JPH08161641A - Merchandise coupon collection processing unit - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To efficiently collect and sort merchandise coupons collected from each branch and each member shop at an office center. CONSTITUTION: The processing unit is provided with an OCR 1 that reads merchandise coupon information such as an attribute such as an enterprise publicating the merchandise coupon and such as a monetary amount described at a prescribed position of each merchandise coupon in a bundle of merchandise coupons inserted sequentially to the OCR, a merchandise coupon sorter 2 sorting merchandise coupons whose coupon information is read by the OCR depending on the attribute designated in advance and with a header card 7 on which at least a total number and a total monetary amount of a bundle of coupons are described, and collects the merchandise coupon information 6 of each coupon read sequentially by the OCR 1, uses the OCR 1 to read the total number and the total monetary amount described on the header card 7, compares and collates the total number CNS and the total monetary amount SMS described on the header card read by the OCR with the total number CN and the total monetary amount SM collected and provides an output of a re-read operation command of a bundle of a coupons when they are unequal.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a gift certificate totalizing apparatus for efficiently collecting collected gift certificates.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, not only general gift certificates for department stores, beer tickets for beer companies, book coupons for bookstores, but also general retail stores have issued various gift certificates. Since the gift certificate is often used for gifts, it is common that the shop that sold the gift certificate does not match the shop that sold the product with this gift certificate. Therefore, each branch to the business center such as the issuer manufacturer, issuer department store, and shopping street,
It is necessary to bring the gift certificate received from each store in exchange for the payment.

In each of the above-mentioned offices, each gift certificate is temporarily bundled into a plurality of gift certificates at each branch or each member store, and the number and amount of gift certificates for one bundle are provisionally tabulated. Brought in.

However, it is necessary for each office center to separate one bundle of gift certificates brought in from each branch or each member store, re-aggregate each gift certificate, and perform necessary settlement. Further, in the case of a gift certificate that can be used in common among beer companies such as a beer ticket, it is necessary to sort the collected gift certificates for each issuing company.

[0005]

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] Conventionally, in an office center, an clerk collects the types, amount and number of gift certificates brought in from each branch or each member store and inputs the totalized result to an office computer. . Further, the clerk, for example, carried out sorting work for sorting each issuing company.

As described above, in the case of gift certificates that are often used for gifts, the clerical work tends to be concentrated during the mid-year period and the year-end gift period. Therefore, there is a problem that the clerical work load of the clerk increases significantly during this concentrated period.

Furthermore, if a large number of gift certificates are manually processed in a short time, the probability of human error such as incorrect counting of the gift certificates, incorrect reading of the amount of money, or incorrect sorting increases. To do.

The present invention has been made in view of such a situation, and the gift certificate information such as the issuing company and the amount described in the gift certificate brought in from each branch or each member store is automatically obtained by OCR. By reading and automatically totaling, the office work efficiency in the office center can be greatly improved and OCR
It is an object of the present invention to provide a gift certificate totaling / processing device capable of verifying the reading error of and improving the reliability.

[0009]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, a gift certificate totalization processing device of the present invention is a corresponding gift certificate described at a predetermined position of each gift certificate of one bundle of coupons that are sequentially inserted. The OCR that reads the gift certificate information such as the attribute and the amount of money of the issuing company, the gift certificate sorting device that sorts each gift certificate whose gift certificate information is read in accordance with a pre-specified attribute classification, and the OCR sequentially. The totaling means for totaling the gift certificate information of each of the gift certificates to be read, the header card in which at least the total number and the total amount of one bundle of gift certificates are described, and the total number and the total amount described in the header card are set to O.
A comparison is made between a header card reading means for reading with a CR and a comparing and checking means for comparing and checking the total number of sheets and the total amount of money written on the header card read by the OCR with the total number of sheets and the total amount of money counted by the counting means. It is provided with re-operation instruction means for outputting a re-reading operation instruction for one bundle of gift certificates when a mismatch occurs in the collating means.

[0010]

In the gift certificate totalizing device thus configured, the clerk of the office center temporarily collects one bundle of gift certificates brought in from each branch or member store at each branch or member store. Enter the total number of sheets and the total amount of money on the prepared header card. Then, the header card and one bundle of gift cards are inserted into an OCR (optical character reading device).

Then, the OCR reads the total number of sheets and the total amount written on the header card, and also reads the gift certificate information such as the attribute and the amount of the issuing company described on each gift certificate. Then, the gift certificate information of one bundle of gift certificates read by the OCR is automatically totaled.

Further, each gift certificate is automatically sorted according to a pre-designated attribute classification. The total number of sheets and the total amount of money included in the counting result are compared with the total number of sheets and the total amount of money read from the header card. If the comparison and collation results do not match, it is because the OCR reading error or the provisional counting result at each branch or each member store was incorrect. Is output to.

Therefore, the clerk who confirms the re-reading operation instruction again returns the header card and one bundle of gift certificates to the OC.
Insert it in R. In this way, since the gift certificates are automatically counted and sorted, the work load on the clerk is greatly reduced and the reliability of the counting result is further improved.

[0014]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a gift certificate totalization processing device according to an embodiment. The gift certificate totalizing device arranged in the office center is roughly classified into an OCR (optical character reading device) 1 for reading character information written on a gift certificate or a header card, and a gift certificate having a predetermined attribute. It is composed of a sorting device 2 that sorts according to classification, and an arithmetic control device 3 that aggregates the gift certificate information read by the OCR 1 and controls the operations of the OCR 1 and the sorting device 2.

FIG. 2 (a) is a schematic diagram showing a bundle of gift certificates brought to this office center from each branch or each member store. On the surface of each gift certificate 4, characters indicating the type of the gift certificate 4, such as "beer ticket", the type and quantity of products that can be purchased with this gift certificate 4, the name of the issuing company of this gift certificate 4, etc. Has been done.

Further, at a position below the surface of the gift certificate 4,
A character string indicating the bar code 5 and the gift certificate information 6 having the same content as the bar code 5 is described. The gift certificate information 6 is composed of, for example, an amount (A) 6a, an issue date 6b, an issuing company name 6d, and a serial number (serial number) 6d. The gift certificate information 6 is set with different information depending on the type of the gift certificate.

Then, for example, the gift certificate is 100 to 200.
The sheets are brought together as a bundle and brought to the office center. In this case, a memorandum of the total number of sheets CN _S and the total amount of money SM _S provisionally collected at each branch or each member store is attached to the brought-in one bundle of gift certificates 4.

FIG. 2 (b) is a schematic diagram showing a header card used in this gift certificate totaling and processing device. This header card 7 has the same shape as the gift certificate 4 shown in FIG. Then, on the surface of the header card 7, characters indicating the header card are written. Further, five areas (entry fields) 8a to 8e are printed in advance at the same position as the character string of the gift certificate information 6 of the gift certificate 4 below the surface.

When a bundle of gift certificates 4 is brought in, the clerk of the office center takes out a new header card 7 and
Write the card type HD indicating a header card in the first area (entry field) 8a using a writing tool, and the second area 8b
The branch (member store) number, the batch processing number in the third area 8c. It writes the fourth of the total number of one bundle gift certificate read from a memo to the area 8d CN _S, 5 th of writing the total amount SM _S in the region 8e.

In FIG. 1, one bundle of each gift certificate 4 stored in the hopper 9 of the OCR 1 is conveyed to the position of the image reading head 10. The image reading head 10 reads the character data of the gift certificate information 6 below each gift certificate 4, and the controller 11
Send to.

The control unit 11 determines whether or not the gift certificate information 6 of the gift certificate 4 has been correctly read, and if it is correctly read, the read gift certificate information 6 is sent to the arithmetic and control unit 3. If the reading cannot be performed normally, the reading error information is sent to the arithmetic and control unit 3. Furthermore, the control unit 11
Sends the read gift certificate information 6 and the read error information when it cannot be read normally to the sorting device 2.

When the reading process of the gift certificate information 6 of one gift certificate 4 by the image reading head 10 is completed, the gift certificate 4 that has been read is transported to the sorting device 2 by the transport roller 12. In the sorting device 2, each gift certificate 4 carried in from the OCR 1 is also input from the control unit 11 in accordance with the attribute classification designated in advance by the arithmetic control device 3.
Based on the gift certificate information 6 of (1), it is determined which category the relevant gift certificate 4 belongs to, and the relevant gift certificate 4 is conveyed to the corresponding tray 13.

If the information of the relevant gift certificate 4 inputted from the control section 11 is read error information, it is discharged to the reread tray 14. Specifically, when the gift certificate 4 is a beer ticket, the attribute classification is set to the issuing company, and each gift certificate 4 is sorted by each beer company that issued this beer ticket.

Further, when the header card 7 is inserted into the hopper 9, the OCR 1 has each area 8 of the header card 7.
Each piece of information described in a to 8e is read and sent to the arithmetic and control unit 3. Further, the control unit 11 controls the first area 8a.
When the card type HD indicating the header card is read from, the conveyance of the header card 7 to the sorting apparatus 2 is stopped.

Next, the arithmetic and control unit 3 will be described. The arithmetic and control unit 3 is composed of a kind of office computer, and a CPU 16 for executing various information processing on the bus 15 and an R for storing fixed data such as programs.
OM 17, RAM 18 for storing various variable data, HDD (hard disk drive) 19 as an internal storage device, input interface 20 for inputting gift certificate information 6 and the like from the OCR 1, and transmission of various control information to the sorting device 2. An output interface 21 and the like for performing the operation are connected.

Further, with respect to the bus 15, a man-machine device 2 including a CRT display device 22a and a keyboard 22b.
2. Print control unit 23a for driving the printer 23, MT
An MT control unit 24a or the like for controlling the (magnetic tape) device 24 is connected.

In the RAM 18, as shown in FIG. 3, the branch (member store) number read from the header card 7,
Batch processing number. Header information memory 25 for temporarily storing header information such as total number of sheets CN _S and total amount of money SM _S , OC
A read information memo 26 for temporarily storing the gift certificate information, the header information, and the read error information input from R1, a sorting information memory 27 for storing sorting information such as attribute classifications specified in the sorting device 2, and a totaling file 28, etc. Has been formed.

The totalization file 28 is formed with a plurality of itemized files when the above-mentioned gift certificate information 6 of one bundle of gift certificates 4 is totalized by various items. For example,
A file for each issuing company, a file for each amount of money, a file for each branch (member store), and the like are formed. Further, the total number CN of the gift certificates 4 for one bundle and the total amount SM are totalized in the total file 28.

The CPU 16 of the arithmetic and control unit 3
When the operator inputs the sorting classification (attribute classification) of the gift certificate 4 through the man-machine device 22, the sorting device 2 outputs the input sorting classification through the output interface 21.
Set to. In addition to the above-mentioned issuing companies, the amount classification and the like can be designated as the sorting classification.

Then, the CPU 16 is configured to execute a totaling process for the gift certificate information 6 input from the OCR 1 according to the flow chart shown in FIG.
When the flow chart is started and information is input from the OCR 1 at P (program step) 1, the received information is once written in the read information memory 26 of the RAM 18. Then, the type of written information is checked. In the case of the read error information (P2), 1 is added to the error number CE at P3 (C
E = CE + 1).

When the information from the OCR 1 is the above-mentioned header information read from the header card 7 (P4), the read header information is stored in the header information memory 25 (P5). Furthermore, the information from the OCR 1 is the gift certificate information 6
In the case of (P6), this gift certificate information 6 is added to the total file 2
Total the necessary files in 8 (P8). Furthermore, P
At 9, the amount A of the gift certificate information 6 is added to the total amount SM (SM = SM + A). Further, at P10, 1 is added to the total number of sheets CN (CN = CN + 1).

Then, in P11, the number obtained by adding the total number CN and the error number CE is the header information memory 2
If the total number of sheets CN _S stored in 5 is not exceeded,
The process returns to P1 and waits for input of next read information from the OCR.

At P11, the total number CN and the error number C
When the number of sheets added with E exceeds the total number of sheets CN _S stored in the header information memory 25, the reading processing of all the number of the gift certificates 4 set in the hopper 9 is completed, so P
Then, the procedure proceeds to step 12, and it is checked whether or not the number of error CE is 0. If it is not 0, the process proceeds to P19, and the reread operation instruction is displayed and output to the CRT display device 22a of the man-machine device 22.

When the number CE of errors is 0, the process proceeds to P13, in which the total amount SM and the total number CN of the total files 28 and the total amount SM _S and the total number CN _S stored in the header information memory 25 are displayed. Compare and collate.

When both of them coincide with each other in P14, the totalized results totaled in the totalization file 28 are displayed on the CRT display device 22a (P15). Further, the totalized results are printed out by the printer 23 and stored in the MT device 24 (P16). Then, each memory 25.26 other than the sorting information memory 27 of the RAM 18 and the totalization file 28
To clear.

If any one of them does not match in P14, the display, printing, and registration of each counting result in the counting file 28 is stopped, the counting file 28 is discarded, and a rereading operation instruction is given. The display is output to the CRT display device 22a of the man-machine device 22.

In the gift certificate totaling apparatus thus constructed, the clerk of the office center has a branch (member store) number and a batch of one bundle of gift certificates brought in from each branch or each member store. Processing number and total number of notes written CN
_S, a predetermined region of a header card 7 the total amount SM _S 8a to
After writing in 6e, inserting it into the OCR 1, and further inserting each bundle of gift certificates 4 into the hopper 9, the inserted 1
The gift certificate information 6 written on the bundle of gift certificates 4 is automatically totalized by the arithmetic and control unit 3.

Then, when the total number of sheets and the total amount of money in the totaling result do not match the total number of sheets and the total amount of money temporarily tallied by each branch or each member store, one bundle of gift certificates 4 is again OCR1.
The instruction to perform the reading operation is automatically output with.

When a reading error occurs, the gift certificate 4 with the reading error is automatically discharged to the rereading tray 14. Therefore, the gift certificate 4 in which the reading error has occurred can be easily specified.

As described above, in the office center, one bundle of gift certificates brought in from each branch or each member store can be automatically totaled, and each gift certificate can be automatically sorted according to the designated classification. Therefore, office work efficiency is significantly improved. Further, the probability of human error caused by the counting work can be significantly reduced.

Further, for important total items such as the total number of sheets and the total amount of money, since each branch or each member store collates with the provisionally totaled value, the reliability of the totaling device is improved. It can be further improved.

[0042]

As described above, in the gift certificate totalization processing device of the present invention, gift certificate information such as the issuing company and the amount of money described in one bundle of gift certificates brought from each branch or each member store. Is automatically read by OCR and automatically totaled. Further, the totaled result and the total number of sheets and the total amount of money recorded on the header card are compared and collated. Therefore, it is possible to greatly improve the efficiency of the total processing of gift certificates in the office center, verify the OCR reading error, and greatly improve the reliability.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a gift certificate totaling processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the description contents of a gift certificate and a header card used in the apparatus of the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing stored contents of a RAM of the apparatus of the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the operation of the apparatus of the embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... OCR, 2 ... Sorting device, 3 ... Arithmetic processing device, 4 ... Gift certificate, 6 ... Gift certificate information, 7 ... Header card, 8a-8e
... area, 9 ... hopper, 10 ... image reading head, 11 ...
Control unit, 13 ... Tray, 14 ... Rereading tray, 16 ...
CPU, 18 ... RAM, 22 ... Man-machine device, 23 ...
Printer, 24 ... MT device, 25 ... Header information memory,
28 ... Summary file

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An OCR for reading gift certificate information such as attribute and amount of the issuing company of the applicable gift certificate described at a predetermined position of each gift certificate of one bundle of coupons to be sequentially inserted, and this OCR A gift certificate sorting device that sorts each gift certificate from which the gift certificate information has been read according to a pre-specified attribute classification, a totaling unit that totals the gift certificate information of each gift certificate that is sequentially read by the OCR, and the one bundle A header card indicating at least the total number of sheets and the total amount of money in the gift certificate, a header card reading means for reading the total number of sheets and the total amount of money written on the header card by the OCR, and a header card read by the OCR. A comparison and collation unit that compares and collates the stated total number and total amount with the total number and total amount totaled by the totaling unit, and a mismatch occurs in this comparison and collating unit. And a re-operation instruction means for outputting a re-reading operation instruction for the one bundle of gift certificates.