Traffic Control System for Drive-in Banks

1. Field of the Invention

This invention relates in general to electronic control systems for controlling the movement of traffic in a drive-in bank so that the vehicles will be processed in the order of arrival at the bank.

2. Description of the Prior Art

Prior art U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,588,808, 3,206,722, 3,886,414 and 4,010,404 disclose traffic control systems for drive-in banks which operate using stepping switches to control and direct the flow of traffic from the waiting line or lines to one or more teller positions.

The present invention relates to an improved microprocessor controlled traffic control system which controls one or multiple lanes of cars as they arrive at the bank and can sense the presence of cars and then direct them to open teller positions in the order of which they arrive in the multiple lanes, thus, if the first went to the second, it would be dispatched before cars later arriving in any other lanes.

The present invention also provides for a print-out which provides management information which is accumulated automatically and which gives information such as time open to each station, time with customers, the number of customers, the average time per customer and the percentage time busy for each of the tellers.

A detector at each station and at each lane sign senses the presence of cars and feeds into the computer system. A supervisor monitoring panel is provided such that a supervisor can monitor the flow and activities of the tellers from a central location.

The present invention allows the addition of additional lanes and/or additional tellers by simply adding wiring which is in a serial link and one cable from the processor feeds through each teller station and a large number of teller stations can be simply and easily added by merely adding modular wiring to the existing system for each teller station as, for example, up to twenty-four teller stations. Also, the automobile dispatching lane controls are wired such that additional lanes can be provided and neither adding stations or dispatchers requires wiring at the central station since such wires are merely added on for each additional station and dispatcher.

The present invention provides for adjustable times for various functions, as for example, if a dispatcher station instructs a car to go to teller station 3 and the car instead goes to teller station 2, then in the present invention a new call to an additional car to go to teller station 3 occurs after a switch adjustable time which might be 30 or 45 seconds.

The invention also provides a second adjustable timer which can adjust the time in a situation where if a car was told to go to station 3 and he went to station 2 which is busy, then there would be a time delay before a new call is placed for another car at station 2 after it becomes available. A third adjustable timer controls the situation where with multiple lanes if a car stalls the prior art systems kept telling the stalled car to advance to a teller station. In the present invention, after an adjustable time delay, if the car in the lane is advised to go to a teller station and cannot respond due to being stalled or some similar reason then the message will go to the next arriving car in another lane. A fourth adjustable timer operates for multiple lane systems such that display times between displays is controlled so that cars do cross paths at the same time. The teller stations have an illuminated lane number which flashes if the car is directed to it and which stops flashing when the car arrives. The lane number automatically turns on when the teller presses her station on switch.

Other objects, features and advantages of the invention will be readily apparent from the following description of certain preferred embodiments thereof taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings although variations and modifications may be effected without departing from the spirit and scope of the novel concepts of the disclosure and in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the vehicle control system for a drive-in bank;

FIG. 2 is a sign for controlling the vehicles waiting in one or more lines to the teller stations;

FIG. 3 is a supervisor control unit;

FIG. 4 is a teller control unit;

FIG. 5 is a printer used in the system;

FIG. 6 is a keyboard used in the system;

FIG. 7 is a general block diagram of the traffic control system of the invention;

FIGS. 8A through 8I comprise an electrical schematic of the invention; and

FIG. 8 is a map illustrating how FIGS. 8A through 8I fit together.

FIG. 1 illustrates a traffic control system for a drive-in bank wherein the bank 10 is provided with a number of drive-in stations 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15 wherein cars may be directed so that the occupants can transact banking business with the bank 10. One or more waiting lanes 16 and 17 are provided from which the cars are directed to open teller car stations 11 through 15 by teller director means 29 and 31. A number of teller stations 18, 19, 20, 21 and 22 are provided. Each teller station is associated with one of the teller car stalls 11 through 15 and each teller has a control unit 23 such as illustrated in FIG. 4 which has a page button 24, a cancel button 25, a call button 26 and an ON button 27 as well as an indicator light 28. A microprocessor unit 36 is mounted in the bank 10 and is connected to the various elements of the invention as well as to a printer 33 illustrated in FIG. 5 and a supervisory station 32 illustrated in FIG. 3, a keyboard 34 illustrated in FIG. 6 as well as to the director units 29 and 31. Above each of the teller lanes 11 through 15 are indicator signs 64 through 68 which are also connected in the system.

FIG. 7 is a general block diagram of the system and illustrates the microprocessor unit 36 connected to the keyboard 34 as well as to the supervisor's panel 32 and to the indicator lights 64 through 68 through a flasher 63. The teller control unit such as 23 (a-e) are connected to the microprocessor 36 and are each provided with a detector 51 and a loop 52 for detecting vehicles in the detector lanes 11 through 15. For example, the detector 53 and loop 54 are connected to teller control units 23b, the detector 55 and the loop 56 are connected to the teller control unit 23c, the detector 57 and the loop 58 are connected to the teller control unit 23d and the teller control unit 23e is connected to a detector 59 and a loop 60. Indicator signs such as the indicator signs 29 and 31 as well as additional indicator signs 41 and 42 for additional lanes are connected to the microprocessor 36 through a junction box 62 and each have detectors 43a and detector loops 43 which sense the presence of vehicles in the respective waiting lanes. The sign 31 has a detector 44a and a detector loop 44, the sign 41 has a detector 45a and a detector loop 45, the sign 42 has a detector 46a and a detector loop 46, for example.

FIGS. 8A through 8I comprise the electrical schematic of the invention and FIG. 8 illustrates how the FIGS. 8A through 8I fit together.

A microprocessor 36 which might be a type 6502 receives input from a clock source 90 which includes a crystal and two type 74L 500's which supplies an input on lead 93 through two type 74LS74s. The microprocessor 36 is connected by address bus 70, data bus 71, control bus 78 to the elements illustrated on FIG. 8B which includes a pair of 74LS138s designated by numerals 72 and 73 and three type 2716/2532s designated 74, 75 and 76 as well as a type 4016/6116 designated 77. A reset lead 95 is connected to the control bus 78 from transistor Q1 which might be a type 2N 4401 which receives an input from a type 555 designated 94 which receives an input 8 from an external reset control. FIG. 8B is connected to FIG. 8C which comprises an input/output element and the buses 70, 79, 71 and 78 are connected to three type 6522s designated by numerals 96, 97 and 98, as well as to output connectors 7, 109, 110 and 111. Output connector 7 is connected to the switches 101 through 108 illustrated in FIG. 8D and to a type 74154 designated by numeral 100. A five pin molex 171 also is connected to the switches. The switches 101 through 108 each have a plurality of switches such as switches 107a which can be manually set to establish different timings in the invention for varying the delay times of certain functions such as described in the operation of the invention.

The output ports 109 and 110 from FIG. 8C are connected to FIG. 8E as illustrated and port 109 is connected through a number of type 4050s to an output terminal 130 which is connected to the supervisor control terminal 32 as well as to flasher unit 63 and indicator lights 64 through 68 which are above the teller lane stations 11 through 15. Port 109 is also connected to a teller control output terminal 131 through a type 4015 designated by numeral 126 and a type 4049 127 and to gates 126 and 127. An output terminal 132 controls the dispatcher unit 29 and receives input from input terminal 110 through a type 4015 128 and three type 4049s, 129, 130 and 131 as shown. As shown in FIGS. 8E and 8F, certain leads 113 from port 110 connect to a keyboard input terminal 112 which is connected to the keyboard 34. Lead 114 from port 110 connects to a type 4015, 121 which is connected to keyboard port 112 and to a type 4015, 122 which receives the output of a type 4040, 123. A type 4049, 125 is connected between the element 122 and 123 as shown. A five pin molex connector 173 is connected by cable 170 to connector 172 in FIG. 8D and through a type 4N2B to element 123. Port 3, 111 from FIG. 8C is connected to an output port 116 for the printer 33 and also supplies an output through gates 230 and 231 which may be type 4050s and a gate 232 which may be a type 4049 to cable 251 which is connected to output terminal 132 illustrated in FIG. 8E and which supplies connection to the automobile guiding sign 29 at the line of waiting vehicles. As is illustrated in FIG. 8G, the teller control stations 23 have an input terminal 131 which is connected to the terminal 131 illustrated in FIG. 8E which are connected through a number of gates 132 through 137 which might be type 4050s to an output connector 138 through gates 139 through 145 which may be type 4040s. A particular teller station 23 is connected by a cable 271 to the gates 132 through 137 and to the input terminal 131 and the teller control has a number of switches such as open switch 150, a manual switch 151, a paging switch 241, a cancel switch 25, an auto switch 151 and to a type 4021B designated by numeral 148 which is connected to a portion of the cable 271. A detector 51 which detects the presence of a car at the teller station associated with the particular teller control 23 supplies an input to the switches as shown. A transistor Q2 is connected to a transistor Q3 through an LED and is connected to the cable 271 as shown.

It is to be realized that additional teller control stations can be connected by merely connecting an identical teller control into the output terminal 138 for the next teller control and so on as many as desired, so only the wiring illustrated in FIG. 8G is required for each teller control station and the central wiring of the computer need not be changed for adding additional stations.

FIGS. 8H and 8I illustrate how the automobile guidance sign 29 at the waiting lane of vehicles are controlled. The output terminal 132 from FIG. 8E is connected to input terminals 132 and 132A which are connected through a plurality of gates 301 through 306 to an output terminal 160. Circuits identical to those illustrated in FIGS. 8H and 8I may be connected to the system to control additional signs as desired without changing the central microprocessing circuitry. A vehicle detector 43a is connected through a gate 167 which might be a type 4011 to a type 4035B designated by numeral 166 and which is connected by gates 301 and 302 which may be type 4050s and gate 303 to terminal 132. The detector 43a might be, for example, a six foot magnetic loop detector for detecting the presence of vehicles. A pair of diodes are connected from terminal 132a to lead 213 and a lead 212 is connected to terminal 132a. A triac which might be a type C1068 is connected to terminal 132a. Gates 304 and 300 are connected to terminal 132 and gate 300 is connected through gates 161 and 162 which might be type 4011s to gates 163 and 164 which may be type 4049 to a type 54164 designated by numeral 165. The output of element 165 is connected by cable 201 to a 544B, 203 and to a 54185, 202 and to a 54138, 205. The output of element 203 is connected to a least significant digit output terminal 401 which is connected to the automobile control sign 29. The element 204 is connected to the most significant digit terminal 402 which is connected to the sign 29. A type 54138, 205 is connected through strap connectors to a pair of gates 208 and 209 which may be type 4050s which are respectively connected to transistors which may be type 2N4401. A gate 206 which may be type 5400 is connected to lead 309 and to a gate 207 which may be a type 5400 which supplies outputs to a gate 220 which may be a type 5400. A gate 221 is connected to a gate 222 with gates 221 and 222 being type 4049s and gate 222 is connected to a type 555 designated by numeral 210 which is connected to leads 307 and 308, from FIG. 8H.

Leads 212 and 213 from FIG. 8H are connected to gate 221 and to a type 7805, 211 as illustrated.

In operation, when the system is energized the auto guiding signs 29 and 31 for the line of vehicles 16 and 17 direct the vehicles in the order which they have arrived to the teller lanes 11 through 15 on either a call sign from individual tellers or in an automatic mode automatically. The detectors detect the presence of the cars, 43a for example, for one of the lanes 16 or 17 supplies input to the computer which calls the cars up in the order which they have arrived. For example, the sign 29 through the microprocessor signals the sign 29 to direct the waiting customer to the first available teller station. If all teller stations have customers present it will read "Stop, Wait Here". When a station becomes available the sign will instruct the waiting customer to "Drive to Teller Number--". It will also sound a buzzer to alert the customer that the message is changing.

The tellers can also control the drive-in traffic at all times. Waiting customers are signalled to drive to the teller station when the teller presses the "call" button on the teller control unit. If two or more "calls" are placed at the same time, the microprocessor stores them in order of placement. When a transaction is near completion, the teller can "call" another customer to keep traffic moving without delay. To close the station the teller merely presses a button on the teller control unit.

With systems having a plurality of approach lanes such as 16 and 17 illustrated in FIG. 1 a dispatching sign is placed at the head of each waiting lane and the car that has been waiting the longest at the head of the one of the lanes is directed to the first available teller station. To prevent confusion and accident hazzards, the invention, automatically directs only one car at a time to proceed to an available teller station.

The printer 33 can print out a record for management information such as follows:

so that a continuous monitoring of the activity at the bank and the various teller stations is provided. This provides, for example, the number of customers served, the average time spent per customer, the percentage of time busy with customers and the printer information assist in arranging teller staffing to meet customer traffic patterns, monitoring and supervising teller activity and evaluating individual teller efficiency. The supervisors desk panel control unit 32 illuminates lane numbers of each open teller station and displays which stations have a customer and indicates when customers are at the dispatching sign and combines both visual and audible paging for quick responses to tellers needing assistance.

Attached is the program for the computer.

Autoguide software is a sequencer type software design which directs the flow of software to all of the submodules. Each submodule performs a specific task, but may perform multiple tasks pertaining to the one specific task. The software contains full floating point match subroutines which are called by various submodules.

There are two levels of interrupts; a 1 sec. interrupt for time keeping and the 2nd level interrupt for keyboard entry of printer functions. When an interrupt is generated, vectoring is done through the IRQ vector to "INT". Testing is first done to see if Port 2 was the calling interrupt. If it is not, control is returned to the program. If any keystroke is determined to be the cause of the interrupt, a flag in ram is set and control is returned to the main program. If no keyboard closure was detected it is assumed to be the 1 sec. clock and a flag is set.

The sequencer consists of nine calls to submodules. It is constructed for ease of adding additional routines. They are as follows:

SHET Shifts in teller data and double checks for correct information. Data is stored in ram as 1 byte (8 bits) per teller. Each individual bit pertains to an individual switch of function.

PROT Process teller data. Examines each bit of teller information and stores data in a different section of ram. Software FIFO for tellers is in this section. Customer counting is also done here.

TOUT Output data to Supervisors panel and "call" bit back to Tellers panel.

SHIS Shift in sign data. Data is stored in ram as to whether a car is present or not

PROS Process sign data. See whether a car is present or not. Sign FIFO is done here.

STACHK Stack check. This routine checks for any cancelled calls and reorganizes FIFO's.

SOUT Sign output. Checks to see if sign is outputting, and changes messages if necessary.

TIMU Time update. Checks 1 sec. timer flag and updates timers if necessary.

PRCHK Printer check. Checks printer flags and output 1 line to printer. As each teller data is to be printed, it is calculated at this time using math routines.

Although the invention has been described with respect to a drive-in teller control it could also be used in other application such as system for directing to tellers inside the bank lobby, other application in the Post Office, airline terminals, or wherever customers are qued into a single file line.

Although the invention has been described with respect to preferred embodiments, it is not to be so limited as changes and modifications can be made which are within the full intended scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims. ##SPC1##