JPH06266734A - Fare adjustment method/system for specific area - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To simplify and facilitate the necessary processing or procedure for entrance and leaving in a specific area by issuing a customer bar code when a customer enters the area in accordance with his deposit paid and then adjusting the bar code when the customer leaves the area. CONSTITUTION:When a customer bar code CB is issued, the CB is taken out of the stock of a customer register 14 and then read by the register 14. Then the customer information DC is registered and the code CB is available. When a customer purchases the merchandise, a cashier reads the code CB and at the same time the charge is registered. Then the charge is drawn out of the deposit account of the customer. When a leaving customer desired the adjustment of charge, the customer returns his wrist band WB to a person in charge of leaving. The band WB is read by a reader to confirm the balance of the deposit account. If the balance is confirmed, a due amount is paid back to the customer. Thus it is possible to simplify and facilitate the conventional complicated processing or procedure for entrance and leaving of customers.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a fee settlement method and system for various areas such as sports facilities, leisure facilities, and shopping facilities.

[0002] In recent years, in various facilities such as pools, saunas, and golf clubs, identification tags for identifying customers (users of the facility) have been issued, and the purchase of products (use of goods or facilities, It is used for liquidation (or payment, settlement) of the fees required for lending, etc. Such a clearing system eliminates the need to carry cash in the facility, gives the customer a sense of openness, and helps improve the utility value of the facility.

Therefore, there is a demand for a clearing system which can make full use of the advantages of cashless and minimize the trouble of entering and leaving the facility or clearing.

[0004]

2. Description of the Related Art In a conventional cashless clearing system, as an identification tag for identifying a customer,
A wristband with a customer bar code based on an identification code assigned to each customer is used (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. Hei 2).
-264389).

When a customer enters the facility, for example, after purchasing an admission ticket to the facility, he / she submits the admission ticket at the reception counter to receive a wristband loan. In the facility, the identification code of the wristband is read instead of the signature for post-payment, and registered together with the product price. When you leave the facility, you will be required to clear the total amount of money used by the wristband, receive an exit ticket to prove that you have cleared it, and leave the gate with the exit ticket.

When the wristband is rented, the identification code is determined based on the customer's membership number and the like, and the identification code is entered together with the customer's name from the keyboard and registered, and the information is bar coded. Is printed and a wristband is created. In addition,
At the time of registration, the usage amount of money corresponding to the identification code is initialized to zero.

[0007]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional clearing system, when a customer enters the facility, he / she purchases an admission ticket, exchanges the admission ticket with a wristband, determines a customer identification code, and uses it for the customer. Many processes or procedures are required, such as printing barcodes. In addition, when the customer leaves the facility, it is necessary to perform multiple procedures such as clearing the wristband and checking the clearing with the exit ticket.

As described above, according to the conventional clearing system, the process or procedure at the time of entry / exit is extremely complicated, which requires a lot of trouble and time. And, since it is necessary to liquidate at the time of leaving the facility and the use of the wristband is limited to the day, those processes or procedures were inevitably generated at the time of entering and leaving.

Furthermore, since it is necessary to check whether or not the liquidation has been completed at the time of exit, it is necessary to strengthen the gate equipment and increase the number of persons in charge, which has also been a factor to increase costs.

In view of the above problems, the present invention provides a fee clearing method and system that facilitates and simplifies the processing or procedures required when entering and leaving a specific area, and can perform them quickly. The purpose is to provide.

[0011]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the method according to the invention of claim 1 is a method for clearing charges in a specific area as shown in FIGS. 1 to 4. In addition, when a plurality of customer barcodes CB in which customer information DC including a customer identification code and a deposit amount is recorded are prepared in advance, and a customer requests use of the customer barcode CB, In response to the customer paying the deposit, the customer barcode CB is assigned, the customer information DC is registered by reading the assigned customer barcode CB, and the customer purchases the product in the area. In this case, the customer bar code CB
Is read by the bar code reader 22 and
The fee is registered corresponding to the customer identification code obtained by reading, and when the customer requests the settlement of the customer barcode CB, the customer barcode CB is read by the barcode reader 22. , The total of the charges registered corresponding to the customer identification code obtained by reading and the deposit amount are settled.

The clearing system 1 according to the invention of claim 2 is
Customer information DC including a customer identification code and a deposit amount of a customer who enters the area is recorded, and the customer barcode CB to be passed to the customer in response to the deposit payment by the customer, and the customer. A customer registration device 14 for reading the customer barcode CB and registering the customer information DC so that the customer barcode CB can be used;
A charge registration device 15 for reading the customer bar code CB and registering the charge for purchasing the customer's merchandise in correspondence with the customer identification code, and reading the customer bar code CB and corresponding to the customer identification code. It is configured to have a clearing device 17 for clearing the total of the charges registered and the deposit amount.

The clearing system 1 according to the invention of claim 3 is
It has a balance inquiry device 16 for inquiring about the balance of the deposit for the customer barcode CB.

[0014]

The customer bar code CB is prepared in advance as a wrist band WB for an appropriate period and is stored in an appropriate place. When the customer enters, if the customer barcode CB is necessary, the customer barcode CB is issued in response to the deposit payment.

When issuing the customer bar code CB,
The customer information DC is taken out from the stock and read to register the customer information DC. This makes it possible to use the customer barcode CB.

When the customer leaves, the customer barcode CB is cleared according to his / her wish. At the time of liquidation, the customer information DC of the customer bar code CB is read, and if there is a balance, it is refunded.

[0017]

1 is a block diagram showing a clearing system 1 according to the present invention. In this embodiment, the clearing system 1
Is provided in a facility for leisure, in which the sale of various goods and food and drink, rental or utilization of equipment or facilities, and provision of various other services are carried out. There is. In this specification, goods, food and drink, appliances, services, etc. are referred to as “commodities”, sales, lending, use, provision, etc. of commodities are referred to as “sales”, and receiving sales is “purchasing”. ".

The clearing system 1 includes a host (or SLP:
Store Level Processor) 11,
Customer registration device 14, sales registration device 15, balance inquiry device 1
6, a clearing device 17, a wristband WB, and the like. The clearing system 1 is a customer registration device 1
4, sales registration device 15, balance inquiry device 16, clearing device 1
7 and the like as terminal devices. Therefore, the customer registration device 14 and the like may be referred to as “terminal device”.

The wristband WB is formed by printing customer information DC including a customer identification code, a deposit amount, and a month of issuance in the form of a customer barcode CB (see FIG. 4).
The wristband WB is created in advance for each of several kinds of deposit amounts such as 5,000 yen and 10,000 yen, and is stocked at the place where the customer registration device 14 is installed. When purchasing the customer (facility user). One or more wristbands WB corresponding to the deposit amount paid by the customer are sequentially taken out and handed over to the customer. The customer has it wrapped around his wrist.
Note that the wristbands WB are color-coded according to the deposit amount, there is no same customer identification code for the same deposit amount, and the expiration date is from the month of issue to a fixed end of the month.

The customer registration device 14 is installed at the entrance of the facility, the locker counter in the facility, or the like, and in order to enable the customer barcode CB (wristband WB) handed over to the customer, This is for reading the bar code CB and registering the customer information DC in a file in the host 11. By registering the customer information DC, a deposit account for the customer identification code is opened. If the balance of the deposit amount decreases, it is possible to add a deposit to the deposit account.

The sales registration device 15 is installed at each sales floor in the facility. When a customer purchases a product, the sales registration device 15 reads the product barcode attached to the product, and the product name, color, pattern, This is for inputting product information DG such as size and price, reading the customer barcode CB possessed by the customer, and registering the sales amount in a file corresponding to the customer identification code. By registering the sales amount, the amount is withdrawn from the deposit account of the customer identification code and the balance is updated.

The balance inquiry device 16 is installed in a proper place in the facility and is used by the customer to inquire the balance of the deposit account for the wrist band WB that the customer has as necessary. In the balance inquiry device 16, the customer wears the wristband W.
A window for inserting a wrist for reading B and a display unit for displaying the read customer information DC and the balance are provided. The customer registration device 14, the sales registration device 15, and the settlement device 17 also have a balance inquiry function.

The clearing device 17 is installed at the exit of the facility or the like, and reads the customer bar code CB brought by the customer based on the request from the customer for clearing the wristband WB and responds to the customer identification code. It is for liquidating the total amount of sales and the amount of deposits registered by. When the liquidation is performed, a receipt in which the usage details of the wristband WB are printed is issued, the deposit account of the customer identification code is closed, and if there is a balance, it is refunded to the customer in cash. In addition, in the processing in the settlement device 17 and other devices, the expiration date of the wristband WB is checked.

The host 11 has functions of product management, sales management, output of various reports, etc., and collects sales by terminal devices, inquires about them, controls prices, monitors the status of terminal devices, etc. Control the whole.

Next, a specific example of the sales registration device 15 will be described. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the sales registration device 15, FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the arrangement of some keys of the keyboard 40 of the sales registration device 15, and FIG. 4 is a usage state of the wristband WB and the bar code reading device 22. It is a figure which shows an example. The customer registration device 14 and the balance inquiry device 16 are also
The configuration is almost the same as that of the sales registration device 15.

In FIG. 2, the sales registration device 15 comprises a terminal body 21 and a bar code reader 22 connected to the terminal body 21. The terminal body 21 is
Input processing unit 31, arithmetic processing unit 32, memory 33, device control unit 34, display unit 35, printing unit 36, audio output unit 37,
The cash drawer unit 38, a card reader 39, a keyboard 40, and the like.

The bar code reading device 22 can read both the product bar code attached to the product and the customer bar code CB attached to the wristband WB. That is, one barcode reading device 22 reads two types of barcodes and outputs the product information DG or the customer information DC.

In the arithmetic processing section 32, the identification section 32a identifies the product information DG and the customer information DC based on the identification signal S1 from the keyboard 40, and checks the contents of each. These product information DG and customer information DC
On the basis of the above, the sales are registered and the arithmetic processing necessary for realizing various functions of the terminal device is executed. In addition,
The product information DG and the customer information DC are discriminated from each other before and after the identification signal S1 by pressing the subtotal key 52, for example.

Next, the clearing method by the clearing system 1 will be described with reference to the flowcharts shown in FIGS. FIG. 5 is a flow chart showing a process when a customer enters.

When the customer enters the facility, if the customer has a wristband WB within the valid period (# 1
(Yes in 1), the admission process ends without doing anything. When the customer does not have the wristband WB, or when the customer has the wristband WB and the expiration date has passed (NO in # 11), the wristband WB is issued.

When issuing the wristband WB, the customer pays a predetermined amount of deposit (# 1
2) One of the corresponding deposits is taken out of the stock wristband WB by the person in charge of admission.
The person in charge of entrance reads the taken out wristband WB with the barcode reader 22 to register the customer information DC (# 13), and hands over the wristband WB to the customer (#
14).

As a result, the wristband WB can be used, and the product can be purchased by paying with the wristband WB. That is, when the customer purchases the product, the cashier reads the customer barcode CB with the barcode reader 22 and the fee is registered corresponding to the customer identification code obtained by the reading.
Withdrawn from the deposit account.

The wristband WB can be purchased when necessary in the facility, even when the customer is not entering. FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a process when a customer leaves the house.

When the customer leaves the facility, it is possible to freely decide whether or not to settle the wristband WB owned by the customer. When the liquidation is not desired (No in # 21), the exit process ends without doing anything. In this case, the exit process is substantially omitted, and
When the facility is revisited within the expiration date, possession of the wristband WB eliminates the admission process.

In the case of desiring liquidation (Yes in # 21), when the wristband WB is returned to the person in charge of exit, the person in charge of exit reads the wristband WB with the bar code reader 22 and the balance of the deposit account. After confirming (# 22), if there is a balance, refund it to the customer (# 2
3).

When the customer wants to know the balance of the wristband WB (deposit account), he / she inserts his / her wrist into the window of the balance inquiry device 16 to make the customer barcode CB.
Is read and the balance is displayed on the display surface.

According to the embodiment described above, the wristband WB
In issuing the, the wristband WB created in advance
It suffices to extract one from the above and read the customer bar code CB, printing of the customer bar code CB is not necessary and no trouble is required for determining the customer identification code. Can be done very easily and quickly.

According to the above-described embodiment, when entering and leaving the facility, complicated processes or procedures which have been conventionally required can be facilitated and simplified, and can be performed quickly. Moreover, since it can be used at any time within the expiration date, it is possible to omit the processing at the time of entry and exit. Furthermore, by bringing the wristband WB back to the customer, the customer is encouraged to return to the store, which is effective for acquiring repeaters.

Further, since the wristband WB is issued by paying the deposit, it is not necessary to check whether or not the customer has not paid when the customer leaves, and no gate equipment is required.

According to the above-mentioned embodiment, since the bar code reader 22 can read the commodity bar code and the customer bar code CB, the cashier can easily operate the operation and the operation is time-consuming. The sales registration process can be performed easily and quickly without any mistake and without making a mistake in the procedure.

In the above-mentioned embodiment, the customer bar code CB is attached to the wristband WB, but it is also possible to give a prepaid card or a personal card in a specific facility the same function.

In the above-described embodiment, the bar code reader 22 may be leaned against and installed so that the reading surface is vertical or sloped. A hand scanner may be used as the barcode reading device 22.

In the above embodiment, the issuing month may be registered in the file in the host 11 without being recorded as the customer bar code CB. The expiration date may be recorded or registered instead of the issue month. The sharing of processing in the terminal device and the host 11 can be variously changed. In addition, the configuration of the clearing system 1, the terminal device, etc., the processing content, the procedure, etc. can be variously changed in accordance with the gist of the present invention. The settlement method of the present invention can be applied to various settlements such as payment of fees or consideration, settlement, and settlement.

[0044]

According to the present invention, it is possible to facilitate and simplify the processing or procedure required when entering or leaving a specific area, and to carry out them quickly. In addition, when the customer leaves the area, it is not necessary to check whether or not there is a liquidation, and it is possible to eliminate the need for gate equipment.

According to the invention of claim 3, the customer can easily confirm the balance of the deposit account, and the processing upon exit can be further simplified.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a clearing system according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a sales registration device according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an arrangement of some keys of a keyboard of a sales registration device.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a usage state of a wristband and a barcode reader.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a process when a customer enters.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a process when a customer leaves.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Clearing System 14 Customer Registration Device 15 Sales Registration Device (Fee Registration Device) 16 Balance Inquiry Device 17 Clearing Device 22 Bar Code Reader DC Customer Information CB Customer Bar Code

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Kazuhiro Goto 4-30-1 Zoukoumachi, Kumamoto City, Kumamoto Prefecture, Fujitsu Minami Kyushu System Engineering Co., Ltd. Address 3083, Phoenix Resort Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor, Yasukazu Oka 3-3-3, Toyosu, Koto-ku, Tokyo NTT Data Communications Co., Ltd.

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A method for clearing charges in a specific area, comprising a plurality of customer bar codes (CB) in which customer information (DC) including a customer identification code and a deposit amount is recorded in advance. Created and assigned a customer barcode (CB) in response to the customer paying a deposit when the customer requests the use of the customer barcode (CB), and the assigned customer barcode The customer information (DC) is registered by reading the code (CB), and the customer bar code (CB) is read by the bar code reader (22) when the customer purchases a product in the area. At the same time as scanning, the fee is registered corresponding to the customer identification code obtained by scanning, and when the customer requests the settlement of the customer bar code (CB), the customer A specific area characterized in that the bar code (CB) is read by the bar code reader (22), and the total of the charges registered corresponding to the read customer identification code and the deposit amount are settled. How to settle charges in. 2. A clearing system (1) for clearing charges in a specific area, wherein customer information (DC) including a customer identification code and a deposit amount of a customer entering the area is recorded. The customer bar code (CB) given to the customer in response to the customer paying the deposit, and the customer bar code (CB) for making the customer bar code (CB) available. A customer registration device (14) for reading the CB) and registering the customer information (DC), and a customer bar code (CB) for reading the charge for purchasing the customer's product corresponding to the customer identification code. And a fee registration device (15) for reading and registering the customer bar code (CB) to settle the total of the fees registered corresponding to the customer identification code and the deposit amount. A payment system for a charge in a specific area, which comprises: 3. A charge in a specific area according to claim 2, further comprising a balance inquiry device (16) for inquiring a balance of deposits for said customer bar code (CB). Clearing system.