JPH09190580A - Order entry system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To evade the consumption of a built-in battery caused by the repetitive transmission of order information that is done even in an inferior propagation state of radio wave by locking the transmission of order information from a handy terminal side when a reception unable state is judged. SOLUTION: When it is judged that the specified signals to be transmitted from a POS main body 20 at every fixed time have not been received nor detected even after a fixed time has passed, a CPU 13 judges that the propagation state of radio waves between the main body 20 and the handy terminals is deteriorated and the transmission of order information is impossible. Thus the CPU 13 shows this fact on a display 15 or generates a warning from a warning part 17 with a buzzer, etc. Under such conditions, a clerk carrying a handy terminal moves to a place where the normal radio wave propagation condition is satisfied from his present position. Then the clerk confirms no transmission of the warning and operates a transmission key 18 to transmit the order information stored in a memory 16 to the main body 20 through an antenna 11. As a result, the orders are always entered.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an order entry system, and more particularly, to order information as a radio signal.
The present invention relates to an order entry system in which the consumption of a built-in battery on the terminal side transmitted to the OS main body is reduced and the life of the built-in battery is extended.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in this type of order entry system, an operator visits a customer table in a restaurant, listens to an order, and presses a menu key arranged on a handy terminal to display order information. The order information is input and transmitted as a radio signal to the antenna of the POS main body via the antenna. The POS main body processes the order information received through the antenna and then displays it on the display set in the kitchen. The cook in the kitchen cooks based on the order information displayed on the display, and notifies the cooked order information by key operation or the like.

As described above, in the conventional order entry system, after the operator visits the customer's table and asks for the order, there is no need to return to the kitchen to convey the order information, and quick order entry is possible. Can manage restaurants efficiently.

[0004]

However, since such an order entry system transmits order information by a radio wave medium, there is an obstacle to radio wave propagation such as when a restaurant is wide and there is a room partitioned by walls. There is a problem when it is used in a different environment. That is, when the radio wave propagation environment is bad, a case may occur in which radio waves do not reach between the handy terminal and the POS body. However, in the conventional order entry system, even in such a case, the transmission of the order information is attempted by the radio wave, and not only the built-in battery is wasted, but also the store clerk who operates the handy terminal However, the transmission operation must be repeated many times, and the order may not be entered.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide an order entry system which prevents unnecessary consumption of a built-in battery and eliminates a situation where an order is not entered.

[0006]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, an order entry system according to the present invention stores order information input from a key input unit, and stores the stored order information in the operation of a transmission key. In response to the terminal side sending out as a radio wave signal via the antenna, and receiving and processing the radio wave signal from the terminal via the antenna,
POS that displays the received order information on the display
In the order entry system including the main body side, the POS main body side sends out a predetermined specific signal at a predetermined time interval via the antenna, and at the terminal side, the specific signal from the signal received via the antenna. Is not detected, the transmission by the operation of the transmission key is prohibited.

[0007] Here, when the terminal cannot detect the specific signal, the alarm unit provided on the terminal side issues an alarm, and the alarm unit serves as a display or means for generating a buzzer sound. Can be

[0008]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Next, an embodiment of the order entry system according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

According to the present invention, the order entry controller provided in the POS main body sends out a predetermined specific signal as a radio wave signal to the antenna on the handy terminal side through the antenna at regular intervals, and on the handy terminal side. Whether or not transmission is possible is determined based on whether or not the received specific signal is detected.

FIG. 1 is a configuration block diagram of an order entry system according to an embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 1, a handy terminal 10 carried by a store clerk as an operator includes an antenna 11, a transmitting / receiving unit 12, and a CP.
U13, key input unit 14, display 15, memory 1
6, a warning unit 17 and a transmission key 18 are provided. When the store clerk visits the customer's table or receives the customer's order at the counter, he or she operates the keys of the key input unit 14 to sequentially input the order. The order information data input from the key input unit 14 is subjected to predetermined processing by the CPU 13, stored in the memory 16, and displayed on the display 15 for confirmation. When all the order information from the customer is input, all the order information is stored in the memory 16 and displayed on the display 15. The clerk operates the transmission key 18 when confirming that the input order information matches the order from the customer while looking at the display screen of the display 15.

When the CPU 13 detects the operation information of the transmission key 18, the CPU 13 reads all the order information stored in the memory 16 and directs it from the antenna 11 to the antenna 21 of the POS main body 20 through the transmission processing of the transmission / reception unit 12. And transmits as a radio signal.

On the other hand, the antenna 2 is provided on the POS main body 20 side.
1, a display 22 and a key input unit 23 are provided.
The OS main body 20 processes the order information received via the antenna 21 and displays it on the display 22 set in the kitchen.

The order information from the handy terminal 10 thus received by the antenna 21 is taken into the POS main body 20, subjected to a predetermined receiving process, and displayed on the display 22 in the kitchen. The cook performs cooking corresponding to the order information displayed on the display 22, and when the cooking is completed, the cook operates the key of the key input 23 to input that the order information is cooked and processed, and the POS is performed. Body 2
Inform 0.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the POS main body 20 is provided with the order entry controller 201, and the order entry controller 201 generates a predetermined specific signal at regular time intervals.
This specific signal is subjected to a predetermined transmission process in the transmission section of the POS main body 20 and is sent out to the antenna 11 on the handy terminal 10 side via the antenna 21.

On the handy terminal 10 side, the specific signal received via the antenna 11 is subjected to a predetermined receiving process in the transmitting / receiving section 12 and sent to the CPU. CPU 13
When the reception of the specific signal is detected, it judges that the radio wave propagation condition between the handy terminal and the POS main body is good, and sets the normal order entry operation and processing to the permitted state. On the other hand, when the CPU 13 determines that it has not received or detected the specific signal that should have been sent at regular time intervals even after the fixed time has elapsed, the radio wave propagation state between the POS main bodies is deteriorating, If it is determined that the order information cannot be transmitted, control is performed by displaying a message to that effect on the display 15 or by issuing a warning such as a buzzer sound from the warning unit 17.

When there is a warning that the order information cannot be transmitted, the store clerk carrying the handy terminal moves from the current position to a place where normal radio wave propagation conditions are performed and a warning is issued. After confirming that there is none, the transmission key 18 is operated to transmit the order information stored in the memory 16 to the POS main body 20 side via the antenna 11.

In the above embodiment, the fact that the radio wave propagation state is deteriorated and transmission is impossible is judged based on the fact that the specific signal cannot be detected from the POS main body side at regular time intervals. However, when a specific signal is detected,
By performing a predetermined display on the display 5, for example, turning on the green lamp, the transmittable state can be more positively known.

2 and 3 are flow charts showing the operation and processing procedure of the embodiment shown in FIG.

Referring to FIG. 2, a clerk operates the key input unit 14 of the handy terminal 10 to input order information,
In other words, when an order is input (S1) and a communication operation is performed by operating the transmission key 18 (S2), it is determined whether or not the POS is out of the transmission range indicating that the radio wave propagation state is bad and radio wave transmission is impossible. It is determined whether or not the specific signal sent from the main body 20 is detected (S3). When it is determined in S3 that it is out of the transmission range, the clerk moves from the current position to the place (S4). Even after the movement, the process of S3 is performed, and if it is determined that it is not out of the transmission range, that is, the radio wave propagation state is good (is in range), the order information is transmitted to the POS main body side (S5), The process ends.

A process for controlling transmission of order information from the handy terminal 10 side to the POS main body side will be described with reference to FIG. A specific signal transmitted from the order entry controller 201 of the POS main body 20 at regular time intervals is used as an antenna 11 and a transmitter / receiver 12 of the handy terminal 10.
It is determined whether transmission is possible or not depending on whether or not the CPU 13 detects it via (S11). Here, when the specific signal cannot be received, the radio wave propagation state is bad, so the transmission operation by the transmission key 18 is prohibited and the transmission is locked (S12), and a message to that effect (out of service area) is displayed. 15 is displayed (S13). On the other hand, in S11,
When the specific signal is received, the transmission lock is released (S14), and the subsequent operation is performed assuming that the vehicle is within the range.

[0021]

As described above, according to the present invention, the radio wave propagation state is judged depending on whether or not the predetermined specific signal transmitted from the POS main body at a constant time interval is received by the handy terminal side, and the reception is impossible. When it is judged that the transmission of order information from the handy terminal side is locked,
It is possible to avoid the consumption of the built-in battery due to the repeated transmission of the order information even if the radio wave propagation state is poor as in the conventional case.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of an embodiment of an order entry system according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart for explaining an operation in the embodiment shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart for explaining an operation in the embodiment shown in FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10 Handy terminal 11, 21 Antenna 12 Transmitter / receiver 13 CPU 14, 23 Key input part 15, 22 Display 16 Memory 17 Warning part 18 Transmission key

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A terminal side for storing order information input from a key input unit and transmitting the stored order information as a radio signal via an antenna in response to an operation of a transmission key,
An order entry system including a POS main body side which receives a radio signal from the terminal through an antenna and processes the received signal, and displays the received order information on a display. A specific signal is transmitted via the antenna, and the terminal side prohibits transmission by the transmission key operation when the specific signal cannot be detected from the signal received via the antenna. Entry system. 2. The order entry system according to claim 1, wherein when the specific signal cannot be detected on the terminal side, an alarm is issued from an alarm section installed on the terminal side. 3. The alarm unit is a display.
The order entry system described in. 4. The order entry system according to claim 1, wherein the alarm unit is means for generating a buzzer sound.