JPH0962810A - Electronic purse system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To permit a user to easily learn that the balance of electronic money accumulated in an IC card becomes less in an electronic purse system. SOLUTION: The balance shortage limits of the IC cards 8 and 9 are set in the electronic purse system. The balance of the IC cards 8 and 9 is monitored after electronic money is transferred. The balances are compared with the shortage limits. When they are less than the shortage limits, an alarm is generated. A shortage limit table managing the plural shortage limits is provided for corresponding to plural currencies. Thus, the user can easily learn that the balance of the IC card becomes less.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electronic wallet system, and more particularly to an electronic wallet system that enables easy confirmation that the balance of electronic money stored in an IC card has decreased. .

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An IC card of a card connector 1 (hereinafter,
After confirming the balance of the IC card 1 after transferring the electronic money from the IC card 1) to the IC card (IC card 2) of the card connector 2, the user reads the balance of the electronic money from the IC card 1 and displays it. , And the user of the electronic wallet system (hereinafter referred to as the user) confirms with their own eyes.

[0003]

The above-mentioned prior art has the following problems.

(1) IC card 1 after transfer of electronic money
In order to know whether the balance of the IC card 1 has become too small, it is necessary to perform an operation of displaying the balance of the IC card 1.

(2) If the operation of (1) above is not performed, there is a possibility that even if the balance of the IC card 1 becomes too small, it may not be noticed until it becomes zero due to an input error of electronic money to be transferred. is there.

Therefore, the technical problem to be solved by the present invention is to solve the problems of the above-mentioned prior art, and the purpose thereof is to make it easy for the user to know that the balance of the IC card has decreased. To inform.

[0007]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention enables setting of a shortage limit in advance, and after the electronic money is transferred, the balance of the IC card is automatically read. 、 If it is below the shortage limit compared to the shortage limit,
The balance at this time is displayed on the display along with a warning message, and the buzzer sounds.

[0008] In addition, in order to deal with a plurality of currencies, a shortage
Prepare a limit table. Then, when setting the shortage limit, the shortage limit corresponding to the currency currently in use is changed, and if there is no corresponding currency, it is newly registered. If the maximum number that can be registered is exceeded, the shortest registered shortage limit will be deleted and new registration will be performed. When comparing the shortage limit, compare it with the shortage limit corresponding to the currency currently in use.

[0009]

After the transfer of the electronic money, the balance of the IC card is automatically read and compared with the shortage limit. If the balance becomes less than this, a warning message and a buzzer are sent to notify the user of the IC card. You can save the trouble of checking the balance. By setting the shortage limit in advance, it is possible to easily know that the balance has decreased before the balance reaches zero.

Even when a plurality of currencies are used in an IC card, a shortage limit table is prepared, and registration and deletion in the shortage limit table are devised as described above, whereby the shortage limit table is created. You can know that your balance is running low without taking up too much memory.

[0011]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described below with reference to the embodiments shown in FIGS.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an outline of an electronic wallet system according to the present invention. The system of this embodiment is small, light, and thin, and has a size that can be always carried, such as a wallet or a calculator.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 is a system controller for controlling the operation of the entire system, which is composed of a one-chip microcomputer having an internal memory. 2 is a keypad composed of a group of buttons for receiving operations from the user, 3 is a part for displaying character strings and pictures in a dot matrix system,
A liquid crystal display composed of a portion for displaying a graphic (icon) prepared in advance, 3 is a piezoelectric buzzer for generating a key operation sound and a warning sound, and these are portions for interfacing with the user. 5 and 6 are I
An IC card conforming to the SO / IEC 7816 standard is a card connector 1 and a card connector 2 for exchanging electronic money information, and 8 and 9 are IC cards usable with these card connectors. The battery 7 is composed of a lithium ion battery and an alkaline battery, and supplies the electric power required for the operations 1 to 6.

When the user operates the keypad, the system controller interprets it and exchanges information about the IC card and electronic money via the card connector. The display is in the middle of information exchange. The message, or information about electronic money itself, is displayed and notified to the user as necessary. Simultaneously with this, Syscon gives an operation sound that indicates that the keypad has been operated and a warning sound that indicates an abnormality detected during information exchange.
Notify the user by sounding a buzzer. In addition, syscon can be used when the system is not used for a long time.
When it is no longer necessary to supply power to the system, the battery is controlled to reduce the power consumption of the entire system.

As shown in Table 1, the syscon holds in memory a shortage limit table having three sets of shortage limit information consisting of currency, shortage limit and level. . Here, when the level is 0, it indicates that the shortage limit information is not registered there, and other than 1 and 3
The following values indicate that the shortage limit information has been registered, and the larger the value, the more recent the registered or compared time.

[0016]

[Table 1]

First, the process of comparing the balance after electronic money transfer with the shortage limit will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. 2 and the shortage limit table of Table 1.

The user selects from IC card 1 to IC card 2
When you instruct to transfer electronic money to, Syscon executes this. After this execution is completed, Syscon will use the IC card 1
The balance is read (S1), the corresponding shortage limit is obtained from the shortage limit table, and the level is changed to the maximum value (S2, S3, S4). At this time, if there is no corresponding shortage limit, the shortage limit is set to zero (S5). For example,
If the balance read from the IC card is $ 5.00, the shortage limit registered in the shortage limit table is $ 10.00, and as a result, $
The level of 10.00 is 3, and the level of 1,000 yen is changed to 2. If the balance read is £ 2.00,
Shortage limit for currency £ is £ 0 because it is not registered in the Shortage Limit table.
It becomes 00, and the level of each shortage limit does not change.

Then, the previously read balance of the IC card is compared with the obtained shortage limit. If the balance is less than the shortage limit, a warning message is displayed on the display and a buzzer sounds a warning sound. (S
6, S7, S8). If compared to the above example, the balance is $ 5.00
Is the shortage limit of $ 10.00 or less,
A warning message is displayed and a warning sound is generated, and
If it is 2.00, it is greater than the shortage limit of £ 0.00, so no warning is issued.

Next, the process of setting the shortage limit will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. 3 and the shortage limit tables of Tables 1 to 3.

When the user gives an instruction to start the setting operation of the shortage limit, the syscon displays a message on the display prompting the user to input the shortage limit from the keypad. When the user inputs the shortage limit, Syscon determines that this is the new shortage limit for the current currency (S9). Then, it is searched whether the entered currency of the Shortage Limit is registered in the Shortage Limit table, and if it is registered (S10, S
11), change to the shortage limit and change the level to the maximum value (S12). For example, when the shortage limit table is in the state of Table 1 and the inputted shortage limit is $ 2.50, as a result, the shortage limit of the currency $ is from $ 10.00 to $ 10.00.
It becomes 2.50, the level is 3, and the level of currency ¥ is changed to 2.

When the currency of the shortage limit newly input in S10 and S11 is not registered in the shortage limit table, a free area is searched, and if there is no free area (S13, S14). , The shortest limit that has been registered or compared in the past and has the lowest level is deleted to create an empty area (S15). Then, the newly input shortage limit is registered in this empty area, and the level is set to the maximum value (S1).
6). For example, when the shortage limit table is Table 1, if £ 5.00 is registered, there will be a free area, resulting in Table 2. Here, the level of £ 5.00 is lowered to the highest level by lowering the level of currencies ¥ and $.

[0023]

[Table 2]

If DM1.00 is registered when the shortage limit table is shown in Table 2, the lowest level of $ 10.00 is deleted and the levels of currencies \ and £ are lowered by one. DM 1.00 and Level 3 are registered and Table 3 is obtained.

[0025]

[Table 3]

[0026]

As described above, according to the present invention, the following effects are obtained when electronic money of an IC card is transferred.

(1) By setting the minimum amount of money to be left in the IC card as the shortage limit in advance, if the balance of the IC card becomes small after the transfer of electronic money, the user does not have to perform any special operation. Then, you can easily know this.

(2) Even when the IC card is compatible with a plurality of currencies, the same operability as in (1) above is provided to the user, and the amount of memory in the syscon does not increase so much. The system price can be reduced.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an outline of an electronic wallet system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a processing flow when comparing the balance of an IC card with a shortage limit in the electronic wallet system according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a processing flow when setting a shortage limit in the electronic wallet system according to the embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 ... Syscon 2 ... Keypad 3 ... Display 4 ... Buzzer 5 ... Card Connector 1 6 ... Card Connector 2 7 ... Battery 8 ... IC Card 1 9 ... IC Card 2

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁶ Identification code Internal reference number FI Technical display location G06F 15/30 360

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. A keypad for accepting key operations, a display for notifying information by characters and pictures, and two sets of card connectors for exchanging information with an IC card that stores electronic money, which is electronic cash. In an electronic wallet system composed of a system control device that controls overall control of each device and a battery that supplies electric power necessary for the operation of each device, a balance limit of the electronic money accumulated in the IC card A means for setting a shortage limit which is a reference value is provided, and when exchanging information with the IC card, the balance of the electronic money accumulated in the IC card is compared by comparing with the shortage limit. An electronic wallet system characterized by reporting that it has run low. 2. The shortage limit corresponds to an IC card capable of storing a plurality of currencies,
The electronic wallet system according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of items can be set for each currency. 3. When setting a shortage limit for a new currency that exceeds the maximum number of settable shortage limits, when the shortage limit for the new currency is set, the most recently set show is set. The electronic wallet system according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the setting of the tage limit is canceled after the setting. 4. The electronic wallet system according to claim 1, wherein the two sets of card connectors can transfer electronic money between the IC cards connected to both card connectors. 5. The IC connectable to the card connector
The electronic wallet system according to claim 1, wherein the card is a system based on the ISO / IEC 7816 standard. 6. The electronic wallet system according to claim 1, wherein the battery is composed of an alkaline battery or a lithium-ion battery, or a mixture thereof. 7. The electronic wallet system according to claim 1, wherein the device for notifying that the balance of the electronic money has decreased is a voice device using a buzzer or a speaker.