JP2001291144A - Automatic transaction equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [Problem] To provide information that can grasp a queue and eliminate the queue, and can further accurately determine a utilization rate. A CPU 10 of an automatic transaction apparatus 1 captures an image in front of the automatic transaction apparatus 1 from a digital camera 12 when an interactive application is activated, and the number of people waiting in front of the current automatic transaction apparatus 1 (queue). Is calculated, and this number is compared with a threshold value stored in the storage unit 17 in advance. If (the number of people waiting in front of the automatic transaction apparatus 1) ≦ (threshold value), a normal application screen is displayed. Proceed with the dialogue processing and (the number of people waiting in front of the automated teller machine 1)>
In the case of (threshold value), it is determined that there is a queue in front of the automated teller machine 1 that a human cannot wait with patience, and the application is set to a simplified / simplified mode, and the Reduce processing time.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an automatic transaction apparatus for performing transactions with human beings, such as an automatic teller machine, an automatic ticket vending machine, and a parcel terminal.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, machines (automated transaction machines) that perform processing in a dialogue with humans, such as automatic teller machines (ATMs), automatic ticket vending machines, and parcel terminals, are difficult for people and elderly who are not accustomed to operating. If used, the operation time becomes longer, and as a result, a queue may be created.

[0003] In addition, how much a machine has been used in one day (or time unit), a peak time of use, and the like can be determined by analyzing a use log (operation log) of the machine. It could not be known unless it was inferred from peak hours, etc., or monitored by humans.

[0004] Thus, even if the machine is queued,
There was no way for the machine to judge it and clear the queue (the queue had to be cleared naturally).

[0005] Further, it was impossible to know how much the queues of the interactive machine were inferred from the utilization rate of the machine without monitoring by humans.
I tried to line up in front of the machine, but people who gave up after waiting for a long time are not counted because they are not counted.)

[0006]

As described above, in an automatic transaction apparatus that performs transaction processing in an interactive manner with a human, even if a queue can be created in the automatic transaction apparatus, the automatic transaction apparatus determines that the queue is present and places the queue. There is no method to solve the problem, and there has been a problem that the degree of the queue has to be estimated from the utilization rate of the automatic transaction apparatus or not monitored by humans.

It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an automatic transaction apparatus capable of grasping a queue, eliminating the queue, and providing information from which the utilization can be accurately determined. .

[0008]

An automatic transaction apparatus according to the present invention is an automatic transaction apparatus for conducting transactions in an interactive manner, wherein photographing means for periodically displaying images of a queue in which transactions are performed by the automatic transaction apparatus; An extraction unit for extracting a human image in a queue from an image photographed by the photographing unit, and a storage unit for storing the number of persons in the human image extracted by the extraction unit and the date and time photographed by the photographing unit. Have been.

An automatic transaction apparatus according to the present invention is an automatic transaction apparatus for performing transactions in an interactive manner. The automatic transaction apparatus has a photographing means for regularly projecting an image of a queue in which transactions are performed by the automatic transaction apparatus, and an image taken by the photographing means. Extracting means for extracting a human image in a queue from the extracted image, comparing means for comparing the number of persons in the human image extracted by the extracting means with a predetermined threshold value, and comparing the number of persons by a predetermined number with the comparing means. And control means for simply / simplifying and controlling the above-mentioned transaction performed in the case of exceeding the threshold value.

An automatic transaction apparatus according to the present invention is an automatic transaction apparatus for conducting transactions in an interactive manner, wherein a photographing means for regularly projecting an image of a queue in which transactions are performed by the automatic transaction apparatus, and an image photographed by the photographing means. Extracting means for extracting a human image in a queue from the captured image, storage means for storing the number of persons in the human image extracted by the extracting means and the date and time when the image was taken by the photographing means, and stored in the storage means. Search means for searching for information on the number of people and the shooting date and time under desired conditions.

An automatic transaction apparatus according to the present invention is an automatic transaction apparatus for conducting transactions in an interactive manner, wherein a photographing means for regularly displaying an image of a queue in which transactions are performed by the automatic transaction apparatus, and an image taken by the photographing means. Extracting means for extracting a human image in a queue from the captured image, storage means for storing the number of persons in the human image extracted by the extracting means and the date and time when the image was taken by the photographing means, and stored in the storage means. The search unit is configured to search for information on the number of persons and the shooting date and time under desired conditions, and a transmission unit for transmitting the information searched by the search unit.

[0012]

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows a schematic configuration of an automatic transaction apparatus according to the present invention. That is, the automatic transaction device 1
Are a CPU 10 that controls the entire system, an image feature extraction unit 11 that extracts features of an image, and an image recognition unit 1 that recognizes an image.
2, a display unit 13, a digital camera 14 for acquiring an image of the customer, an operation unit 15 for the user to perform an input operation, a communication unit 16 connected to a higher-level device, and a storage unit 17 including a hard disk device and the like. Have been.

FIG. 2 shows a schematic configuration of hardware and software in the automatic transaction apparatus 1 as an interactive machine for interacting with humans.

The digital camera 14 is installed at a place where the front of the automatic transaction apparatus 1 can be seen. As shown in the range where the digital camera 14 can capture images in the figure, it is possible to obtain images of customers who are lined up in front of the automatic transaction apparatus 1.
As will be described later in detail, the digital camera 14 periodically captures (takes in an image).

The automatic transaction apparatus 1 includes software (or hardware) for extracting a person from image data captured by the digital camera 14. In the present embodiment, extraction is performed using the image recognition unit 12 and the image feature extraction unit 11.

The storage unit 17 has a storage area for a statistical information table for storing extracted data. For example, the statistical information table shown in FIG.
Three people queued at 11:12 on the 0th, November 1999
At 11:15 on March 10, there were eight queues, and at November 18, 1999 at 11:18, there was one queue.

The storage unit 17 stores a threshold value of a queue, which will be described later, stores software of an interactive application running on the interactive machine, and performs maintenance for performing maintenance of the interactive machine. Contains application software. The interactive application is provided with a later-described normal version and a simplified / simplified version.

Next, in such a configuration, the operation of saving the queue data in the automatic transaction apparatus 1 will be described with reference to FIG.
This will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

First, the CPU 10 of the automatic transaction apparatus 1 periodically captures an image in front of the apparatus from the digital camera 14 (step 1), and also stores the date and time at that time.

Subsequently, the CPU 10 calls a module for extracting a human from the captured image. This module returns how many people were in front of the automated teller machine 1. That is, a person is extracted from an image captured using the image recognition unit 12 and the image feature extraction unit 11, and the number of persons is confirmed (steps 2 and 3).

Finally, the CPU 10 stores the date and time of capture and the number of confirmed persons in the statistical information table of the storage unit 17 (step 4).

Next, the processing operation of the interactive application in the automatic transaction apparatus 1 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

First, the CPU 10 of the automatic transaction apparatus 1 starts the automatic transaction apparatus (machine) 1 when the interactive application is activated.
Captures the image in front of from the digital camera 12,
The number of people waiting in front of the current automatic transaction apparatus 1 (queue) is determined (steps 11 to 14).

Subsequently, the CPU 10 compares the number of persons waiting in front of the automatic transaction apparatus 1 with a threshold value previously stored in the storage unit 17 (step 15).

Here, if (the number of persons currently waiting in front of the automatic transaction apparatus 1) ≦ (threshold), the CPU 10
It is determined that a queue is not so formed in front of the automatic transaction apparatus 1, and the dialog processing is advanced by the normal version application (step 16).

When (the number of persons currently waiting in front of the automatic transaction apparatus 1)> (threshold value), the CPU 10 determines that a human cannot wait patiently in front of the automatic transaction apparatus 1. It is determined that a queue has been created, and interactive processing is advanced by a simplified / simplified version of the application to reduce the processing time per person (step 17).

The term “simple / simplified” refers to, for example, displaying an elaborate image on the screen background in order to improve the appearance of the display unit 13 of the automatic transaction apparatus 1 or displaying an image such as a moving image commercial during processing. In order to reduce the processing time by eliminating as much as possible (waste) that is not related to the system, such as flowing a stream. In addition, for example, changing video commercials to still images, changing animation videos to still images,
For example, the voice guidance is deleted, or the transition time to the input guidance when there is no input when the password input screen is displayed is changed from 10 seconds to 5 seconds.

Thus, when a queue is formed in front of the automatic transaction apparatus 1 so that a human cannot accept it, the application displays a simplified / simplified version, giving priority to shortening the processing time per person, and waiting. Eliminate the matrix as soon as possible.

Next, the processing of the maintenance application will be described.

As described in the flowchart of FIG. 3, the queue data is periodically stored in the statistical information table of the storage unit 17. Provide a maintenance application that can search this data.

By using the maintenance application by the customer's equipment manager, it is possible to know how many queues are occurring in the machine (the automatic transaction apparatus 1 in this embodiment), and to install the equipment. It can be used as an index when creating a plan (adding or reducing equipment).

Also, by creating a maintenance application so that it can be searched under various conditions such as hourly, daily, weekday, monthly, quarterly, etc., it is possible to analyze trends such as when queues are concentrated. can do.

Accordingly, if there is a tendency that the number of queues tends to increase at a certain time (for example, year-end year-end season, etc.), an installation plan for temporarily adding equipment only at that time should be made. Is also possible.

Further, it is also possible to transmit such information via the communication unit 16, and by using such statistical information of the queue to plan the installation, wasteful facilities can be minimized and minimized. System can be operated at a low cost.

As described above, according to the embodiment of the present invention, in the case of an interactive application, when a queue that cannot be tolerated by a human is generated (a queue larger than the threshold is formed). Case), by running the interactive application in the simplified / simplified version mode to reduce the processing time per person and eliminate queues, it is possible to quickly reduce the number of people to a human-acceptable number. It becomes possible.

In the maintenance application,
By utilizing the statistical information of the queue, it is possible to provide information to the customer's equipment manager when drafting a machine installation plan.

Further, the data is classified by time zone, day, month,
If the use of machinery is concentrated at a specific time by analyzing quarterly, etc., it is possible to grasp the tendency, and it is also possible to make a plan such as temporarily adding equipment only during the time when the use is concentrated Becomes This makes it possible to operate the system at a minimum cost while minimizing useless facilities.

[0039]

As described in detail above, according to the present invention,
It is possible to provide an automatic transaction apparatus capable of grasping a queue, eliminating the queue, and providing information from which a utilization rate can be accurately determined.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of an automatic transaction apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of hardware and software of the automatic transaction apparatus.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart for explaining an operation of a queue data saving process in the automatic transaction apparatus.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart for explaining the processing operation of the interactive application.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Automatic transaction apparatus 10 ... CPU (Control means, comparison means, search means) 11 ... Image feature extraction part (extraction means) 12 ... Image recognition part (extraction means) 13 ... Display part 14 ... Digital camera (photographing means) 15 ... operation unit 16 ... communication unit (transmission means) 17 ... storage unit (storage means)

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification symbol FI Theme coat ゛ (Reference) G06F 17/60 236 G06F 17/60 236A 250 250

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. An automatic transaction apparatus for conducting transactions in an interactive manner, comprising: a photographing means for periodically displaying an image of a queue in which transactions are performed by the automatic transaction apparatus; An automatic transaction apparatus comprising: extracting means for extracting a human image; and storing means for storing the number of persons in the human image extracted by the extracting means and the date and time of photographing by the photographing means. 2. An automatic transaction apparatus for conducting transactions in an interactive manner, comprising: a photographing means for regularly projecting an image of a queue in which transactions are performed by the automatic transaction apparatus; Extracting means for extracting a human image; comparing means for comparing the number of persons in the human image extracted by the extracting means with a predetermined threshold value; and the number of persons exceeding the predetermined threshold value by the comparing means Control means for controlling the transactions conducted in an interactive manner in a simplified / simplified manner. 3. The automatic transaction apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the simplification / simplification controlled by the control means omits image processing unrelated to interactive transaction. 4. The automatic transaction apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the simplification / simplification controlled by the control means is that a moving image displayed during an interactive transaction is a still image. 5. The automatic transaction apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the simplification / simplification controlled by the control means shortens a waiting time for each transaction operation in an interactive transaction. 6. An automatic transaction apparatus for conducting transactions in an interactive manner, comprising: a photographing means for regularly displaying an image of a queue in which transactions are performed by the automatic transaction apparatus; Extraction means for extracting a human image; storage means for storing the number of persons in the human image extracted by the extraction means and the date and time of photography by the photographing means; An automatic transaction apparatus comprising: a search unit that searches for information under desired conditions. 7. An automatic transaction apparatus for conducting transactions in an interactive manner, comprising: a photographing means for periodically projecting an image of a queue in which transactions are performed by the automatic transaction apparatus; Extraction means for extracting a human image; storage means for storing the number of persons in the human image extracted by the extraction means and the date and time of photography by the photographing means; An automatic transaction apparatus comprising: a search unit that searches for information under desired conditions; and a transmission unit that transmits the information searched by the search unit.