Registers – Systems controlled by data bearing records
Reexamination Certificate
1998-11-20
2001-02-20
Le, Thien M. (Department: 2876)
Registers
Systems controlled by data bearing records
C235S381000, C701S209000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06189783
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a system and a method for aiding in the use of a facility arranged to equip visitors with portable information storing units. More particularly, the invention relates to the system and the method for aiding in the use of a facility which are used for supporting the users' comfortable enjoyment of various attractions (or unit facilities) held in a facility such as a theme park.
With recent progress of electronic component and semiconductor technologies, an IC card and a magnetic card have been developed. Those cards are currently used in various human daily activities. They have some advantages such as portability and possible substitute for cash.
Particularly in a theme park currently in fashion, the visitors normally have the desire to airily go therearound. Further, likewise, those who run the theme park would like to improve the quality of their theme park, so that they have been likely to positively go about a system for using those cards consistently in the theme park for several purposes such as fare adjustments.
The main use of a portable card in for example theme park is to automatically adjust the fare and automatically authenticating if a person is qualified for entering into attraction facilities such as special vehicles in the theme park.
If several persons enter as a group into a facility such as a theme park, the group may be often divided into subgroups or individuals, because they have their own concerns or each person would like to go around the facility with his or her favorite person(s). In this case, the group of persons may make a previous arrangement about a waiting place and time. Then, they will meet at the arranged place and time. However, as a disadvantageous point, between when they are separated from each other and when they meet at the waiting place, one of them may not be aware of the time, location and progress of the other persons around the facility, thereby causing some of the group to have to wait for the other persons for a considerably long time. Further, if a person is strayed from the group or the subgroup, it is quite difficult for him or her to meet the other members because the facility is large and very crowded.
Moreover, when the visitors become involved in an attraction such as a special vehicle, they usually review the contents of a pamphlet given in when buying tickets or a bulletin board in the facility so as to select their own favorite attractions. In this case, they may not be aware of the features of each attraction and how long they have to wait, so that their selection of the attractions may be somewhat risky.
Further, the visitors may often have a desire to know all the attraction facilities they have entered today. For such a desire, disadvantageously, the users of the conventional portable card do not have any means for making sure of the attraction facilities they have visited in a day.
As described above, the way of use of the conventional portable card in the theme park has been typically conventionally focused onto fare adjustment or check for facilities. It lacks the feature of providing effective information to the visitors and the comfortable use of the visitors.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the present invention to provide a system and a method for aiding in the use of a facility which are arranged to provide a user with information according to a user's action through his or her portable card for generally aiding in the use of the facility so that the users may enjoy the facility in a more comfortable environment.
In carrying out the object, according to the invention, a group is registered in a portable information storing unit such as an IC card so that a person holding the portable information storing unit can grasp how the other persons of the same group move around the facility. The IC card also allows a person of the group to exchange a message with the other persons through each of access terminals located in the recreational facility. Further, the access terminal is enabled to display available facilities, a history of actual entrances into the attraction facilities, and an actual waiting time for each attraction facility.
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Furuya Jun
Hatakeyama Tsutomu
Kitagawa Hiroki
Motomiya Yukie
Antonelli Terry Stout & Kraus LLP
Hitachi , Ltd.
Le Thien M.
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