JPH09297880A - Vending machine - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To judge the propriety of sales in accordance with the age of a product purchaser without newly installing a card reader by incorporating a card reader function in a paper money identification machine. SOLUTION: Since a magnetic head, a transportation line and multiple common elements are provided for the paper money identification machine and the card reader, the card reader function can be provided by using the magnetic head and the transportation line, which the paper money identification machine has. Thus, a paper money insertion port 8 and a card insertion port 3 are made common, and a card/paper money identification sensor 8 is arranged at the back. The object which is inserted by the purchaser is identified to be the card or paper money. When it is the card, a card read circuit 11 is start and data contained in the card detected by the magnetic head 9 is sent to the card read circuit 11. A master control part 1 controls whether product sales is made possible or not based on the age of the purchaser. Thus, cost can e reduced compared to a case when the card reader is differently provided, and the purchase of an inhibited product by a minor can be prevented.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to an alcoholic beverage,
The present invention relates to a vending machine that handles products such as cigarettes that minors are prohibited from purchasing.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As the drinking and smoking of minors become a major social problem, the existence of a vending machine that allows any person to purchase alcoholic beverages and tobacco at any time is questioned, and various measures are considered. It has been. As one of them, it is possible to detect the date of birth or age from the driver's license or card of the product purchaser, and when purchasing an alcoholic beverage, it is possible to sell only when it is an adult, and when it is a minor A vending machine has been proposed by the applicant (Japanese Patent Application No. 7-70752). According to this vending machine, regardless of whether the vending machine is installed indoors or outdoors, it is possible to reliably prevent the sale of alcoholic beverages to minors.

In this vending machine, a card reader is required when a card is used as a medium for detecting the date of birth or the age of the purchaser of the merchandise, but the present vending machine has the space as small as possible. Since the structure is such that it is held down, there is almost no room inside, and it is difficult to install a new card reader. Further, when it is mounted on the outside of the vending machine, the vending machine projects to the front, which is not preferable due to the problem of protruding to the road. Furthermore, it is not preferable to newly install such a card reader because the cost increases.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide an automatic vending machine which can judge whether to sell or not to sell depending on the date of birth or the age of a purchaser of a product without newly installing a card reader. Especially.

[0005]

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to solve the above problems, according to the present invention, the purchaser's date of birth or age is detected from a card inserted by the product purchaser to purchase a minor prohibited product purchase. At times, in a vending machine that can be sold only when the detected date of birth or age is an adult and is not sold when the child is a minor, a bill reader of the vending machine has a card reader function.

[0006]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An increasing number of automatic vending machines are equipped with a bill validator, and most of those without a bill validator can be installed. Since the bill validator and the card reader have many common elements such as a magnetic head and a transport path, it is necessary to provide a card reader function by using the magnetic head, the transport path, etc. that the bill validator has. You can A banknote insertion slot and a card insertion slot are shared, and a card / banknote identification sensor is placed behind it to identify whether the card inserted by the purchaser is a card or a banknote, and in the case of a card, activates the card reading circuit. Then, the data contained in the card detected by the magnetic head is sent to the card reading circuit, and whether or not the product can be sold based on the age of the purchaser is controlled by the vending machine master control unit. Is preferred.

[0007]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a configuration layout diagram of a control system of the vending machine of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is an external view of the vending machine of the present invention. 1 is a master control unit of a vending machine, 2 is a coin insertion slot, 3 is a coin discriminator, and its output end 4 is an input end 5 of the master control unit 1.
It is connected to the. 6 is a card / banknote insertion slot, 7 is a card / banknote transport path, 8 is a card / banknote identification sensor arranged along the transport path 7, 9 is a card / banknote identification sensor along the transport path 7, and With the magnetic head for detection arranged at the rear, the output end 10 of the card / banknote identification sensor 8 is connected to the input end 12 of the card reading circuit 11 and the input end 14 of the bill reading circuit 13, and the output end of the magnetic head 9 is connected. 1
5 is connected to the input end 16 of the card reading circuit 11 and the input end 17 of the bill reading circuit 13, and the card reading circuit 1
The output end 18 of 1 and the output end 19 of the bill reading circuit 13 are connected to the input ends 20 and 21 of the master control unit 1. Here, the transport path 7, the magnetic head 9, the bill reading circuit 1
Reference numeral 3 is an element constituting a bill validator of a conventional automatic vending machine, and a card / banknote discriminating sensor 8 and a card reading circuit 11 can be added thereto to provide a card reader function.

Reference numeral 22 is a product selection button, 23 is a ten-key pad, and the signal output terminals 24 and 25 thereof are connected to the input terminals 26 and 27 of the master control unit 1. 28 is a coin return slot, 2
Reference numeral 9 denotes a carry-out mechanism connected to the output end 30 of the massuri controller 1, and reference numeral 31 denotes a carry-out port thereof.

Next, the operation of the above control system will be described. In this vending machine, even if a coin or a banknote is first put into the cash, the card / banknote identifying sensor 8 determines that the cash is the cash, the cash is immediately returned to the insertion slot 6, and the commodity selling operation is not performed. When the purchaser inserts the card into which his / her birth date or age data is input through the insertion slot 6, the card is drawn along the transport path 7, and the card / banknote identification sensor 8 determines that the card is a card. The card reading circuit 11 is started, the card data detected by the magnetic head 9 is read by the card reading circuit 11, and when it is confirmed that the person is an adult, the card is returned to the insertion slot 6,
For the first time, it becomes possible to deposit cash. When a bill or coin is inserted there and the product selection button 22 is selected and operated, in the case of a bill, it is determined by the card / bill identification sensor 8 that the bill is a bill, the bill reading circuit 13 is started, and the magnetic head 9 is used. The detected bill detection pattern is read by the bill reading circuit 13 to determine whether it is true or false, and if true, a bill signal is sent to the master control unit 1 to be collated with the price of the selected product and sold. When the conditions are met, the master control unit 1 sends a carry-out signal from the output end 30 to the carry-out mechanism 29, and the selected product is carried out to the carry-out port 31. When cash is thrown in, a coin signal is sent to the master control unit 1 through the coin discriminator 3, and similarly when the sales conditions are satisfied, the product is unloaded. If it is confirmed from the card data read by the card reading circuit 11 that the child is a minor, the card is returned to the insertion slot 6 and the fact that the card cannot be sold is displayed on the display 32 on the front of the vending machine. It

In order to prevent the other person's card from being misused, it is necessary to input the password together with the insertion of the card so that the subsequent operation is continued only when the data read by the card reading circuit 11 matches. You can also This can be performed by operating the ten keys 23, but it can also be performed by operating the selection buttons 22 by giving the product selection button 22 the function of the ten keys.

Although the above-mentioned example is suitable for the vending machine that handles only the underage prohibited products, cash is used in the vending machine that is mixed with the underage prohibited products and products that anyone can purchase. The control mechanism may be configured so that, even when the product is first inserted, if the selected product is not a product prohibited by minors, the product can be sold regardless of whether the card is inserted. In this case, cash is inserted prior to the insertion of the card, and when a product forbidden by minors is selected, the selling operation is performed only when the card is inserted.

Further, in the above-mentioned example, the card and the bill are inserted in common, but they may be separated.

[0013]

According to the present invention, by incorporating a card reader function in a bill validator, an automatic vending machine which originally has a small margin can have a function of reading a card, and a card reader is separately provided. The cost can be drastically reduced, and the purchase of prohibited products by minors can be reliably prevented.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration layout diagram of a control system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an external view of an embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Vending machine master control unit 2 Coin slot 3 Coin identification machine 6 Card, bill insertion slot 7 Conveyance path 8 Card / banknote identification sensor 9 Magnetic head 11 Card reading circuit 13 Banknote reading circuit 22 Product selection button 23 Numeric keypad 28 Coin return Mouth 29 carry-out mechanism 31 carry-out exit

Claims (5)

[Claims] [Claim 1] The date of birth or age of the purchaser of the product is detected from the card inserted by the purchaser of the product, and at the time of purchase of a product forbidden by minors, only the detected date of birth or the age of sale can be sold. In the vending machine that will not be sold in the case of minors, the vending machine is characterized by having a card reader function built into the bill validator of the vending machine. 2. The vending machine according to claim 1, wherein the bill insertion slot and the card insertion slot are common. 3. The vending machine according to claim 1, further comprising a card / banknote identification sensor. 4. The vending machine according to claim 1, wherein a magnetic head for detecting bills and a card are used in common. 5. The vending machine according to claim 1, wherein the vending machine master control unit is provided with a bill reading circuit and a card reading circuit.