Facility reserving method, facility reserving system, reserving terminal unit installed on site, and reservation program

• US 20040117219A1
• Filed: 11/20/2003
• Published: 06/17/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 11/22/2002
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Inventors: Nagai, Takuya, Sugimoto, Toyokazu, Ito, Atsushi, Ashizawa, Minoru
• Application Number:
  US10/719,365
• Publication Number:
  US 20040117219A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/5
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/02 Reservations, e.g. for tickets, services or events
• CPC Class Codes: G07B 15/00 Arrangements or apparatus for collecting fares, tolls or entrance fees at one or more control points handling coins or valuable papers, e.g. banknotes, G07D; apparatus for vending or hiring articles or services activated by coins, credit cards, paper currency or the like G07F7/00, G07F17/00
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 2011/02 related to amusement parks
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/27 with central registration

Abstract

The invention aims to realize a sophisticated facility reserving service by handling paper admission tickets as electronic tickets and completely eliminating conventional restrictions in reservation. By mounting, by embedding, an information storage element such as an RF-ID tag in admission tickets 10 and by a center server 31 carrying out individual ID (identifier) management of the admission tickets 10, an advance and same-day facility reserving service by use of admission tickets is provided. For an advance reservation, by setting of information for a plurality of facilities and time slot thereof for a scheduled day of admission by use of communications infrastructures such as the Internet and Web access or via an operator such as a call center, and for a same-day reservation, by an on-site-installed reservation terminal 44 installed in an arbitrary location of the site, a facility reservation setting is carried out.

Claims

1. A facility reserving method in which, by use of an admission ticket in which an information storage element having a computer-identifiable unique, first identifier is mounted and on which a human-perceptible unique, second identifier is displayed, a reservation for admission into one or more facilities installed at a site to which admittance is granted with this admission ticket is accepted via a communications network from a user distributed with at least said admission ticket, wherein

a reservation is accepted while comprising the steps of:

carrying out a screen display to a user terminal operated by said user and prompting an input of the second identifier displayed on the admission ticket;

receiving said second identifier inputted by thus prompting and carrying out authentication with the received second identifier;

carrying out a screen display to said user terminal and prompting an input of a name of said reserving facility and a reservation time for reservation; and

receiving said facility name and reservation time inputted by thus prompting and registering the received facility name and reservation time with a facility reservation DB in a manner associated with said first identifier, and

the facility reservation DB thus received registration is used for facility admission administration.

2. A facility reserving method in which, by use of an admission ticket in which an information storage element having a computer-identifiable unique, first identifier is mounted and on which a human-perceptible unique, second identifier is displayed, a reservation for use of one or more facilities installed at a site to which admittance is granted with this admission ticket is accepted via a telephone from a user distributed with at least said admission ticket, wherein

a reservation is accepted while comprising the steps of:

carrying out a voice guide to a telephone used by said user and prompting an input or notice of the second identifier displayed on the admission ticket;

receiving said second identifier inputted or notified by thus prompting and carrying out authentication with the received second identifier;

carrying out a voice guide to said telephone and prompting an input of a name of said facility and a reservation time for reservation; and

receiving said facility name and reservation time inputted or notified by thus prompting and registering the received facility name and reservation time with a facility reservation DB in a manner associated with said first identifier, and

the facility reservation DB thus received registration is used for facility admission administration.

3. A facility reserving system which is connected to a user terminal via a communications network and in which, by use of an admission ticket mounted with an information storage element having a computer-identifiable unique, first identifier, a reservation for admission into one or more facilities installed at a site to which admittance is granted with this admission ticket is carried out, wherein comprising:

an authenticating means for receiving a human-perceptible unique, second identifier displayed on the sold admission ticket via the communications network and thereby authenticating validity thereof; and

a reservation information registering means for carrying out communications with said user terminal upon obtaining the authentication and registering, with a facility reservation DB, said first identifier and information for reserving facility names and reservation time slots thereof produced by a user operating said user terminal in an associated manner.

4. The facility reserving system as set forth in claim 3, wherein

at the time of admission into said site or facility, the unique, first identifier of the information storage element mounted in said admission ticket is readout, and admission is permitted while referring to facility reservation information registered with said facility reservation DB with this identifier as a key.

7. The facility reserving system as set forth in any one of claims 3, 5, and 6, comprising:

a group reservation receiving means for receiving human-perceptible unique, second identifiers respectively displayed on admission tickets for a predetermined number of persons via an admission ticket possessed by a representative and permitting a reservation input thereof only for an identical time slot of an identical facility.

8. The facility reserving system as set forth in any one of claims 3, 5, and 6, comprising:

a reservation screen information producing/outputting means for, by referring to said facility reservation DB, producing screen information in a form where information for reservation-available facility names and time slots thereof can be selected by a user and providing the same to said user terminal or on-site-installed reservation terminal.

9. An on-site-installed reservation terminal which is connected to the facility reserving system as set forth in any one of claims 3 through 8 via a communications network and is installed in an arbitrary location of a site, wherein comprising:

a reservation screen information receiving means for carrying out communications with said facility reserving system upon approximation or loading of information storage element having a computer-identifiable unique, first identifier, mounted in an admission ticket and receiving, from said facility reserving system, reservation screen information in a form where information for reservation-available facility names and time slots thereof can be selected; and

a selection input information communicating means for taking in a selection input for a facility reservation by a user while displaying said reservation screen information and sending the same to said facility reserving system via said communications network.

10. The on-site-installed reservation terminal as set forth in claim 9, comprising:

a display control means for displaying, in addition to a present location, an arrangement of facilities installed at the periphery in a map form and also displaying already-reserved facilities in a manner differentiated from other facilities.

5. A facility reserving system which is connected to a user terminal via a communications network and in which, by use of an admission ticket mounted with an information storage element having a computer-identifiable unique, first identifier, a reservation for admission into one or more facilities installed at a site to which admittance is granted with this admission ticket is carried out, wherein comprising:

a facility reservation DB in which limits in the number of available reservations of said facility according to admission time slots are preset and numbers of already-reserved visitors at the moment are stored one after another;

an available time slot information searching/outputting means for referring to said facility reservation DB upon receiving a reservation input of a date and time of admission via said user terminal and searching and outputting available time slots of the reserving facility on the day of admission where the current number of already-reserved visitors is smaller than the limit in the number of available reservations; and

a facility reservation DB updating means for registering, with said facility reservation DB, time slot information selected from said available time slots in a manner associated with the first identifier of the information storage element mounted in said admission ticket and for updating the number of already-reserved visitors at the moment.

6. A facility reserving system which is connected to an on-site-installed reservation terminal installed in an arbitrary location of a site via a communications network and in which, by use of an admission ticket mounted with an information storage element having a computer-identifiable unique, first identifier, a reservation for admission into one or more facilities installed at a site to which admittance is granted with this admission ticket is carried out, wherein comprising:

a facility reservation DB in which limits in the number of available reservations of said facility according to admission time slots of the day are preset and numbers of already-reserved visitors at the moment are stored one after another;

an available time slot information searching/outputting means for making said admission ticket be read in said on-site-installed reservation terminal, referring to said facility reservation DB upon receiving a reservation input for a facility for which admission is requested carried out by a user operating said on-site-installed reservation terminal, and searching and outputting available time slots of the applicable facility on the day of admission where the current number of already-reserved visitors is smaller than the limit in the number of available reservations; and

a facility reservation DB updating means for registering, with said facility reservation DB, time slot information selected from said available time slots in a manner associated with the first identifier of the information storage element mounted in said admission ticket and for updating the number of already-reserved visitors on the day at the moment.

11. A reservation program for a facility reserving system in which, by use of an admission ticket in which an information storage element having a computer-identifiable unique, first identifier is mounted and on which a human-perceptible unique, second identifier is displayed, a reservation for utilization of one or more facilities installed at a site to which admittance is granted with this admission ticket is accepted via a communications network from a user distributed with at least said admission ticket, wherein

said reservation program makes a computer execute the steps of:

carrying out a screen display to a user terminal operated by said user and prompting an input of the second identifier displayed on the admission ticket;

receiving said second identifier inputted by thus prompting and carrying out authentication with the received second identifier;

carrying out a screen display to said user terminal and prompting an input of a name of said facility and a reservation time for reservation; and

receiving said facility name and reservation time inputted by thus prompting and registering the received facility name and reservation time with a facility reservation DB in a manner associated with said first identifier.

12. A reservation program for a facility reserving system which is connected to a user terminal via a communications network and in which, by use of an admission ticket mounted with an information storage element having a computer-identifiable unique, first identifier, a reservation for admission into one or more facilities installed at a site to which admittance is granted with this admission ticket is carried out, wherein

said reservation program makes a computer execute the steps of:

receiving a reservation input of a date and time of admission via said user terminal, and referring to a facility reservation DB in which limits in the number of available reservations of said facility according to admission time slots are preset and numbers of already-reserved visitors at the moment are stored one after another;

searching and outputting available times lots of there serving facility on the day of admission where the current number of already-reserved visitors is smaller than the limit in the number of available reservations; and

registering, with said facility reservation DB, time slot information selected from said available time slots in a manner associated with the first identifier and updating the number of already-reserved visitors at the moment.

13. A reservation program for a facility reserving facility reserving system which is connected to an on-site-installed reservation terminal installed in an arbitrary location of a site via a communications network and in which, by use of an information storage element having a computer-identifiable unique, first identifier, mounted in an admission ticket, a reservation for admission into one or more facilities installed at a site to which admittance is granted with this admission ticket is carried out, wherein

said reservation program makes a computer execute the steps of:

receiving a reservation input for a facility for which admission is requested carried out by a user operating said on-site-installed reservation terminal in a manner such that the on-site-installed reservation terminal reads in the admission ticket, and referring to a facility reservation DB in which limits in the number of available reservations of said facility according to admission time slots of the day are preset and numbers of already-reserved visitors at the moment are stored one after another;

searching and outputting available time slots of the applicable facility on the day of admission where the current number of already-reserved visitors is smaller than the limit in the number of available reservations; and

registering, with said facility reservation DB, time slot information selected from said available time slots in a manner associated with the unique, first identifier of the information storage element mounted in said admission ticket and updating the number of already-reserved visitors on the day at the moment.