JPH1185302A - Charging method for computer and its system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To make manageable the computer use time by means of a card, to facilitate the collection of a computer use charge and to preserve data which are not preserved when use terminates. SOLUTION: A computer can be used only for usable time stored in the card by a use time control part 2 by using the controller 1 of the card storing information. When use time stored in the prepaid card becomes less, remaining time is displayed on the terminal screen 6 of the computer. When the use time of the computer comes to a use time limit 7 and the operation of the computer terminates, a program control part 4 terminates it so that data, which are used for an application program during execution and are not preserved are not lost.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a computer charge method and system for collecting usage fees according to the computer usage time.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a conventional general-purpose computer, identification information for each user is registered in the computer in advance, and CPU time, the number of printed pages, etc., used by the user by using the computer are charged information. A method has been adopted in which a computer administrator periodically checks billing information and bills each user for a usage fee corresponding to the computer usage. In recent years, the spread of personal computers has been remarkable, and facilities such as Internet cafes in which an unspecified number of people use personal computers have appeared. However, personal computers do not have a function to manage user information and billing information, and even if the expiration date is set, application programs running on the computer are stopped when the expiration date is reached. Usually, it does not have a function to make it work.

Conventionally, a method of calculating the usage fee of a terminal device connected to a central computer by setting a time counter by the central computer (for example, see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 61-287391), or a taxi fare A system for automatically calculating and registering the total usage fee of the vehicle-mounted telephone and transmitting the result wirelessly to the data collection device (for example, see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 4-824)
Alternatively, when a car pays a toll at a tollgate on an expressway or the like, a method of automatically calculating the registration number data of the vehicle by transmitting the registration number data by optical communication (for example, see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No.
No. 2098) has been proposed, but there is no known method of charging a personal computer usage fee.

[0004]

As described above, in the prior art, user information must be registered in a computer in order to obtain billing information, and usage fees are collected from an unspecified number of users. It was extremely inconvenient to do so. In addition, in facilities where the usage fee corresponding to the computer usage is collected immediately after use, computers that do not have a billing information management function are often used. The usage fee must be calculated based on the time spent in the facility, and the user has to pay for the time not using the computer. Also, when the computer expires, if the computer is forcibly turned off to stop using the computer, unsaved data created by the user up to that point will be lost. In addition, the unsaved data used by the operating system is lost, and the integrity of data on the computer may be lost. Further, if the operation of the computer is stopped without any notice to the user, there is a risk that the convenience of the computer may be impaired. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to solve these conventional problems, to collect a usage fee corresponding to the usage time of a computer, and to make an application without losing unsaved data when the usage time of the computer expires. It is an object of the present invention to provide a method and a system for charging a computer which can terminate a program.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, according to the present invention, there is provided a method for charging a computer, wherein the computer usage time is sequentially reduced from the computer usage time stored in the prepaid card while the computer is being used. When the usable time falls below the remaining warning occurrence time registered in the computer in advance, the remaining use time is displayed on the terminal screen. When the available time is exhausted, the computer instructs the currently executing application program to start the termination processing. The application program is
The data saving process or the like is defined as a function that can be executed in the end process, and only the function can be executed when the end instruction is received. The application program that has received the termination instruction immediately enters the termination processing, and the user executes the termination processing to save the unsaved data and terminate the application program. The computer stops operating so that the user cannot use the computer when all the application programs being executed during use are terminated.

[0006] Specifically, for a card capable of storing information, a usage fee (for example,
The usable time of the computer corresponding to (5,000 yen) is stored, and the computer can be used only for that time, so that the use of the computer is charged. In addition, when the expiration date of the computer is approaching, the remaining usage time is displayed on the terminal screen to encourage the user to complete the planned work, and that the unsaved data is not lost when the expiration date expires End use of the computer. Thus, by storing the usable time of the computer in the card according to the usage fee paid by the user in advance, it is possible to collect a usage fee corresponding to the usage time of the computer. In addition, by displaying the remaining usage time on the terminal screen when the expiration date of the computer is approaching, it becomes possible for the user to end planned work, and further, when the expiration date of the computer expires. By limiting the functions that can be executed by the application program to only the end processing,
The application program can be terminated without losing unsaved data.

[0007]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram of a computer system showing one embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a card control unit, which reads information of a card (for example, a prepaid card) storing usable time and passes it to the use time control unit 2, or the remaining use time received from the use time control unit 2. Update the contents of the card according to. Reference numeral 7 denotes a warning remaining time information storage unit for displaying the remaining time information on the terminal screen 6 when the remaining time falls below this time (for example, 3 minutes), and this value is registered in advance. . 2 is a use time control unit,
The usage time is counted and the remaining usage time is passed to the card control unit 1, the remaining time information is notified to the screen control unit 3 to be displayed on the terminal screen 6 with reference to the remaining warning time information 7, and the remaining usage time is notified. When the time runs out, the application program control unit 4 is notified to terminate the application program 5.

Reference numeral 3 denotes a screen control unit, which displays the remaining time information notified from the use time control unit 2 on the terminal screen 6. Reference numeral 4 denotes an application program control unit. Upon receiving an end notification from the use time control unit 2, the application program control unit 4 notifies the application program 5 to start the end processing, monitors the end of all the application programs 5, and ends the operation. If so, the end completion information is used by the use time control unit 2.
Notify. 5 is an application program,
The process is divided into a normal process 8 that can be executed at all times and an end process 9 that can be executed when an end notification is received. Since the program storage area of the normal processing 8 and the program storage area of the end processing 9 partially overlap, the area ranges also overlap in the storage section of FIG.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described.
FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a flow of the operation in FIG. First, the usable time stored in the card is acquired by the card control unit 1 and passed to the usable time control unit 2.
(Step 101). Then, the usable time is subtracted from the usable time (step 102), and the usable time of the card is updated one after another (step 103). Usable time is not 0 (step 104) and warning remaining use time is 7
If not smaller (step 105), the process returns to the previous process without displaying anything and proceeds to the usable time subtraction process (step 102). On the other hand, if the usable time is not 0 (step 104) and is smaller than the remaining warning use time 7,
(Step 105), the available time is displayed on the terminal screen 6 (Step 106), and the process proceeds to the available time subtraction process (Step 102). When the usable time reaches 0 (step 104), an end notification is sent to the application program (step 107), and the end of the application program is waited for (step 108). When all application programs have been completed, the use of the computer is terminated (step 109).

On the other hand, the application program 5 executes a normal process until receiving an end notification (step 110). When the end notification is received (step 111), only the end processing is executed (step 112),
Terminate the application program (step 11
3). According to this embodiment, the use time of the computer can be managed by the card, and at the end of the use of the computer, the unsaved data used by the application program can be saved and the processing can be terminated.

Next, a recording medium for realizing a charge for a computer will be described. By storing a program for performing processing for collecting a usage fee corresponding to the usage time of a computer in a recording medium, the recording medium can be transported to an arbitrary place, and the program can be easily executed at the place. Computers can be charged. As a computer fee-charging program, the available time corresponding to the usage fee is acquired from the card, and the available time is updated while sequentially subtracting the usage time from the available time according to the usage time of the computer. When the updated usable time becomes shorter than the predetermined remaining warning time, the usable time is displayed on the terminal screen, and when the usable time becomes zero, the application program is displayed. , An end notification is sent to the user, and the end process is executed after the end of the normal process.

[0012]

As described above, according to the present invention, the use time of the computer can be managed by using the card, so that the collection of the computer usage fee becomes easy, and the unsaved storage used when the computer is finished. Since the data can be saved, there is an effect that the application program can be safely terminated.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram of a computer system showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a flow of an overall operation in FIG. 1;

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Card control part, 2 ... Usage time control part, 3 ... Screen control part, 4 ... Application program control part, 5 ... Application program, 6 ... Terminal screen, 7 ... Warning remaining time information storage part, 8 ... Application program Normal processing part 9, end processing part of application program

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A method of charging a computer for collecting a usage fee corresponding to a usage time of a computer, comprising: obtaining an available time corresponding to the usage fee from a card; The usable time is updated while sequentially subtracting the usable time. When the updated usable time becomes shorter than the predetermined remaining warning time, the usable time is displayed on the terminal screen. When the usable time reaches zero, a termination notice is sent to the application program, and the termination processing is executed after the end of the normal processing, whereby the termination processing is executed. 2. A charge system for a computer which collects a usage fee corresponding to the usage time of a computer, reads information on a card storing usable time, passes the information to a usage time control unit, and A card control unit that updates the contents of the card according to the remaining use time received from the use time control; and measures the use time of the computer and passes the remaining use time to the card. When the remaining time information is displayed on the terminal screen and the remaining time runs out, a use time control unit that notifies the program control unit to terminate the application program, and when an end notification is received from the use time control unit, Notifies the above application program to enter termination processing, monitors the termination of the program, and completes termination at termination A computer control unit for reporting information to the use time control unit. 3. A recording medium for storing a program for collecting a usage fee corresponding to a usage time of a computer, wherein the program for performing the processing according to claim 1 is stored.