JPH10105742A - Automatic ticket issuing machine - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To avoid such a trouble where a purchased train ticket is unusable since its usable period is included in a use-limited period, by preparing an inhibition means which inhibits the issue of special tickets for a period including the day decided by subtracting one day from the number of days of a prescribed effective period starting on the first day of a specific effective period through the final day. SOLUTION: An input screen shows that the purchase of three types of special thickets are impossible when a user purchases thicket. The effective period of an unpurchasable special ticket 1 includes four days from its purchased date, and the 4th day is included in the first day of the effective period. In such cases, no guidance is shown on the input screen for a period including the day preceding the first day of the effective period by three days through the final day. In the same way, no guidance is shown on the input screen for a period including the day preceding the first day of the effective period by one day through the final day for a special thicket 2 of an effective period of two days. Thus, it's possible to avoid such a trouble where a special thicket purchased by a used is unusable.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to, for example, a round-trip ticket that can be hopped on and off within a predetermined range centering on a specific tourist spot.
The present invention relates to an automatic ticket vending machine capable of issuing a special ticket that can be used within a predetermined validity period from a purchase date.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art At present, in order to improve the convenience of users and increase the use of railway transportation during off-season periods, within a predetermined validity period from the date of purchase, within a predetermined range centering on a specific tourist spot. For example, special discount tickets (hereinafter referred to as “special tickets”) that are free to get on and off many times and can return to the departure place, for example, referred to as Q tickets or the like, are on sale.

[0003] In recent years, it has become common to purchase tickets at automatic ticket vending machines. Therefore, even if the above-mentioned special ticket is used, an automatic ticket vending machine of a type that can issue the special ticket is used, and money (including cards such as prepaid cards) satisfying the purchase price of the ticket is transferred to the automatic ticket vending machine main body (hereinafter, referred to as a vending machine). , "Body") can be purchased.

[0004]

However, the above-mentioned special ticket is limited in use (usage) that cannot be used during the busy season, such as the so-called Golden Week, at the end of the year or at the end of April or early May. I have. The special ticket shown in FIG. 8 shows an example in which the validity period is four days from the purchase date and the use is restricted to Golden Week. The special ticket is valid for two days from the purchase date and the use period is restricted to Golden Week. An example is shown.
In addition, in FIG. 8, * is mentioned later.

[0005] Therefore, when the above-mentioned special ticket can be simply sold by an automatic ticket vending machine, there is a possibility that a situation may occur in which the purchased ticket cannot be used.

In order to solve such a problem, the main body is stopped including a use restriction period and a valid period before the start of the period, or a special voucher account button cannot be used with a cap. It is also possible to do.

However, since the validity period of the special ticket differs depending on the area of use, maintenance and management by the attendant is complicated, and it is impossible to attach a cap when the account button is a touch panel type display screen. New problems arise.

The present invention has been made in order to solve the above-mentioned drawbacks, and it is an object of the present invention to provide an automatic ticket vending machine which does not have a disadvantage that a purchased ticket is included in a use restriction period and cannot be used. It is in.

[0009]

In order to achieve the above object, the automatic ticket vending machine according to the present invention issues a special ticket which can be used within a predetermined validity period from the date of purchase except for a specific use restriction period. In the automatic ticket vending machine, the ticket issuance of the special ticket from a date obtained by subtracting one day from the number of days of the predetermined validity period from the start date of the specific use restriction period to the last day of the specific use restriction period. The prohibition means for prohibiting is provided. Further, the prohibiting means is characterized in that an account button for a special ticket related to prohibition is not displayed on the input screen.

[0010]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1A is a front view of a multifunctional main body a capable of issuing a normal ticket according to an embodiment and a special ticket according to the present invention (referred to as “Tokutoku ticket” in the illustrated example). In the figure, a display unit 2 for displaying the operating state of the main body a is provided above the customer service panel 1.

At the lower part of the display unit 2 of the customer service panel 1, a guidance screen 3 for displaying guidance contents such as the amount of money inserted into the main unit a and operation guidance, and a card for making purchase money with a card such as a prepaid card. A card insertion slot 4 for inserting a ticket, an insertion slot 5 for inserting coins when purchasing a ticket with coins,
An insertion slot 6 for inserting a bill when a ticket is purchased with the bill is provided.

At the center of the customer service panel 1, various buttons such as a ticket account button, a child selection button, and a number button are displayed, and a touch panel type input screen 7 for inputting a signal of the pressed button is displayed.
Is provided.

A ticket outlet 8 and a change outlet 9 are provided below the customer service panel 1. In addition, a microphone 10 and a speaker 11 used for responding to a staff member are provided in order from the right central portion to the lower portion of the customer service panel 1, and a cancel button pressed when the purchase operation is stopped halfway. A button 12 and a call button 13 pressed when calling a clerk are provided, respectively.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 14 denotes a ticket issuance unit which can issue a normal ticket or a special ticket according to the present invention provided inside the main body a. It is possible to cut the roll paper to a predetermined length, and to issue a ticket by writing a predetermined print (printing of a departure station and amount, etc.) and predetermined magnetic data according to the content of the print. It is configured.

FIG. 1B is a front view of the back panel 1 ′ on the back side of the main body a, that is, the back side of the customer service panel 1. The back panel 1 'is provided with a staff operation unit 15 including ten keys 15a operated by a staff and a touch panel display screen 15b.

In FIG. 1, C is a controller that controls the main unit a and controls the prohibition means of the present invention, and its electrical configuration is shown in FIG.

The controller C has a control unit 20 comprising a microcomputer. The control unit 20 has the above-mentioned ticket issuing unit 14, coins inserted through the insertion slot 5, or bills inserted through the insertion slot 6. And a money processing unit 21 for discharging change when change occurs is connected.

The controller C is provided with a user operation unit 22 for inputting a user operation signal from the input screen 7 and the like, and for controlling display contents of the display screen, and a clerk operation unit 15. A clerk operation unit 27 for receiving an input signal from the numeric keypad 15a and displaying predetermined contents on the display screen 15b is connected.

Next, a description will be given with reference to display examples of the input screen 7 and the display screen 15b of the attendant operation unit 15 shown in FIG.

Now, it is assumed that the user is going to purchase a special ticket using the main unit a. In this case, a special ticket account button (not shown) on the input screen 7 is touched. As a result, the display content of the input screen 7 is switched from the group of account button display for normal ticket purchase (including the display of the child, the number of buttons, etc.) to the display content shown in FIG.

FIGS. 3A and 3B show the types of special tickets that can be purchased at the time of a user's operation. Of these, FIG. 3A shows that at the time (day) when the user tries to insert, ten types of special tickets that can be boarded from the station where the main body a is installed can be purchased.

FIG. 3B shows that three types of special tickets according to (a), (b) and (c) of FIG. ing.

The special ticket that cannot be purchased will be described with reference to the special ticket shown in FIG. 8. The validity period of this special ticket is four days from the purchase date (release date), and the fourth day is Included on the first day of the restricted use period. In this case, the input screen 7 is configured not to be displayed from three days before the use restriction start date to the end date of the use restriction period (4/23 to 5/7 in the example of FIG. 8). .

Similarly, a special ticket with a validity period of two days is displayed on the input screen 7 from one day before the start of use restriction to the end date of the use restriction period (4/26 to 5/7 in the example of FIG. 8). Is configured not to be displayed.

This display control is described later with reference to FIGS.
As described above with reference to FIG. 7, as described above, the display of the special ticket related to ticket prohibition is deleted from the input screen 7,
Inconvenience that at least the special ticket purchased by the user cannot be used is avoided.

In the case where the second half of the validity period of the special ticket is included in the restricted use period, but the first half of the validity period is not included in the restricted use period, the user who uses the special ticket before the limited use period is required. The special ticket will be purchased and used at the clerk window.

FIG. 4 is a display example of the guide screen 3 showing the change and the like when the special ticket displayed in FIGS. 3A and 3B is selected and a predetermined amount is inserted.

FIGS. 5 to 7 show display examples of the display screen 15b of the attendant operation unit 15 when the above-mentioned use restriction period is set. First, FIG. 5 shows a display example when the display screen 15b is set to the maintenance mode, and shows a use restriction period (FIGS. 5 to 7).
To set “use restriction” in FIG. 4, “16” is touched with the numeric keypad 15b.

FIG. 6 is a display example when the above-mentioned "16" is input, and shows that the use restriction period of five special tickets can be set. As shown in FIG. 3 (a), when ten types of special tickets can be issued, the main body a is displayed so that ten settings can be made.

FIG. 7 shows a state in which the use setting period is being set using the numeric keypad 15a. The special ticket for which the use restriction period is set as described above has a blank display state during the use restriction period, as shown in (a) to (c) of FIG.

Therefore, the situation where the user purchases the blank special ticket is avoided. Further, since the use restriction period of the special ticket need only be input and set from the attendant operation unit 15, it is possible to reduce the burden on the attendant thereafter.

[0032]

The automatic ticket vending machine according to the present invention is an automatic ticket vending machine capable of issuing a special ticket usable within a predetermined validity period from the purchase date except for a specific use restriction period. The prohibition means for prohibiting issuance of the special ticket is provided from a date obtained by subtracting one day from the number of days of the predetermined validity period from the start date of the use restriction period to the last day of the specific use restriction period. It is possible to avoid a situation where the special ticket cannot be used because it is included in the use restriction period. In addition, when the prohibition means does not display the account button for the special ticket related to the prohibition on the input screen, it is possible to easily control the account button for prohibiting the issuance of a ticket.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1A is a front view of a service panel of an automatic ticket vending machine according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 1B is a front view of a back panel thereof.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an electrical configuration of a controller.

FIG. 3 is a display example of an input screen.

FIG. 4 is a display example of a display screen.

FIG. 5 is a display example of a display screen.

FIG. 6 is a display example of a display screen.

FIG. 7 is a display example of a display screen.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory view of a special ticket release restriction period.

[Explanation of symbols]

 a Automatic ticket vending machine main body (Main body) C Controller 1 Customer service panel 1 'Back panel 2 Display unit 3 Input screen 4 Card insertion slot 5 Slot 6 Slot 7 Input screen 8 Discharge port 9 Discharge port 10 Microphone 11 Speaker 12 Cancel button 13 Call Button 14 Ticket Issuing Unit 15 Staff Operation Unit 15a Numeric Keypad 15b Display Screen C Control Unit 21 Money Processing Unit 22 User Operation Unit 23 Staff Operation Unit

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An automatic ticket vending machine capable of issuing a special ticket that can be used within a predetermined validity period from the date of purchase excluding a specific use restriction period, comprising: An automatic ticket vending machine further comprising a prohibition unit for prohibiting the issuance of the special ticket from a day obtained by subtracting one day from the number of days of the predetermined validity period to a last day of the specific use restriction period. 2. The automatic ticket vending machine according to claim 1, wherein the prohibition means does not display an account button for a special prohibition ticket on the input screen.