JPH04346196A - Book ordering system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve service and to automate office work by permitting a bookstore to send order information regardless of the presence or absence of a slip when a book is ordered, allowing an agency to search the book even when the order information is uncertain and to answer the delivery date of the book on the spot. CONSTITUTION:A terminal equipment converting the order information into a character code is arranged on the bookstore, and a book database, including the stored goods amount for each book and a computer equipped with a retrieval means are arranged on the agent. When the character code is inputted from the bookstore, the agent checks the amount of the stored goods and answers the delivery date on the spot. When the order information at the bookstore is uncertain, the book is retrieved by the book database by taking partial information as a key. When the book can not be found, the order is not received.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0001

[Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a book ordering method when ordering books from a bookstore to a distributor, and in particular, the present invention relates to an optical character recognition technology (Optical Character Recognition technology).
The present invention relates to a book ordering method using OCR (hereinafter abbreviated as OCR).

0002

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Conventionally, when ordering a book, the following method is used. In other words, (1) a slip (
(2) If there is no slip,
There were three common methods: (1) filling out an order slip and sending it to a distributor, or (3) placing an order by voice over the phone if there was no slip or if the order was urgent.

0003

However, the conventional book ordering method described above has a drawback in that the distributor must always have a large number of people available for processing (1) to (3). Furthermore, when using the audio in (3), there is a risk that the orderer may make a mistake in saying something, or the agency may make a mishearing or transcription mistake, which may cause trouble. Therefore, O.C.
A book ordering device that optically reads books using the R device has been devised, but it is limited to cases where there is a slip mentioned in (1) above, and when orders are received from customers at a store or additional orders are made for books that are selling well. , there is no slip for the corresponding book,
Information about the book is also often uncertain. On the other hand, on the distributor side, shipping procedures for orders that have been output still rely on manual labor, and in many cases it was not possible to even keep track of inventory levels.

[0004] The present invention was devised in view of these problems, and allows order information such as the book title, author name, and publisher name to be sent to the bookstore regardless of whether or not there is a slip on the bookstore side. Even if the information is uncertain, the distributor can search for the corresponding book, check the stock status of the book, and immediately respond with the expected delivery date and time, improving the service and reducing the amount of labor involved in aggregation and management. The purpose is to provide a book ordering method that can easily automate office work.

[0005]

[Means for Solving the Problems] Means for solving the above problems in the present invention is to provide a book ordering system in which books are ordered by sending the order information attached to the book from the bookstore to the distributor. Terminals that convert into character codes are placed in bookstores, and computers equipped with book databases that store book information, including the stock amount of each book, and search means are placed in bookstores. It is preferable that the book ordering method is based on a book ordering method that immediately answers the estimated delivery date and time based on a check of the inventory amount, and that the search means finds the corresponding book from the book database based on uncertain order information received at the bookstore. It is something.

[0006]

[Operation] The present invention is a book ordering terminal device equipped with OCR, which makes it possible to send order information to a store regardless of whether or not there is a slip attached to the book. The present invention not only automatically recognizes the order information written on the slip using OCR and converts it into a character code that can be handled by a computer, but also allows for additional orders for popular books and backorders at stores. If there is no slip, order information such as the book name, author name, publisher name, etc. is entered in kana characters using a keyboard or contour reading device, the kana characters are converted to kana/kanji, and the order information is sent to the communication control unit. The order is placed by sending the order to the distributor via a public line, or by storing it in a medium such as a floppy disk or an IC card in a secondary storage unit and sending the medium to the distributor. The distributor side is equipped with a computer equipped with a book database that stores book information, including the inventory amount of each book, and a search means for the same, and even if the order information received at the bookstore is uncertain, the search means can search for the corresponding book. will be found in the book database, the amount in stock will be checked, and the expected delivery date and time will be immediately answered.

[0007]

Embodiments Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of the book ordering method of the present invention. In the book ordering method of the present invention, the bookstore side is equipped with a terminal device that converts order information such as book name, author name, publisher name, etc. into character codes, and the distributor side is equipped with a terminal device that converts order information such as book name, author name, publisher name, etc. A computer equipped with a book database storing book information and means for searching the book database is installed. First, FIG. 2 shows an example of a terminal device placed at a bookstore. In FIG. 2, 1 is a character input section, and a CCD line sensor is used. Resolution 400-800DPI (D
It reads characters, lines, etc. written on the slip and outputs image data in the form of raster data. 2 is a character recognition unit that automatically cuts out the area where the ISBN code is written from the raster data using a character recognition unit that has a high recognition rate among the known OCRs, and recognizes each character (English) from the raster data. Convert numbers) into character codes by matching with a character dictionary. A method for searching the ISBN code area is to write it in a predetermined position on the slip. Errors in character recognition are checked by checking the validity of the code using a checksum. The recognition result is sent to the terminal control section 3. The terminal control section 3 is a microprocessor of about 16 bits, and includes an input section 4, a display section 5, an output section 6, and an internal memory 7, and is connected to a secondary storage section 8 and a communication control section 9. The input unit 4 is composed of a keyboard and a stylus pen, and preferably includes a digitizer having an OLCR function. The display unit 5 is a CRT, and displays the character recognition results on the CRT.
The code is displayed on the screen and the operator can detect mistakes by comparing it with the code written on the slip. Also, I
Raster data for the SBN code area may also be displayed on the CRT screen, and the operator may specify the area with a stylus pen. The output unit 6 is a printer that outputs information such as a book order list, order confirmations and delivery schedules sent from distributors. The internal memory 7 is used as a temporary storage location when a program is executed, similar to a general computer. The secondary storage section 8 stores the character codes using a floppy disk or an IC card, and is used for storing a program for controlling a terminal device, a dictionary for character recognition, ordering information, and the like. The communication control unit 9 converts information sent and received by the terminal side using, for example, RS232C to correspond to the communication method of the other party.If the other party is a public line or PTD, a so-called modem is used, and if the other party is an ISDN (digital line) network), a terminal adapter is used.

The book ordering operation of the present invention using the terminal device described above is as shown in the flowchart of FIG. In the figure, the left side shows the operations on the bookstore side, and the right side shows the operations on the distributor side.

(1) If there is a slip, the character input section 1 and character recognition section 2 are used to recognize and check the validity of the ISBN code written on the slip, to ensure that there are no mistakes in the validity check. If it is found, read it again or enter the ISBN code directly using the keyboard. The ISBN code is sent to the distributor's computer along with the bookstore name or ID code.

(2) The distributor searches the book database and sends the title, author name, publisher name, etc. of the relevant book back to the bookstore.

(3) On the bookstore side, check whether there are any mistakes in the returned content, and if there are no mistakes, enter that fact, and if there are mistakes, enter the details of the mistake from the keyboard etc. Notify the distributor.

(4) On the distributor side, once the order information is confirmed, the inventory amount and expected delivery date and time are displayed, so after confirming the order quantity from the bookstore side, the order confirmation is output to the bookstore's printer. .

(5) If there is no slip, input order information using the keyboard or OLCR while viewing the CRT. Kana/kanji conversion is performed in the same way as in a normal word processor.

(6) If you only know the author's name but not the official book name, search the book database using the author's name as a key, list all the books written by the author, and choose from among them. Allow the user to select the desired book name.

(7) If only the book name is known, from the input book name or part of the book name, make a list of the official name, author name, publisher name, etc. of the book that is considered to correspond to the book name, and list them. If there is a book that corresponds to the above, select it.

(8) If there is a plurality of pieces of information, refer to all of them to find the desired book.

(9) If a corresponding book is found through each of the above processes, the book is ordered. If the corresponding book is not found, the order will not be accepted.

The following effects are evident in this embodiment.

(a) On the bookstore side, even if a customer makes an order that is uncertain, the order can be placed with certainty, and the delivery date of the ordered book can be immediately known, which leads to improved service and improves the order. A list of books is automatically created.

(b) The distributor side can immediately reply to the bookstore side with the inventory amount and scheduled delivery date and time, and can automatically compile orders for each publisher.

[0021]

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, according to the present invention, order information such as book title, author name, publisher name, etc. can be sent to the distributor regardless of whether or not there is a slip on the bookstore side. Even if the information is uncertain, the store can search for the relevant book, check the stock status of the book, and immediately respond with the estimated delivery date and time, improving service.
It is possible to provide a book ordering method that eliminates the need for tabulation and management, and easily automates office work.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram of an example of ordering operation of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of an example of a terminal device of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1... Character input section, 2... Character recognition section, 3... Terminal control section, 4
...Input section, 5...Display section, 6...Output section, 7...Memory, 8...
Secondary storage unit, 9...Communication control unit, 10...Public line.

Claims (2)

[Claims] [Claim 1] In a book ordering method in which books are ordered by sending the order information attached to the book from the bookstore to the distributor, a terminal device that converts the order information into a character code is placed in the bookstore, and the inventory of each book is A computer equipped with a book database that stores book information, including quantity, and a means to search for the book is installed at the bookstore, and when a bookstore places an order, the bookstore immediately responds with the estimated delivery date and time based on the inventory quantity check. A distinctive book ordering method. 2. A book ordering system, wherein the search means according to claim 1 finds a corresponding book from a book database based on uncertain order information received at a bookstore.