KR20000037418A - Device and Method for paying fees in cash or mileage points in PC room - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: An apparatus and method for settling price of a PC room is provided to use a mileage point in any PC room by managing a price paid by a subscriber and the mileage point in a PC room and a central managing center and settling a price using the mileage point in any PC room connected to the central managing center. CONSTITUTION: A managing module(21) receives data from computers installed in PC rooms and processes received data. A computing module(22) computes a used price of a user computer. A mileage settling module(23) computes the mileage according to a selection of a cash or a mileage when settling a price. A transmitting/receiving module(24) transmits and receives the data according to a control of the managing module(21).

Description

Device and method for paying fees in cash or mileage points in PC room}

The present invention uses the cash or mileage points even if the member settles a fee in any of the rooms connected to the central center by managing the fee settlement and management of the mileage points paid by the members of the room. The present invention relates to a billing apparatus and method in a PC room.

Computer users are increasing rapidly due to the increase in the spread of computers and the development of Internet communication. In particular, thanks to the enthusiasm of games through the Internet such as StarCraft and Lineage, PC rooms that can use high-speed Internet are becoming popular, and these PC rooms are being opened in a franchise manner rather than being opened alone. The franchise method has an advantage that a franchise company can easily open a business because it provides technology including a computer, peripheral parts, and a PC management program.

As mentioned above, each of the PC rooms joined the franchise company operates independently, and each PC room attracts its own subscribers. Once the information about the members has been transferred to the central center of the franchise company, the franchise company manages it intensively.

However, in the conventional franchise method, there is a problem that the management of mileage points according to the member's fare settlement is impossible in the PC Bang. That is, since franchise company manages all members who subscribed through PC room exclusively, it is impossible to manage members of PC room itself, and it is not possible to manage even when providing mileage points.

In addition, since the mileage points are only managed by the central center, if a malfunction occurs in the central management computer of the central center, all the data on the mileage points accumulated by the members are damaged, causing a member complaint.

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, the object of the present invention is to manage the fare settlement and mileage points paid by members of the room to the central management center by managing in two ways in the room and the central management center. The present invention provides a device and a method for setting a fee in a PC room configured to settle a mileage point even if a member pays the fee in any PC room.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a fare settlement apparatus and method in a PC room that can be recovered even if the member information of the PC room or the central center is damaged because the management of mileage points for the subscribers is dualized.

1 is a connection state of the PC and the central management computer according to the present invention,

2 is a block diagram of an administrator computer of the present invention;

3 is a block diagram of a central management computer of the present invention;

4 is a flowchart for explaining the method of the present invention;

5 is an embodiment of a mileage point wallet at the time of cash settlement;

Figure 6 is an embodiment of a mileage point wallet at mileage settlement.

<Explanation of symbols for main parts of drawing>

10: Computer 12: Card Reader

14: Card 20: Administrator Computer

21: management module 22: calculation module

23: Mileage Settlement Module 24: Transceiver Module

25: Member DB 30: Central Management Computer

31: Management Module 32: Member DB

33: mileage management module 34: transmission and reception module

In order to achieve the above object, a billing apparatus in a PC room includes a management module for receiving and processing data from computers installed in the PC room, and a calculation for calculating a computer usage fee of a user. A module, a member DB for storing member information, a mileage settlement module for calculating mileage according to cash or mileage selection at the time of bill settlement, and a transmission / reception module for transmitting and receiving data under the control of the management module, The central management computer includes a transmission / reception module for receiving data inputted from a transmission / reception module of the manager computer and transmitting data, a management module for processing data input from the transmission / reception module, and a member DB storing information about a member. And mileage settlement data input from the administrator computer. Because it contains a mileage management module to manage the mileage points.

In addition, the method of the present invention provides a first step in which a user who is registered as a member connects for use of a computer and requests authentication, and a second request for authentication from a manager computer to a central management computer when a request for membership authentication is received. And a third step of checking the member authentication data when the authentication request is received by the central management computer, and transmitting an authentication confirmation message and mileage point information when it is determined to be a regular member; The fourth step is to record the usage time of the computer used and to record the end time when the use of the computer is finished, and if the member selects a settlement method after the use of the computer, the fee is settled accordingly. Storing the mileage points changed by the fare settlement in the fifth step; And a sixth step of transmitting to the management computer and storing the same.

Hereinafter, with reference to the accompanying drawings will be described in detail the billing apparatus and method in the PC room of the present invention.

1 is a view illustrating a connection state between a management computer of a PC room and a central management computer of a central center according to the present invention. This configuration can be seen that similar to the connection between the conventional PC room and the central center. Only one computer 10 is shown in the figure, which is for convenience of explanation and a plurality of computers identical to the computer 10 are further connected to the manager computer 20.

The members of the PC room are first authenticated as registered members in order to use the PC 10 of the PC room. By this certification process, the member can use the mileage points to settle the fare. Member authentication is performed by the central management computer 30 installed in the central center, not the administrator computer 20 installed in the PC room. When the member authentication is requested, the central management computer 30 reads the mileage point together with the authentication confirmation for the member who is presently authenticated and provides it to the manager computer 20. The provided mileage points are stored in the manager computer 20.

In the case where the member ends the use of the computer 10 and pays the fee, the member may pay the fee using cash or mileage points. The mileage point increases or decreases according to the means of fare settlement, and the data on fare settlement is processed by the manager computer 20 and stored on its own, and is then transmitted to and stored in the central management computer 30. In order to manage the mileage points, data for granting mileage points to a member's usage time and fare settlement means are set in advance and stored in the manager computer 20.

2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the manager computer 20 according to the present invention.

As shown, the management module 21 for receiving and processing data from each computer installed in the PC room, the calculation module 22 for calculating the computer usage fee of the user, and cash or mileage selection at the rate settlement Mileage calculation module 23 for calculating the mileage according to, and a transmission and reception module 24 for transmitting and receiving data under the control of the management module 21.

The manager computer 20 is further connected with a card reader 12 for recording / reading data on the member card when issuing a member card 14 for member authentication. The card reader 12 may be a card reader of a conventional magnet type. The membership card is used to release the lock if it is set to restrict the use of the computer. It is also possible to configure the administrator computer 20 to record the usage time at the time of logging off from the membership card without directly recording the usage time.

The management module 21 operates to manage the manager computer 20 as a whole, such as receiving and processing signal data from a plurality of computers and outputting and displaying the processed result on a screen of a corresponding computer having a processing request. In addition, the calculation module 22 uses the data input by the management module 21 to calculate the fee according to the computer usage time of the member. The calculation module 22 calculates a usage fee according to the computer usage time.

The mileage settlement module 23 processes the fare according to the fare settlement mode input from the management module 21. That is, when the member settles the fee in cash, the mileage point is increased according to the cash details input by the room manager. This has the same effect as granting discounts to members based on cash use.

In addition, mileage points can be given in consideration of the usage time. In other words, if the computer use time of the member subscribers exceeds 1 hour, the mileage points can be accumulated by granting additional mileage points. The cumulative system for mileage points can be arbitrarily determined by the management of the room and by the franchise company. The mileage settlement module 23 stores data for assigning mileage points to the member's usage time and fare settlement means.

The change status of the mileage points is stored in the member DB 25 connected to the mileage settlement module 23. The member DB 25 may use a storage medium such as an HDD, a magneto-optical disk, or the like as a general storage means.

After the fare settlement is finished and the point change for the mileage point is completed, the management module 21 transmits the data for the changed mileage point to the central management computer 30 through the transmission / reception module 24.

The central management computer 30 receives data about the mileage point input from the transmission and reception module 24 of the manager computer through the transmission and reception module 34.

Referring to FIG. 3, the central management computer 30 receives a data input from the transmission / reception module 24 of the manager computer and a transmission / reception module 34 for transmitting data and inputs from the transmission / reception module 34. The management module 31 for processing the data, the member DB 32 for storing information on the member including the changed mileage points, and the mileage points in accordance with the mileage settlement data input from the manager computer 20 It includes a mileage management module 33 for managing.

The transmission / reception module 34 receives data input from the transmission / reception module 21 of the manager computer 10 and outputs a signal output from the management module 31 of the central management computer 30 of the manager computer 20. It transmits to the transmission and reception module 24. In essence, the transceiver module 24 and the transceiver module 34 have the same function.

The management module 31 of the central management computer 30 receives a signal from the transmission and reception module 34 and performs necessary processing. That is, when data for calculating a mileage point for a member is input from the transmission / reception module 34, the data is transmitted to the mileage management module 33. The mileage management module 33 processes the input data and stores the point score for the member to change the mileage point of the member. The changed mileage points are stored in the member DB 32 by the management module 31.

The member DB 32 records not only one PC room but also information on members joined to all PC rooms participating in the franchise. Thus, once a user is a member of a franchise affiliated with a member of the franchise affiliated with the member, the user has the advantage of being able to receive the mileage point service in any one.

The method of the present invention carried out by the apparatus of the present invention as described above is as follows with reference to FIG.

If a user who is a member of a PC wants to enter a PC or another PC belonging to a franchise affiliated with a PC, he or she must first authenticate as a member registrant. Member authentication can be performed in a variety of ways and can be authenticated by entering the member ID and password as in the prior art.

In order to unlock the computer before receiving the membership authentication, the PC room can issue a membership card and use it to perform the authentication process on the computer to be used. In other words, when a member of the PC room enters the membership card in order to use the computer, the member enters it into the computer he wants to use and unlocks the computer. After the lock is released, the member can access the central management computer 30 to receive member authentication as described above. The membership card serves to record the end time when the use ends.

When issuing a membership card, a card reader 12 (card reader) capable of reading and writing data from the membership card 4 should be installed in the user's computer. Obviously, you can use a 3.5 "floppy disk instead of a card reader.

The central management computer 30 checks the necessary matters (passwords or doors, etc. pre-committed to prove membership) when authentication request for member confirmation is received, and then authenticates the member if it is a legitimate member. At the same time, the mileage point for the member is read from the member DB 32 and transmitted together. It is clear that the mileage point transfer process can be transferred later when billing.

After membership authentication is completed, the member can perform work using the computer. When the work with the computer is finished, the member finishes the work and pays the bill. At this time, the manager computer 20 measures the work start time and the work end time and calculates the use time. A fee is given according to this calculated time.

In the case of using the member card 14 described above, the member card 14 is separated from the card reader 12 of the computer and returned to the room manager. The membership card stores data on usage time (logoff).

After logging off as described above, the member may select a method for billing. In other words, you can pay the fee in cash or use your accumulated mileage points. The difference between paying with cash and paying with mileage points is that cash payments increase with mileage points and mileage points decrease with payment of mileage points. Therefore, mileage points are cyber money that can be used instead of cash.

If the member chooses to pay in cash, the member enters this optional information and pays the cash to the room manager. Alternatively, if the payment is made using mileage points, the contents are also input to the manager computer 20. If the mileage points do not correspond to the settlement fee, the administrator computer displays a message indicating that the mileage points are short and asks you to pay in cash.

Information about the mileage points accumulated by the member is transmitted from the central management computer 30 of the central center at the time of member authentication and stored in the manager computer 20. When the fare is settled in cash, the mileage point stored in the manager computer 20 increases, and when settled using the mileage point, the mileage point corresponding to the usage fee is subtracted from the stored mileage point. The calculation result is stored in the member DB 25 of the manager computer 20.

As described above, when the member calculates the fee for the use time of the computer and pays this, the manager computer 20 recalculates the mileage point according to the fee settlement method. In other words, when the fee is settled in cash, the mileage point may be increased in proportion to the fee used. This can of course be predetermined by the operator of the central centre. Settlement data for these mileage points can be added to the mileage settlement module 23 in advance.

5 and 6 show changes of mileage points at the time of cash settlement and mileage point settlement, respectively. Here mileage points are described as the concept of mileage point wallet. The mileage point wallet is the sum of the mileage points accumulated in the member and each merchant. The mileage point wallet calculates the mileage points that change and stores the updated data. Mileage points can be increased by paying a fee in cash or by paying for it.

Referring to FIG. 5, it can be seen that in the case of cash settlement, 1000 mileage points are transferred to the mileage point wallet of the member's name (Kim Kyung-soon) paid in cash from the mileage point wallet of the Gangbuk 0028 member store. The 1000 points are mileage point grant points for cash rates based on computer usage time. This can be set arbitrarily by the operator. The affiliated store represents a unique code of the PC room where the current member uses the computer. Each unique store is distinguished using such unique code data.

Referring to FIG. 6, when the fare is settled using the mileage points, it can be seen that 1,000 mileage points are transferred from the mileage point wallet of the member to the mileage point wallet of the Gangbuk 0028 member store. The user's fee is settled by this transfer process. The result of the fare settlement is displayed at the right end of each figure, and finally the change state of the mileage point can be seen.

After the mileage point is settled as described above, the settled data is stored in the member DB 25 of the manager computer 20. After that, the settled data is transmitted to the central management computer 30. The transmitted data is stored by the mileage management module 33 of the central management computer 30 as an up or down form of mileage points for the member. The updated mileage point changes are stored in the member DB 32 by the management module 31. The updated module is read later when the member requests authentication again and is sent to the management computer of the PC with the authentication confirmation data. The transmitted data is used at the time of billing, as described above. Therefore, mileage points for members are stored in each room and central management computer.

As described above, the present invention manages the fare paid by the subscribers and the mileage points in two ways in the PC room and the central management center, so that the member uses the mileage points even if the member settles the fee in any PC room connected to the central management center. By paying by the user, there is an advantage that the user can use the mileage points in any PC room that is an affiliated store.

Although the invention has been described in detail only with respect to the described embodiments, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that modifications and variations can be made within the spirit and scope of the invention, and such variations or modifications will belong to the appended claims. .

Claims (6)

Claims [1] A billing apparatus for a billing room management system having a plurality of PCs installed with at least one manager computer and a plurality of PC rooms and a data management system connected to the PCs to enable data communication. A management module for receiving and processing data from computers installed in the PC by the manager computer of the PC room, a member DB for storing member information, a calculation module for calculating the computer usage fee of the user, and cash at the time of bill settlement Or a mileage calculation module for calculating mileage points according to mileage selection, and a transmission / reception module for transmitting and receiving data under the control of the management module. A transmission / reception module for receiving and inputting data from the transmission / reception module of the management computer by the central management computer, a management module for processing data input from the transmission / reception module, and a member storing information about the member. And a mileage management module for managing mileage points in accordance with mileage settlement data inputted from the manager computer. The method of claim 1, And a card reader configured to read data stored in the member card so that the administrator computer can release the lock on the computer of the PC using a member card issued to a member registered in the PC. Billing device at The method of claim 1, The mileage settlement module of the manager computer adds a mileage point corresponding to cash to the member's total mileage point when the fare is settled in cash, and the mileage point corresponding to the cash when the mileage point is settled. A fare settlement device in a PC room, wherein the mileage point decreases in total and includes mileage point settlement data for cash. In the billing method in the room management system having a plurality of PCs are installed and at least one manager computer and a plurality of PC rooms, and connected to enable the data communication and the central management computer of the data center, A first step in which a user registered as a member accesses and requires authentication for use of a computer, A second step of requesting authentication from the manager computer to the central management computer when the request for membership authentication is received; A third step of confirming the member authentication data when the authentication request is received by the central management computer, and transmitting an authentication confirmation message and mileage point information when judged to be a regular member; A fourth step of recording the usage time of the computer used by the member at the administrator computer after the authentication of the central management computer and recording the end time when the use of the computer is finished; After the use of the computer, if the member selects the billing method, the fifth step is to settle the fee on the administrator computer and store it in the member database accordingly. And a sixth step of transmitting and storing the mileage points changed by the charge settlement in the fifth step to the central management computer. The method of claim 4, wherein In the fourth step, the end of the computer using time is measured by the administrator computer, billing method in the room. The method of claim 4, wherein In the case where the fare settlement is settled in cash in the fifth step, the mileage point corresponding to the fare is increased, and when the settlement is made using the mileage point, the mileage point corresponding to the fare is reduced and stored. How to settle charge in PC room.