Reservation acceptance system and computer program product

• US 8,082,164 B2
• Filed: 01/26/2004
• Issued: 12/20/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 03/11/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Original Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Inventors: Kakuta, Jun, Murakami, Masahiko, Ohno, Takashi, Fujimoto, Shingo, Iwakawa, Akinori, Okada, Sumiyo
• Primary Examiner(s): ROBINSON BOYCE, AKIBA K
• Application Number:
  US10/763,181
• Publication Number:
  US 20040181439A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,885 Days
• Field of Search: 705/5, 705/6
• US Class Current: 705/5
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/02 Reservations, e.g. for tickets, services or events
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/025 Coordination of plural reservations, e.g. plural trip segments, transportation combined with accommodation

Abstract

A reservation acceptance system is provided that accepts requests of reservations from customers so that the resources can be used efficiently. The reservation acceptance system includes a reservation request reception portion for accepting a request for providing a service, a position information reception portion for obtaining position information of a customer who made the request, an acceptance condition database for storing area condition information defining a predetermined area around a provision position of the service, an existence decision portion for deciding whether or not the customer is within the predetermined area in accordance with the position information and the area condition information, and a reservation acceptance processing portion that performs a reservation acceptance process of the service when it is decided that the customer is within the predetermined area and does not perform the reservation acceptance process when it is decided that the customer is not within the predetermined area.

Claims

1. A reservation acceptance system running on a processor, comprising:

an area information storage portion that stores, therein, area information that defines a plurality of areas having different sizes around a provision position of a service, each of the plurality of areas corresponding to an amount of demand of the service and having a larger size as the amount of demand of the service is smaller;

a request acceptance portion that receives request information indicating a request for providing a the service, the request information being sent by a customer;

a current position information obtaining portion that obtains current position information indicating a current position of the customer who sent the request information;

a traffic information obtaining portion that obtains traffic information delivered by an information provider, the traffic information being traffic information around the provision position of the service or traffic information around the customer who sent the request information;

a demand amount forecast portion that forecasts, by using a predetermined function, an amount of future demand of the service based on the traffic information obtained by the traffic information obtaining portion;

an existence decision portion that determines, using the processor whether or not the current position of the customer indicated in the current position information is included in an acceptance area, the acceptance area being one of the plurality of areas and corresponding to the amount of future demand of the service thus forecasted; and

a reservation acceptance processing portion that accepts a reservation of the service for the customer who sent the request information if the existence decision portion determines that the current position of the customer is included in the acceptance area, and does not accept the reservation of the service for the customer unless the current position of the customer is included in the acceptance area.

3. The reservation acceptance system according to claim 1, wherein, when a second request for a temporary reservation is received from the customer who made the request after the existence decision portion determines that the current position of the customer is not included in the acceptance area,

the current position information obtaining portion newly obtains the current position information of the customer,

the existence decision portion newly determines whether or not the current position of the customer indicated in the new current position information is included in the acceptance area, and

the reservation acceptance processing portion accepts the reservation if the existence decision portion determines that the current position of the customer indicated in the new current position information is included in the acceptance area.

4. The reservation acceptance system according to claim 1,

an arrival time forecast portion that forecasts time of arrival of the customer who made the request at the provision position;

an arrival possibility decision portion that determines whether the customer who made the request will arrive by the forecasted time of arrival in accordance with the forecasted time of arrival, present time and current position information of the customer that was obtained after the reservation had been accepted; and

a cancel processing portion that cancels the reservation corresponding to the request when the arrival possibility decision portion that determines that the customer who made the request will not arrive by the forecasted time.

2. A reservation acceptance system running on a processor for accepting a reservation of a parking lot, comprising:

an area information storage portion that stores, therein, area information that defines a plurality of areas having different sizes around the parking lot, each of the plurality of areas corresponding to an amount of demand of the parking lot and having a larger size as the amount of demand is smaller;

a request acceptance portion that receives a request information indicating a request for parking a car in the parking lot;

a current position information obtaining portion that obtains current position information indicating a current position of a customer who made the request;

a traffic information obtaining portion that obtains traffic information delivered by an information provider, the traffic information being traffic information around the parking lot or the customer who made the request;

a demand forecast unit that forecasts, by using a predetermined function, an amount of future demand of the parking lot based on the traffic information obtained by the traffic information obtaining portion;

an existence decision portion that determines using the processer whether or not the current position of the customer indicated in the current position information is included in an acceptance area, the acceptance area being one of the plurality of areas and corresponding to the amount of future demand of the parking lot thus forecasted;

a reservation acceptance processing portion that accepts a reservation of the parking lot for the customer who made the request if the existence decision portion determines that the current position of the customer is included in the acceptance area and does not perform the reservation unless the existence decision portion determines that the current position of the customer is included in the acceptance area.

6. The reservation acceptance system according to claim 2, wherein, when a second request for a temporary reservation is received from the customer who made the request after the existence decision portion determines that the current position of the customer is not included in the acceptance area,

the current position information obtaining portion newly obtains the current position information of the customer,

the existence decision portion newly determines whether or not the current position of the customer indicated in the new current position information is included in the acceptance area, and

the reservation acceptance processing portion accepts the reservation if the existence decision portion determines that the current position of the customer indicated in the new current position information is included in the acceptance area.

7. The reservation acceptance system according to claim 2,

an arrival time forecast portion that forecasts time of arrival of the customer who made the request at the parking lot;

an arrival possibility decision portion that determines whether the customer who made the request will arrive by the forecasted time of arrival in accordance with the forecasted time of arrival, present time and current position information of the customer that was obtained after the reservation had been accepted; and

a cancel processing portion that cancels the reservation corresponding to the request when the arrival possibility decision portion that determines that the customer who made the request will not arrive by the forecasted time.

5. A reservation acceptance system running on a processor for accepting a reservation of a parking lot, comprising:

an area information storage portion that stores, therein, area information that defines a plurality of areas having different sizes around the parking lot, each of the plurality of areas corresponding to time and having a larger size as the time is shorter;

a request acceptance portion that receives request information indicating a request for parking a car in the parking lot and desired parking time;

a current position information obtaining portion that obtains current position information indicating a current position of a customer who made the request;

an existence decision portion that determines using the processor whether or not the current position of the customer indicated in the current position information of the customer is included in an acceptance area, the acceptance area being one of the plurality of areas and corresponding to the desired parking time; and

a reservation acceptance processing portion that accepts a reservation of the parking lot for the customer who made the request if the existence decision portion determines that the current position of the customer is included in the acceptance area and does not perform the reservation unless the existence decision portion determines that the current position of the customer is included in the acceptance area.

8. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing thereon a computer program used in a computer accessible to an area information storage portion that stores, therein, area information that defines a plurality of areas having different sizes around a provision position of a service, each of the plurality of areas corresponding to an amount of demand of the service and having a larger size as the amount of demand of the service is smaller, the computer program causing the computer to perform:

a request acceptance step of receiving request information indicating a request for providing the service, the request information being sent by a customer;

a current position information obtaining step of obtaining current position information indicating a current position of the customer who sent the request information;

a traffic information obtaining step of obtaining traffic information delivered by an information provider, the traffic information being traffic information around the provision position of the service or traffic information around the customer who sent the request information;

a demand amount forecast step of forecasting, by using a predetermined function, an amount of future demand of the service based on the obtained traffic information;

an existence decision step of determining whether or not the current position of the customer indicated in the current position information is included in an acceptance area, the acceptance area being one of the plurality of areas and corresponding to the amount of future demand of the service thus forecasted; and

a reservation acceptance processing step of accepting a reservation of the service for the customer who sent the request information if it is determined in the existence decision step that the current position of the customer is included in the acceptance area, and not accepting the reservation of the service for the customer unless it is determined in the existence decision step that the current position of the customer is included in the acceptance area.