RU2772066C1 - Ground public transport fare payment terminal - Google Patents

Abstract

FIELD: payment systems.

SUBSTANCE: invention relates to the field of self-service terminals. The terminal contains a parallelepiped-shaped housing fixed to handrails in the passenger cabin of ground public transport, made elongated in the vertical direction and flattened in thickness, in which the thickness of the housing is less than its width. The housing is mounted on a plinth for resting on the floor of the cabin, which is a truncated pyramid of trapezoidal shape in cross-section with a smaller base used for resting on the floor of the cabin, and the front wall of which is beveled from the front side in the direction of the smaller base. The front wall of the housing is a door containing a flat central part and side parts bent away from it, located on the side walls of the housing, the pivoting hinges of the door are located on one side wall of the housing, and the door lock is located on the other side wall of the housing, while the reciprocal elements of the pivoting hinges and the lock are mounted on the side parts of the door. On the end wall in the upper part of the housing there is an entrance window of the coin receiver and a card reader field. The back wall of the housing is made with a vertically oriented ledge along the width of the housing to accommodate a screen or a push-button dialer. The elements of attaching the housing to the horizontal handrail are located at the level of this flat ledge or end wall in the upper part of the housing. The window of the bill acceptor is located on the door of the case, and under it there is an access window to the ticket issuance and delivery tray. On the back side of the case door there is a cassette or a box for accepting banknotes, a ticket printer, a tray for issuing tickets and change, and a coin line connected to a coin receiver with a coin sorter located inside the housing, connected to hoppers for issuing change to the tray for issuing tickets and change.

EFFECT: expansion of the range of solutions to receive passenger fares.

6 cl, 2 dwg

Description

The invention relates to the field of self-service terminals, namely to payment terminals designed to pay for various services and having the ability to read codes from cards.

From the prior art payment terminals are known, including a control unit, a touch monitor, a bill acceptor, a printer for printing receipts (RU 82904, 86885).

The disadvantage of the payment terminal is that it does not provide the ability to read codes from payment cards or various information carriers, which can be used as lottery tickets, product labels, utility bills, etc.

Also from the patent RU 2390845 known terminal for the sale of tickets, containing a housing, which provides a front panel placed in her monitor with a touch panel. Under the monitor there is an information input device, a slot for bank cards and a slot for a receipt printer. Behind the front panel there is a device for reading/writing bank cards - a card reader made with a compartment for delayed cards, a receipt printer and a barcode reader. The body also includes a computer compartment and a safe, in which a ticket module is installed, containing a ticket printer, an accumulating and issuing device with a reject cassette located under the ticket printer. The ticket issuing slot is placed in front of the accumulating and issuing device. The ticket module contains a support frame with guides for packing ticket blanks, a ticket printer mounted on a bracket and equipped with a built-in barcode scanner for reading the printed ticket serial number. The ticket module also contains a device for collecting and issuing tickets.

This terminal is made with sufficiently large dimensions, both in width and thickness. And in height - taking into account the average height of the user. This terminal belongs to the category of fixed and placed on the free space of the premises with attachment to the floor or to the floor and wall. And also taking into account the free zone in front of the terminal (service area with the door open - the front panel). As a rule, such terminals are multifunctional in terms of ongoing operations and based on servicing a large number of people. In this regard, the nodes located inside the terminal body are large (for example, cassettes with banknotes, tickets, etc.).

Terminals for paying fares in public transport, for example, in a bus or trolleybus, have a simplified functionality. As a rule, it is based on reading a card with subsequent printing and issuing a ticket, on reading a transport card of the Troika type, on reading a code from a pre-purchased ticket and printing on its back the date of punching a single pass, on reading discount tickets or cards, providing free travel. Such a simplified functionality is also reflected in the design of payment terminals in terms of the possibility of their placement in the public transport cabin. These terminals are made smaller and with simplified combinatorics of work units. As a rule, a display, a card reader, a window for issuing a ticket or a punched coupon are mounted on the case. The body itself is made in the form of a parallelepiped-shaped box, fixed on the handrails of the bus or on a free space on the wall, or on both at the same time.

For terminals located in a bus or tram, more stringent requirements are imposed in terms of reducing the size, fitting the terminal into a space that will never be occupied by passengers, in terms of the convenience of quick payment, in terms of instant information openness and in terms of attaching the terminal. These requirements do not apply to stationary terminals located in the open areas of trading floors, stations, etc.

A feature of the known terminals for paying, for example, bus fares, is that they are hanging terminals. And they are hung, as a rule, at the entrance to the passenger compartment of the bus on vertical handrails.

As a prototype, a payment terminal was chosen for paying for travel on a bus, hung on handrails and racks inside the bus cabin and not having a body extending to the floor, described in the article “The first bus equipped with terminals appeared in Lipetsk”, 09/15/2019, posted online access on the site at: https://gorod48.ru/news/20479) (a copy of the site page is attached).

The terminal contains a parallelepiped-shaped body, which is fixed on horizontal handrails in the autoboom at the level of the glazing, blocking the window. This is due to the fact that all the elements necessary for making payments are displayed on the front front wall, which in this case is made flat and vertically oriented. Due to the need to locate the front wall at a level that is convenient for passengers to carry out payment transactions and taking into account the fact that the passenger must see this wall openly, it is necessary to hang the terminal at the level of the bus window. At the same time, the body is made of a sufficiently large width (thickness), occupying the useful area of the passenger storage area and blocking the window, which, for safety reasons, should be free and open to access.

Structurally, the case in the form of a parallelepiped box has a front wall that opens and provides access to the contents of the nodes. All nodes are placed directly inside the box. Since the dimensions of such a terminal are reduced, all nodes are located compactly inside the case, which makes it difficult to maintain the terminal and access individual nodes. In addition, this terminal is aimed at accepting cards, accepting banknotes and issuing tickets. But at the same time, in order to purchase a ticket through cash, it is necessary that the cost of the ticket be equal to one of the denominations of paper banknotes. The terminal does not allow you to give change and accept coins. The dimensions of the terminals for installation in public transport by hanging them on handrails and racks do not allow them to be equipped with additional units, as this leads to an increase in size and weight and creates a problem of their reliable fixing in the passenger compartment. In addition, with an increase in dimensions, the terminal begins to occupy more of the usable area reserved for passengers.

Increasing the weight of the terminal leads to unreliability of its mounting on a rack or a horizontal rail. In this regard, as shown in the prototype, the housing is additionally attached to the cabin wall through the bracket. But the wall of the bus cabin and the handrails in the same cabin are subject to different deformations, which lead to different movements of the handrails relative to the walls of the cabin. As a result, this double anchoring of the terminal weakens and becomes unreliable. Therefore, they try to minimize the weight of the terminal by reducing its functions.

The present invention is aimed at achieving a technical result, which consists in improving the layout of the terminal units to expand its functionality and ensure the reliability of its installation in the public transport cabin.

The specified technical result is achieved by the fact that in the fare terminal in ground public transport, containing a parallelepiped-shaped body fixed on handrails in the ground public transport cabin, one of the walls of which is made in the form of a door for access to the nodes placed inside the body, and on the front side of which there is a screen, entrance windows of the bill acceptor, card reader and printer for issuing a ticket for the payment made, while on the back side of the case there are elements for attaching the case to the horizontal handrail, the case is made elongated in the vertical direction and flattened in thickness, which is made less than the width of the case, the case mounted on a plinth to rest on the floor of the saloon, which is a truncated pyramid of trapezoidal shape in cross section with a smaller base used to rest on the floor of the saloon, and the front wall of which is beveled from the front side towards the smaller base, the front i front wall of the housing is a door containing a flat central part and side parts bent from it, located on the side walls of the housing, the rotary hinges of the door are located on one side wall of the housing, and the door lock is located on the other side wall of the housing, while the mating elements of the rotary hinges and a lock are mounted on the side parts of the door, on the end wall in the upper part of the case there is an entrance window of the coin acceptor and a card reader field, the back wall of the case is made with a protrusion oriented in the vertical direction along the width of the case to accommodate a screen or a push-button dialer, and the elements of attaching the case to horizontal handrail are located at the level of this flat protrusion or the end wall in the upper part of the case, the bill acceptor window is located on the case door, and under it there is an access window to the ticket issuance and change tray, while a cassette or box for receiving banknotes, a ticket printer, a ticket issuance and change tray, and a coin duct communicated with a coin acceptor with a coin sorter located inside the case.

In the terminal, the screen can be made touch. The sorter is made with the function of sorting incoming coins and replenishing hoppers with them for issuing change with coins. A service keyboard is fixed on the inner surface of the door, and the ticket printer can be made retractable. The terminal can be made with the function of remote data transmission via JSM or Wi-Fi or Ethernet networks.

These features are essential and are interconnected with the formation of a stable set of essential features sufficient to obtain the desired technical result.

The present invention is illustrated by a specific example of execution, which, however, is not the only possible one, but clearly demonstrates the possibility of achieving the desired technical result.

In FIG. 1 - general view of the payment terminal;

fig. 2 is the same as in Fig. 1 with the door open.

According to the present invention, a new construction of a fare terminal in a land-based public transport, such as a bus or tram, is considered.

A feature of the claimed terminal is its extended functionality: it has an information screen (display), a coin acceptor and a bill acceptor for paying for travel in cash, a tray for issuing tickets and returning if the ticket was paid for with a denomination exceeding the cost of the ticket, and a card reader (reader) for cashless payment for tickets.

Another feature of the claimed terminal is that it is made to rest on the floor when fixed on a horizontal handrail. At the same time, the body is designed in such a way that it has a flat (flattened) shape, while its base is made tapering towards the bearing surface. A feature of the layout is the placement of a part of the terminal nodes on the back side of the door, which is also the front wall of the terminal.

The claimed solution of the fare payment terminal (Fig. 1) is based on the use of a parallelepiped-shaped body 1, in which the side vertically oriented ribs are rounded at the junction of the walls (faces). The thickness of the body is made less than its width, which clearly indicates the flattening of the body. In addition, the front front wall of the housing is made in the form of an opening door 2 for access to the nodes inside the housing, and this door on the housing is marked with a thin linear slot or an opening for mating the edge sections of the door with the housing elements. A feature of the position of the slot on the housing is that on the front wall this slot is presented in the form of upper and lower horizontal lines, and the vertical lines of the slot through the ribs of the walls are displayed on the side walls of the housing.

Swivel hinges 3 of the door 2 are located on one side wall of the case, and the lock 4 of the door is located on the door and on the other side wall of the case. It turns out that the door is made not flat, but tray-shaped, in which two opposite side edges are bent in a direction perpendicular to the central surface of the door. When such a door is opened, the housing cavity with the nodes placed in it practically remains open with free access to these nodes not only from the front side and partially from the sides (Fig. 2).

In general, the front front wall of the housing is a door containing a flat central part and side parts bent from it, located on the side walls of the housing, the hinged hinges of the door are located on one side wall of the housing, and the door lock is located on the other side wall of the housing, while The reciprocal elements of the rotary hinges and the lock are mounted on the side parts of the door.

On the front wall, and specifically, on the door 2 on the side of the right hand, there is an input window 5 of the bill acceptor 6 (with a cassette or a box for accepting bills), and below the level of the bill acceptor window in the wall, a rectangular shape is organized, elongated in the horizontal direction, the window 7 in the form of a recessed tray for issuing change and / or a receipt / ticket. On the side, at the level of the tray or slightly higher, a rod lock 4 (secret) is visible for closing the door.

In the lower part of the body, a support 8 or a plinth is attached to it, which is a truncated pyramid of a trapezoidal shape in cross section with a smaller base used to rest on the floor of a bus or tram. The front wall 9 of this support pyramid is beveled inward, as are the side walls of the plinth also beveled towards the smaller base. With this design, the support is lost from view and is not visible, since the body overlaps the support from above. On the front wall of the support, a technological hatch closed with a lid can be made.

The upper end wall 10 of the housing is made flat and, as an option, can be inclined towards the front wall of the housing. On this wall, on the right hand, there is a field 11 of the card reader, and on the left hand, there is an entrance window 12 of the coin acceptor. The housing from the side of the rear wall is made in the form of a vertically oriented continuation (or a protruding part or a flat protrusion) with a flat surface facing the end wall (may be slightly inclined away from the end wall of the housing). This extension is used to accommodate a 13 screen (for example, a bulletin board with a touch screen function) or a keypad. The width of this extension practically corresponds to the width of the body, which allows the extension surface to be considered as part of the end wall surface.

Behind the continuation there are two racks with fastening elements 14 of the body on the horizontal rail of the bus or tram. At the same time, the attachment points to the handrail protrude slightly above the screen field or are located on the rear wall of the housing at the level of the screen or at the level of the end wall 10, which allows the terminal to be placed in the area under or next to the horizontal handrail, that is, in the area not used for passengers. With this fastening, the end wall of the body is at a level below the handrail, and the continuation with the information board is at the level of the handrail. It is known that the choice of the height of the handrail (according to GOST 10022-62 "City buses and trolleybuses") is selected at the level of 800-850 mm, that is, at a comfortable level for the average height of the passenger. Therefore, the location of the screen and the card reader at the level of the handrail or slightly below it provides the payer with a natural position of the head and hands. The handrails are spaced from the walls of the bus or tram at such a distance that the user may not experience difficulty in holding himself when the bus is shaking. In this case, the user, as a rule, does not use the area under the handrail, but stands nearby. It is this space that is used to accommodate the terminal.

The finished prototypes were made in the following size range: the total height from the base of the support to the top point with the screen -1315 mm, the height of the body from the base of the support to the end wall with a card reader - 1150 mm, the width of the body - 300 mm, the thickness of the body together with protruding attachment elements to the handrail - 248 mm, and without attachment elements - 200 mm.

When creating the terminal, the psychology of the behavior of a passenger entering the passenger compartment of a bus or tram was taken into account, especially in relation to middle-aged and elderly passengers. When entering and moving around the cabin of the bus, these passengers hold on to the horizontal handrail and, if there is one nearby, then to the vertical one to maintain their own stability and balance. In this regard, the need to hold on to the handrail is an important aspect. In the claimed solution, the elements of attachment to the horizontal handrail are located above the body and at the level of the screen, while these elements are spaced from the body so that when fastened, the handrail itself remains free. That is, a passenger can hold on to the handrail while being directly at the terminal and making a payment with a card with his right hand. This is an important point for older passengers. When moving around the cabin, the passenger's head is always slightly tilted down (visual assessment of the ability to put a foot in a free place). At the same time, the gaze is also slightly directed downward. Therefore, the location of the end wall with the reader field and the coin acceptor window is located exactly on the line of sight of the passenger and does not require either turning the head or raising it, that is, the passenger remains in a comfortable and convenient position for him. Since the total height of the terminal is equal to the height of the horizontal handrail, the terminal is also a support for the passenger, that is, it can be held by its upper part.

Ensuring the housing is flattened, that is, of small thickness (about 200 mm) is due to the new layout of the nodes inside the housing. Thus, the case door is used as a carrier of a part of the nodes, namely, on its back side there is a bill acceptor 6 with a cassette or a box for accepting bills, a printer 15 checks / tickets / receipts (the printer for printing a travel document / receipt / ticket can be made in a separate compartment and be retractable: this will ensure ease of replacing the check tape / paper), the tray and the coin duct 16, communicated with the coin acceptor 17 and hoppers 18 placed inside the case for issuing change and with the box 19 for receiving coins. At the same time, the coin acceptor is made with a coin sorter and communicated with the hoppers.

An important feature of this terminal is that it can be equipped with a sorter for sorting incoming coins and replenishing the hoppers for issuing change. The use of coins accepted as fare for the issuance of change implements the principle of coin recycling. This feature reduces and sometimes eliminates the requirement to refill change hoppers. Collection occurs much less frequently.

Layout nodes inside the housing are placed so that the nodes fixed on the door occupy the free space between the nodes inside the housing. Part of the equipment units can be placed on skids for ease of maintenance.

In the lower part of the case, in the base area, there is a power supply unit 20 and a control unit 21. A service keyboard 22 is fixed on the inner surface of the door.

The terminal can be used as a standalone device or as part of a network of devices. The terminal can transmit data about equipment status, equipment errors, transactions, etc. over JSM network, Wi-Fi, Ethernet and other networks.

Claims (6)

1. A fare payment terminal in ground public transport, containing a parallelepiped-shaped case fixed on handrails in the ground public transport cabin, one of the walls of which is made in the form of a door for access to the nodes located inside the case, and on the front side of which there is a screen, entrance windows of the bill acceptor , a card reader and a printer for issuing a ticket about the payment made, while on the back side of the case there are elements for attaching the case to a horizontal handrail, characterized in that the case is made elongated in the vertical direction and flattened in thickness, made less than the width of the case, the case is mounted on a plinth for resting on the floor of the saloon, which is a truncated pyramid of trapezoidal shape in cross section with a smaller base used to rest on the floor of the saloon, and the front wall of which is beveled from the front side towards the smaller base, the front front wall of the body represents a door containing a flat central part and side parts bent from it, located on the side walls of the body, the hinged hinges of the door are located on one side wall of the body, and the door lock is located on the other side wall of the body, while the mating elements of the rotary hinges and the lock are mounted on side parts of the door, on the end wall in the upper part of the case there is an entrance window of the coin acceptor and a card reader field, the back wall of the case is made with a protrusion oriented in the vertical direction along the width of the case to accommodate the screen or a keypad, and the elements of attaching the case to the horizontal handrail are located at the level of this flat protrusion or end wall in the upper part of the case, the bill acceptor window is located on the case door, and under it there is an access window to the ticket issuance and change tray, while a cassette or a box for accepting banknotes, a ticket printer, a tray are fixed on the back side of the case door extradition ticket and change, and a coin pipeline communicated with a coin acceptor with a coin sorter placed inside the case. 2. The terminal according to claim. 1, characterized in that the screen is made touch. 3. The terminal according to claim. 1, characterized in that the sorter is made with the function of sorting incoming coins and replenishing hoppers with them for issuing change with coins. 4. The terminal according to claim. 1, characterized in that it is made with the function of remote data transmission over JSM or Wi-Fi or Ethernet networks. 5. The terminal according to claim 1, characterized in that a service keyboard is fixed on the inner surface of the door. 6. The terminal according to claim. 1, characterized in that the ticket printer is retractable.

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