PUBLIC TERMINAL EQUIPMENT

• Main Authors: KODERA NOBUHIRO, YOSHIKAWA SHOJI, ONAMI SAIZOU
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 27.02.1992
• Subjects: ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE; ELECTRICITY; PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION; TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION

PURPOSE:To expedite the promotion of the spread and utility of the videotex by devising the terminal equipment such that a pre-paid card is employed to receive the information service of the paid screen information. CONSTITUTION:A card processing section 105 accepts a card with a monetary value recorded thereon to read its monetary value and updates and records the monetary value onto the card at its return. Then a CPU 101 compares the monetary value read out of the card by the card processing section 105 with the monetary amount of paid information from an information center received through a telephone line and displays the paid information onto a display section 11 only when the monetary value read out of the card is larger than or equal to the monetary amount of paid information. That is, the public terminal equipment of the videotex utilizes the pre-paid card so as to allow the public terminal equipment to utilize not only free information but also the paid information. Thus, the system can expedite the promotion of the spread and utility of the Videotex.