MXPA03006081A - Public telephone terminal and method for charging for vehicle parking using said terminal. - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention describes a device and method for completing telephone calls, providing access to Internet services and charging parking time for vehicles. The device integrates the services of a public telephone terminal with the service that may offer a parking meter, thereby carrying out, amongst other embodiments, telephone calls, the computing and billing of the parking time of a specific vehicle, the emission of receipts that validate the parking time, the call or any information stored in the memory of the terminal or central station to which the device is connected. The disclosure is also useful for sending statistics to a data central station and monitoring said terminals by means of a management service in the central station. The device includes the whole means for completing a prepaid telephone call and the means required for using the device as a parking meter.

Description

PUBLIC TERMINAL OF TELEPHONY AND METHOD FOR THE BILLING OF VEHICLE PARKING THROUGH SAID TERMINAL OBJECT OF THE INVENTION The present invention describes an apparatus and method for making telephone calls, dispensing access to internet services and parking time for vehicles.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The parking meter is a device used, mainly in urban areas, to automatically control, by paying an established amount, the time that a vehicle remains parked in a certain place. These are costly devices, which need an electrical power supply, so they require civil works, increasing the costs in infrastructure for parking meters in urban areas. When operating by paying an established amount, it is required that these devices, have means for the user to make such payment. Users usually face the problem of not having the exact amount in coins or not having a nearby establishment where they can acquire specific cards for that purpose. The mentioned problem is aggravated if the parking meter does not have different means of payment at the same time, which happens frequently. It would therefore be necessary to have parking meters that systematically incorporate different means of payment, for coins, chip cards, magnetic strips or other types of specific cards. It should also be added that they are equipment that requires continuous maintenance, both to collect the collection and to check the proper functioning of the device. All this supposes a high cost of maintenance of the plant. In the context of cost reduction, these devices do not usually incorporate developed technologies to prevent payment fraud. The immediate consequence is the fraudulent use of the parking meters both in the payment by coins, and by cards. The incorporation of robust means of payment is necessary, as regards card readers, coin entry, validators and collection chests. Based on the problem described, the profit margin is reduced: fraudulent use reduces collection, infrastructure costs are large and the need to incorporate protections and means of payment increases the price per device.

The applicant is not aware of any device or method that integrates the services described herein in an integrated manner. A related patent is EP 0 599 528 which discloses an apparatus for dispensing electrical energy and which can act at the same time as a parking meter. The problem has been detailed above.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The solution presented in this report consists of developing an apparatus that, being equivalent to a public telephony terminal, incorporates the necessary functionality so that it can invoice the parking time of the vehicles in a certain area and issue the proper supporting documents.

This solution alleviates the problems described above for the companies that own the parking meters and for the users, as described below.

The current public telephony terminals, have a technology in collection devices very developed to avoid fraud occurrence when making the payment.

In telephony terminals in addition, flexibility in the form of payment for the user is guaranteed since they enable payment by coins and cards.

They suppose a new market for the operator, a cost in infrastructure, for the parking meter companies, much lower than the current one since the current telephone terminals plant would be used.

The user obtains the advantage of a greater availability of devices for billing the parking of vehicles, possibility of payment by coins or cards, possibility of cancellation of parking fines from the terminal itself, warning by call of a terminal malfunction in addition to a integrated service (telephone and parking meter).

The present invention describes an apparatus that integrates the services of a public telephone terminal with the service that a parking meter can offer and that makes possible, among others, the modality of telephone calls, the calculation and billing of the parking time of a certain vehicle, the issuance of receipts / receipts evidencing the parking time, the call or any other information that is housed in the memory of the terminal or the exchange to which it can be connected, sending statistics to a data center and the supervision of these terminals by a management system in the plant. For this, the terminal that is recommended, must first include all the basic means for the modality of a prepaid call.

That is, the means of payment by coins, a telephone terminal (input coins, return of coins, validation of coins and collection box) and by cards (card reader). It is necessary to incorporate ticket printing / issuing mechanisms as well as an electronics for the detection of presence and paper jams. It was also necessary to develop a control software that allows: the user to choose the functionality of the terminal, such as telephone or parking meter, to the operator to know the data of calls, collection, fraud attempts, control the programming parameters of their terminals, etc. . To the parking meter companies, it allows them, without scarcely cost in infrastructure, to subcontract to the operator the installation, collection, repair and maintenance services in a safe way, of the parking lots of vehicles destined for that purpose. On the other hand, it is expected that these terminals will be connected as the current public telephone terminals to a central office for management and supervision so that they can send call statistics, statistics related to parking billing, operating events in telephone mode and in parking meter mode. For this, it is necessary to incorporate an electronic and communication protocol for communications mode.

From the management and operation center, telephones can be personalized remotely, both individually and in groups. This system of the plant will offer the functions of a plant exploitation center: - Plant management (location, administrative data, ...).

- Maintenance of terminals (alarms, repairs, ...) · - Configuration of operating parameters (tariffs, numbering plan, ...).

- Management of statistical information of each terminal (number and type of calls, use of means of payment, collection).

- Report generation.

- Download of application programs.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS To complete the description of the present invention patent and in order to help a better understanding of the characteristics of the described set, the present description is accompanied as an integral part thereof, a series of figures in which illustratively and not limiting the following has been represented: Figure 1 shows schematically the basic components of the developed terminal: electronic control units, means of payment (card reader, coin entry, cashbox, validator and return box), keyboard, display, power supply unit, modem, printer and optionally other security modules.

Figure 2 shows schematically the connection between multiple terminals and the management and supervision system. Different terminals connected through different telephony networks to the system server have been represented. In the figure, several servers that would control different geographical arhave been represented. These servers would access the client applications, also represented, for data query. Optionally, the connection of the parking meter service provider that could access the data of the telephone operator has been represented.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the terminal that is advocated is constituted among others, by the following basic elements represented in Figure 1.

• Coin input devices (1), coin output (2) and coin validation (3). This will allow any user to make the payment of the services already described, through coins, which are validated inside the terminal and that once the service is rendered, will be charged (passage to the collection box (4)) or returned those that exceed the billable amount through the coin output device (2) consisting of a coin return box. These three devices can be those commonly used in public telephones or machines operated by coins, tokens or the like.

• Card entry device (5), commonly known as card readers, whose technology is widely known in public telephony and which allows the billing of services through different types of cards (such as bank cards or telephone cards, for example).

• Devices for printing and issuing tickets (6) containing information relating, for example, to the call made by the user or to the parking of said user's vehicle.

• Connection via telephone line between the terminal and a supervision and management center on which the terminals of a specific geographical area will depend.

• External characteristic elements of a public telephone terminal such as keypad for dial (7), handset (8), display screen (9), hook (0), and buzzer (11). Additionally, a non-numeric keypad is added through which the user can select the way in which the terminal will operate (telephone or parking meter), as well as choosing the period of time that his vehicle will be parked, the type of information he wants to appear on the tickets , etc.

• Electronic control unit composed in turn by a logic electronic unit (13) and an analog electronic unit (13 '), which includes a microprocessor, a memory unit, a modem and a power unit. The microprocessor will control all events (both those from the line, as those that are due to the user's intervention).

The memory unit will store all the parameters of the terminal you need in your programming, such as rates for local, national calls, to rate parking time, etc.

By means of the modem (12), the terminal will be able to exchange information with the central supervision and management, so that certain controls can be performed remotely from said central, such as the downloading of new tariffs or putting out of service. The modem (12) will allow, in turn, the sending of all kinds of statistics, calls, collection, data on vehicle parking, etc. from the terminal to the central one.

The terminal can also be equipped optionally with a line protection device (14) ALT (Anti Line Tampering).

With these basic elements, when a user wishes to use one of the terminals that are presented, he will have to select the operating mode first using the keyboard (7). If you want to make a call, the procedure is identical to the procedure currently followed in public telephones, pick up the handset, enter a certain amount (in coins or by card) and dial the number you wish to connect to.

If the user chooses the operation option in parking meter mode, he must select the parking time he wants. After that, you will enter the amount, again, in coins or by card, which will be validated by the terminal in the same way as they are validated for the call mode.

The terminal will guarantee the setting of its internal clock with daily communication with the control panel. This allows the issuance of the payment receipt to be placed in the parked vehicle. All the data of this transaction (amount, date, time and identifier of the terminal, card number and transaction identifier) will be stored in the memory of the terminal and finally transferred to the management system.

Another of the basic functionalities that have been included is the cancellation of fines. When the parking time has expired, current users have a period in which they can proceed to pay the fine and obtain a reduction in the amount of the same. In this case, through proper programming, the user is able to pay the fine at any of these terminals installed on public roads, without having to go to specific establishments.

Claims (9)

NOVELTY OF THE INVENTION CLAIMS

1. - Public telephony terminal for the billing of the • parking of vehicles, characterized in that it comprises: means for prepaying telephone calls, means of receiving payment by coins or cards, means of computing time for billing in parking spaces, means of issuing a proof of payment performed, means that allow a user to choose the functionality of the terminal for the mode of a call or request a parking time, means to convert the amount paid by the user in a call time or in parking time, means for communication with a central that manages and supervises the terminals.

2. - The terminal according to claim 1, further characterized in that it comprises a housing that includes all the means indicated in the first claim and installed in spaces for the parking of vehicles.

3. - The terminal according to claim 1, further characterized in that it includes means of connection to a central for the sending of statistics data on calls and on parking, as well as the data necessary for the compensation of services to the concessionary company.

4. - The terminal according to claim 1, further characterized in that it includes means for detecting and controlling fraud in calls and receipt of payment.

5. - Method for billing the parking of vehicles through the public telephony terminal described in claims 1 to 4, characterized in that it consists of: receiving an initial payment from the user for communication service or parking payment service, the conversion of the user's initial payment in an equivalent time of call, connection to the internet or in an equivalent time of parking, the issuance of a proof of the payment made and time consumed.

6. - The method for billing the parking of vehicles according to claim 5, further characterized in that the user initially selects through the terminal keyboard the type of service that he wishes to obtain from it, be it a call time, a time of Internet connection or a parking time.

7. - The method for billing vehicle parking, according to claim 5, further characterized in that the terminal communicates once a day with a control center in order to ensure the time setting of its internal clock for billing and the sending of statistics and data necessary for the compensation of services to the concessionaire company. ·

8. - The method for billing vehicle parking according to claim 5, further characterized in that the terminal, once the transaction is completed, stores in its internal memory all the data related to it, such as amount, date and time, identifier of the terminal, card number and identify the transaction, and transfers them to the central management station.

9. - The method for billing vehicle parking according to claim 5, further characterized in that the terminal is able to receive a user payment as a penalty for exceeding the parking time previously paid.