RU2165645C2 - Electronic polling terminal - Google Patents

Abstract

FIELD: voting facilities used, for example, during elections. SUBSTANCE: terminal has display unit showing data on a number of registered candidates and touch-sensitive panel for selecting one of candidates shown on display screen. It also has voting program in hypertext document-description language in which document structure and linking file address are written using language capable of writing document structure and linking file address, as well as write program that puts data on candidates out onto screen of mentioned display upon analyzing mentioned polling program written in hypertext language to enable voters to scan data on candidates; it also has memory for device control programs. EFFECT: provision for adapting terminal-incorporated pulling program to different voting conditions. 5 cl, 16 dwg

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. The technical field to which the invention relates.
The present invention relates to an electronic terminal used in voting and elections.

2. The level of technology
It is known that the election of the president, members of parliament, governors of prefectures, mayors of cities and village headmen, as well as members of assemblies in accordance with the law on elections to public institutions are held as follows. Local government bodies send voters postcards serving as a ticket for the right to visit the polling place, voters bring them with them to the polling place, where they confirm their identity by comparing them with the voters list and give them ballots. Then, the voters enter the candidate’s name in them, drop the ballots into the ballot box and this ends the voting, after which the ballot boxes are collected in a specific institution (gym, etc.), and the votes are counted according to the method of counting the selected candidates indicated in the ballots.

 Thus, according to the prior art, voting and vote counting is carried out mainly manually due to the lack of automation in this area. In the electronic voting system that solves such a problem, it was necessary to prepare programs for each election in accordance with their peculiarities, since the data on candidates is different for each election. The preparation of such programs was carried out, in general, using a programming language (language "C", etc.) and, therefore, was very time-consuming, in addition, it required the participation of programmers with special knowledge.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is directed to solving the above problems, and its object is an electronic terminal with a voting program, which can be easily rewritten at each election in accordance with their features.

An object of the present invention, an electronic voting terminal includes display means showing on screen the data of registered candidates, means for selecting one of the candidates displayed on the screen, and storage means; and differs in that
the storage device includes a first program in which the document structure according to the candidate data and the linking file address are recorded using a language capable of writing the document structure and the linking file address;
a reading program that allows voters to view candidate data by analyzing the first program and displaying candidate data on a display screen; and
a device management program including display means and a selection means, as well as controlling synchronous processing of the above reading program.

 In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, a hypertext document description language (HTML) can be used to prepare the aforementioned first program.

 In the aforementioned structure, the candidate data includes the candidate’s name, the name of the party nominating him, a photograph of his face, etc. The display device may be a liquid crystal display, a cathode ray tube, etc., and the touch panel, mouse, keyboard, etc.

 The structure of the text refers to the relative position of the text displayed on the screen, the sizes and fonts of characters, etc., and the linking address refers to the location of the image file displayed again when a specific location is selected in one image, or the location of the image file displayed together with the text in image when it is displayed on the screen in encoded form.

 A reading program is a program that reads the first program and, after deciphering the text structure and file connection, transfers data to the display tool, and is a WWW Internet browser viewer when the first program is written in the hypertext language for describing documents.

 The control program is designed to control the display means, the selector and other devices, as well as to control synchronous processing from the reader program. Therefore, the control program controls the ownership of the display screen.

 The reader program performs image display processing upon receipt of a message from the control program.

 The above structure makes it possible to describe the data of candidates to be updated at each election, in simple language. That is, such a language can be used to describe these candidates that can describe the structure of the text, but does not have the function of controlling the display means and other devices. The concept of a language that can control devices requires knowledge of devices and it is difficult to understand such a language, but since the concept of a language that can only describe the structure of a text does not require knowledge of devices, it is not difficult to understand such a language, which allows quick preparation and change the above candidate data.

 In other words, the present invention eliminates the need to change the voting control program prepared by the "C" language or other complex programming languages at each election, which allows a voting terminal to be presented that can only change the data to be updated at each election using the simple language " HTML "etc.

 Therefore, the present invention makes it possible to adapt individual elections to one partial change of a program written in simple language, without contacting specialist programmers with a request to change the voting control program at each election.

Brief description of the accompanying drawings
FIG. 1 is a software block diagram in one embodiment of the present invention.

 FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a program in the same embodiment of the present invention.

 FIG. 3 is an external view of a voting terminal in the same embodiment of the present invention.

 FIG. 4 is a block diagram of the hardware of a voting terminal in the same embodiment.

 FIG. 5 is a flowchart of a voting processing data stream in the same embodiment.

 FIG. 6A is an example of an initial screen image of a voting terminal in the same embodiment of the present invention.

 FIG. 6B is an example of a password entry image on a screen of a voting terminal in the same embodiment of the present invention.

 FIG. 6C is an example of a processing selection image on a screen of a voting terminal in the same embodiment.

 FIG. 6D is an example of a voting start image on a screen of a voting terminal in the same embodiment.

 FIG. 7A is an example of an election type selection image on a screen of a voting terminal in the same embodiment.

 FIG. 7B is an example of an image of a candidate list on a screen of a voting terminal in the same embodiment.

 FIG. 7C is an example of a detailed image of candidates on the screen of a voting terminal in the same embodiment.

 FIG. 8A is an example of a final voting clarification image on the screen of a voting terminal in the same embodiment.

 FIG. 8B is an example of an image of the end of voting on the screen of the voting terminal in the same embodiment.

 FIG. 8C is an example of a voting refinement image on a screen of a voting terminal in the same embodiment.

Detailed Description of a Preferred Embodiment
An example implementation of the present invention will be considered in accordance with the attached drawings.

 In FIG. 1 is a software structure diagram in one embodiment of the present invention. The operating system (OS) 10 is a real-time operating system that performs the specified processing at the required time. Serial I / O 11 controls the input or output signals sequentially one bit at a time for data input / output. The Windows system 12 monitors a portion of the reading enclosed by a frame in the image displayed on the display screen. The file system 13 performs registration, addition, correction, erasure and other maintenance of files, as well as file protection, restricting access to a specific file. The control program 14 on the magnetic cards controls reading from and writing to the magnetic card. A control program 15 with a touch panel controls input from and output to the touch panel.

 The WWW Browser 17 viewer provides the viewer with the ability to view a file in the hypertext language for describing documents (HTML), and can display text and images by decrypting the file in HTML.

 The HTML voting program 18 is an HTML file on which corrected texts are written (names of candidates, names of the party nominating him, etc.), location of image files (photographs of the face of the candidate, etc.), linking address etc. The voting program 18 in the HTML language acts on Browser 17 regardless of the operating system 10. Thus, the data subject to frequent updating at each election can be written in simple HTML regardless of the operating system, which greatly facilitates compilation and modification of this data.

 In this embodiment of the invention, an original extension (LSIS) based on HTML 3.2 is produced to initiate a local system (LSI).

 The voting control program 16 exits the message waiting state when receiving a message described by LSIS and delivered by OS 10. Since the voting control program 16 controls the waiting queue and events, OS 10 has nothing to do with its functions. In addition, if the software keyboard is displayed on a specific image, it itself is directly controlled by Windows system 12. That is, one image is divided into two parts: one of them is controlled by Windows system 12, and the other is controlled by Browser 17, and the keyboard is displayed in a window which cannot be moved regardless of the part of the image controlled by Browser 17.

 Browser 17 prepares for synchronization with the voting control program 16 two waiting queues (the waiting queue from Browser 17 to the voting control program 16 and the waiting queue from the voting control program 16 to Browser 17) and directs them to the task of the voting control program 16. Message transmitted on the occasion of an event, it enters the waiting line with content written in the language of the document description without change. Therefore, the content of the message must be determined by the voting management program 16.

 The display screen is divided into a part where Browser 17 reads the voting program 18 in HTML with display, and a part where the voting control program 16 receives a message from Browser 17, displays on the screen regardless of the program by voting 18 in HTML or Browser 17, and both parts can be connected if necessary.

 In FIG. 2 shows a block diagram of a program of the present invention. When the power is turned on, the voting control program 16 and then Browser 17 are activated. Browser 17 reads and displays, if necessary, the voting program 18 in HTML, which displays an image of the choice of the type of election and other images. In addition, under the control of the voting management program 16, the voting number 20, the candidate number and other data are stored in the memory of one vote. At the end of one vote, this data is stored in the file of voting data 22. Under the control of the voting control program 16, if necessary, a software keyboard 24 is displayed. The characters entered from the keyboard 24, in the form of a message are transmitted to Browser 17 and further to the voting control program 16 and stored in memory 20 along with the voting number and other data.

 In FIG. 3 shows the appearance of a voting terminal. Position 30 denotes a liquid crystal display (LCD) with a touch panel, and position 33 denotes a reader with magnetic cards, position 34 denotes a ballot box. Ballot paper 35 is made on a magnetic card that stores voter data. When ballot paper 35 is entered in the reader 33, voting can be carried out by touching the selected indication on the LCD 30 with a touch panel with the touch of a finger. Ballot 35 falls into the ballot box at the end of one vote.

 In FIG. 4 is a structural diagram of the hardware of the voting terminal. The LCD 31 displays, under the control of the central processing unit CPU 41, the initial image, the image of the start of voting, the image of the selection of the type of election, the image of the list of candidates, the detailed image of the candidate, the image of the vote, the image of the end of voting and other images.

 The touch panel 32 mounted on the LCD 31 is controlled by the touch panel control program 15. It is equipped with switches detecting the touch of the finger of the voter, and in accordance with the detection results, various types of images are switched.

 The voting program 18 in the HTML language, the image file called from these files in the HTML language, the voting data file 22, etc. are stored in the ROM 40 memory card executed on the card.

 The CPU 41 receives and processes the data and commands entered from the touch panel 32 according to the HTML voting program 18, WWW Browser 17 and the voting control program 16 stored in the ROM 40.

 RAM 42 is a random-access memory and functions as the aforementioned data memory of one vote 20, etc., and ROM 43 is a permanent memory and it stores the diagnostic program after turning on the power of the equipment, the boot program needed to start the system, etc. Communication interface 44 has the means of communication of a wire and wireless system and provides control of data transmission to the host computer. The aforementioned voting data file 22 is transferred to the host computer via the communication interface 44. The FDD 45 floppy disk drive is used to transfer voting data to another vote counting device without using the aforementioned communication tools. The card reader 33 is intended for reading information accumulated in the ballot paper 35.

 In FIG. 5 is a flowchart of a voting data processing stream according to the present invention. In FIG. 6, 7 and 8 are examples of images displayed on the display of the voting terminal. The word “select” in the description text below means touching your finger with any of the selection instructions that appear on the screen.

 When the power of the voting terminal is turned on, Browser 17 reads from the voting program 18 an HTML file of the initial image in HTML and displays it on the screen (Fig. 6A) (S 10).

 When you select "start system" on the initial image, the message "start system selected" is sent to the voting control program 16 and the image of the password entry is displayed under the control of this program (Fig. 6B) (S 20). Unlike displaying the initial image on the screen, the image for entering the password on the screen is displayed without reading the HTML file using Browser 17.

 When you enter the correct password, an image will appear on the screen of the choice of the type of processing (Fig. 6C) under the control of the voting control program 16 (S 30) with the expectation of entering an instruction about "what kind of processing to conduct" (S 32). Like the password entry image, the image for selecting the type of processing is displayed without using Browser 17.

 When you select the "vote" indicated on the image of the choice of processing type, a message about this choice is transmitted to Browser 17, and the latter reads the file of the initial voting image in HTML from the voting program 18 in HTML and displays this image (Fig. 6D) (S40) ) with the expectation of the ballot being entered into the reader 33 from the ballot box magnetic cards (S 42).

 When a ballot is entered into the reader, the information accumulated in it is transmitted to the voting management program 16, and the received information is checked in it. If, as a result of the check, it was found that the ballot is correct, the message is transmitted to Browser 17, and the latter reads the image file of the election type in HTML from the voting program 18 in HTML and displays the image (Fig. 7A) (S 50) ) with the expectation of input by type of elections (S 52). Elections 1, elections 2, elections 3 in FIG. 7A show, respectively, the election of the president, the election of members of parliament, the election of members of prefectural assemblies, the election of members of city assemblies, etc.

 When choosing an election number corresponding to the type of election. Browser 17 reads the file of the candidate list in HTML with the display of this image (Fig. 7B) (S 60). The selected election number is transmitted to the voting control program 16 and stored in RAM 42 with the expectation of a candidate (S 62).

 The order in which candidates are displayed may not always be the same. At the end of the vote of one voter, it is recommended that the order of showing candidates be shifted by one.

 When selecting one of the candidates indicated in the list, Browser 17 reads from the voting program 18 an HTML file of the candidate’s detailed image in HTML with the image displayed (Fig. 6B) (S 70). The number of the selected candidate is transmitted to the voting management program 16 and stored in RAM 42 with the expectation of voting for this candidate or change (S 72). On the detailed image of the candidate, the name of the party nominating him, the name, photograph of the person, profile, etc. of the candidate are displayed.

 There are a number of ways to display a detailed image of a candidate: a method of constantly displaying one file in HTML of a detailed image, a method of displaying a file in HTML of a detailed image prepared for each candidate.

 In case of constant display of one file in the HTML language of a detailed image, this file contains the name of the file for the nominating party, name, face photographs of the candidate, etc., to be displayed on the detailed image, as well as the storage location of the file data. The names of the files, etc. described in the HTML file are not changed, but are overwritten, combining the name of the face photograph and the data of the selected candidate with the name of the files described in this file in HTML. For example, when img src = "/ img / PHOTO.JPG is written in an HTML file, if you need to display a photograph of the face of Yamada Taro, the img YAMADA.JPG (Yamada Tarot image file) will be renamed to PHOTO. JPG, and if the need to display a face photograph of Suzuki Harako's SUZUKI. JPG (Suzuki Hanako image file) is renamed to PHOTO. JPG.

 In the case when, when displaying a detailed image file in HTML, each candidate is shifted by one, the order in which candidates are displayed on the image of the candidate list at the end of voting by one voter is necessary to rename the detailed image file in HTML at the end of one vote. Specifically, if the name “Yamada Taro” and the name of the file by “Yamada Taro” in the HTML image file were 0 1. HTML when voting for voter A in the candidate 1 column in the image of the candidate list, then the next voter B in column of candidate 2, the name "Yamada Taro" will appear on the image of the candidate list and the file name by "Yamada Taro" in the detailed image file in HTML will be renamed to 0 2. HTML.

 If, when choosing “vote”, the candidate’s detailed image contains elections that have not yet been voted on (for example, the voting at the elections of deputies of the House of Representatives has been completed but has not yet been held at the elections of deputies of the House of Senates, then “S50” will resume on the screen and “ there is an image of the choice of the type of elections on it. In the absence of elections that have not yet been voted, Browser 17 reads from the voting program 18 an HTML image file to clarify the final vote in HTML and displaying this image on crane (FIG. 8A) (S 80), awaits clarification final vote (S 82).

 The image of the final vote clarification shows the candidate selected by voters at each election. When selecting “vote”, Browser 17 reads from the voting program 18 an image file of the end of voting in HTML and displays this image on the screen (Fig. 8B) (S 90). Voting data in RAM 42 (N election, N candidate) is stored in the ROM 40 memory card as a voting data file. At the end of the election, the voting data is copied from ROM 40 to a floppy disk and transferred to the vote counting system.

 When you select "change" in a state where a detailed image on the screen is waiting for the results of voting or changes (S 72), a message is transmitted to the voting control program 17 and the frequency of changes is checked (S 74). If the change frequency is less than the set value, S 60 is resumed, and if it is more than the set value, the password entry image will appear on the screen (Fig. 6B) (S 76). Entering the correct password resumes S60.

 When you select "change" on the image of the refinement of the results of the final vote, a message is transmitted to the voting management program 16, and the image of the vote refinement (8C) will appear on the screen (S 84). When you select "change" resumes S 50.

 As described above, the voting control program 16 and WWW Browser 17 are powered by the Window system 12 based on the OS 10 system capable of processing data in real time, and the voting program 18, described in HTML, can run on the WWW Browser software 17. Placing the data subject to change at each election (the name of the candidate, the name of the party nominating him, a photograph of his face, etc.) in the voting program 18 in HTML means that this data is placed in a part independent of OS 10. As a result op Using data in a simple language in a part that is independent of the OS system facilitates the preparation and modification of such data. When using sales tools for preparing HTML, it will be easier to update this data.

 Embodiments of the present invention are not limited to the above examples, they can be modified within the scope of the present invention, without deviating from its essence, and are defined only by the claims.

Claims (5)

 1. An electronic voting terminal, comprising a display means for displaying candidate data on a screen, a means for selecting one of the candidates displayed on a screen, a first memory for storing a program for managing said means, characterized in that a second memory is inserted therein for storing data with expectation for a given candidate or data changes, the first memory being also intended for storing a program for writing the structure of data texts for candidates and a binder address and image files using a language adapted to write the structure of the indicated texts and a linking address of the indicated files, a reading program to provide voters with the opportunity to view data on candidates by reading the image file from the specified structure writing program and displaying the candidate data on the screen, while the specified program control is also designed for synchronous image processing of the reader, and the voting data stored in the second memory is intended Accessible for storing in the first memory as data files for voting.  2. The electronic terminal according to claim 1, characterized in that said program for writing the structure of texts is written in hypertext language.  3. The electronic terminal according to claim 2, characterized in that said program for writing a structure of texts includes files of each candidate written in a hypertext language.  4. The electronic terminal according to claim 1, characterized in that said reading program consists of a WWW Browser viewer.  5. The electronic terminal according to claim 1, characterized in that said means for selecting one of the candidates displayed on the screen comprises a touch panel for switching various types of images.

Images