Computer graphics processing and selective visual display system – Plural display systems – Tiling or modular adjacent displays
Reexamination Certificate
1996-05-15
2001-06-19
Nguyen, Chanh (Department: 2675)
Computer graphics processing and selective visual display system
Plural display systems
Tiling or modular adjacent displays
Reexamination Certificate
active
06249263
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates generally to an article information-display system (which can include two-way communication) for use in facilities having a multitude of different articles. The system displays information for the individual articles and the displays can be updated from a central location. Where the facility is a store, for example, the invention is useful for displaying the price and name of each product on electronic display tags adjacent the respective products.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
There have been a number of proposals to automate retail price displays by the use of electronic price tags. To the extent such systems replace printed price tags, these systems are appealing to store owners because they reduce or eliminate the need to reprint and replace item price tags each time the price of an item is changed. This benefits the retailer by reducing or eliminating: the labor required to replace the price tags; the possibility of human error in replacing the price tags; the time lag involved in changing prices; and the difficulty in changing a large number of prices at once. Perhaps most importantly, such systems have the ability to overcome price discrepancies between the tag and the checkout scanners.
Problems have been encountered, however, in providing the requisite information and power to the electronic tags at a reasonable cost. Also, some systems still require printed product description labels on the tags to supplement the electronic tags and thus do not eliminate the problems they were intended to solve. In systems in which the electronic tags are hard wired, installation and removal of the electronic tags is expensive and impractical. Systems which use exposed wires and connectors are undesirable because they reduce the system's reliability and subject the system to damage from electrostatic discharges, spillage and surface oxides. Other systems lack the ability to verify the accuracy of the displays and the proper functioning of the electronic tags while the system is in operation.
A number of wireless display systems have been proposed which rely on infrared, acoustic, or radio frequency broadcast for transmission of product information to the display tags. These wireless tags require a battery for powering each tag. Adding a battery to the tag increases the cost of each tag and can make the overall system unaffordable for many applications. Moreover, since a single retail establishment often contains as many as 20,000 to 50,000 display tags, replacement of the batteries and reprogramming such a large number of tags is time-consuming and costly. The radiated signals can also be shielded, for example, by steel freezer cases, causing communication “dead spots” in a store. Moreover, disposing of batteries has an adverse environmental impact. If there are just 50,000 installations with 20,000 tags each, that is a billion batteries that have to be disposed of on a routine basis, and the labor involved in replacing the batteries and reprogramming at each battery change is costly as well. Effective use of such systems requires a battery management system so that the batteries can be replaced before failure, or before the quality of the tag's display diminishes to an unacceptable level. Further, because the tags in a wireless system generally do not communicate problems to the computer, the tags have to be visually monitored to identify problems such as bad or faint tags.
Another problem in most previously proposed electronic display tag systems is that the tags have been relatively thick, causing them to protrude from the shelf rails on which they are mounted. Protruding tags are subject to damage by shopping carts, and they can impede the movement of store customers within the aisles. Further the protrusion of the tags into the aisle invites tampering and can result in theft of the electronic tags.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is a primary object of the present invention to provide an improved electronic display tag system in which the tags require neither batteries nor direct electrical contacts, as a result of which the tags can be economically produced and maintained with a high degree of reliability.
It is another object of this invention to provide an improved electronic display tag system which is extremely energy-efficient and which can be sustained during prolonged power outages without the use of batteries in the tags, so that there is no need to re-initialize the system after a power outage.
Another important object of this invention is to provide an improved electronic display tag system in which each tag is a sealed unit so that it cannot be damaged by the spillage of products stored adjacent the tags, and so that there are no exposed electrical contacts subject to corrosion or ESD.
A further object of this invention is to provide an improved electronic display tag system which provides two-way communication between the display tags and the controller or controllers for the tags. A related object is to provide such an improved electronic display tag system which permits continual verification of the accuracy of the displays and the proper functioning of the various display tags.
Yet another object of this invention is to provide an improved electronic display tag system which does not rely on radio frequency (RF) signals or infrared signals and thus is not susceptible to problems from blockage or shielding of such signals or interference from other equipment using similar frequencies.
A still further object of the invention is to provide an improved electronic display tag system which permits the display tags to be located at any desired position along the lengths of the shelves on which the products are located.
Another object of this invention is to provide an improved electronic display tag system which does not produce radiation emission problems.
Still another object of this invention is to provide an improved electronic display tag system which can be easily and efficiently initialized.
It is also an object of this invention to provide an improved electronic display tag system which deters tampering and reduces the possibility of damage by recessing the tags and concealing most other functional elements.
A further important object of this invention is to provide an improved electronic display tag system which permits the display of a variety of different types of product information such as prices, product descriptions, unit prices, multilingual information and the like.
Another object is to provide an improved electronic display tag system which is extremely reliable and has a relatively small number of parts so as to provide a high MTBF (Mean Time Between Failure).
A further object is to provide an improved electronic display tag system which does not involve any significant waste disposal problems.
Other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following detailed description and the accompanying drawings.
In accordance with the present invention, the foregoing objectives are realized by providing an electronic display tag system which includes a multiplicity of electronic display tags, an electrical power supply for supplying a-c. power for the multiplicity of the display tags, a controller circuit for providing information signals for the multiplicity of the display tags, a modulator receiving the power signal and the information signals for modulating the power signal with the information signals, at least one electrical conductor connected to the modulator and passing in close proximity to a plurality of the electronic display tags for carrying the modulated power signal to the display tags, a pick-up coil within each display tag and electromagnetically coupled to the conductor for receiving the modulated power signal, a demodulator within each display tag for demodulating the modulated power signal, and a display circuit within each display tag for generating a display in response to the information signals derived from the demodulated signal.
In a preferred embodiment,
Frederick W. Richard
Kayser Kenneth W.
Display Edge Technology Ltd.
Nguyen Chanh
Thompson Hine & Flory LLP
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