Abstract:
Disclosed are an electronic ticket storage apparatus and an electronic ticket checking system and method. The electronic ticket checking method comprises: associating in advance basic electronic ticket information with preset additional information of the electronic tickets; during a first checking, modifying the additional information of the electronic tickets according to the basic information of the electronic tickets; and during a second checking, performing checking of the electronic tickets by checking the modified additional information of the electronic tickets.

Description:
[0001]    This application claims the benefit of Chinese patent application No.201010242528.1, titled “ELECTRONIC TICKET STORAGE APPARATUS AND ELECTRONIC TICKET CHECKING SYSTEM AND METHOD THEREOF”, filed with the Chinese Patent Office on Aug. 2, 2010, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. 
       FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
       [0002]    The present application relates to an electronic ticket storage apparatus, an electronic ticket checking system and an electronic ticket checking method. 
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0003]    Generally, people have to present a paper ticket or an electronic ticket at movie theaters, sport events, commercial performances, or tourist attractions. Ticket checking is the practice of verifying the validity of a ticket held by a ticket holder, allowing those who with a valid ticket, and disallowing those with an invalid ticket and punishing them with certain measures. Conventional paper tickets cause paper waste and are subject to duplication or counterfeiting. Moreover, checking paper tickets requires a large amount of work, which may give rise to unchecked or false cases. 
         [0004]    Different types of electronic tickets have been proposed to solve the paper waste problem, improve ticket security, and eliminate ticket scalping. 
         [0005]    However, the inventors, during the development of the present invention, found that the prior art has at least the following disadvantage: 
         [0006]    The existing electronic tickets cannot flexibly meet special requirements incurred in the cases such as where tickets have to be checked at both the entrance and the exit, and where tickets have to be checked at each of the venues inside a tourist attraction. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0007]    The embodiments of the present invention provide an electronic ticket storage apparatus, an electronic ticket checking system and an electronic ticket checking method, to solve the problem in the prior art that the existing electronic tickets do not support flexible ticket checking. 
         [0008]    In one aspect, the present application discloses a ticket checking method for an electronic ticket, including:
       during initial ticket checking, modifying additional information of an electronic ticket according to basic information of the electronic ticket; and   during subsequent ticket checking of the electronic ticket, performing ticket checking on the electronic ticket by inspecting modified additional information of the electronic ticket.       
 
         [0011]    In another aspect, the present application discloses an electronic ticket checking system, including:
       an electronic ticket generation apparatus, adapted to generate an electronic ticket;   an electronic ticket storage apparatus, adapted to pre-store a plurality of pieces of additional information of electronic tickets, wherein basic information of the electronic tickets and the plurality of pieces of additional information of the electronic tickets are associated and stored in the electronic ticket storage apparatus; and   a plurality of ticket checking terminals at different ticket checking locations, wherein one ticket checking terminal of the plurality of ticket checking terminals acquires information of an electronic ticket and modifies the additional information of the electronic ticket according to the acquired information, so that the rest of the plurality of ticket checking terminals can perform ticket checking on the electronic ticket by inspecting the modified additional information of the electronic ticket.       
 
         [0015]    In yet another aspect, it is disclosed an electronic ticket storage apparatus, including:
       a first storage unit, adapted to store at least one piece of additional information of an electronic ticket; and   a second storage unit, adapted to store basic information of the electronic ticket,   wherein the at least one piece of the additional information of the electronic ticket is associated with the basic information of the electronic ticket, and includes data for indicating a scene where the electronic ticket can be used and an identifier bit for indicating whether the electronic ticket is an unused, new ticket.       
 
         [0019]    Moreover, the present application also discloses a method for generating an electronic ticket, including:
       generating basic information of an electronic ticket, the basic information including data for indicating a scene where the electronic ticket can be used; and   generating additional information of the electronic ticket, the additional information including: an identifier bit for indicating whether the electronic ticket is an unused, new ticket; and data for indicating a scene where the electronic ticket can be used,   wherein the additional information is associated with the basic information; during initial ticket checking, the identifier bit is used to determine the electronic ticket is an unused, new ticket, and the scene data in the basic information is used to determine the scene data in the additional information; and during subsequent ticket checking, the scene data in the additional information is inspected and modified so that usage of the electronic ticket is determined.       
 
         [0023]    According to the electronic ticket storage apparatus, the electronic ticket checking system and the electronic ticket checking method provided by the embodiments of the present invention, the basic information of an electronic ticket is associated with preset additional information of the electronic ticket; during initial ticket checking, ticket checking is performed according to the basic information and the additional information of the electronic ticket is modified; during each subsequent ticket checking, ticket checking is performed according to the modified additional information, which may include checking the ticket and modifying the additional information of the electronic ticket after the subsequent ticket checking. Therefore, the requirement of checking electronic tickets at multiple scenes is met, and electronic tickets now support flexible and multi-location ticket checking. Especially, in the case where tickets have to be checked at both the entrance and the exit, and where tickets have to be checked at each of the venues inside a tourist attraction, flexible support is achieved. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0024]      FIG. 1  illustrates an electronic ticket checking system according to an embodiment of the present application; 
           [0025]      FIG. 2  is a schematic diagram of associating electronic tickets with records of additional information of the tickets according to an embodiment of the present application; 
           [0026]      FIG. 3  is a flowchart of a ticket checking terminal performing a ticket checking transaction according to an embodiment of the present application; 
           [0027]      FIG. 4  illustrates a sub-step of step S 201  shown in  FIG. 3 ; 
           [0028]      FIG. 5  is a flowchart of a ticket checking terminal performing a ticket checking transaction according to another embodiment of the present application. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS 
       [0029]    Exemplary embodiments of the present application will be described hereinafter in detail in conjunction with the accompany drawings. 
         [0030]      FIG. 1  illustrates an electronic ticket checking system  1000  according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in  FIG. 1 , the system  1000  includes an electronic ticket generation apparatus  100 , a reader-writer  200 , an electronic ticket storage apparatus  300  and at least one ticket checking terminal  400 . In the interest of clarity,  FIG. 1  shows only one ticket checking terminal  400 . 
         [0031]    The electronic ticket generation apparatus  100  is adapted to write electronic ticket information into the electronic ticket storage apparatus  300  via the reader-writer  200 . Specifically, the reader-writer  200  submits a ticket writing request to the electronic ticket generation apparatus  100 ; the electronic ticket generation apparatus  100  writes an electronic ticket into the electronic ticket storage apparatus  300  via the reader-writer  200  after generating the electronic ticket according to the ticket writing request. The electronic ticket generated by the electronic ticket generation apparatus  100  may include inherent information of the electronic ticket, e.g., electronic ticket provider number, electronic ticket type, and time. Particularly, the generated electronic ticket may also include information for multiple times of ticket checking. The details of this will be omitted here, because it can be implemented with the prior art. 
         [0032]    For example, the electronic ticket storage apparatus  300  may be any of the various smart cards such as Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)-Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) cards, Single Wired Protocol (SWP)-SIM cards, and Integrated Circuit (IC) cards. The electronic ticket storage apparatus  300  may also be a contact or contactless (any operating frequency) smart card, or some other type of storage apparatus. Additional information of the electronic ticket is stored in the electronic ticket storage apparatus  300 . For example, the additional information may have a file format as show in Table 1. 
         [0000]    
       
         
               
               
             
               
               
               
             
               
               
               
               
               
             
           
               
                 TABLE 1 
               
               
                   
               
             
             
               
                 File Identifier (SFI) 
                 0x19 
               
               
                 File Type 
                 fixed-length record file 
               
               
                 File Size 
                 64 * 20 
               
             
          
           
               
                 File Access Control 
                 read = free 
                 rewrite = during ticket checking transaction 
               
               
                   
               
             
          
           
               
                 Record Number 
                 Byte(s) 
                 Data element 
                 Length 
                 Format 
               
               
                   
               
               
                 1-20 
                 1 
                 whether-allow-overwrite identifier &amp; 
                  1 
                 BCD 
               
               
                   
                   
                 New ticket-or-not information 
               
               
                   
                   
                 Note: 1. four higher-order bits represent 
               
               
                   
                   
                 whether or not overwriting is allowed 
               
               
                   
                   
                 (0x0 represents that overwriting is not 
               
               
                   
                   
                 allowed; 0x1 represents that overwriting 
               
               
                   
                   
                 is allowed, where overwriting means 
               
               
                   
                   
                 using the current record for a new ticket); 
               
               
                   
                   
                 2. four lower-order bits represent whether 
               
               
                   
                   
                 or not subsequent information is valid. 
               
               
                   
                 2-64 
                 ticket provider-defined data 
                 63 
                 VAR 
               
               
                   
               
             
          
         
       
     
         [0033]    The specific data values in Table 1 are exemplary. For example, the file identifier (SFI) may have a different value, the file type may be unfixed-length record file, or the record length may have a different value. 
         [0034]    “1-20” in the record number column in Table 1 indicates that this file can have 20 entries of records, each of which may have the content as shown in Table 2. 
         [0000]    
       
         
               
               
               
               
             
           
               
                 TABLE 2 
               
               
                   
               
               
                 Serial Number 
                 Overwrite 
                 Validity 
                 Ticket Provider-defined Data 
               
               
                   
               
             
             
               
                 1 
                 0 
                 0 
                 ticket information 
               
               
                 2 
                 0 
                 1 
                 ticket information 
               
               
                 . . . 
                 . . . 
                 . . . 
                 ticket information 
               
               
                 M 
                 1 
                 1 
                 ticket information 
               
               
                 . . . 
                 . . . 
                 . . . 
                 ticket information 
               
               
                 N 
                 1 
                 1 
                 ticket information 
               
               
                   
               
             
          
         
       
     
         [0035]    Every row in Table 2 represents an entry of record. The columns of “overwrite” and “validity” correspond to the first byte in Table 1. The field of “overwrite” is writable by a ticket checking terminal. For example, the ticket checking terminal  400  sets the whether-allow-overwrite identifier of an electronic ticket to be 1 when the use of the electronic ticket is finished. 
         [0036]    The field of “validity” will also be referred to as a “new ticket-or-not” identifier in the following description, which indicates whether or not an associated electronic ticket is a new ticket. For example, 0×0 may be set for representing a new ticket and 0×1 for an old one. When the value is 0×0, the ticket checking terminal does not parse the record. 
         [0037]    “Ticket provider-defined data” corresponds to the 2-64th bytes. The ticket provider-defined data may be defined according to various application scenarios, e.g., number of the ticket checking terminal  400 , or the time when ticket checking is performed. Moreover, the ticket provider-defined data also include data for recording at least one scene. As an example, in the case where a park has places of interest A and B, the ticket provider-defined data may include bytes for defining the places of interest A and B. For example, some four bits in the ticket provider-defined data may be used to define the place of interest A, and some other four bits may be used to define the place of interest B. When the four bits for defining the place of interest A is “0000”, it is indicated that the electronic ticket associated with the information can be used for the place of interest A; when the four bits for defining the place of interest A is “1111”, it is indicated that the electronic ticket associated with the information cannot be used for the place of interest A. The situations of the place of interest B are similar to those of the place of interest A. 
         [0038]    According to an embodiment, basic information of an electronic ticket and additional information of the electronic ticket are stored in a first storage unit and a second storage unit in the electronic ticket storage apparatus  300 , respectively. When the electronic ticket storage apparatus  300  stores an electronic ticket generated by the electronic ticket generation apparatus  100 , it searches for a record to be associated with the generated electronic ticket in an electronic ticket additional information record file stored in the electronic ticket storage apparatus  300 . As shown in  FIG. 2  where an electronic ticket T is taken as an example, the electronic ticket storage apparatus  300  searches (e.g., from the record with serial number  1 , or according to a predetermined rule) for a first entry of record allowed to be overwritten (e.g., the record with serial number M in  FIG. 2 ), establishes an association between the electronic ticket T and the record, and sets the “validity” identifier in the electronic ticket additional information record file to be 1 (hence subsequent information is invalid and the ticket checking terminal needs not to parse the “ticket provider-defined data”). For example, in an embodiment, the serial number of the associated record, e.g., M, may be stored in the storage space of the electronic ticket T, and the “validity” identifier of the record with record number M in the electronic ticket additional information record file is set to be “1”. Optionally, the content of ticket information in the record is set to be null. If there is no record allowed to be overwritten in the electronic ticket additional information record file, failure information of “Ticket Storage Space Full” is returned and the ticket writing operation fails. 
         [0039]    After storing the electronic ticket, the electronic ticket storage apparatus  300  returns a ticket writing success response to the electronic ticket generation apparatus  100  via the reader-writer  200 . In another embodiment, the electronic ticket generation apparatus  100  and the electronic ticket storage apparatus  300  may have direct communication. In this case, the reader-writer  200  is omitted. For example, the reader-writer  200  can be omitted when mobile phone short messages are used for ticket writing. 
         [0040]    For example, the at least one ticket checking terminal  400  may be a contact or contactless (any operating frequency) ticketing terminal, and may be positioned at the same ticket checking location or different ticket checking locations. The electronic ticket generation apparatus  100 , the reader-writer  200 , the electronic ticket storage apparatus  300  and the ticket checking terminal  400  may communicate with one another in a wired/contact or wireless/contactless manner. 
         [0041]    During initial ticket checking, e.g., at the entrance of a park, a ticket checking apparatus  400  at the park entrance reads additional information of an electronic ticket and determines whether the electronic ticket is an unused, new ticket according to the “validity” identifier in the additional information of the electronic ticket. If it is determined that the electronic ticket is an unused, new ticket, the ticket checking apparatus  400  stops parsing the “ticket provider-defined data” in the additional information of the electronic ticket and modifies the “validity” identifier (i.e., new ticket-or-not identifier) into information indicating that the ticket is not a new ticket, e.g., 0. When a ticket checking apparatus  400  at some other place of interest, e.g., the place of interest A, performs ticket checking on the electronic ticket, the ticket checking apparatus  400  reads the “validity” identifier, and determines that it needs to parse or modify the ticket provider-defined data. Therefore, the ticket checking apparatus learns from the electronic ticket that the ticket allows a visit to the place of interest A, and learns according to the ticket provider-defined data in the additional information of the ticket that the ticket holder has entered the park but has not visited the place of interest A. Then, the ticket holder is allowed to visit the place of interest A; and the ticket checking apparatus modifies, during ticket checking, the ticket provider-defined data by setting a bit for representing whether the place of interest A has been visited to be 1 and maintaining the rest of the information, and writes these back into the storage apparatus  300 . 
         [0042]    Alternatively, when the ticket checking apparatus  400  at the park entrance determines that the electronic ticket is an unused, new ticket, it acquires, from the electronic ticket, data of a scene where the ticket can be used, and instructs the electronic storage apparatus  300  to include corresponding data to the additional information of the electronic ticket. For example, if the electronic ticket can be used for visiting the place of interest A inside the park in addition to entering the park, the ticket checking apparatus at the park entrance modifies an identifier for the place of interest A in the additional information of the electronic ticket into 1, i.e., valid. When a ticket checking terminal, e.g., at the place of interest A, performs ticket checking on the electronic ticket, it determines according to the identifier for the place of interest A in the additional information of the electronic ticket that the electronic ticket can be used for the place of interest A, i.e., ticket checking is passed, and then modifies the identifier for the place of interest A into “invalid”. 
         [0043]    The procedure of a ticket checking terminal performing a ticket checking transaction according to an embodiment of the present application is described below in conjunction with  FIG. 3 . 
         [0044]    In step S 201 , a ticket checking terminal  400  acquires information of an electronic ticket and instructs, according the acquired information, an electronic ticket storage apparatus  300  to modify additional information of the electronic ticket. Specifically, when a ticket checking terminal at a first ticket checking location (e.g., the park entrance) determines according to additional information of an electronic ticket stored in the electronic ticket storage apparatus  300  that the electronic ticket is an unused, new ticket, it learns by acquiring basic information of the electronic ticket that the electronic ticket can be used for the places of interest A and B. Then, the ticket checking terminal sets bits for defining the places of interest A and B in the “ticket provider-defined data” in the additional information of the electronic ticket to be 0s, and sets the “new ticket-or-not” identifier to be 0. Detailed processing in step S 201  is further described with reference to  FIG. 4 . 
         [0045]    In step S 2011 , for example, the ticket checking terminal at the park entrance sends to the electronic ticket storage apparatus an instruction including at least an electronic ticket provider number. The instruction may be, e.g., a conventional INITIALIZE FOR CHECK command. In step  2012 , the electronic ticket storage apparatus  300  searches according to the electronic ticket provider number for an electronic ticket that matches the electronic ticket provider number, and in Step  2013 , determines according to information of the matching electronic ticket additional information of the electronic ticket associated with the electronic ticket. 
         [0046]    In step S 2014 , the ticket checking terminal determines according to the “new ticket-or-not” identifier in the determined additional information of the electronic ticket that the electronic ticket is an unused, new ticket. In step S 2015 , the ticket checking terminal acquires, according to basic information of the electronic ticket, data of a scene where the electronic ticket can be used. Then, in step S 2016 , the ticket checking terminal modifies correspondingly the additional information of the electronic ticket according to the acquired scene data, e.g., by setting the identifiers for representing whether the places of interest A and B have been visited in the additional information of the electronic ticket to be 0, setting an identifier for representing the ticket holder has entered the park to be 0, and setting the new ticket-or-not identifier to be 0, and writes these back into the electronic storage apparatus  300 . 
         [0047]    In step S 202 , during each subsequent ticket checking, the ticket checking terminal performs ticket checking on the electronic ticket according to the modified additional information of the electronic ticket, which includes checking the ticket according to the additional information of the electronic ticket and modifying the additional information of the electronic ticket. Specifically, during ticket checking by a ticket checking terminal at the place of interest A, when the ticket checking terminal determines that the “new ticket-or-not” identifier in the additional information associated with the electronic ticket is 0, the ticket checking terminal learns from the basic information of the electronic ticket that the ticket allows a visit to the place of interest A. The ticket checking terminal also learns from the “ticket provider-defined data” in the additional information of the ticket that the ticket holder has entered the park and has not visited the place of interest A. Then, the ticket holder is allowed to visit the place of interest A; and the ticket checking apparatus, during ticket checking, sets the identifier for representing whether the place of interest A has been visited to be 1 and maintains the rest of the information, and writes these back into the storage apparatus  300 . 
         [0048]    The procedure of a ticket checking terminal performing a ticket checking transaction according to another embodiment of the present application is described below in conjunction with  FIG. 5 . 
         [0049]    In step S 301 , a ticket checking terminal  400  sends to an electronic ticket storage apparatus  300  an instruction for instructing the electronic ticket storage apparatus  300  to perform an initialization operation. For example, according to an embodiment, the initialization instruction sent by the ticket checking terminal  400  to the electronic ticket storage apparatus  300  may be an INITIALIZE FOR CHECK command complying with the International Organization for Standardization (ISO)/International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) 7816-4 data format, and may include an electronic ticket provider number. The INITIALIZE FOR CHECK command is part of the prior art and the details of it will be omitted here. 
         [0050]    In step S 302 , the electronic ticket storage apparatus  300  searches according to the electronic ticket provider number included in the received initialization instruction for a matching electronic ticket in its electronic ticket storage space. If it finds no matching item, then in step S 303 , the electronic ticket storage apparatus  300  returns fault information to the ticket checking terminal  400 . If it finds a matching item, then step S 303 , the electronic ticket storage apparatus  300  returns information of the matching electronic ticket to the ticket checking terminal  400 , e.g., serial number of the electronic ticket and record number M of the associated information of the electronic ticket that matches the serial number. In an embodiment, the information returned to the ticket checking terminal  400  in step S 303  may also include information for security verification of the electronic ticket, e.g., some other electronic ticket information tag, electronic ticket information length, electronic ticket information (Tag-Length-Value (TLV) format), etc. 
         [0051]    In step S 304 , the ticket checking terminal  400  acquires the associated record number M of the matching electronic ticket returned by the electronic ticket storage apparatus  300 . In step S 305 , the ticket checking terminal  400  sends a read-record instruction (e.g., READ RECORD) to the electronic ticket storage apparatus  300 , for reading a record with the associated record number M in an electronic ticket additional information record file. 
         [0052]    In step S 306 , the electronic ticket storage apparatus  300  searches according to the READ RECORD instruction for the record with the record number M in the electronic ticket additional information record file, and in step S 307 , returns the contents of the fields of “validity” and “ticket additional information” in the record to the ticket checking terminal  400 . Optionally, the ticket checking terminal  400  may read the contents of the fields of “validity” and “ticket additional information” directly from the electronic ticket storage apparatus  300 . 
         [0053]    Then, in step S 308 , the ticket checking terminal  400  determines whether the additional information of the electronic ticket T is valid according to the content of the field “validity” (“new ticket-or-not”), and if it is invalid, the ticket checking terminal  400  needs not to parse the content of the additional information. If it is determined that the additional information of the electronic ticket T is valid, then the additional information of the electronic ticket is processed and new additional information to be written is formed. For example, the ticket checking terminal learns from the basic information of the ticket that the ticket allows a visit to the place of interest A and learns from the fields of “validity” and “ticket provider-defined data” that the ticket holder has entered the park but has not visited the place of interest A. Then, the ticket holder is allowed to visit the place of interest A; and the ticket checking terminal prepares to set, during ticket checking, the identifier for representing whether the place of interest A has been visited to be 1 (this will be described later). Optionally, the ticket checking terminal  400  may firstly verify the information of the electronic ticket for security verification, and process the additional information of the electronic ticket when the verification is passed. The security verification of electronic tickets can be implemented with the prior art, and thus the details of it will be omitted here. 
         [0054]    Then, in step S 309 , a data instruction for updating the additional information of the electronic ticket is sent to the electronic ticket storage apparatus  300 . The electronic ticket storage apparatus  300  rewrites or updates the record with the associated number, e.g., M, in the ticket additional information file according to the received data instruction. This is described in detail below with steps S 310 -S 316 . 
         [0055]    In step S 310 , if the received updating instruction includes SFI information, the electronic ticket storage apparatus  300  checks whether in the current selected application exists a file that has the same Short File Identifier (SFI) value as that indicated in the instruction, checks whether in the ticket additional information dedicated file exists a record according to its record number indicated in the instruction, checks whether the data field length indicated in the instruction is longer than the length of the corresponding record in the ticket additional information dedicated file, and returns in step S 311  response information to the ticket checking terminal according to the result of the checks. Specifically, if the result of the checks in step S 310  is that there is no file having the same SFI value as that indicated in the instruction, i.e., the received SFI is wrong, then a massage representing “failure to find the file” is returned without other data in step  311 ; if the result of the checks in step S 310  is that there is no such record in the ticket additional information dedicated file, then a massage with the status code “failure to find the record” is returned without other data in step  311 ; if the result of the checks in step S 310  is that the data field length indicated in the updating instruction is longer than the length of the corresponding record in the ticket additional information dedicated file, a massage with the status code “not enough storage space in the file” is returned without other data in step  311   
         [0056]    In step S 312 , the ticket checking terminal  400  performs determination according to the response information, and prompts the user and ends the procedure in case of fault. 
         [0057]    In step S 313 , the ticket checking terminal  400  sends to the electronic ticket storage apparatus  300  a rewriting instruction for rewriting the corresponding record in the ticket additional information dedicated file. Then, in step S 314 , in response to the rewriting instruction received in step S 313 , data in the corresponding record in the ticket additional information dedicated file are updated using temporarily-stored information from step S 310 . In an embodiment, the electronic ticket storage apparatus  300  may firstly perform security verification on the information of the electronic ticket, and when the verification is passed, update the data in the corresponding record in the ticket additional information dedicated file using the temporarily-stored information from step S 310 . In step  315 , the electronic ticket storage apparatus  300  returns to the ticket checking terminal  400  response information including the serial number of the electronic ticket and security verification information. In step S 316 , the ticket checking terminal  400  stores the serial number of the electronic ticket and the security verification information according to the returned response information. It is noted that those skilled in the art shall understand that step S 315  and step S 316  are optional. 
         [0058]    Explanatory embodiments of the present application are described above. According to these embodiments, various modifications can be made to the embodiments by those skilled in the art without deviation from the scope defined by the attached claims.