CN1175369C - method of allocating goods - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention relates to a method for distributing goods. According to said method, the good is deposited by a person delivering said good, and secured with a lock. A common electronic key is then allocated to the lock and to a personalized terminal belonging to the recipient of the good. When said key is transmitted from the terminal to the lock, said key is compared with the key that is allocated to the lock. The good is only released if the keys match.

Description

method of allocating goods

The invention relates to a method of distributing goods.

Hitherto, goods ordered, for example by postal route, telephone or the Internet, are usually delivered to the address requested by the purchaser via a courier agency, a shipping company or the like. In order to be able to take delivery of the goods, the buyer must be present at the time of delivery or appoint someone to take delivery of the goods. But the disadvantage is that due to organizational structure reasons, it is generally impossible for the delivery agency to predict the exact delivery time. It is therefore often the case that the personnel of the delivery agency do not meet at the delivery location a person with whom the goods can be delivered.

In this case, it has hitherto been common practice for the delivery agency to leave a message in the letter box suggesting a new time or specifying a pickup location (eg a post office). The same problem exists for an agreed new delivery time, because it is also difficult to determine an exact time at this time, but usually only within a limited time range, for example during usual working hours. Also the possibility of picking up the goods at a pre-specified location is generally not a real workaround, since even at this pickup location the designated department has limited opening hours. In addition, it is really troublesome to get the goods only with personal identification.

It is therefore the object of the invention to provide a variant of the method described above.

This task is solved by a method of distributing goods. According to this method, the goods are deposited by the delivery person and locked with a lock. A public electronic key is then assigned to the lock and to a personalized terminal device of the recipient. When the key is transmitted from the end device to the lock, the key is compared with the key assigned to the lock, and the goods are released only if the two keys match.

The term "deliverer" here refers to any person responsible for delivering the goods, such as the seller himself or a delivery agency personnel entrusted by him. The term "receiver" generally refers to a person who takes delivery of goods, such as a purchaser or a person identified as a delivery person. The personalized terminal device can preferably be a mobile communication terminal device, such as a mobile phone or a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant), which has an own clearly personal identification or a corresponding stored on it. An IC card with personal signs. In a broad sense, a device's phone number can also be considered a personal identifier. In principle, however, it can also refer to the IC card itself, eg a SMART card, which is specifically assigned to the recipient and can be used on various devices or terminals.

The method of the invention provides the possibility of storing the goods at any time and locking them in such a way that only authorized persons, the purchaser himself or someone entrusted by him, can take delivery of the goods at any time. By assigning a common electronic key to the lock and the recipient's personal terminal device, maximum security is achieved for both parties, since this key is combined with an unambiguous identification of the recipient.

This method saves considerable time and labor and thus has the advantage of reducing costs on the part of the courier company or the dispatching merchant of the goods. The advantage of the invention for the buyer or recipient is that he is not affected by the opening hours of real stores, or in the case of delivery of goods, especially in the process of so-called e-commerce. time or the opening hours of the pickup location.

The electronic key is preferably sent to the recipient's terminal device by means of a remote data transmission method, for example a mobile radio. The advantage of this method is that, due to the relatively good coverage of the mobile radio network, the receiver's key can be sent to the receiver at any time, regardless of location. The line change receiver can directly send the key to the self-locking safe deposit box locally from the mobile communication terminal device. For this purpose, both the mobile communication terminal and the self-locking safe have corresponding transmitters and receivers, which are preferably short-range transmitters and receivers, for example including infrared interfaces. , or also include so-called "Bluetooth" modules, ie short-range wireless transmitters and receivers for data exchange between adjacent devices. Of course, the key can also be output on the display screen and re-entered by the person who picks up the goods via the keyboard on the device.

Furthermore, transmission via long-range mobile radio networks is of course also possible here. But the advantage of sending the key to the lock by means of short-range communication is that although the recipient does not arrive at the pick-up site, he cannot mistakenly send the key and open the security of the goods.

In order to increase the security of the sender, the key can also be sent to the recipient's terminal only after a predetermined transaction has been carried out, for example payment has been made. This kind of insurance can also be carried out in such a way that the receiver has received the sent key before payment, but the lock can release the goods only after receiving an additional release signal from the deliverer. That is to say, in order to open the lock, on the one hand, the key must be sent correctly, and on the other hand, the signal needs to be released.

In addition, the key can be composed of two parts, one part of the key is passed to the picker immediately, while the other part is passed to the picker after the payment has been securely received. Only the key combined with these two parts can open the self-locking safe deposit box.

The method thus solves the hitherto existing problem of paying for goods in a simple manner. Delivery on credit or by credit card with the amount debited is often very insecure for the seller. In contrast, the relatively safe post-delivery method, where payment is made when the goods are dispatched to the delivery agency, requires high fees.

Ideally, the key is sent to the device along with a message telling when and where the consigned goods can be picked up.

There are various possibilities for assigning keys to locks.

In one embodiment, the self-locking safe deposit box is rekeyed for each deposited shipment. This allocation can be made before, after or at the time of depositing the goods. In this case, the delivery person can freely choose the key or, for example, automatically generate a random key by means of a random generator and transmit the key to the delivery person, and if necessary, transmit the key after a corresponding query to the courier. The courier can then retransmit the key to the recipient when the order is available.

In the case of freely selectable locks in the assignment of keys and locks, it is possible in particular to select an unambiguously personal identifier, such as the recipient's credit card number, or an unambiguous identifier on a terminal device belonging to the recipient, For example a mobile radio number, as a key and corresponding it to a lock. This is especially useful when the goods are originally ordered by mobile phone or when payment is made by credit card. In this case, the key does not have to be sent specifically to the device by the courier.

In another embodiment, the same key is always used, but the transmission of the key to the recipient's terminal should only be done in such a coded form that it cannot be read by the recipient. The key is then stored in the terminal device for the security mechanism that opens the lock when picking up the goods, without the recipient knowing the key.

For this reason, it is also very advantageous when the key becomes automatically invalid upon the occurrence of an invalidation condition. Among them, possible invalidation conditions may be the expiration of a predetermined usage time for the goods or a predetermined number of usages of the lock. Like this, in the above-mentioned embodiment that always adopts the same key that is not identifiable to the corresponding recipient, the key is automatically invalidated after being sent to the lock once, so that after receiving the goods, the recipient cannot The same lock is used again.

Other ineffective conditions can also be, for example, multiple erroneous transmissions of the key to the lock, ie futile opening attempts, or a locking command sent to the lock by the delivery person.

The assignment of the key to the lock by the delivery person, the interrogation of the key, the entry of a locking command or the like are preferably also carried out by means of a long-distance data transmission method, eg mobile radio.

Of course, when the sender transmits the key not only to the recipient's terminal device but also to the lock, it can be carried out via other data lines, for example the Internet or e-mail.

The method according to the invention can be implemented in particular with electronic locks which control the locking device of the self-locking safe deposit box. At this point, the shipment to be delivered is deposited and locked in a corresponding public-access lockable safe deposit box. The recipient can open the lock at any time with the key sent to him and take out the goods. Another possibility is that, in particular in the case of larger goods, such as motor vehicles, which have their own locking device, the locking device itself is actuated by a corresponding electronic lock.

The invention therefore also provides a locking device for locking goods for carrying out the method according to the invention. The locking device accordingly has a lock with a dispensing input for distributing the electronic key and an opening input for inputting the electronic key for unlocking. In addition, the locking device has a comparator for checking the agreement of the two keys, and an arming device which opens the locking device when the keys match.

Depending on the required method, the locking device can additionally have a deactivation device, which deactivates the key when predetermined deactivation conditions occur.

The other component is, for example, a random generator for generating a key which can be assigned to the lock via a corresponding input and can be sent to or queried by the delivery person via a corresponding output. Furthermore, such a locking device has a receiver or also a transmitter for transmitting an electronic key via a data transmission line. If short-range communication is used between the recipient's terminal device and the lock, a corresponding short-range receiver for the activation input, for example an infrared interface, is provided.

When using such locks in a self-locking safe deposit box device, a common group electronic key can be assigned to the locks of a group of self-locking safe deposit boxes, wherein all self-locking safe deposit boxes with a common group key are assigned to a certain The courier company or a certain sending trade line. When using group keys, it is of course necessary to ensure that the keys sent to the self-locking safe deposit box device can only open the required self-locking safe deposit boxes. This can be achieved, for example, by an additional distribution code or similar measures. Especially when adopting a key that the recipient cannot read and is cleared again immediately after the right to use has expired, this group of keys has the advantage that it is not necessary to always use them in the organization of the sending company or delivery agency. Changing key to work.

According to the invention, a terminal device for carrying out the method must have a device for receiving, storing and passing on a corresponding electronic key to an electronic lock, wherein for passing on the key The means to lock is preferably a short range transmitter.

In a preferred embodiment, said parts of the device or terminal are designed in such a way that they receive, store and transmit the key to the lock in a form which cannot be read by the user.

The terminal device can also have an invalidation device, for example with a clock or a counter, after a certain invalidation condition such as the expiration of a certain time or a certain number of transmissions to the lock, if necessary after a use , the invalid device will automatically clear the key. This invalidation condition can be sent to the terminal device together with the key by the delivery person. In principle, however, it is also possible to permanently preset the invalidation conditions in the device.

The device is preferably a mobile communication terminal, such as a mobile phone or a PDA with a chipkarte, or the recipient's chipkarte itself. In this case, it can be a common SIM card, on which the key of the mobile communication terminal device is temporarily stored. It can also be a smart card which itself can control the corresponding desired functions largely independently of the communication terminal used. The use of a Smart card also has the advantage that a better encoding of the key can be achieved in a simple manner, so that a secure transmission can be achieved without a third party being able to obtain the key by listening to the transmission.

Of course, the receiver of the device and the transmitter of the communication terminal device can be so-called transceivers capable of not only receiving but also transmitting, so that when transferring the key for opening, two-way communication between the locking device and the communication terminal device can be carried out. communication. Additional inquiries and checks can therefore be carried out for additional security before releasing the cargo insurance.

In particular, therefore, it is also possible to store in a corresponding device of the locking device the content under which payment conditions the locking device can be opened and can only be accepted after a payment transfer has been carried out via a communication terminal, for example via an online bank. The key used to open it.

Furthermore, when the goods involved are a commodity such as music or software that can itself be sent via a data line, the electronic lock can also be used to store the required data on, for example, a certain server publicly available via the Internet and use a The corresponding electronic lock locks it, and at this time the goods are picked up on that server, in this case a download process, only after a key is sent to the server by a corresponding terminal device of the recipient or It is only possible after sending to the lock there. This method is particularly advantageous when large amounts of data are provided, as is the case, for example, with music or video movies. Transferring such large amounts of data from several central servers of a data producer places a rather high load on the network. The capacity problem can be solved by adopting the method of the present invention, that is, the goods are deposited on the distributed identical servers. However, the operator of each server, that is, the data distributor generally does not have to be equal to the data producer, but a delivery organization serving the original supplier. Since in the present case the goods are not collected in the original sense, but copied, there is a corresponding device at the server which records the delivery of the correct key to the lock. Against the original manufacturer, this can be used by the server operator as evidence of the labor provided.

The present invention will be described again below based on two embodiments.

In the first embodiment, a buyer orders an arbitrary product through a mobile phone. The seller deposits the goods in a self-locking safe deposit box and assigns a key to the self-locking safe deposit box via a corresponding data transmission line, for example a radio link or a data line. This distribution of the key can also be carried out in advance, at this moment the seller has ordered the corresponding self-locking safe deposit box and can leave the goods in this self-locking safe deposit box at any time. The self-locking safe deposit box is set up in a place where the public can access it at all times. The buyer then receives a message on his mobile phone as to when and in which locker he can collect his goods. At the same time, the electronic key is loaded onto the mobile phone of the purchaser, for example by downloading, via Java-appled or WAP. The purchaser then goes to the lock safe deposit box at the time he requires, and communicates with the lock safe deposit box or the corresponding device of the lock safe deposit box by his mobile phone within a short range. This sends the key to the self-locking safe deposit box. After all necessary data have been exchanged, and possibly other security levels such as inquiries for completed payments have been successfully passed, the self-locking safe deposit box is opened, thereby releasing the goods to the recipient.

What the second embodiment relates to is an electronic taxi lock. First the delivery person, the car rental center, assigns a key to a special rental car lock. The key is, for example, the credit card number that the recipient, ie the renter, has indicated when booking the taxi and has paid for it with this credit card number. For this purpose, the rental car lock has a corresponding receiver for the mobile radio transmission, so that the car rental center assigns the encryption key to the car lock via the usual mobile radio network. The receiver is likewise informed via the mobile radio network when and where he can pick up his car. Using a corresponding device in the mobile phone, for example an infrared interface, the recipient opens the car by sending his credit card number. Of course, instead of a credit card number, the personal key could be a personal number on a SIM card in the mobile phone or on a Smart card. This number can be sent as a key by directly pressing a key without further input on the mobile phone. After the rental time expires, the key is automatically invalidated in the lock of the car, so that the renter can no longer use the car.

Claims (30)

1. be used to distribute the method for goods, wherein, this goods is deposited by the deliverer and is distributed a common electronic key under lock and key and to this lock and the end device of peopleization one by one of collecting the people with a lock, when this key is transferred to when locking by end device, this key compares with the key of distributing to this lock, has only that goods just is released when key agreement.

2. in accordance with the method for claim 1, it is characterized in that electronic key is sent on the end device of collecting the people by means of a remote data transmission method.

3. in accordance with the method for claim 2, it is characterized in that key is to be sent on the end device for collecting the form that the people can not read with a kind of.

4. according to the described method of one of claim 1-3, it is characterized in that, key is sent to from the end device of collecting the people to lock be that data transmission method by a short range region carries out.

5. in accordance with the method for claim 1, it is characterized in that, only after having implemented predetermined transaction, just key is sent on the end device of collecting the people and/or and discharge goods by locking.

6. in accordance with the method for claim 1, it is characterized in that, when the end device of collecting the people sends key, also sending the relevant time of depositing and/or the information in place.

7. in accordance with the method for claim 1, it is characterized in that key is fallen by auto-idled when an invalid condition occurring.

8. in accordance with the method for claim 7, it is characterized in that key was automatically deactivated to after date and/or after the number of times of a predetermined unlatching lock a schedule time.

9. in accordance with the method for claim 1, it is characterized in that,, all distribute a new key for lock for deposit at every turn.

10. in accordance with the method for claim 1, it is characterized in that key is produced and be assigned to lock by a random generator.

11. in accordance with the method for claim 1, it is characterized in that by being input in the storer, key can freedom selectively be assigned to lock.

12. in accordance with the method for claim 1, it is characterized in that key is assigned to lock by means of a remote data transmission method.

13. in accordance with the method for claim 1, it is characterized in that, key is sent on the end device and/or with encryption key distribution undertaken by mobile radio to lock.

14. according to the described method of one of claim 11-13, it is characterized in that, select to collect that of people is clear and definite is selected as key with one of sign individual relating to persons and/or end device clear and definite sign.

15. in accordance with the method for claim 1, it is characterized in that the release of goods is only just carried out after a release command of receiving the deliverer.

16. in accordance with the method for claim 1, it is characterized in that a blocking device of a self-locking safe deposit box of lock control.

17. in accordance with the method for claim 1, it is characterized in that a blocking device of lock control goods itself.

18. be used to implement blocking device according to the described method of one of above claim, this blocking device is used to pin goods, has a lock, this lock has a distribution input end that is used to distribute an electronic key, unlatching of input unlatching input end of electronic key, and have a comparer and an insurance decontrol that is used to check the match condition of two keys, and when key match, this insurance decontrol opening closure.

19. according to the described blocking device of claim 18, it is characterized in that, be provided with a device that when an invalid condition given in advance occurring, makes the key auto-idled.

20. according to claim 18 or 19 described blocking devices, it is characterized in that, be provided with a random generator, it produces a key and by the distribution input end key is distributed to lock, and be provided with an output terminal, by this output terminal the key that produces is sent to the deliverer.

21., it is characterized in that according to the described blocking device of one of claim 18-20, be provided with a receiver and/or a transmitter, be used for sending electronic key by a data transmission link.

22., it is characterized in that according to the described blocking device of one of claim 18-21, be provided with the receiver of a short range region, be used for sending electronic key to opening input end.

23. the self-locking safe deposit box has one according to the described blocking device of one of claim 18-22.

24. self-locking safe deposit box device has a plurality of according to the described self-locking safe deposit box of claim 23.

25., it is characterized in that, be that the lock of one group of self-locking safe deposit box distributes a public group electronic key according to the described self-locking safe deposit box of claim 24 device.

26. end device has clear and definite and a sign individual relating to persons and a device that is used for receiving, storing and according to the method for one of claim 1-17 an electronic key is sent to a lock.

27., it is characterized in that according to the described end device of claim 26, be provided with an invalidation means, this invalidation means is fallen the key auto-idled when an invalid condition occurring.

28., it is characterized in that according to the described end device of claim 27, be provided with an invalidation means, this invalidation means is after regular hour point and/or after certain number of times of lock transmission the key auto-idled is being fallen.

29., it is characterized in that this end device is that the user can not read form reception, storage key and key is sent to lock with a kind of according to the described end device of one of claim 26-28.

30., it is characterized in that this end device comprises an IC-card according to the described end device of claim 26.