JPS6235132B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a data input device as a terminal device provided for inputting data to a center processing device provided for collecting and processing various data. In particular, we are developing a data input device that can reduce the amount of data transferred to and from the center processing device as much as possible, improve the data processing efficiency of the entire system, and reduce the capacity of the storage unit that it should have. This is what I proposed.

The present invention will be explained in detail below based on drawings showing an embodiment in a hotel management system.

In a system in which data is input to a central processing unit from a data input device equipped with a keyboard and a display section, the data input device generally performs only a part of simple display control, and is capable of controlling various displays, Other processing relied on the central processing equipment. Therefore, there was a problem in that the load on the center processing device was heavy. To solve this problem, a data input device has been proposed in which the format necessary for input control is stored in the data input device (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 141548/1983), but as the capacity of this storage device increases, it becomes less economical. There is a problem with being inferior in gender. The present invention has been made to solve these problems.

FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram of a data input device according to the present invention. Reference numeral 1 denotes a transmission unit as an interface for data transmission between the control unit 2, which is the control center of the device of the present invention, and the center processing unit CMP. Data regarding characters representing predetermined questions as described below and input element designation codes corresponding to each of the questions are transmitted to the control unit 2 via the transmission unit 1, and these data and codes are transmitted to the control unit 2 by the control unit 2. The data is transferred to the storage unit 5 and stored therein. The keyboard section 4 is a direct input means of the device of the present invention, and in addition to general keys such as kana keys, alphabet keys, numeric keys, code keys, etc., it can also be used for check-in operations, check-out operations, reservation operations, etc. depending on the purpose of use. It is equipped with various function keys, such as a business selection key to be operated by keystrokes, a key for editing the screen of the display section 3 consisting of a CRT, and a clear button.

The operation of the keyboard section 4 starts with pressing the task selection key, but when the code corresponding to the selected task selection key is read into the control section 2,
The control unit 2 selectively reads data related to the characters representing the question corresponding to this code and the input element designation code from the storage unit 5, displays the characters corresponding to the read data on the display unit 3, and also designates the input element. The code is held in the control section 2. That is, the business selection key functions as a question selection key.

For example, when you press a job selection key assigned to a check-in job, the code corresponding to this key is taken into the control unit 2, and the control unit 2 recognizes the press of the job selection key and has already entered the center processing unit.
Selectively reads out the data related to characters representing a large number of questions transmitted from the CMP and stored in the storage unit 5 and the input element designation codes corresponding to the questions, which correspond to the code of the check-in business. . Questions for check-in operations include "room number", "address", "name", "number of people",
"Number of nights," etc., and data related to the kana characters "heyabango", "jiyushyo", "name", "ninzu", "hakusu", etc. representing these are selectively read out from the storage unit 5, and these data are The signals are converted into signals to be displayed as visible characters on the display section 18 using a known method, and then displayed in the format shown in FIG. In addition, "Check-in" on the top line of Figure 2 is displayed according to the task selection key selected and pressed, and the underline displayed to the right of the letters "Haya Bango" etc. of each question item is displayed when the key is pressed later. This mark represents the number of data to be processed.

The input element specification code is a code that determines the type of key that should be allowed to key in, and is determined for each question.For example, for the question "Room number", only numeric keys are required, and for "Address", only numeric keys are required. , number keys and alphabet keys are also "name"
For "Number of people" and "Number of nights", only numeric keys are allowed to be keyed in. Specifically, this input element designation code has an 8-bit configuration, with 1 assigned to bits that correspond to key types that allow key-in, and 0 assigned to bits that correspond to key types that prohibit key-in. be.

Now, after the display as shown in FIG. 2 is displayed, the operator keys in answers to the questions, but the procedure can be performed sequentially according to the displayed contents. When the numeric keys ``3'', ``0'', and ``1'' are pressed in response to the question ``room number'' currently displayed on ``Hayabango'', this key-in data is taken into the control unit 2, where the key-in data is It is determined whether or not the key-in data matches the input element designation code, and only when it is determined that the key-in data matches the input element designation code, the key-in data is determined to be valid and displayed.

For example, for "room number", the input element designation code is stipulated so that only numeric keys are valid, so the above key-in data matches the input element designation code, so the control unit 2 judges this key-in data to be valid. This is displayed as " 3 0 1 " on the display section 3 as shown in FIG.

However, as an answer operation, Kanaky "i"
When keys such as "B" and "C" are pressed, the control unit 2 determines that this key-in data does not conform to the input element designation code, and the key-in data is deemed invalid and is not displayed. Therefore, despite the keystroke operation, the operator does not see any display in the underlined area to the right of the part labeled "Haya Bango" on the display section 3, so he realizes that he has made a mistake in the operation and starts the correct keystroke operation again. I will do it. In this way, the answers to other questions are keyed in one after another, but the answers are answered using fewer characters than the number of displayed characters (the number of underlines; for example, 2 for the number of people) prepared for the answer to each question. If the above can be satisfied, the control unit 2 sends a signal to notify the user to press the line feed key or other predetermined key to move on to answering the next question.
Configure it so that it is given to

After keying in the answers to all the questions, an operation is performed to transmit the data to the center processing device CMP, such as pressing a transmission key, but in the device of the present invention, this operation allows the data to be transmitted to the center processing device CMP. The data to be transmitted is the data keyed in as an answer to each question, that is, the third
As shown in the figure, there are only "301", "Osaka Shiki Taku...", "Nakayama Yoshiharu", "2", "1", etc., and only these key-in data can be input to the control unit by a predetermined operation.
The data are sequentially transmitted from the transmitter 1 to the center processing device CMP via the transmitter 1.

FIG. 4 is a more detailed block diagram of the device of the present invention, in which data is transmitted to and from the center processing device CMP via a transmission line 6, and data is transmitted from the center processing device CMP via the transmission line 6. The coming data, that is, the data related to the characters representing the questions and the input element designation code are sent to the I/O that constitutes the transmission section 1.
It is taken in to the CPU (central processing unit) 21 that constitutes the control unit 2 via the O buffer 11 and the serial/parallel converter 12, and is connected to this CPU 21 by the address bus line 7 and the data bus line 8. The data is transferred to a storage unit (data memory) 5 where the data is stored, and stored there.

The keyboard section 4 consists of a keyboard main body 41, a key matrix 42 for obtaining signals corresponding to the pressed keys, and an I/O buffer 43 for driving and sensing this key matrix. The data is input from the I/O buffer to the CPU 21 via the data bus line 8. Display part 3 is for display
A refresh memory 31 that receives data output from the CPU 21 via the data bus line 8, a character generator 32 that converts the data read from there into a display font, a CRT 33, and
It consists of a timing signal generation circuit 34 for scanning the refresh memory 31 in synchronization with a CRT synchronization signal.

A program memory 22 constitutes the control section 2 together with the CPU 21, and stores programs for causing the CPU 21 to perform various controls as described above. That is, the data regarding the characters representing the question and the input element designation code are stored in the storage unit 5, and the data of the corresponding characters and the input element designation code are stored in the storage unit 5 in response to the operation of the job selection key.
Selectively read from the input element, perform control to display it on the display unit, hold the input element specification code, and determine whether or not the key-in data as an answer conforms to the input element specification code. The operations of the CPU 21 according to the control program stored in the program memory 22 include controlling to display the displayed key-in data and transmitting only the displayed key-in data to the center processing device. will be carried out. Note that the CPU 21 does not decide whether or not the key-in data conforms to the input element designation code; instead, a suitability determination circuit is provided in the keyboard section 4, and this circuit holds the input element designation code. CPU2 with key-in data that does not match
It may be configured such that transfer to No. 1 is prohibited.

Now, as mentioned above, the data related to the characters representing the predetermined question items and the input element designation code are stored in advance in the storage unit 5. If the number of questions to be asked is extremely large due to the presence of a wide variety of task selection keys, such as in a system used for various purposes, a large-capacity storage section 5 is required. This unnecessarily increases the hardware cost, but at the same time, each terminal uses only a limited amount of the data related to the questionnaire stored in the storage section, resulting in poor utilization efficiency.

The present invention is capable of dealing with such a case without providing a large capacity storage section. That is, the data input device according to the present invention includes a storage section, a means for storing data regarding characters representing a predetermined question item in the storage section, and a question item corresponding to a code obtained by the operation by a predetermined operation of the keyboard. means for determining the presence or absence of data relating to a character representing the character in the storage unit; and if the data exists, means for selectively reading it from the storage unit and displaying the character corresponding to the read data on the display unit; , means for requesting the center processing device to transmit the data when data regarding characters representing the question item corresponding to the code does not exist, and displaying the data received in response to the request on the display unit; means for storing data in the storage unit; means for updating stored data in the storage unit according to reading results; means for displaying key-in data related to answers to questions; and means for transmitting only the key-in data to the center processing device. It is characterized by comprising the following. According to the present invention, since the capacity of the storage section 5 is limited, the stored data is updated in accordance with the reading record in order to improve its utilization efficiency. In other words, the data related to the characters are stored in the storage unit in a ranked manner, and the data related to the characters that are selectively read and displayed are stored in the storage unit in the first place.
rank, and if this device requests data transmission to the center processing device, the transmitted data is stored in the first rank, that is, it is stored in the first rank. Data is stored in the first order of the storage unit each time it is displayed. Note that the first rank here has the following meaning.

That is, since the storage capacity is limited, the device of the present invention requests data transmission to the center processing device,
If you try to receive and store this, if the storage is already full of data, you will need to lose some of it and store the received data in the empty area that is created. In this case, the data to be lost is ranked as the lowest rank, and conversely, the data with the lowest probability of loss is ranked as the first rank.
Rank. In other words, at a certain point in time, if data is ranked and stored in such a way that the data in the first rank is A, the data in the second rank is B, and the data in the lowest rank is Z, the data a received from the center processing device is The state is such that the data of a, A, B, C...Y is stored in this order, with the lower data necessary for storing it as the first rank, for example, the data Z of the lowest rank being lost. do. Furthermore, if the data stored in this state, for example B, is selectively read out by pressing the business selection key, this data B will move to the first priority, and B, a,
The data of A, C...Y are stored in this order. By doing so, data related to displayed characters are stored in the first order each time, and the probability of data being lost due to reception of other data is minimized. In other words, the text data of the questionnaire that is displayed more frequently on the device is stored in a higher ranking.
This is done to reduce the probability of it being lost.

The operation of the apparatus of the present invention will be explained in more detail below.

When the system is started, a large amount of data related to characters representing predetermined questions (the number is determined by the capacity of the storage unit 5) is stored in the center processing unit.
It is transmitted from the CMP to the control unit 2 via the transmission unit 1. The control unit 2 stores each data in the storage unit 5 while assigning an appropriately determined ranking to each data. Note that this ranking may be done by any appropriate method, such as by associating it with the address of the storage unit 5. In addition to the character data of the questions transmitted to the device of the present invention, the center processing device also holds character data of the questions that could not be transmitted due to capacity limitations of the storage section 5.

When the business selection key assigned to the check-in business is pressed, the code corresponding to this key is fetched from the keyboard section 4 to the control section 2, and the keystroke is recognized. Thereby, the control unit 5 determines whether or not data related to characters representing the question items corresponding to the code exists in the storage unit 5. If data exists, the control unit 5 selectively reads it from the storage unit 5 and stores it. It is displayed on the display unit 3. Now, suppose that the data of "Hairabango", "Jiyuushiyo", "Namae", "Ninzu", "Hakusou", etc. are stored in the storage unit 5 in this order with "Hairabango" being the first order. The data is read and the second
It will be displayed in the manner shown in the figure. However, if the data of the character "Yoyaku" representing the question "reservation or not" is not stored in the storage unit 5, and this question corresponds to the code of the check-in business selection key, the control unit 2 When it is recognized that the data does not exist as a result of the above judgment, it requests the center processing device CMP to transmit the data of "Yoyaku" via the transmission section 1. In response to this, the center processing unit CMP immediately transmits the request data to the control unit 2 via the transmission unit 1, so the control unit 2 displays this on the display unit 3 along with other characters as shown in FIG. At the same time, it is stored in the storage unit 5 as the first rank. As a result, the order of the stored data in the storage unit 5 is "Yoyaku", "Hayabango", "Jiyuushiyo", "Namae", "Ninzu", "
For example, the data of the characters ``Dairiten'' representing the question ``Agency name'', which had been stored in the lowest order, will be lost. Note that it is not necessary to make the storage order correspond to the display line on the display unit. Then, when a predetermined key operation is performed, only key-in data as an answer to the question related to the displayed characters, ie, data such as "301" displayed as key-in data on the display section 3, is transmitted to the center processing device.

In this state, if the task selection key assigned to the checkout task is pressed, the same process will be performed for the question corresponding to this key. Assuming that the character ``Denwa'' representing ``Fee'' is stored in the storage unit 5 in a lower order, and this question corresponds to the code of the checkout job selection key, the character ``Denwa'' It is also displayed along with "Hayabango", "Jiyuushiyo", "Namae", "Ninzu", "Hakusuu", etc., but since the data of "Denwa" is selectively read and displayed, its memory is The memory ranking will be moved up. This "Denwa" data may be moved up to the first rank, or it can be done in such a way that all of the data read at the same time is packed up. ”...may be done. In this way, if the contents of the storage unit 5 are changed according to the manner in which the device is used, the storage unit 5 of the device installed at the hotel front desk will have priority only for character data of questions related to front desk operations. In addition, the probability that character data representing questions related to frequently used task selection keys (check-in tasks, check-out tasks) will be lost is reduced, and the data transmitted to and from the center processing device is is mostly just the key-in data of the answer. In addition, text data representing questions related to frequently used task selection keys will be preferentially stored in devices installed in the reservation department, banquet department, etc., and these devices will also be able to communicate with the center processing device. The data transmitted between them is almost exclusively response data. For example, when you receive a reservation at the front desk,
Even if the text data of the questions related to the reservation task selection key is lost from the memory of the device installed at the front desk, this device will request and display this data to the center processing device, so there will be no inconvenience when using it. There are none.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

The drawings show an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 1 is a block diagram conceptually showing its configuration, and FIG.
3 are schematic diagrams showing the display mode of the display section, FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a more detailed configuration, and FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram showing the display mode of the display section. 1... Transmission section, 2... Control section, 3... Display section,
4...Keyboard section, 5...Storage section, CMP...
Center processing device.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A data input device equipped with a keyboard and a display section and configured to transmit data to and from a center processing device, comprising a storage section and means for storing data regarding characters representing predetermined questions in the storage section. , means for determining, by a predetermined operation of the keyboard, whether or not data relating to characters representing a question item corresponding to a code obtained by the operation is present in the storage unit; and, if the data exists, selecting it from the storage unit; a means for displaying characters corresponding to the read data on a display unit; and a means for requesting a center processing device to transmit the data when data regarding the characters representing the question corresponding to the code does not exist. means for displaying the data received in response to the request on the display unit and storing it in the storage unit; means for updating the stored data in the storage unit according to the reading record; and key input related to answers to the questions. A data input device comprising means for displaying data and means for transmitting only the key-in data to a center processing device.