JPH06309336A - Information gathering method of automatic vending machine - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve transmission efficiency by efficiently transmitting data. CONSTITUTION:A data processor is provided with a time schedule control means 12 and the amount of data transmission per automatic vending machine is found; and it is judged whether or not a current time schedule is managed with and when not, the current time schedule is altered through the time schedule switching means 26 of the automatic vending machine to eliminate a failure in obtaining data and time loss.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention is provided with a plurality of units installed within a specific range and stores various data of an automatic vending machine (hereinafter, also referred to as a vending machine) (for example, sales amount, status information such as remaining number or failure). The present invention relates to an information collecting method for collecting data in a data processing device (also referred to as a host or a host device) directly or by relaying another vending machine by a specific low power wireless system.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 6 is a functional block diagram showing a general example of this kind. This is a status monitoring means 101 for monitoring the status of various sales and failures in the vending machine, and a transmission data creation means 102 for creating the status change as data when the status monitoring means 101 detects the status change.
And a destination storage means 103 that stores the destination of the transmission.
Other device data receiving means 104 for receiving data from another vending machine, other device data storage means 105 for storing the received other device data, and other device data and own device data created by the transmission data creating device 102. Is provided in the vending machine 100, the data receiving means 107 for receiving the data transmitted from the vending machine 100, the reception data storage means 108 for storing the received data, and the stored data. The data processing means 109 for processing is provided in the data processing device 150.

A vending machine 100 located in the center of FIG.
(Hereinafter referred to as “M”) is installed at a short distance from the data processing device 150, and the vending machine 100 at the left end (hereinafter referred to as “N”).
Is located far from the data processing device 150, but is located close to the vending machine M. Now
Status change means 10 for status changes caused by sales at the vending machine M
When it is detected at 1, the transmission data is generated by the transmission data generating means 102 so as to transmit the state change as its own data. This own data is data transmission means 1
In accordance with 06, the data is transmitted to the data processing device 150 as the transmission destination stored in the transmission destination storage unit 103. In the data processing device 150, this data is received by the data receiving means 107, stored in the received data storage means 108, and processed by the data processing means 109.

On the other hand, when a state change occurs in the vending machine N, this is transmitted by the data transmitting means 106 in the same manner as described above, but at this time, the transmission destination (data processing device 150 stored in the transmission destination storing means 103). ) Information. This signal is the other device data receiving means 1 of the vending machine M.
It is received at 04 and stored in the other device data storage means 105. Then, the other device data is transmitted to the data processing device 150 which is the transmission destination by the data transmission means 106.

As described above, the sales information of the vending machine M located at a short distance from the data processing device 150 is the data processing device 1
The sales information of the vending machine N, which is directly transmitted to the vending machine 50 and is located at a long distance, is transmitted to the data processing device 150 via the vending machine M here (relaying). Therefore, since the transmission distance becomes short, the output of the data transmission means in each vending machine may be small. If the distance between the vending machine M and the vending machine N is longer than the communication distance of the data transmitting means, a relay device may be provided between them to transmit via the relay device. In addition, each vending machine switches from a lower layer vending machine to a lower layer vending machine while switching at least a data request mode for requesting data and a data transmission mode for transmitting data to the upper layer vending machine at a fixed cycle. The data is sequentially transmitted to the vending machine in the upper layer.

[0006]

However, the actual amount of data varies considerably within a day and depending on the season (the summer sells better than the winter, etc.), so the amount of data is large. Data cannot be collected in a single data request time, or conversely, the amount of data is so small that there is a surplus in the data request time (loss time during which communication is not performed), so the data is finally transmitted to the data processing device. Alternatively, there is a problem in that it takes a long time to collect the data and the data transmission efficiency of the system decreases. FIG. 7 is a time chart for explaining the situation. For example, when the amount of data from the lower layer vending machine to the upper layer vending machine is 7 items, but the upper layer can receive only 5 items of data, Two pieces of data that cannot be sent remain for each data transmission mode, so in this case, an example in which six pieces of data cannot be sent and remains after 30 minutes has elapsed is shown. Therefore, an object of the present invention is to enable efficient data transmission and eliminate the above-mentioned inconvenience.

[0007]

In order to solve such a problem, according to the present invention, the data of each vending machine is directly or relayed to another vending machine using a specific low power wireless system. At the time of collecting to the processing device, the data of each vending machine is first collected at a fixed cycle according to a certain time schedule, and the amount of data per vending machine is collected every predetermined time from the collected all vending machine data. Is determined to determine the optimum time schedule, and when the determined time schedule is different from the current time schedule, the time schedule is changed to a predetermined time.

[0008]

When the data of each vending machine is relayed to another vending machine and collected in the data processing device by using the specific low power wireless system, the data request time for the vending machine in the lower layer is made variable and the data requesting amount is changed according to the data amount. Data transmission efficiency is improved by selecting an optimal time schedule so that data can be collected.

[0009]

1 is a functional block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention. That is, here is shown a system in which a vending machine A is located below the data processing device and a vending machine B is located below this vending machine A. The data processing device includes a data receiving means 11, a time schedule management means 12 and a switching instruction transmission. The means 13 causes the vending machine A to transmit the number of transmissions 2
1, data transmission means 22, switching instruction receiving means 23, transmission number storage means 24, vending machine information detecting means 25, time schedule switching means 26, data receiving means 27 and switching instruction transmitting means 28, and vending machine B transmission times. A transmission means 31, a data transmission means 32 and a switching instruction reception means 33 are provided respectively.

Here, as a predetermined time schedule, for example, as shown in FIG. 3B, a case of collecting the transmission frequency data at intervals of 30 minutes (cycle) will be described as an example. 2 shows a time schedule example when data is collected in 10 minutes and 15 minutes, and FIG. 3 shows a time schedule example when data is collected in 20 minutes and 30 minutes. Further, each time schedule is composed of a data transmission mode, a downlink message mode, a free time, a data request mode, a spare time, and the like. If there is a change in the vending machine information in the vending machine B, the change is stored as data in the data transmission mode from the data transmitting means 32 to the vending machine A and the number of transmissions is stored. Then, in the data transmission mode after 30 minutes have elapsed, the stored transmission count data is transmitted to the transmission count transmission means 31.
To vending machine A from.

Similarly, the vending machine A also transmits the data received from the vending machine B and the vending machine information of its own detected by the vending machine information detecting means 25 from the data transmitting means 22 to the data processing device and at the same time to the storing means 24. The number of times is stored, and after 30 minutes, the number-of-transmissions data is transmitted to the data processing device via the transmission means 21. Hereinafter, the vending machine A and the vending machine B repeatedly execute such processing. In this way, by periodically transmitting the number of data transmissions of each vending machine to the data processing device, the data processing device uses the time schedule management means 12 to grasp the communication data amount of the entire system at that time, and this data amount Based on this, determine the optimal time schedule at that time.

FIG. 4 shows an example of a method for determining the time schedule. That is, the sum of the received transmission count data is divided by the number of vending machines to obtain the data amount x per unit, which is 0.
2-5, pattern 2 shown in FIG. 2 (a), pattern 2 shown in FIG. 2 (b) shown in FIG. 2 (b), pattern 3 shown in FIG. 3 (a) shown in FIG. In this case, the pattern 4 shown in FIG.

When the time schedule determined as shown in FIG. 4 is different from the system operation pattern (time schedule) currently in operation, the data processing device is the time to switch to the vending machine A in the downlink message mode. The schedule pattern and the switching time are transmitted via the switching instruction transmitting means 13. The data processor repeats this process. The vending machine A which receives the instruction from the switching instruction receiving means 23 transmits the same data to the vending machine B via the switching instruction transmitting means 28, and when the pattern switching time comes, the vending machine A, the vending machine B, the data processing device, etc. Switches the time schedule pattern all at once. The means for this is the time schedule switching means 26 only for the vending machine A here.
As shown.

In this manner, the amount of data sent from each vending machine can be managed, and the pattern (time) for each vending machine to request / transmit data can be switched to the optimum cycle at that time. FIG. 5 is a time chart for explaining the operation of the present invention, which corresponds to FIG. That is, in FIG. 7, 6 items of data could not be transmitted and remained, but in the present invention, due to the switching of the time schedule pattern, the amount of data that cannot be transmitted becomes 1 item immediately after that, and in the next cycle all Will be able to send data.

As described above, data cannot be collected in one data request time, and conversely, a small amount of data causes extra time (loss time during which communication is not performed) in one data request time. It is possible to eliminate inconvenience, and thus it is possible to prevent a decrease in data transmission efficiency of the entire system. It should be noted that the present invention, including the one shown in FIG. 6, should be applied to a general system for collecting data of each vending machine using a specific low power wireless system and relaying the data to another data vending machine through another vending machine. You can

[0016]

According to the present invention, when the data of each vending machine is relayed to another vending machine and collected in the data processing device by using the specified low power radio system, the data request time for the vending machine of the lower layer can be changed. Since the optimum time schedule is selected according to the data amount and the data is collected, there is an advantage that the data transmission efficiency can be improved.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram for explaining an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram for explaining an example of a time schedule table with a cycle of 10 minutes and 15 minutes.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram illustrating an example of a time schedule table having a period of 20 minutes and 30 minutes.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram for explaining an example of a time schedule determination method according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a time chart for explaining the operation of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a functional block diagram showing a general example.

FIG. 7 is a time chart for explaining the problem of FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

11, 27 ... Data receiving means, 12 ... Time schedule managing means, 13, 28 ... Switching instruction transmitting means, 21, 3
1 ... Transmission number transmission means, 22, 32 ... Data transmission means,
23, 33 ... Switching instruction receiving means, 24 ... Transmission frequency storage means, 25 ... Vending machine information detecting means, 26 ... Time schedule switching means.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. When collecting data of each vending machine directly or by relaying another vending machine to a data processing device by using a specific low power wireless system, each vending machine is initially sold according to a certain time schedule. The data of the vending machine is collected at a fixed cycle, the amount of data per vending machine is obtained from the collected data of all vending machines every predetermined time, and the optimal time schedule is determined. A method for collecting information in a vending machine, characterized in that the time schedule is changed at a predetermined time when is different from the current one.