JP7592280B2 - Information processing device and toilet management system - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to an information processing device and a toilet management system for managing toilet facilities.

Conventionally, there is a technology related to toilets that can freely change the layout pattern of the men's and women's toilets depending on the usage situation of the facility. Patent Document 1 describes a technique for controlling a shared toilet that switches the entrance and exit of the shared toilet depending on the number of users of the men's toilet room and the number of users of the women's toilet room.

JP 2002-97700 A

Meanwhile, in recent years, technology that displays the number of private rooms and availability of restroom facilities on digital signage, etc., is becoming more widespread. However, in such restroom facilities, it is impossible to confirm whether the public restroom is currently being used for men or women without visiting the restroom facility in person. Therefore, the present invention aims to automatically detect the layout pattern of men's and women's restrooms in a restroom facility where the layout pattern can be freely changed.

The present invention for solving the above problem is an information processing device that manages information regarding a male toilet facility including a male toilet cubicle, a female toilet facility including a female toilet cubicle, and a shared toilet cubicle adjacent to both the male toilet facility and the female toilet facility, wherein each of the male toilet cubicles and the female toilet cubicles is provided with one sensor for determining whether or not it is being used, and the shared toilet cubicle is provided with a first sensor and a second sensor for determining whether or not it is being used, and the information processing device has an acquisition means for acquiring detection results detected by each of the sensors, and a decision means for deciding vacancy information indicating the vacancy status of the male toilet facility and the female toilet facility based on the detection results, and the decision means decides whether or not the shared toilet cubicle is adjacent to the male toilet facility. When the shared toilet cubicle is regarded as a toilet cubicle included in a facility, vacancy information determined based on the detection result by a sensor installed in the men's toilet cubicle and the detection result by the first sensor is delivered, and vacancy information determined based on the detection result by a sensor installed in the women's toilet cubicle is delivered as vacancy information to the women's toilet facility; when the shared toilet cubicle is regarded as a toilet cubicle included in the women's toilet facility, vacancy information determined based on the detection result by a sensor installed in the men's toilet cubicle is delivered as vacancy information of the men's toilet facility, and vacancy information determined based on the detection result by the sensor installed in the women's toilet cubicle and the detection result by the second sensor is delivered as vacancy information of the women's toilet facility.

The present invention can automatically detect the layout pattern in a toilet facility where the layout pattern of men's and women's toilets can be freely changed.

Example of vacancy management system configuration Diagram showing toilet facilities Hardware configuration of the vacancy management server A diagram showing an example of the functional configuration of a vacancy management server Diagram showing vacancy management database Flowchart showing attribute determination processing for a public restroom Flowchart of vacancy determination process and vacancy information distribution process FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an example of a delivery image. Diagram showing toilet facilities

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described with reference to the following drawings.

(Embodiment 1)
In this embodiment, a vacant seat management system is described as an example of a restroom management system, in which a sensor is installed to detect the opening and closing of the door of each cubicle in the restroom facility, and the usage status of each cubicle is detected and managed. Here, the restroom facility also includes a shared restroom cubicle between the men's restroom facility and the women's restroom facility. The shared restroom cubicle is used as a men's restroom or a women's restroom depending on the usage status of the restroom facility. The vacant seat management system determines whether the shared restroom is being used as a men's or women's restroom, and then manages the usage status of the restroom facility.

<System Configuration>
(Network Configuration)
Fig. 1 is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of a vacant room management system according to the present embodiment. In the vacant room management system 100 in Fig. 1, a vacant room management server 10, a digital signage 20a, a mobile terminal 20b, a door opening/closing sensor 31, a locking sensor 32, and a GW (gateway) 33 are connected via a network 50.

The vacancy management server 10 is a device that distributes vacancy information of the restroom facility 30 to display devices such as the digital signage 20a and the mobile terminal 20b. The distributed vacancy information is displayed on the displays of the digital signage 20a and the mobile terminal 20b.

The digital signage 20a is a video display device such as a liquid crystal display installed at the facility entrance, on a floor guide wall, etc. The digital signage 20a is connected to the vacancy management server 10 on the cloud via a network 50, and displays facility guide information, advertisements, and vacancy information for each floor, toilet, etc. The mobile terminal 20b is an information processing device including a smartphone, tablet terminal, mobile phone, etc. owned by the user. A general-purpose web browser or a dedicated application is installed in advance. The mobile terminal 20b is connected to the vacancy management server 10 on the cloud via a network 50 in the same way as the digital signage 20a, and displays facility guide information, advertisements, and vacancy information for each floor, toilet, etc.

The toilet facility 30 also has a shared toilet cubicle between the men's toilet facility and the women's toilet facility. Figure 2 is a schematic diagram of the toilet facility 30. The toilet facility 30 has a men's toilet entrance 301a and a women's toilet entrance 301b, and the men's toilet and the women's toilet are separated from each other. The men's toilet facility has cubicles 300a, 300b, and 300c. The women's toilet facility has cubicles 300d, 300e, and 300f. A shared toilet 310 is also provided between the men's toilet and the women's toilet.

Door opening/closing sensors 31a to 31h (collectively referred to as door opening/closing sensors 31) are installed in each private room. For example, when a pair of magnetic sensors are used as the door opening/closing sensors 31, one sensor is installed on the wall side and the other sensor is installed on the door (entrance door) side to detect the opening/closing of the door. The door of each private room is always open and is closed when a user uses the room. Therefore, by detecting the opening/closing state of the door using the door opening/closing sensor 31, it is possible to detect the presence or absence of a user. In this embodiment, when the door is open, the sensor installed on the wall side and the sensor installed on the door side are in a non-contact state, and at this time the door opening/closing sensor 31 outputs a door opening/closing detection signal ON. That is, the door opening/closing sensor 31 outputs a door opening/closing detection signal ON to the vacancy management server 10 when the door 34 is open, and outputs a door opening/closing detection signal OFF when the door is closed (or has been closed).

The door open/close sensor 31 is not necessarily limited to a magnet type sensor, but may be a switch type sensor, etc. In other words, a sensor that can output different signals to the vacancy management server 10 when the door is open and when the door is closed can be used.

In this embodiment, one shared private room 310 is provided with doors 32a and 32b. The doors 311a and 311b are provided with a key (hereinafter referred to as a normal key) for closing the door when a normal user uses the door, and also with a key (hereinafter referred to as a management key) that cannot be opened by a general user. When the manager who manages the toilet facility 30 wants to use the shared private room 310 as a men's toilet, he can lock the management key of the door 311b to make the shared private room 310 function as one of the men's toilet private rooms that cannot be used by women. On the other hand, when the manager who manages the toilet facility 30 wants to use the shared private room 310 as a women's toilet, he can lock the management key of the door 311a to make the shared private room 310 function as one of the women's toilet private rooms that cannot be used by men.

Furthermore, the doors 311a and 311b are provided with lock sensors 32a and 32b (collectively referred to as lock sensors 32) that can detect the lock state of the administrative key that cannot be unlocked by general users. Here, the lock sensor 32 is a sensor that detects the lock state by generating and transmitting weak electricity according to the movement of the key to open or close. The lock sensor 32 outputs a lock detection signal ON when the key is locked, and outputs a lock detection signal OFF when the key is unlocked.

The GW 33 is a communication relay device such as a router that is connected to the door open/close sensor 31 and the lock sensor 32 of the multi-purpose toilet 30 and is also connected to the network 50. The detection results detected by the door open/close sensor 31 and the lock sensor 32 are transmitted to the vacancy management server 10 via the GW 33. The door open/close sensor 31 and the lock sensor 32 may be integrated with communication functions, in which case the GW 33 may be unnecessary. The network 50 is a communication network including wired and wireless networks. The network 50 includes, for example, the Internet, a public line network, and Wi-Fi (registered trademark), etc.

(Hardware configuration)
3 is a diagram showing an example of the hardware configuration of the vacant room management server according to this embodiment. The vacant room management server 10 has a central processing unit (CPU) 11, a read only memory (ROM) 12, a random access memory (RAM) 13, a hard disk drive (HDD) 14, and a communication device 15.

The CPU 11 executes various programs and performs arithmetic processing. The ROM 12 stores programs required at startup, etc. The RAM 13 is a work area for temporarily storing the processing by the CPU 11 and for storing data. The HDD 14 stores various data and programs. The communication device 15 communicates with other devices via a network 50.

(Software configuration)
4 is a diagram showing an example of the functional configuration of the vacant room management server according to this embodiment. The vacant room management server 10 has, as its main functional units, a receiving unit 101, an updating unit (vacant room management unit) 102, a distributing unit 103, a memory unit 104, and a determining unit 105. The receiving unit 101 receives a door open/close detection signal from a door open/close sensor 31 that detects the opening and closing of the door of each private room in the toilet facility 30, and a lock detection signal from a lock sensor 32 that indicates the locking state of the management key of the shared private room 310.

The determination unit 105 determines whether the shared private room 310 is for men or women based on the lock detection signal. The update unit (vacancy management unit) 102 updates and manages the vacancy information of the toilet facility 30 in a vacancy management DB (Data Base) 104a in response to the door opening/closing detection signal received by the receiving unit 101. The vacancy management DB is a database for managing the vacancy information (vacancy status) of the toilet facility 30 in real time, and is stored in the memory unit 104. The vacancy management DB stores information indicating the presence or absence of a user for each private room. The distribution unit 103 distributes the vacancy information of the toilet facility 30 to the digital signage 20a and the mobile terminal 20b for users.

Each functional unit is realized by a computer program executed on hardware resources such as the CPU, ROM, and RAM of the computer that constitutes the vacancy management server 10. These functional units may be read as "means," "modules," "units," or "circuits."

(Vacancy management database)
5 is a diagram showing the vacancy management DB according to this embodiment. Here, the vacancy management DB 104a has the data items of "facility ID,""facilityname,""location,""attributes," and "vacancy status.""FacilityID" indicates a unique identifier assigned to uniquely identify each toilet cubicle in each facility. The cubicles 300a-c are associated with facility IDs "001-1"-"001-3," the cubicle 310 with facility ID "001-4," and the cubicles 300d-f with facility IDs "001-5"-"001-7."

"Facility name" indicates the name of the facility. In this embodiment, only the same facility name is stored, but when managing vacancy information of toilet facilities in various facilities, multiple different facility names will be stored. "Location" indicates the location (place) of the toilet facility in the facility. In particular, in the case of large facilities, multiple toilet facilities are often installed on each floor or even on one floor. "Availability" indicates the availability of the multi-purpose toilet. Specifically, when "Availability" is "0", it indicates vacancy (no user is present and not used), and when "1", it indicates full occupancy (user is using). The above "Facility ID", "Facility name", and "Location" are known information registered in advance by an administrator or the like. In addition, the "attributes" of the male toilet private room and the female toilet private room are also registered in advance. The "attributes" of the shared toilet 310 and the "availability" of each private room are updated in real time by the vacancy management server 10.

<Information Processing>
Fig. 6 is a flowchart showing the attribute determination process of a public restroom executed by the determination unit 105 in the vacant seat management server 10 according to this embodiment. The determination unit 105 realizes each step by the CPU 11 reading and executing a program capable of realizing the flowchart shown in Fig. 5. Each step will be denoted as "S" below.

First, in S501, the determination unit 105 acquires the status of the latest lock detection signal from the lock sensor 32. In this embodiment, it is assumed that each lock sensor 32 transmits a lock detection signal indicating the lock status of the management key to the vacant seat management server via the GW 33 at regular intervals. The receiving unit 101 stores the lock detection signal last transmitted from each lock sensor 32, and the determination unit 105 refers to the latest lock detection signal.

In S502, the judgment unit 105 judges whether or not the lock detection signal of the lock sensor 32a is ON. If it is ON, the process proceeds to S503, and if it is OFF, the process proceeds to S506. In S503, the judgment unit 105 judges whether or not the lock detection signal of the lock sensor 32b is OFF. If it is OFF, the process proceeds to S304, where the attribute of the shared toilet 310 is set to "female" since only the door on the female toilet side is available. If the lock detection signal of the lock sensor 32b is ON in S503, the process proceeds to S505. In S505, the judgment unit 105 sets the attribute of the shared toilet 310 to "unusable" since both management keys of the shared toilet 310 are locked.

In S506, the determination unit 105 determines whether the lock detection signal of the lock sensor 32b is ON. If it is ON, the process proceeds to S507, and if it is OFF, the process proceeds to S508. In S507, the lock detection signal of the lock sensor 32a is OFF, and the lock detection signal of the lock sensor 32b is ON. Therefore, in S507, the determination unit 105 sets the attribute of the shared toilet 310 to "male" because only the door on the male toilet side of the shared toilet 310 can be used. In S508, the state indicates that both lock detection signals are OFF. This is because both management keys of the shared toilet are not actually locked, or there is a possibility that a malfunction or error has occurred in one of the lock sensors 32, so in S508, the determination unit 105 executes a process for sending a warning notice to the management mobile terminal 20b or the like.

Through the above process, the determination unit 105 determines the attribute of the public restroom 310. The process shown in Fig. 5 may be executed at regular time intervals, or, in the case where the attribute of the public restroom changes depending on the day of the week, may be executed before starting to use the facility.

Next, the vacancy determination process and the vacancy information distribution process according to this embodiment will be described. FIG. 7(a) is a flowchart of the vacancy determination process executed by the update unit 102. In S701, the update unit 102 determines whether the receiving unit 101 receives a new open/close detection signal, and proceeds to S702 if it has been received. In S702, the update unit 107 updates the vacancy information in the vacancy management DB based on the received open/close detection signal and identification information. For example, assume that an open/close detection signal corresponding to identification information with a facility ID of "001-1" indicates that an OFF signal is acquired. At this time, the toilet cubicle 300a is in use by a user, so the update unit 102 sets the vacancy status of the facility ID "001-1" in the vacancy management DB to "1". Through the above process, the vacancy management server 10 detects the usage status of each cubicle in real time.

7B explains the distribution process of the vacant room information executed by the distribution unit 103. The following process may be executed at a preset interval (e.g., every 3 minutes) or may be executed upon request from the mobile terminal 20a or the like of the distribution destination.

First, in S703, the distribution unit 103 searches the vacant seat management DB for the toilet facility to be processed by "location", and counts the number of stalls with the attribute "male". The number of stalls counted here is the total number of men's toilets. In addition, in S704, the distribution unit 301 counts the number of stalls with "vacancy status" of "0" among the stalls counted in S703. The number of stalls counted here is the number of vacant men's toilets.

Next, in S705, the distribution unit 103 searches the vacant seat management DB for the toilet facility to be processed based on "location", and counts the number of stalls with the attribute "female". The number of stalls counted here is the total number of women's toilets. In addition, in S706, the distribution unit 103 counts the number of stalls with "vacancy status" of "0" among the stalls counted in S705. The number of stalls counted here is the number of vacant women's toilets.

In S707, the distribution unit 103 generates distribution information based on the results of the aggregation in S703 to S706. In this embodiment, a distribution image such as that shown in Fig. 8 is generated. The total number of men's restrooms and the number of available men's restrooms, and the total number of women's restrooms and the number of available women's restrooms are displayed in the distribution image. The distribution unit 103 also displays "Available" or "Fully booked" in the distribution image according to the usage status of each restroom facility (the ratio of available number to the total number). The distribution unit 103 distributes the generated distribution image to the digital signage 20a and the mobile terminal 20b as vacancy information.
For example, in this embodiment, if the determination unit 105 determines that the public toilet 310 is being used as a men's toilet, the total number of men's toilets is calculated as four and the total number of women's toilets is calculated as three.

As described above, according to this embodiment, even if the public toilets in the toilet facility can be set to be used for men or women depending on the time of day or day of the week, the attributes of the public toilets can be automatically detected and distributed. This allows building managers and general users to check the number of toilets available and their usage status by gender in the toilet facility in real time.

(Modification)
In the first embodiment, a method for setting the use of the shared toilet by providing a management key and determining the attribute of the shared toilet based on the detection result by the lock sensor has been described. However, the present invention is not limited to this method. For example, in FIG. 9, foldable partitions 900a and 900b are stored on both sides of the shared toilet 310. When the shared toilet 310 is used as a men's toilet, the partition 900b is placed along the dotted line, and when it is used as a women's toilet, the partition 900a is placed along the dotted line. Furthermore, in order to detect the setting of the partition, magnetic sensors 910a and 910b are installed on the wall side that comes into contact when the partition is placed. Each of the magnetic sensors 910a and 910 has a pair of magnets also installed on the partitions 900a and 900b side, and when the partition is closed, the magnet and the magnetic sensor come into contact. When each of the magnetic sensors 910a and 910 detects contact with a magnet, it transmits the detection result to the vacancy management server 10 via the GW 33.

The determination unit 105 of the vacancy management server 10 determines the attribute of the shared toilet 310 as "female" when only the detection result transmitted from the magnetic sensor 910a indicates contact with a magnet. On the other hand, when only the detection result transmitted from the magnetic sensor 910b indicates contact with a magnet, the determination unit 105 determines the attribute of the shared toilet 310 as "male." With this configuration, the same effect as in the first embodiment can be achieved.

9, another detection method may be to detect the open/closed state of the partition by installing a weight sensor on the floor portion that does not come into contact when the partition is stored and comes into contact only when the partition is closed. Alternatively, a distance sensor may be used so that the determination unit 105 determines which partition is closed according to the distance.

Other Embodiments
In the above embodiment, the case where there is only one shared toilet has been described as an example, but this is not limited thereto, and multiple shared toilets may be installed. In this case, a sensor for detecting the attribute is installed in the private room of each shared toilet, and the determination unit 105 determines the attribute for each shared toilet.

In addition, when detecting the occupancy status of each private room as in the above embodiment, the detection method is not limited to the method using the door opening/closing sensor, and any known detection method can be used. It goes without saying that the toilet facility may further include a multi-purpose toilet or the like.

Although the present invention has been described by showing specific examples according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention, it is apparent that various modifications and changes can be made to these examples without departing from the broad spirit and scope of the present invention as defined in the claims. In other words, the details of the examples and the accompanying drawings should not be construed as limiting the present invention.

Vacancy management server 10
Receiving unit 101
Update unit 102
Distribution unit 103
Vacancy management DB 104a
Determination unit 105

Claims (5)

An information processing device that manages information regarding a male toilet facility including a male toilet cubicle, a female toilet facility including a female toilet cubicle, and a shared toilet cubicle adjacent to both the male toilet facility and the female toilet facility,
A sensor is installed in each of the male toilet cubicles and the female toilet cubicles to determine whether or not the cubicles are being used, and a first sensor and a second sensor are installed in the public toilet cubicle to determine whether or not the cubicles are being used,
An acquisition means for acquiring detection results detected by each of the sensors;
and a determination means for determining vacancy information indicating vacancy status of the male toilet facility and the female toilet facility based on the detection result,
When the determination means regards the shared toilet cubicle as a toilet cubicle included in the men's toilet facility, the determination means distributes vacancy information determined based on the detection result by the sensor installed in the men's toilet cubicle and the detection result by the first sensor, and distributes vacancy information determined based on the detection result by the sensor installed in the women's toilet cubicle as vacancy information to the women's toilet facility;
When the shared toilet cubicle is regarded as a toilet cubicle included in the women's toilet facility, the information processing device distributes vacancy information determined based on the detection results by a sensor installed in the men's toilet cubicle as vacancy information of the men's toilet facility, and distributes vacancy information determined based on the detection results by a sensor installed in the women's toilet cubicle and the detection results by the second sensor as vacancy information of the women's toilet facility. A detection device is installed to detect whether the shared toilet cubicle is available as a men's toilet cubicle or a women's toilet cubicle,
The information processing device described in claim 1, characterized in that the determination means refers to either the detection result by the first sensor or the detection result by the second sensor as the usage status of the shared toilet cubicle depending on the result by the detection device. The information processing device according to claim 2, characterized in that the determining means distributes the vacancy information including the number of private rooms in the men's restroom facility and the number of private rooms in the women's restroom facility, and the number of private rooms in the men's restroom facility and the number of private rooms in the women's restroom facility change depending on the result of the detection device. A system for managing information on a male toilet facility including a male toilet cubicle, a female toilet facility including a female toilet cubicle, and a shared toilet cubicle adjacent to both the male toilet facility and the female toilet facility,
The shared toilet cubicle is locked to prevent entry from the women's toilet facility when used for men's use, and is locked to prevent entry from the men's toilet facility when used for women's use;
A sensor is installed in each of the male toilet cubicles and the female toilet cubicles to determine whether or not the cubicles are being used, and a first sensor and a second sensor are installed in each of the public toilet cubicles to determine whether or not the cubicles are being used,
an information processing device that derives availability information indicating availability of each of the male restroom facility and the female restroom facility based on the results detected by each of the sensors;
a display device that displays the availability information distributed from the information processing device,
When the information processing device regards the shared toilet cubicle as a toilet cubicle included in the men's toilet facility, it distributes vacancy information determined based on the detection result by the sensor installed in the men's toilet cubicle and the detection result by the first sensor, and distributes vacancy information determined based on the detection result by the sensor installed in the women's toilet cubicle as vacancy information to the women's toilet facility,
When the shared toilet cubicle is regarded as a toilet cubicle included in the women's toilet facility, the system distributes vacancy information determined based on the detection results by a sensor installed in the men's toilet cubicle as vacancy information for the men's toilet facility, and distributes vacancy information determined based on the detection results by a sensor installed in the women's toilet cubicle and the detection results by the second sensor as vacancy information for the women's toilet facility. An information processing method for managing information regarding a male toilet facility including a male toilet cubicle, a female toilet facility including a female toilet cubicle, and a shared toilet cubicle adjacent to both the male toilet facility and the female toilet facility, comprising:
Each of the male toilet cubicles and the female toilet cubicles is provided with one sensor for determining whether or not it is being used, and the public toilet cubicle is provided with a first sensor and a second sensor for determining whether or not it is being used,
an acquisition step of acquiring detection results detected by each of the sensors;
and determining vacancy information indicating availability of the male toilet facility and the female toilet facility based on the detection result,
In the determination step, when the shared toilet cubicle is regarded as a toilet cubicle included in the men's toilet facility, vacancy information determined based on a detection result by a sensor installed in the men's toilet cubicle and a detection result by the first sensor is delivered, and vacancy information determined based on a detection result by a sensor installed in the women's toilet cubicle is delivered to the women's toilet facility as vacancy information;
An information processing method characterized by the fact that, when the shared toilet cubicle is regarded as a toilet cubicle included in the women's toilet facility, vacancy information determined based on the detection results by a sensor installed in the men's toilet cubicle is distributed as vacancy information of the men's toilet facility, and vacancy information determined based on the detection results by a sensor installed in the women's toilet cubicle and the detection results by the second sensor is distributed as vacancy information of the women's toilet facility.