JP7544906B2 - Mobile communication terminal and program - Google Patents

Description

An embodiment of the present invention relates to a mobile communication terminal and a program.

Traditionally, many large retail stores such as supermarkets have used point of sale (POS) systems to streamline their operations. In a typical POS system, a store controller is connected to multiple POS terminals, for example via a LAN. Each POS terminal is an electronic cash register that registers sales based on product data obtained by accessing the store controller, and the store controller tallies sales based on the sales data obtained from this sales registration.

In recent years, such POS systems have also come to be used for customer management. In this case, customers who regularly shop at the store are asked to register as members, and are issued a membership card with a customer code, such as a membership number, recorded on it. When the customer presents the membership card at the time of payment, the salesperson uses a card reader to read the customer code from the membership card, and based on this customer code, adds bonus points corresponding to the sales amount to the customer information managed by the store controller. These bonus points are accumulated with each purchase, and can be exchanged for shopping coupons, for example, when a certain number of points are reached.

The POS system proposes a service that keeps track of product purchase history for each customer and provides information on products related to those kept in the purchase history that may be of interest to the customer.

However, there are cases where a customer does not want to receive information related to a product that has already been purchased. In such cases, it becomes necessary to update the history information about the purchased product. This update requires operations such as accessing a database that manages the purchase history information, identifying the product information in the database, and deleting the product information, which creates a problem of imposing a heavy operational burden on the user.

A mobile communication terminal of an embodiment includes an imaging means, a display control means for displaying on a display unit a screen for customer registration based on code information captured by the imaging means, an acquisition means for acquiring information for issuing an electronic receipt on the screen, a means for transmitting the information acquired by the acquisition means to a management device that manages other product information indicating other products related to the purchased product, a communication means for receiving an electronic receipt including the purchased product information from the management device in accordance with the information acquired by the acquisition means, a display means for displaying on a display unit the electronic receipt received by the communication means, and a reception means for receiving an instruction to stop providing the other product information for the product information included in the electronic receipt displayed by the display means, and the communication means transmits provision request information for stopping the provision of the other product information by the reception means to the management device , and stops the provision of the other product information .

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing an electronic receipt system according to an embodiment. FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of the tallying server according to the embodiment. FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of the mobile communication terminal according to the embodiment. FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of a registration screen displayed by a display control unit according to the embodiment. FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of an electronic receipt displayed by the display control unit according to the embodiment. FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of a setting change screen for providing product information, which is displayed by the display control unit according to the embodiment. FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating a first example of recommended product information transmitted to the mobile communication terminal according to the embodiment. FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating a second example of recommended product information transmitted to the mobile communication terminal according to the embodiment. FIG. 9 is a diagram showing the overall process in the electronic receipt system according to the embodiment. FIG. 10 is a sequence diagram illustrating a registration process in the electronic receipt system according to the embodiment. FIG. 11 is a sequence diagram showing a process up to correcting the registration information of a product in the electronic receipt system according to the embodiment.

Figure 1 is a configuration diagram showing an electronic receipt system 100 according to one embodiment. As shown in Figure 1, the electronic receipt system 100 comprises a POS terminal 1 (Point Of Sale) as a payment device installed in a store, a mobile phone terminal 2 as a destination terminal for receipts and other transaction details, and a tallying server 3 for tallying up sales. The network NT is a communication network including a LAN (Local Area Network), an intranet, the Internet, a public communication line, and the like. In the electronic receipt system 100, the POS terminal 1, the mobile phone terminal 2, and the tallying server 3 are connected to each other via the network NT so that they can communicate with each other.

The POS terminal 1 closes a transaction and settles the price, prints the details of the settled transaction on a paper receipt P, and notifies the tallying server 3 of transaction information (payment information) indicating the transaction details. Specific examples of transaction information include a transaction number uniquely assigned to identify the transaction, the name of the product involved in the transaction, its price and quantity, the total amount of the transaction, the amount of the deposit, and the amount of change.

When a transaction is made at the POS terminal 1 to issue an electronic receipt, customer identification information is required to identify the customer. This customer identification information may be the customer identification information stored in the mobile phone terminal 2, or the point card number read from the point card presented by the customer when making a transaction. This customer identification information is information uniquely assigned to each customer.

The POS terminal 1 also generates transaction information for each transaction indicating the details of that transaction, and transmits this information together with the customer identification information to the aggregation server 3.

The tallying server 3 stores a customer master database M1 in which setting information for each customer is stored, and a sales master database M2 in which transaction information notified from the POS terminal 1 is stored in sequence, and tallys up sales based on the transaction information stored in the sales master database M2 in sequence. For example, the tallying server 3 calculates the total sales amount by tallying up the total amount of each transaction included in the transaction information stored in the sales master database M2. Note that the setting information for each customer stored in the customer master database M1 includes pre-set information such as a customer ID, receipt necessity information indicating whether or not an electronic receipt is to be sent, and delivery destination information (e.g., email address) indicating the delivery destination of data (including electronic receipts) to be delivered to the customer. Therefore, by referring to the customer master database M1 based on the above-mentioned customer identification information, it is possible to confirm whether or not a customer requires the transmission of an electronic receipt, and to recognize the delivery destination of electronic receipts and product recommendation information for the customer.

When the POS terminal 1 acquires customer identification information from a customer, it notifies the tallying server 3 of the transaction information, including the transaction details of the customer and the acquired customer identification information. Then, when the tallying server 3 receives the transaction information, it references the customer identification information included in the transaction information and the receipt necessity information associated with it in the customer master database M1 to determine whether or not an electronic receipt needs to be sent. If an electronic receipt is required, an electronic receipt showing information on each product included in the transaction details shown in the transaction information is sent to the email address shown as the delivery destination stored in the customer master database M1. Also, for customers who do not require an electronic receipt, a paper receipt P for that transaction is printed at the POS terminal 1 when closing out the transaction.

Specifically, the tallying server 3 tallys up transaction details for each customer based on the identification information contained in the received transaction information, and distributes the tallying transaction details to the customer's distribution destination as an electronic receipt. This allows the customer to check the transaction details, for example, on the mobile phone terminal 2. The electronic receipt system 100 can achieve a paperless system for customers who do not require paper receipts P. Even if a paper receipt P is not required when closing out a transaction, there are cases where a paper receipt P is required later, such as when the customer wants to check the transaction before the tallying server 3 distributes the transaction details to the customer's distribution destination. In such cases, the customer can later obtain only the paper receipt P they need by having the POS terminal 1 read the transaction history of the mobile phone terminal 2 and selecting the transaction they want to print from the displayed transaction list.

Figure 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the tallying server 3. As shown in Figure 2, the tallying server 3 includes a control unit 30, a keyboard 31, a printer 32, a display unit 33, a communication I/F 34, and a storage unit 35, and each unit is connected to each other by a bus 36. The control unit 30 centrally controls various calculations and each unit of the tallying server 3. Specifically, the control unit 30 is a computer consisting of a CPU, a ROM for storing various programs and data, a RAM for temporarily storing various programs and rewritably storing various data, an RTC unit for clocking the current date and time, and the like. The keyboard 31 is an input device that includes numeric keys, character keys, various input keys, and the like, and accepts input from an operator. Note that the input device may be configured to include a pointing device such as a mouse in addition to the keyboard 31. The printer 32 is a printer device that prints out the tallying results obtained by various batch processes, etc. The display unit 33 is a liquid crystal color display, etc., and displays various information such as the tallying results described above. The memory unit 35 is a storage device such as a HDD, and stores various data such as the customer master database M1 and the sales master database M2, as well as programs that operate the CPU of the control unit 30.

Figure 3 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a mobile communication terminal. As shown in Figure 3, the mobile phone terminal 2 includes a control unit 10, a non-volatile memory unit 11 that stores information, a display unit 12, an operation unit 13, a telephone communication unit 14, an IC (Integrated Circuit) card unit 15 that is a payment means, and a camera 16. The memory unit 11, the display unit 12, the operation unit 13, the telephone communication unit 14, the IC card unit 15, and the camera 16 are connected to the control unit 10 via a bus 17.

The control unit 10 is a computer that includes a CPU (Central Processing Unit) that performs various calculations and centrally controls each part of the mobile phone terminal 2, a ROM (Read Only Memory) that stores various programs and data, a RAM (Random Access Memory) that temporarily stores various programs and freely rewrites various data, and a clock unit that keeps track of the current date and time.

The display unit 12 is, for example, an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display). The operation unit 13 is, for example, various operation keys and a numeric keypad. The operation unit 13 may also be a touch panel provided on the display unit 12. The telephone communication unit 14 is an interface that connects to a public communication line for mobile phones, and has a calling function, an Internet mail function, etc.

The IC card unit 15 is composed of a contactless IC card. The IC card unit 15 performs data communication with the POS terminal 1 and performs electronic payment for one transaction with the POS terminal 1. The IC card unit 15 has an antenna and performs short-range wireless communication with a wireless communication unit 34 (described below) of the POS terminal 1. This wireless communication is performed using radio waves for short-range wireless communication used, for example, in RFID (Radio Frequency Identification).

The program executed by the control unit 10 of the mobile phone terminal 2 configured as described above includes a reception unit 101, a display control unit 102, a communication control unit 103, and a registration reception unit 104. In terms of actual hardware, the CPU of the control unit 10 reads out the program from the storage unit 11 and executes it, thereby generating the reception unit 101, the display control unit 102, the communication control unit 103, and the registration reception unit 104 as functional units on the RAM of the control unit 10.

The communications control unit 103 transmits and receives information to and from the POS terminal 1 and the tallying server 3 via the telephone communications unit 14. For example, the camera 16 photographs a two-dimensional barcode (which includes a URL indicating the registration destination, etc.) shown on a paper receipt P given to the user when he or she purchases a product, and receives registration screen information for customer registration from the URL obtained. By registering the necessary information on the registration screen, an electronic receipt, etc. is issued to the customer.

The display control unit 102 displays various information on the display unit 12. For example, the display control unit 102 displays the received registration screen information. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a registration screen that the display control unit 102 displays on the display unit 12. This registration screen displays a field 403 for accepting registration of customer identification information (point card number) and a field 404 for accepting registration of information for identifying the mobile phone terminal 2 (email address).

On the registration screen displayed by the display unit 12, the registration acceptance unit 104 accepts the registration of customer identification information (point card number) in field 403 and information identifying the mobile phone terminal 2 (email address) in field 404. When the registration acceptance unit 104 accepts the pressing of the registration button 405, it is deemed to have accepted the registration of the customer identification information (point card number) and information identifying the mobile phone terminal 2 (email address).

The communication control unit 103 associates the customer identification information (point card number) and the information (email address) for identifying the mobile phone terminal 2, the registration of which has been accepted by the registration acceptance unit 104, and transmits them to the tallying server 3. This updates the customer master database M1 of the tallying server 3.

The communication control unit 103 associates the customer identification information (point card number) with information identifying the mobile phone terminal 2 (email address) and transmits the information to the tallying server 3. Then, each time a customer identified by the customer identification information (point card number) purchases a product at the POS terminal 1, the communication control unit 103 receives an electronic receipt containing a list of purchased product information from the tallying server 3.

The display control unit 102 displays the received electronic receipt on the display unit 12. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of an electronic receipt displayed by the display control unit 102. As shown in FIG. 5, the electronic receipt displayed by the display control unit 102 displays the character string "Use for product recommendations" and the character string "Changes accepted" for each purchased product information. A product for which the character string "Use for product recommendations" is displayed indicates that the provision of information on other products related to the product information is accepted. The character string "Changes accepted" is a character string displayed to change the setting of whether or not to accept the provision of other products related to the product as recommendations, and a URL for moving to a screen for changing the setting is provided. After the setting is changed, the character string "Use for product recommendations" is changed to the character string "Do not use for product recommendations".

The reception unit 101 receives various pieces of information input by the user via the operation unit 13. For example, the reception unit 101 receives the selection of the character string "Changes Accepted" for each piece of product information on the electronic receipt shown in FIG. 5. When the selection is received, the reception unit 101 obtains screen information from the URL assigned to "Changes Accepted."

Figure 6 is a diagram showing an example of a product information provision setting change screen displayed by the display control unit 102 when the reception unit 101 receives the selection of the character string "Change Accepted" 501 shown in Figure 5. The display screen shown in Figure 6 displays the product name (product information) for which the selection of "Change Accepted" 501 was received on the electronic receipt. The reception unit 101 then receives a selection of whether or not to receive information on other products related to the product indicated in the product information. Specifically, when the "Yes" button 601 is pressed on the display screen, the reception unit 101 considers that it has received a selection to suppress the provision of information on other products related to the product.

Then, the communication control unit 103 transmits to the aggregation server 3 a request to stop providing information about other products related to the purchased product. With this transmission, the provision of information about other products related to "△△ Water" is stopped in the example screen shown in FIG. 6.

Figure 7 shows a first example of recommended product information sent to the mobile phone terminal 2 according to the product purchased with the receipt shown in Figure 5. The example shown in Figure 7 assumes that the provision of information on other products related to "△△ Water" is not stopped. The products in area 701 in Figure 7 are recommended products provided based on the product "○○ [music CD]" purchased with the electronic receipt shown in Figure 5. On the other hand, the products in area 702 are recommended products provided based on the product "△△ Water" purchased with the electronic receipt shown in Figure 5.

Figure 8 shows a second example of recommended product information sent to the mobile phone terminal 2 according to the product purchased with the receipt shown in Figure 5. The example shown in Figure 8 assumes that the provision of information on other products related to "△△ Water" has been stopped by the above-mentioned process. Thus, in the example shown in Figure 8, "△× Water" related to "△△ Water" has been excluded from the recommended information.

In this way, the mobile phone terminal 2 and the aggregation server 3 according to this embodiment allow the user to be provided with recommended product information only about other products related to the product desired by the customer among the products purchased. Furthermore, in this embodiment, the customer can easily select whether or not to accept information about other related products.

Figure 9 shows the overall processing in the electronic receipt system 100. The example shown in Figure 9 shows the process from registering customer information to receiving product information.

First, a customer purchases a product from the POS terminal 1 (step S901). At this time, the customer receives a paper receipt P issued by the POS terminal 1 (step S902). This paper receipt P is provided with a two-dimensional barcode including a URL for registering customer information. When purchasing the product, the customer may present a point card when making payment, or may make electronic payment using the IC card unit 15 of the mobile phone terminal 2. Note that the paper receipt P is not limited to a two-dimensional barcode as long as it is accompanied by information that can be linked to a registration screen. For example, a URL may be used.

Then, the customer uses the mobile phone terminal 2 and the paper receipt P to register to issue an electronic receipt and to receive product information (step S903). Figure 10 is a sequence diagram showing the registration process in the electronic receipt system.

First, the camera 16 of the mobile phone terminal 2 captures an image of the two-dimensional barcode on the paper receipt P (step S1001). This causes the control unit 10 of the mobile phone terminal 2 to extract the URL contained in the two-dimensional barcode. The communication control unit 103 of the control unit 10 then accesses the extracted URL via the telephone communication unit 14 and sends a request to acquire the registration screen information contained in that URL (step S1002). Note that in this embodiment, an example is described in which the connection destination indicated by the URL is the tallying server 3, but a server other than the tallying server 3 may also be provided as the registration destination.

Then, the tallying server 3 transmits the registration screen information to the mobile phone terminal 2 (step S1003). Then, when the communication control unit 103 of the mobile phone terminal 2 receives the registration screen information, the display control unit 102 displays the registration screen information on the display unit 12 (step S1004). An example of the registration screen information is the screen example shown in FIG. 4. Note that, as the customer identification information used for registration, if the customer presents a point card when purchasing a product, the point card number is used, and if the customer uses the IC card unit 15 of the mobile phone terminal 2 to make the payment, the IC card identification information stored in the IC card unit 15 is used, but this is not limited to these. The customer identification information may be embedded in a two-dimensional barcode in advance, and automatically entered into the field 403 when the registration screen information is displayed.

Then, the registration reception unit 104 receives the registration of customer identification information (e.g., point card number) and the delivery destination (e.g., email address) of electronic receipts and product information via the operation unit 13 (step S1005). Note that when payment is made using the IC card unit 15, the delivery destination such as an email address may not be registered, and the electronic receipt and information on recommended products may be stored in the mobile phone terminal 2 when the POS terminal 1 and the mobile phone terminal 2 are in contact with each other.

Then, the communication control unit 103 transmits the registered customer identification information and the delivery destination to the tallying server 3 (step S1006). Next, the tallying server 3 updates the information of the customer identified by the customer identification information in the customer master database M1 (step S1007). This completes the settings necessary to permit the issuance of electronic receipts and the provision of product information to the customer.

Returning to FIG. 9, the process after registration will be described. After registration is complete, the customer purchases a product from the POS terminal 1 (step S904). This transaction information is sent from the POS terminal 1 to the tallying server 3. The mobile phone terminal 2 then receives the electronic receipt issued by the POS terminal 1 or the tallying server 3 (step S905). The reception unit 101 of the mobile phone terminal 2 then receives a selection of whether or not to be provided with product information related to any product information listed on the electronic receipt. The communication control unit 103 then sends stop provision request information based on the selection result to the tallying server 3 and modifies the registered information (step S906).

Figure 11 is a sequence diagram showing the details of the process up to correcting the registration information. Note that in the example shown in Figure 11, the electronic receipt is sent from the tallying server 3, but it may also be sent from the POS terminal 1.

First, the tallying server 3 transmits an electronic receipt to the mobile phone terminal 2, which is the destination registered in the customer master database M1 (step S1101). Then, when the communication control unit 103 of the mobile phone terminal 2 receives the electronic receipt, the display control unit 102 displays the electronic receipt on the display unit 12 (step S1102). The displayed electronic receipt is an example screen as shown in FIG. 5. Then, the reception unit 101 receives a selection of product information for which the provision of related product information is to be stopped from among the product information shown in the electronic receipt (step S1103). Then, the communication control unit 103 of the mobile phone terminal 2 transmits, to the tallying server 3, provision stop request information for stopping the provision of information related to the product information for which the selection has been accepted (step S1104). The tallying server 3 that has accepted the provision stop request information updates the product information indicated by the provision stop request information in the sales master database M2 (step S1105). For example, if the sales master database M2 holds, in association with each other, customer identification information that identifies the customer who purchased the product, product identification information that identifies the product, the purchase date and time when the customer made the purchase, and a provision flag indicating whether or not to provide information, when the tallying server 3 receives the above-mentioned provision stop request information, it updates the provision flag of the record identified by the customer identification information, product identification information, and purchase date and time to set it to not provide information. After this, information on the product related to the product identified by the product identification information will not be provided. Note that this is not limited to updating the provision flag of the sales master database M2, and the record itself may be deleted to prevent the provision of related information.

Returning to FIG. 9, the process after correcting the product information based on the electronic receipt will be described. The tallying server 3 distributes coupons, new product information, etc. to the customer based on the information stored in the sales master database M2 and the customer master database M1 (step S907). If the distributed coupons, new product information, etc. include information about products that the user is not interested in, the user modifies the registered information on the tallying server 3 from the mobile phone terminal 2 (step S908). The distributed coupon can be presented, for example, when making a payment at the POS terminal 1, to receive a discount.

The tallying server 3 and mobile phone terminal 2 in this embodiment allow users to easily select products about which they do not want to receive related information and update information about those products. This makes it possible for the electronic receipt system to appropriately provide each user with information that is of interest to them.

Examples of products for which related products may be suspended, as mentioned above, include products that customers purchased as a trial but did not particularly like, products for which customers do not feel they need related information to be sent, and products that customers are not interested in but have purchased as gifts for others.

The electronic receipt system described above provides related product information using the above-mentioned configuration and processing procedure, making it possible to create and distribute messages that reflect the hobbies and preferences of each customer, even if the number of customers making purchases at the POS terminal 1 is unspecified. This makes it possible for the electronic receipt system to carry out customer attraction activities that meet the needs of the customers.

The program executed by the mobile phone terminal 2 of this embodiment is provided in the form of an installable or executable file recorded on a computer-readable recording medium such as a CD-ROM, a flexible disk (FD), a CD-R, or a DVD (Digital Versatile Disk).

The program executed by the mobile phone terminal 2 of this embodiment may be stored on a computer connected to a network such as the Internet and provided by downloading it via the network. The program executed by the mobile phone terminal 2 of this embodiment may be provided or distributed via a network such as the Internet.

The program executed by the mobile phone terminal 2 of this embodiment may also be configured to be provided by being pre-installed in a ROM or the like.

1... POS terminal, 2... mobile phone terminal, 3... tallying server, 10... control unit, 11... memory unit, 12... display unit, 13... operation unit, 14... telephone communication unit, 15... IC card unit, 16... camera, 17... bus, 101... reception unit, 102... display control unit, 103... communication control unit, 104... registration reception unit

JP 2001-126145 A

Claims (6)

An imaging means;
a display control means for displaying on a display unit a screen for customer registration based on the code information captured by the imaging means;
An acquisition means for acquiring information for issuing an electronic receipt on the screen;
a means for transmitting the information acquired by the acquiring means to a management device that manages other product information indicating other products related to the purchased product;
a communication means for receiving an electronic receipt including purchased product information from the management device in response to the information acquired by the acquisition means ;
A display unit that displays the electronic receipt received by the communication unit on a display unit;
a receiving means for receiving an instruction to stop providing the other product information for the product information included in the electronic receipt displayed by the display means ,
the communication means transmits provision request information for stopping the provision of the other product information by the reception means to the management device , thereby stopping the provision of the other product information ;
A mobile communication terminal characterized by: The communication means receives the electronic receipt including list information indicating product information purchased by the customer in one transaction from the management device,
the display means displays, for each item information item shown in the list information, a receipt screen on which an instruction can be given to stop providing other item information item related to the item shown in the item information item;
2. The portable communication terminal according to claim 1, The method further includes a registration receiving means for receiving registration of customer identification information for identifying a customer who purchases a product and terminal identification information for identifying the mobile communication terminal,
the communication means further transmits the customer identification information, the registration of which has been accepted by the registration acceptance means, and the terminal identification information in association with each other to the management device, and then receives the list information from the management device every time a transaction of a product purchase is made by a customer identified by the customer identification information;
3. The portable communication terminal according to claim 2, The communication means further receives registration screen information for accepting registration of the customer identification information and the terminal identification information from a registration destination obtained by the imaging means capturing an image of registration destination identification information shown on a receipt provided at the time of purchasing the product;
The display means displays the received registration screen information,
the registration accepting means further accepts registration of the customer identification information and the terminal identification information on the registration screen information displayed by the display means;
4. The portable communication terminal according to claim 3, The communication means further receives, from the management device, list information of other product information based on the transmitted provision request information;
5. The portable communication terminal according to claim 1, wherein: Computer ,
An imaging means;
a display control means for displaying on a display unit a screen for customer registration based on the code information captured by the imaging means;
An acquisition means for acquiring information for issuing an electronic receipt on the screen;
a means for transmitting the information acquired by the acquiring means to a management device that manages other product information indicating other products related to the purchased product;
a communication means for receiving an electronic receipt including purchased product information from the management device in response to the information acquired by the acquisition means;
A display unit that displays the electronic receipt received by the communication unit on a display unit;
a receiving means for receiving an instruction to stop providing the other product information with respect to the product information included in the electronic receipt displayed by the display means;
and make it work.
the communication means transmits provision request information for stopping the provision of the other product information by the reception means to the management device, thereby stopping the provision of the other product information.
A program to make it happen.

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