JPH0462394B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an unmanned product guide device that efficiently guides and explains products unattended.

Conventionally, for the purpose of saving personnel costs, unmanned product guidance equipment has been equipped with a tape recorder that has pre-recorded guidance and explanations about the product for each corner where the product is placed, and is constantly or continuously installed. 2. Description of the Related Art Devices are in practical use that reproduce the guidance and explanatory audio at predetermined intervals.

However, with such devices, the audio is played regardless of whether or not the customer is interested in the product, so for customers who are not interested, the audio can only be heard as noise, and the customer is not interested. This will have the opposite effect on increasing purchasing motivation. Furthermore, if the products are arranged close to each other, the reproduced sounds will intersect with each other, making the sales floor as a whole undesirably noisy. Furthermore, when changing the arrangement of products or placing new products, each tape must be replaced, which is extremely troublesome.

By the way, if the duration of the product information and explanation is too long, it will irritate the customer, so it is generally said that a duration of about several tens of seconds is preferable. However, it is disadvantageous in terms of cost to perform such short-term recording and playback using individual tape recorders as described above. Extracting and reproducing the information results in a time delay, which poses the problem of not being able to provide timely product information and explanations.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide an unmanned product guidance device that provides timely and prompt explanations about products that have attracted the customer's interest.

Another object of the present invention is to provide an unmanned product guide device that can easily guide and explain necessary products even when the product arrangement is changed or a new product is placed.

The unmanned product guidance device according to the present invention is provided for each predetermined type of placed product, and includes a detection means for detecting a change in the state of the product, and pre-stores voice data for guidance and explanation for the product type. a selective reading means for selectively reading audio data of the product corresponding to the output of the detection means from the memory; receiving the audio data from the selective reading means and playing guidance and explanatory audio of the corresponding product; and audio reproduction means.

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

As shown in Figure 1a, the product shelf is conveniently divided into areas (by partition plates, etc.) that correspond to the placement space of the product types on each shelf, and a detector is installed in each area. . In other words, products G1, G2, G3, ...G, placed in different areas of the product shelf,
Detectors 1, 1, 1, corresponding to i, ..., G, N
2, 1, 3, . . . 1i, . . . , 1N are installed. As this detector, for example, an infrared detector having a radiator and a light receiver is used, and the radiated infrared rays T from the radiator are emitted toward the front side of the shelf as shown in FIG. 1b. Therefore, when the products are placed normally, there is almost no reflected light, but when a customer is interested in the product and puts his/her hand into the shelf and tries to take it out, the radiated infrared rays are reflected by the hand or the product that was taken out. This reflected light R is detected by a detector (light receiver). Speaker 14A, 1
4B are arranged in each predetermined space. For example, speakers may be placed in each range where the reproduced sound from the speakers can be heard, or they may be placed on the front and rear sides of the shelf, respectively, as shown in FIGS. 1a and 1b.

Next, the configuration and operation of the unmanned product guide device according to the present invention will be explained based on FIG.

As shown in Figure 1, detectors 1, 1, 1, 2, 1, 3, ... 1i, ... are installed in each area of each product type.
If there is a detection output from the detector 1i installed in the shelf area where the product that has attracted the customer's interest is stored, the output is input to the chattering removal circuit 2, and the detection output is input to the chattering removal circuit 2, which detects the presence of other factors (for example, the presence of dust, etc.). ) are removed. This can be determined based on, for example, the level or pulse width of the detection pulse. Detection signal 1 from which false detection components have been removed
i is input to the priority determination circuit 3, and when multiple detector outputs are obtained at the same time, the Takai detector output with the highest predetermined priority (priority is assigned to each product) is selected. Output.

The output of the chattering removal circuit 2 is input to an input state display circuit 4, which displays which detector (product area) the detection output is output from.
This display is effective in terms of maintenance, and is used, for example, to confirm the normal operation of the detector.

The output of the priority order judgment circuit 3 is compared with the state output of the circuit 3 a predetermined time (for example, the length of the reproduced audio: several tens of seconds) before in the state change judgment circuit 5. The detection output that occurs when the shelf protrudes in front of the shelf is invalidated. In other words, in normal conditions, the detection output is always a pulse, so the status output always changes within the above-mentioned fixed time, but as mentioned above, when the product is misplaced, there is no change in status, so it is possible to distinguish between the two. It is.

Since the output determined to be a valid detection output by the state change determination circuit 5 specifies the product placement area where guidance and explanation should be provided, a speaker (for example, speaker 14A) that covers the area can be selected. . Therefore, the circuit 5 outputs this speaker selection signal and also stores the audio data of the product information and explanation in advance in the memory ROM 7,
1 to 7N, for example, drives the ROM 7i and supplies the audio data to the audio reproduction circuit 8. For example, the switch 6 can be controlled by the output of the state change determination circuit 5 to supply audio data from the ROM 7i. The selection state display circuit 9 receives the output from the state change determination circuit 5 and displays which detector is currently providing product guidance. This display is used as a monitor of the device.

The audio reproduction circuit 8 uses the audio data to
For example, the audio is reproduced using a speech synthesis method such as a quasi-instantaneous companding method using ADPCM transformation, an LPC method, or a formant method.

The audio signal reproduced in this way is supplied to the circuit of the speaker 14A system selected by the switch 10 controlled by the speaker selection signal. In other words,
The digital audio signal obtained by the audio reproduction circuit 8 is converted into an analog signal by a D/A converter 11A, and then passed through a low pass filter (LPF) 12.
After sampling noise and the like are removed at A and amplified by an amplifier 13A, the sound is reproduced from a speaker 14A. In addition, the circuit of the speaker 14B system is as follows.
Similarly, it may be composed of a D/A converter 11B, an LPF 12B, and an amplifier 13B, or these circuits may be used in common, and only the switching between the speakers 14A and 14B may be performed using the speaker selection signal.

As described in detail above, according to the present invention, information and explanations about products that customers are currently interested in are provided in a timely and effective manner, which not only increases the customer's desire to purchase, but also improves product placement. Unmanned product guidance that can quickly respond to changes and placement of new products can be easily obtained.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

1A and 1B are diagrams for explaining the outline of an unmanned product guide device according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of the device according to the present invention. 1,1-1N...Detector, 2...Chattering removal circuit, 3...Priority determination circuit, 4...Input status display circuit, 5...State change determination circuit, 6,1
0...Switcher, 7, 1-7N...Memory (ROM), 8...Audio playback circuit, 9...Selection status display circuit, 11A, 11B...D/A converter, 1
2A, 12B...LPF, 13A, 13B...Amplifier, 14A, 14B...Speaker.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A detection means that is provided for each type of predetermined placed product and detects a change in the status of the product;
a memory in which voice data for guidance and explanation regarding the type of product is stored in advance; a selective readout means for selectively reading out voice data of the product corresponding to the output of the detection means from the memory; and the selective readout means. 1. An unmanned product guidance device characterized by comprising: audio reproduction means for receiving audio data from a computer and reproducing corresponding product guidance and explanation audio.