JPH057744B2 - - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention [Technical field to which the invention pertains] The present invention captures images of a tray and tableware on the tray using an imaging means such as a television camera, and determines the contents of a meal menu based on data obtained from the tray and tableware. The present invention relates to an information processing system for a cafeteria that achieves labor saving in a cafeteria by determining charges and calculating charges.

[Prior art and its problems]

An increasing number of company cafeterias are now offering not only set meals but also a la carte dishes (items at checkout) that customers can freely choose according to their preferences. By the way, the biggest problem with allowing users to freely select a la carte dishes is that price calculation becomes complicated and requires manpower.

As a means to solve these problems, we set a one-to-one correspondence between the size of the end of the tableware and the price, and used a television camera to image the tableware placed on a transparent or semi-transparent tray. An information processing system for cafeterias has been devised that saves labor by calculating the price by determining the size of the thread end of the tableware from the imaging signal, and calculating the price by adding the price corresponding to each tableware. There is. Figure 1 shows a schematic configuration diagram of such a cafeteria information processing system. The tray, 7, indicates a lamp. In such a configuration, the tray 6 is made of a transparent or translucent material, and the lamp 7 is connected to the tableware 5 placed on the tray 6.
The lighting position is such that the end of the string casts a shadow on the tray 6. Note that the relationship between the size of the thread end and the price of the food to be placed on the tableware 5 is set in advance. The television camera 1 is placed in such a position that the bottom surface of the tray 6 is within its field of view, and the shadow of the thread tail is scanned by the television camera 1, and the bright and dark images are sent to the discrimination circuit 2 as an imaging signal. The determination circuit 2 determines the size of the thread end of each tableware based on the sent image signal, and refers to a table stored in advance that shows the correspondence between the thread end size and price data. and outputs the price data of each tableware to the aggregation machine 3. The aggregation machine 3 totals the sent price data and displays it on the display device 4.

With this configuration, in conventional information processing systems for cafeterias, even if a customer freely selects a la carte dish and places it on a tray, the price is automatically calculated using a television camera. Labor saving is achieved.

However, in such a cafeteria information processing system, the size of the end of the tableware corresponds to the price of the dish, so when there are many types of dishes and each price is different, the size of the end of the tableware is correlated with the price of the dish. requires a large number of different tableware. Generally, in cafeterias, the types of external dimensions of tableware on hand are often limited, and the shapes of the tableware used may be similar, making accurate determination impossible.

In addition, in the case of a la carte dishes, the relationship between tableware and food,
Therefore, the relationship between tableware and price is only set at the beginning and does not change thereafter, but in the case of a set meal, the price needs to remain the same even if the side dishes change each meal. When tableware is changed depending on the contents of the side dish, the relationship between tableware and price must be changed. At that time, if set meals and a la carte dishes are used together, the relationship between the tableware used for a la carte dishes and the price cannot be changed, so tableware used for a la carte dishes cannot be used as tableware for set meals. Either they had to use something they didn't already have, or they had to make a clever selection of tableware so that the total price matched the price of the set meal. As a result, there are disadvantages in that the number of types of tableware increases and the selection of tableware becomes complicated when changing the side dishes of a set meal.

As described above, in the conventional system in which tableware and price correspond one-to-one, it has been impossible to set a menu that satisfies the extensive demands of customers due to the restrictions imposed by the tableware.

[Purpose of the invention]

In view of the above, the present invention provides an information processing system for a cafeteria, which reduces restrictions from tableware and allows easy setting of various menus when automatically calculating charges using a television camera or the like. The purpose is to

[Key points of the invention]

The present invention uses trays that can be identified for each type of set meal and free menu, and selects a preset price calculation method depending on which tray is being used. Charges are calculated using a selected charge calculation method using various information regarding tableware and set meals.

[Embodiments of the invention]

Possible menus in a cafeteria include a set meal, a set meal, and a set meal plus a set meal, and there are also several types of set meals. Therefore, in the present invention, the trays used are made to be able to be identified differently for various set meals and free menu items (payment items), and the trays used are identified to allow different charge calculation methods.

FIG. 2 is a schematic configuration diagram of the information processing system for a cafeteria according to the present invention. In the figure, 8 is a television camera, 9 is a discrimination circuit, 10 is a tally machine, 11 is a display device, 12 is tableware, 13 is a tray, 14 indicates a lamp. In the present invention, since the TV camera 8 is not limited to the one that uses the string end of tableware, the television camera 8 may be placed on the tray 13 as shown in the figure, or the tray 13 may be made transparent or translucent. Tobon 1
Although the tray 13 may be placed under the tray 13, it should be placed so that at least the tray 13 is completely within the field of view. The tray 13 and tableware 12 are scanned by the television camera 8, and bright and dark images are sent to the discrimination circuit 9 as an imaging signal. When the tray 13 is imaged with a television camera, the edge portion is detected as a bright and dark image.

The discrimination circuit 9 is configured using a microcomputer, and based on the imaging signal from the television camera 8, it determines tray identification information (for example, tray area, size such as circumference, pattern, color, and identification mark provided on the tray). etc.) and identification information of the tableware (e.g. area of the tableware,
Prices are calculated based on the function to determine the size (perimeter, diameter, etc., pattern or color on the tableware, identification mark on the bottom of the tableware, size of thread ends, etc.) and the identification information of the tray and tableware. It has a function to calculate. The functions realized by the software of this discrimination circuit 9 will be explained using the functional block diagram of FIG. The video signal from the television camera 8 is applied to the identification information detection means 15 to detect the identification information of the tray and tableware. As this identification information detection means 15, a known pattern recognition method for separating and identifying a plurality of patterns existing on one screen of a television camera can be used. There is a method that extracts contours by tracing points at a level above a certain threshold in a clockwise direction, or a segment method, in which the screen is divided by scanning lines and points above a threshold level in the scanning line direction are extracted. There is a method of extracting one continuous pattern by checking whether segments of points overlap each scanning line. As the segment method, for example, the method disclosed in JP-A-54-25634 can be used. This identification information detection means 15
The tray identification information, for example the tray size, determined by the calculation method selection means 16 is compared with the tray determination information stored in the storage means 17, and a calculation method is selected according to the tray size. This calculation method is set in advance depending on the payment items and various set meals. Then, based on the selected calculation method, the price calculation means 18 uses the identification information of the tableware obtained by the identification information detection means 15, such as the tableware size, the payment item information stored in the storage means 17, and the set meal determination information. The price can be found by

Next, the calculation method selection means and price calculation means realized by liftware will be specifically explained. In the following description of the embodiment, a case will be described in which there are set meals A, B, set meal A + paid items, set meal B + paid items, and only paid items as menus. Here, "set meal + payment item" indicates a set meal with several a la carte dishes added, and "payment item only" indicates a free selection of a la carte dishes.

In the present invention, in order to calculate charges,
In the memory (not shown) of the discriminating circuit 9, FIG.
Obon judgment table as shown in b, c, d, set meal A
A determination table, a set meal B determination table, and a payment item table are provided. The tray determination table shown in FIG. An identification is made. Note that for set meal A (or B) + payment item, by using the same tray as set meal A (or B), it is identified as set meal A or B using this tray determination table. Fourth
The size of tableware included in the set meal and the price of the set meal are written in the set meal A determination table and the set meal B determination table shown in FIGS. b and c, respectively. Also,
The tableware size of a la carte dish and its price are written in correspondence with the billing item table shown in FIG. 4d, and the price of a la carte dish is calculated from the tableware size using this table.

The operation of the discriminating circuit 9 when calculating prices using the various tables shown in FIG. 4 will be explained based on the flowchart shown in FIG. 5.

First, the sizes of the tray and tableware are calculated based on the video signal (step S1), then the tray determination table is referred to and set meal A, set meal A, etc. are calculated based on the tray size.
Set meal B and payment items are identified (step S2).
Here, if it is determined that the tableware is a payment item, all of the tableware on the tray is for one-dish dishes, so the tableware shown in Figure 4 d.
The price at the location corresponding to the tableware size is read out from the billing item table shown in , and outputted to the tally machine 10 (step S3). In the aggregation machine 10, the respective prices outputted from the determination circuit 9 are totaled to obtain a charge, which is displayed on the display device 11. Also, step S2
If it is determined that it is set meal A, it is determined whether it is set meal A or set meal A + payment item by referring to the set meal A determination table shown in FIG. 4b (step S4). This determination is made by comparing each tableware size on the tray with each food size in the Set Meal A judgment table.If it is Set Meal A, the sizes of both tableware correspond perfectly on a one-to-one basis, and Set Meal A+ If it is a paid item, there will be a mismatch because the paid item is not written in the set meal A determination table. If it is determined that there is a match in step S4, set meal A
Therefore, the price of set meal A written in the set meal A judgment table is read out regardless of the size of each tableware, and outputted to the totaling machine 10 (step S5) and displayed on the display device 11. For this step
If it is determined that there is a mismatch in S4, there are other items to be paid in addition to set meal A, so refer to the item table for items that do not match, i.e., the items to be paid, and read out the prices in the corresponding locations. At the same time, the price of set meal A written in the set meal A determination table is read out from the set meal A determination table and outputted to the totalization machine 10 (step S7). In the tabulation machine 10, the price of the settled item outputted from the discrimination circuit 9 and the price of set meal A are totaled and displayed on the display device 1.
Display on 1. Regarding the process when the set meal B is determined in step S2, the set meal B shown in FIG.
Processes similar to those for set meal A are performed in steps S8, S9, S10, and S11 using the determination table, so the explanation will be omitted.

If color is used as identification information for trays and tableware, a color image pickup tube may be used as a television camera to identify the color information from the video signal.

Further, according to the present invention, it is possible to use the same tableware for set meals and tableware for payment items, regardless of price. For example, suppose that tableware sizes a and b are used for set meal A as shown in FIGS. Even if you select set meal A + payment items a and b as the menu, the price of the remaining food after subtracting the part of set meal A is calculated by referring to the payment item table, so the set meal and payment items are determined regardless of the price. You can use the same tableware.

According to the present invention, after setting the magnetic card using a magnetic card, the tray on which tableware is placed is set at the imaging position of the television camera, and the charge is calculated as described above, and the calculated charge is By registering the amount on the magnetic card or subtracting it from the amount registered on the magnetic card, it is possible to realize a cashless cafeteria information processing system using a magnetic card in a company cafeteria or the like.

〔Effect of the invention〕

According to the present invention, trays that can be identified for each type of set meal and free menu are used, the calculation method is different depending on the tray, and the price of each tableware is not calculated for set meals. This makes it possible to use the same tableware for set meals as those used for checkout items, regardless of price, and there is no need for many types of tableware. Furthermore, even if the contents of the side dishes for the set meal are changed, it is only necessary to change the size of the tableware used for the set meal, so the menu can be easily changed.

As described above, according to the present invention, by using the identification information of the tray, it is possible to significantly reduce the restrictions imposed by conventional tableware, and it is possible to set a menu that satisfies many requests from customers. It can be done.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a conventional information processing system for a cafeteria, FIG. 2 is a schematic configuration diagram of an information processing system for a cafeteria according to the present invention, and FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining the function of the discrimination circuit in the system of the present invention. FIG. 4 is a functional block diagram showing the configuration of various tables used in the system of the present invention, and FIG. 5 is a flow chart of the operation of the system of the present invention. 1,8...TV camera, 2,9...Discrimination circuit, 3,10...Tally machine, 4,11...Display device, 5,12...Tableware, 6,13...Tray, 7,1
4...Lamp, 15...Identification information detection means, 16
...Calculation method selection means, 17...Storage means, 18
...Means for calculating prices.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A tray that is configured to be distinguishable for each type of set meal or free menu, and an imaging means that takes an image of the tableware on the tray, and identification information that calculates identification information of the tray and the tableware based on the imaging signal from the imaging means. A detection means, tray determination information indicating the correspondence between the tray identification information and the price calculation method, payment item information indicating the correspondence between the tableware identification information and the price, and set meal determination information indicating the contents and price of each set meal are stored. storage means; calculation method selection means for selecting a fee calculation method based on tray identification information from the identification information detection means and tray determination information in the storage means; and a calculation method selected by the calculation method selection means. An information processing system for a cafeteria, comprising: a charge calculation means for calculating a charge based on tableware identification information, purchase item information in the storage means, and set meal determination information.