transaction data storage memory that stores transaction data settled by the card payment processing unit; It is detected that the remaining amount of the storage area of the memory has fallen below a predetermined amount and/or has reached a predetermined amount. A memory monitoring unit, a card payment number limiting circuit that limits the number of cards that can be used per transaction at this time to a predetermined number, and a transaction data transmitting unit that transmits the contents of the transaction data storage memory to a host device, A configuration is provided in which a number of spare storage areas corresponding to the predetermined number of coins are provided at the rear end of the transaction data storage memory.

[Industrial application field] The present invention relates to a card payment device that performs card payments.

Here, a card initially has a value equivalent to a predetermined amount of money, and when a payment is made using this card, the value equivalent to the payment amount decreases (hereinafter referred to as a card).

In recent years, cards are increasingly being used as a substitute for cash in the commercial field. For this reason, card payment devices have become popular in which a transaction amount is registered and the transaction amount is debited from the card by inserting the card. If the card payment device has a host device, it is necessary to transmit transaction data to the host device when card payment is performed. If a card payment was made, an inquiry was made to the host device at that point and the transaction data was sent, but it would take too much time to send and receive the data. It is necessary to store the transaction data in a transaction data storage memory prepared for storage, and to transfer it all at once at the time of transmission. Also, when storing one transaction data in the transaction data storage memory, one data is stored for one card payment.If multiple cards are used for payment in one transaction, the card It is necessary to create the same number of data as the number of sheets and store all of that data.

[Conventional technology] In conventional card payment devices, when a card payment is made, it is necessary to manage the total amount of the issued card and the amount of the card in circulation, and if a problem occurs with the card, the amount of the card must be managed. It is necessary to manage the card for reasons such as to guarantee the transaction data (Card N
O0, transaction amount, etc.) is stored in a transaction data storage memory prepared in advance so that a certain amount of transaction data can be stored, for each card payment.
When multiple cards are used for payment in one transaction, all the data is stored. The data stored in this transaction data storage memory is sent in batches to a higher-level device in units of a predetermined period, and is aggregated as management data in the higher-level device.

However, since the transaction data storage memory can only store a certain amount of transaction data, if there is not enough memory left in the transaction data storage memory and a transaction is made using multiple cards for one transaction. When the remaining memory runs out, payment data using Feng's card will no longer be stored.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and
When the remaining amount of transaction data storage memory that stores transaction data is low, the number of cards that can be used in one transaction is limited, and all transaction data from a predetermined number of cards used in one transaction is stored as transaction data. An object of the present invention is to provide a card payment device that stores information in a memory.

[Means to solve the problem]

In order to achieve the above object, the card payment device of the present invention includes:
A payment amount registration unit that registers the transaction amount; a card payment processing unit that inputs a card and deducts the amount registered in the payment amount registration unit from the card and records the remaining amount on the card; A transaction data storage memory that stores one transaction data per transaction, and detects that the remaining amount of the storage area of this transaction data storage memory is less than a predetermined amount and /' or has reached a predetermined amount. A memory monitoring unit, a card payment number limiting circuit that limits the number of cards that can be used per transaction at this time to a predetermined number, and a transaction data transmitting unit that transmits the contents of the transaction data storage memory to a host device, A number of spare storage areas corresponding to the predetermined number of coins are provided at the rear end of the transaction data storage memory.

[For production]

With the above configuration, when the remaining storage area of the transaction data storage memory reaches a predetermined amount, the number of cards that can be used per transaction is limited to the predetermined number, and an area remains that can store only the last one card transaction. Even if one transaction using the predetermined number of cards is to be stored when the card is stored, the transaction data of the first card is stored in the remaining transaction storage area C2, and the transaction data of the remaining cards is stored in the last storage area. After the area where transaction data is stored, it is stored in a number (predetermined number - 1) of spare areas provided according to the predetermined number of cards, so all the transaction data from the card used for one transaction is stored in the transaction data storage memory. It will be stored. Note that when the last transaction is settled using a cart with less than a predetermined number of carts, the remaining reserve area remains unused.

Example of implementation Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to one page.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, 1 is an amount registration unit that registers the amount for each transaction. 2 is a card to settle this transaction; 3 is a card payment processing section that reads the current amount of this card 2, and records the remaining amount after subtracting the amount registered in the amount registration section 1 from the current amount of this card on the card 2. Reference numeral 4 denotes a transaction data storage memory, which stores transaction data settled by the card payment processing section 3 as one transaction data per transaction of one card.

A near-end detection circuit 5 detects a near-end located near the end of the storage area of the transaction data storage memory 4. Reference numeral 6 denotes a card payment number limiting circuit which, when near-end is detected by the near-end detection circuit 5, limits the number of cards used in one transaction after this detection to a predetermined number. 7 is a transaction data transmitting section 7 which transmits the transaction data stored almost completely in the transaction data storage section 4 to the host device 8.

FIG. 2 shows the storage area of the transaction data storage memory 4. The storage area of the transaction data storage memory 4 consists of a management record located at the beginning of the memory 4 for storing management data, and a transaction data record for storing transaction data.

FIG. 3 shows the management record format. The management record contains
A completion pointer, a near-end pointer, an end pointer, and an edit pointer are stored, and the completion pointer is the record number where the latest transaction data is written (edited),
, and the edit pointer indicates the column (digit) position within the record where the next transaction data is to be edited. The near-end pointer is the record number indicating the near-end of the file (transaction data storage memory 4), and if the record number of the transaction data to be stored exceeds this near-end pointer, a file near-end alarm is issued. The capacity of this file is 64 KB as shown in FIG. 2, and the near-end pointer is set to record number 249 in consideration of the number of transaction data and the file capacity. The end pointer is a record number indicating the end of the file. The end pointer of this file is N
o, 254. Transaction data can only be stored up to this end pointer 254-1 = 253 records.

FIG. 4 shows the data creation buffer provided in the card payment processing unit 3 shown in the first episode. When this buffer is full, it is stored in the transaction data record of the transaction data storage memory 4 in the same format. The fifth example shows an example of how the memory area after the near end is used. If the near end of a file is detected, create settlement data for all transactions stored in this file (data on how many transactions there are in this file and how much they were settled) and the contents stored in this file. Priority is given to the process of transmitting to the host device 8. However, it takes a certain amount of time to send the data, and customers often appear during this time.
If processing is performed using a single card, it is possible to process IO transactions and log transaction data. Record No. 254 is reserved as an unused area for one transaction (using one card). Record No. 2
55 is a settlement data storage area. Record No. 25
6 is not usable, and data indicating that it is final is entered here during transmission.

In this embodiment, an area corresponding to one transaction using one card is reserved as a reserve area, so the record number.

In the second half of 253, that is, after M, when there is only space left for one card to store one transaction data, even if a customer appears who uses two cards for one transaction, the transaction using the second card is reserved. By using , it is possible to ensure that all of this transaction data (two pieces of data in total) can be stored in a file.

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram showing the operation of this embodiment. First, input the amount required for the transaction into the amount registration section 1, and transfer the card 2 to the card payment processing section 3 in order to settle this amount by card.
Insert into. It is determined whether the insertion of the card 2 is an error (step 61), and if it is an error, error processing is performed (step 62), and the card is ejected. If there is no error (step 61), the card payment is made and the remaining amount in the cart 2 is updated to the value obtained by subtracting the amount entered from the amount registration unit 1 from the remaining amount on the card (step 63). Next, if the input amount cannot be paid using only this card, there will be a balance of payment, so this check is performed (step 64), and if there is no balance of payment, the card is ejected and the process ends ( Step 65). If there is a balance remaining (Step 6)
4) The near-end detection circuit 5 checks whether the transaction data storage memory 4 has reached the near-end (step 66), and if it has not reached the near-end, the card is ejected and the remaining payment is processed with the next card. . If you have reached the near end (step 66), count the number of cards used for this transaction since entering the near end (step 67), and if this has not reached 2, eject the card and use the next card to make the payment. conduct. If there are two or more cards (step 68), the cards are ejected and the card payment for this transaction is completed.

Unpaid balances will be settled by cash or other methods other than credit cards.

Note that although the above explanation has been made assuming that the number of cards that can be used for payment of one transaction after near-end detection is two, it is also possible to set the limit number to n.

In that case, n-1 spare areas are provided, which is one less than the limited number of cards n.

[Effects of the Invention] As is clear from the above description, the present invention limits the number of cards used in one transaction to a predetermined number after detecting that the remaining memory in the transaction data storage memory has fallen below a certain amount. By increasing the number of transactions that can be made, and by providing a storage OI area corresponding to the predetermined number of cards, card payments up to the predetermined number of cards can be stored in one transaction. As a result, it is possible to eliminate the inconvenient situation where transaction data cannot be stored in the transaction data storage memory during a transaction and a predetermined number of cards are being used.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG.
The figure shows an example of the structure of the transaction data storage memory, Figure 3 shows the management record format of the transaction data storage memory, Part 4 shows the record format of the data creation buffer, and Figure 5 shows the transaction data storage. FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of how the memory area is used after the near end of the memory. In the figure, 1-amount registration unit, 2-card, 3-card payment processing unit, 4-transaction data storage memory, 5-near-end detection circuit, 6-card payment number limit circuit, 7-transaction data transmission unit, 8 - Upper device. Patent applicant: Fujitsu Limited, 2)
1. Representative Patent Attorney Sada Igeta - (and 2 others) 1.
! , -'jl... -; -2ri/ Figure 1 Structure of transaction data storage memory Figure 2 Management record format data creation buffer Figure 4 Example of memory area usage after near end Figure 5

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1) A payment amount registration unit that registers the transaction amount, a card payment processing unit that inputs a card, deducts the amount registered in the payment amount registration unit from the card, and records the remaining amount on the card, and this card payment processing unit. A transaction data storage memory that stores one settled transaction data per transaction per card, and detects that the remaining storage area of this transaction data storage memory has fallen below a predetermined amount and/or has reached a predetermined amount. a memory monitoring unit that controls the transaction, a card payment number limiting circuit that limits the number of cards that can be used per transaction at this time to a predetermined number, and a transaction data transmitting unit that transmits the contents of the transaction data storage memory to a host device, A card payment device characterized in that a spare storage area corresponding to the predetermined number of cards is provided at the rear end of the transaction data storage memory.