Method and system for automatic teller machine cash management

• US 20050173515A1
• Filed: 01/24/2005
• Published: 08/11/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 02/05/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Sawa, Tsutomu
• Granted Patent: US 7,419,090 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 235/379
• CPC Class Codes: G07D 11/32 Record keeping transaction aspects G07F19/00
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 19/20 Automatic teller machines [ATMs]
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 19/207 Surveillance aspects at ATMs
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 9/026 for alarm, monitoring and auditing in vending machines or means for indication, e.g. when empty
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 9/08 Counting total of coins inserted

Abstract

There is provided a management apparatus associated detachably with a cash cassette for managing the cash cassette storing bills or coins for cash transactions with users at an automatic teller machine. The cash cassette includes an error information recording area for recording identification information identifying a type of error in the event of occurrence of the error, and a count information recording area for recording count information indicating the number of bills or coins expected to be in the cash cassette. Based on the identification information acquired from the error information recording area, the management apparatus determines whether a predetermined type of error has occurred. When determining that such a type of error has occurred, the management apparatus outputs an instruction to management staff to count the number of bills or coins in the cash cassette, or when determining that such a type of error has not occurred, it outputs the count information from the count information recording area.

Claims

1. A management apparatus provided detachably from a cash cassette for managing the cash cassette storing bills or coins for cash transactions with users at an automatic teller machine, said cash cassette comprising:

an error information recording area for recording identification information identifying a type of error in the event of occurrence of the error, and

a count information recording area for recording count information indicating the number of bills or coins expected to be in said cash cassette,

said management apparatus comprising;

an error determination unit for determining, based on the identification information acquired from said error information recording area, whether the error occurred is of the kind that could cause a difference between the count information in said count information recording area and the number of bills or coins in said cash cassette; and

a count information output unit, which outputs an instruction that management staff should count the number of bills or coins in said cash cassette on condition that said error determination unit determines that such a type of error has occurred, which acquires and outputs the count information from said count information recording area on condition that said error determination unit determines that such a type of error has not occurred.

2. A management apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:

said count information recording area holds information indicating the number of bills or the coins in the automatic teller machine or said cash cassette as the count information,

said error determination unit determines whether there has occurred such an error that caused the automatic teller machine to remain jammed with one or more bills or coins drawn from said cash cassette or accepted from a user, as an error of the kind that could cause a difference between the count information and the number of bills or coins in said cash cassette, and

on condition that said error determination unit determines that such an error has occurred, said count information output unit outputs an instruction to count the number of bills or coins that were jammed in the automatic teller machine separately from the number of bills or coins in said cash cassette.

3. A management apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

said cash cassette further comprises an open/close information recording area for recording information indicating whether an access door through which bills or coins are stored in said cash cassette has been unlocked or not, and

said management apparatus further comprises a warning unit for outputting a warning that the lock of the access door has been tampered with on condition of determining, based on the information acquired from said open/close information recording area, that the access door has been unlocked during the period from the last attachment until the current attachment of said management apparatus to said cash cassette.

4. A management apparatus according to claim 1 further comprising a determination output unit for outputting an instruction that said cash cassette should be inspected or repaired on condition of determining, based on the identification information acquired from said error information recording area, that errors of the same kind have occurred at an incidence higher than a standard incidence predetermined for the kind.

5. A management apparatus according to claim 4, wherein on condition of determining that the same type of errors have occurred at an incidence higher than not only the standard incidence but also a repair requiring incidence predetermined for the kind, said determination output unit outputs an instruction that said cash cassette should be repaired immediately, or on condition of determining that the incidence of the same type of errors is higher than the standard incidence but lower than the repair requiring incidence, said determination output unit outputs an instruction that the part that has caused the type of errors should be checked at the time of a routine inspection of said cash cassette.

6. A management apparatus according to claim 4, wherein

said cash cassette further comprises an impact detector for detecting an impact applied to said cash cassette, and

said determination output unit further outputs information indicating that said impact detector has detected the impact to said cash cassette, in association with the instruction that said cash cassette should be inspected or repaired.

7. A cash cassette loaded into any one of multiple automatic teller machines and storing bills or coins for cash transactions with users at the automatic teller machine, comprising:

an error information recording area for recording identification information identifying a type of error in the event of occurrence of the error in said cash cassette; and

a determination output unit for outputting an instruction that said cash cassette should be inspected or repaired on condition of determining, based on the identification information identifying the type of error recorded in said error information recording area, that the same type of errors have occurred at an incidence higher than a standard incidence predetermined for the kind.

8. A cash cassette according to claim 7, wherein said determination output unit outputs an instruction that said cash cassette should be repaired immediately on condition of determining that the same type of errors have occurred at an incidence higher than not only the standard incidence but also a repair requiring incidence predetermined for the kind, or outputs an instruction that the part that has caused the type of errors should be checked at the time of a routine inspection of said cash cassette on condition of determining that the incidence of the same type of errors is higher than the standard incidence but lower than the repair requiring incidence.

9. A cash cassette according to claim 7 further comprising an impact detector for detecting an impact applied to said cash cassette,

wherein said determination output unit further outputs information indicating that said impact detector has detected the impact, in association with the instruction that said cash cassette should be inspected or repaired.

10. A cash cassette according to claim 7 further comprising a temperature/humidity sensor for measuring the temperature or humidity in or around said cash cassette,

wherein said determination output unit outputs information based on the temperature or humidity measured by said temperature/humidity sensor, in association with the instruction that said cash cassette should be inspected or repaired.

11. A cash cassette according to claim 7 further comprising an open/close information recording area for recording information indicating whether an access door through which bills or coins are stored in said cash cassette has been unlocked or not,

wherein said determination output unit determines, based on the information acquired from said open/close information recording area, whether the access door has been unlocked since the last time said cash cassette was attached to and detached from a management apparatus for managing said cash cassette, and outputs the determination result.

12. An automatic teller machine for automatic transactions of bills or coins with users, in which a removable cash cassette is provided for storing bills or coins for transactions with users,

said automatic teller machine comprising:

a count-information recording instruction unit for encrypting, using a cipher, count information indicating the number of bills or coins expected to be in said cash cassette and recording the encrypted count information in a memory provided in said cash cassette; and

an acceptance/dispensing count recording instruction unit for encrypting, using a cipher different from that for the count information, information on the number of bills or coins drawn from said cash cassette into said automatic teller machine and the number of bills or coins stored from said automatic teller machine into said cash cassette, and recording the encrypted information in the memory provided in said cash cassette.

13. An automatic teller machine according to claim 12, wherein

said count-information recording instruction unit encrypts the count information, indicative of the number of bills or coins expected to be in said cash cassette, using the cipher that allows management staff in charge of managing the validity of the number of bills or coins in said cash cassette to decrypt the encrypted count information, and stores the encrypted count information in the memory provided in said cash cassette, and

said acceptance/dispensing count recording instruction unit encrypts the information, indicative of the number of bills or coins drawn from said cash cassette into said automatic teller machine and the number of bills or coins stored from said automatic teller machine into said cash cassette, using the cipher that allows operation staff in charge of managing the transactions made through said automatic teller machine to decrypt the encrypted information, but prohibits the above-mentioned management staff from decrypting it, and stores the encrypted information in the memory provided in said cash cassette.

14. An automatic teller machine according to claim 12 further comprising an error-information recording instruction unit for recording, in a memory device provided in said cash cassette, information indicating that said cash cassette should be inspected or repaired on condition of determining that the same type of errors have occurred at an incidence higher than a standard incidence predetermined for the kind.

15. An information processing system including an automatic teller machine, a removable cash cassette provided in the automatic teller machine for storing bills or coins for cash transactions with users at the automatic teller machine, and a management apparatus provided detachably from the cash cassette for managing the cash cassette,

said cash cassette comprising:

an error information recording area for recording an identification information identifying a type of error in the event of occurrence of the error,

a count information recording area for recording count information indicating the number of bills or coins expected to be in said cash cassette,

said automatic teller machine comprising an error information recording instruction unit for recording, in said error information recording area, the identification information identifying the type of error in the event of occurrence of the error in said cash cassette,

said management apparatus comprises;

an error determination unit for determining, based on the identification information acquired from said error information recording area, whether the error occurred is of the kind that could cause a difference between the count information recorded in said count information recording area and the number of bills or coins in said cash cassette; and

a count information output unit, which outputs an instruction to management staff to count the number of bills or coins in said cash cassette on condition that said error determination unit determines that such a type of error has occurred, which acquires and outputs the count information from said count information recording area on condition that said error determination unit determines that such a type of error has not occurred.

16. A management method for managing a removable cash cassette for storing bills or coins for cash transactions with users at an automatic teller machine,

the cash cassette including

an error information recording area for recording identification information identifying a type of error in the event of occurrence of the error,

a count information recording area for recording count information indicating the number of bills or coins expected to be in the cash cassette,

said management method comprising:

an error determination step of determining, based on the identification information acquired from the error information recording area, whether the error occurred is of the kind that could cause a difference between the count information in the count information recording area and the number of bills or coins in the cash cassette; and

a count information output step of outputting an instruction that management staff should count the number of bills or coins in the cash cassette on condition that it is determined in said error determination step that such a type of error has occurred, of acquiring and outputting the count information from the count information recording area on condition that it is determined in said error determination step that such a type of error has not occurred.

17. A control method for controlling an automatic teller machine for automatic transactions of bills or coins with a user, in which a removable cash cassette is provided for storing bills or coins for transactions with users,

said control method comprising:

a count-information recording instruction step of encrypting count information indicating the number of bills or coins expected to be in the cash cassette and recording the encrypted count information in a memory provided in the cash cassette; and

an acceptance/dispensing count recording instruction step of encrypting, using a cipher different from that for the count information, information on the number of bills or coins drawn from the cash cassette into the automatic teller machine and the number of bills or coins stored from the automatic teller machine into the cash cassette, and recording the encrypted information in the memory provided in the cash cassette.