Facility management support apparatus, method, and medium for supporting management of visitors in facility area

• US 20030114233A1
• Filed: 03/26/2002
• Published: 06/19/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 12/19/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Original Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Inventors: Hiei, Hajime
• Granted Patent: US 7,137,899 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 472/92
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/02 Reservations, e.g. for tickets, services or events
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 2011/02 related to amusement parks
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/27 with central registration

Abstract

There is provided a facility management support apparatus which manages visitors in a facility area, the apparatus is characterized by comprising: place information storage unit storing the degree of crowdedness in each of places in the facility area; receiving unit receiving, from a terminal, information which enables identification of the location of the terminal; extraction unit extracting one of the places to which one of the visitors should move on the basis of the degree of crowdedness and the location of the terminal; and transmission unit transmitting, to the terminal, information which enables identification of the place to which the visitor should move.

Claims

1. A facility management support apparatus which manages visitors in a facility area, the apparatus comprising:

place information storage unit storing the degree of crowdedness in each of places in the facility area;

receiving unit receiving, from a terminal, information which enables identification of the location of the terminal;

extraction unit extracting one of the places to which one of the visitors should move on the basis of the degree of crowdedness and the location of the terminal; and

transmission unit transmitting, to the terminal, information which enables identification of the place to which the visitor should move.

2. A facility management support apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising visitor information storage unit storing information on a record of movements of the visitor,

wherein the receiving unit also receives information which enables identification of the visitor, and the extraction unit newly extracts a different one of the places to which the visitor should move if it is determined on the basis of the visitor information storage unit that the former extracted place to which the visitor should move coincides with one of the places to which the visitor has already moved.

3. A facility management support apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising visitor information storage unit storing information on one of the places to which the visitor wishes to move,

wherein the receiving unit also receives information which enables identification of the visitor;

and the extraction unit extracts, on the basis of the visitor information storage unit, one of the places to which the visitor wishes to move.

4. A facility management support apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising story storage unit storing information on the places and a story by relating the places and the story to each other,

wherein the extraction unit extracts one of the places to which the visitor should move on the basis of the location of the terminal and the story.

5. A facility management support apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the story is selected on the basis of story selection information received from the visitor in advance.

6. A facility management support apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the degree of crowdedness is computed on the basis of information which enables identification of the location of the terminal.

7. A recording medium which is readable with a computer, and on which a facility management support program for management of visitors in a facility area is stored, said program being used to make the computer execute:

receiving, from a terminal, information which enables identification of the location of the terminal;

extracting a place to which one of the visitors should move on the basis of the location of the terminal and a degree of crowdedness stored in place information storage unit in which information on each of places in the facility area is stored; and

transmitting, to the terminal, information which enables identification of the place to which the visitor should move.

8. A method of managing visitors in a facility area, said method comprising:

receiving, from a terminal, information which enables identification of the location of the terminal;

extracting a place to which one of the visitors should move on the basis of the location of the terminal and a degree of crowdedness stored in place information storage unit in which information on each of places in the facility area is stored; and

transmitting, to the terminal, information which enables identification of the place to which the visitor should move.