The present invention relates to electronic price label (EPL) systems, and in
particular to an electronic price label having a promotional indicator light.
EPL systems typically include a plurality of EPLs, each associated with a
particular product on display in large retail establishments such as supermarkets or
department stores. The EPLs are typically attached to a rail along the leading edge
of a shelf on which items of the associated product are stored and display the price
of the product item by means of a semi-transparent liquid crystal display (LCD). In
large retail establishments, thousands of individual EPLs may be used in order to
display the prices of all products which are available for purchase within the store.
Each EPL within a retail establishment is typically coupled to a central EPL
computer in which information relating to the EPL is stored in memory in an EPL
data file. Price information displayed by the EPL is stored in memory in a price
look-up (PLU) file.
In order to keep the cost of EPLs to a minimum, only minimal information
such as the item price and price per unit is typically displayed on an EPL. Other
product information (e.g. item descriptions, bar code labels, package size, product
codes, customer information, etc.) that changes infrequently is often displayed on
paper overlays attached to the EPL. Such paper overlays may also be used when
product items are subject to a special promotion, such as where certain products
may be offered at a lower retail price than usual or where special offers or prizes
may be associated with the purchase of the product. Alternatively, the individual
product items which are subject to the promotion are marked with special tags or
labels, or sometimes large banners or notices are installed on or adjacent the shelves
on which the product is stored, so as to convey the information regarding the
product to a customer. These overlays, tags, paper price labels, banners or notices
must be printed or marked with the appropriate information and must be installed
and removed manually by store personnel. This procedure is time-consuming,
inefficient and costly. Moreover at the end of a product promotion, the price
information stored within the PLU file of the EPL computer may change before or
after the promotional overlays, tags or labels etc., are removed resulting in a price
discrepancy between the price displayed on the EPL and that on the promotional
overlay, tag or label etc. causing customer confusion.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an efficient and cost
effective manner of promoting a product without the use of paper overlays, tags,
labels, banners or other notices and in which the risk of customer confusion is
minimized.
In accordance with the present invention there is provided an electronic price
label (EPL) comprising
a power supply ; lighting means powered by the power supply for attracting customer
attention to a merchandise item associated with the EPL; and a control circuit for controlling the application of power from the power
supply to the lighting means.
In one preferred embodiment, the application of power to the lighting means
is controlled in response to lighting means control commands from a remote
computer .
In a further preferred embodiment, the application of power to the lighting
means may be controlled in response to manual movement of a push-button switch
located on the EPL housing.
Embodiments of the present invention will now be described, by way of example
only, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:
Fig. 1 is a block diagram of an EPL system including an EPL according to a
first embodiment of the present invention; Fig. 2 is a perspective view of the EPL of Figure 1, having promotional
indicator lights located at each corner of the front surface of the EPL housing; Fig. 3 is a perspective view of the EPL of Figure 1 having promotional
indicator lights located along the left and right edges of the front surface of the EPL
housing; Fig. 4 is a block diagram of an EPL system including an EPL according to a
second embodiment of the present invention; and Figure 5 is a perspective view of the EPL of Figure 4, having a promotional
indicator light located in a push-button switch on the front surface of the EPL
housing.
Referring to Figure 1, the electronic price label (EPL) system 10 shown
therein comprises an electronic price label computer 12 which is associated with a
memory unit 34 and which communicates with a plurality of electronic price labels
14 (EPLs), only one of which represented in Figure 1. Communication between the
EPL computer 12 and the individual EPLs 14 may be by remote communication
such as radio or infrared communication, by cable or by a combination of both.
Each EPL 14 includes a control circuit 16, a power source 18, a memory
unit 20, a display unit 22, a transceiver 24 and a light emitting diode (LED) unit
28. The control circuit 16 controls the internal operation of the EPL 14 including
the application of power by the power source 18 to the LED unit 28 and the display
of information by the display unit 22.
The power source 18 supplies power to the LED unit 28 and preferably
comprises one or more batteries. The memory unit 20 stores product information,
price change information and other data necessary for the operation of the EPL 14.
The display unit 22 is preferably a liquid crystal display (LCD) and displays the
price of the product item with which the EPL 14 is associated. The transceiver 24
receives price change and other commands from and transmits response commands
to the EPL computer 12. The LED unit 28 comprises a plurality LEDs or other
suitable illumination devices which may be of the same or different colours. For
example, different coloured LEDs may be used to indicate different types of product
promotions such as temporary price reduction or a special offer where two products
may be purchased for the price of one.
The EPL computer 12 records, schedules and transmits all commands
including price change commands and diagnostic commands to the EPL 14, and
analyses status commands from the EPL 14. The memory unit 34 associated with
the EPL computer 12 includes an EPL basic data file 36 which contains records for
all the EPLs of the retail system 10 in which general product information,
identification data, product price verifier data for the product with which the EPL is
associated and LED status data for the EPL 14 is stored. The control software 30 of
the EPL computer 12 includes LED control software 32 which transmits an LED
control message to turn on/off the LEDs of the LED unit 28 based upon the LED
status data for EPL 14 stored the EPL data file 36 of the memory unit 34.
Referring to Figures 2 and 3, two EPLs 14 which include promotional
indicator lights are shown. In Figure 2, the LED unit 28 includes four LEDs 29,
one LED located at each of the four corners of the front surface of the housing of
EPL 14. In Figure 3, the LED unit 28 includes two elongate LED arrays 29, one
located at each side of front surface of the EPL 14. Clear plastic covers protect the
LEDs 29 which are also visible from the sides of the EPL 14.
A LED status indicator (i.e., on or off) is stored within the record of EPL
14 in EPL data file 26. If the status indicator indicates that the LEDs 29 of the LED
unit 28 of EPL 14 should be ON, EPL computer 12 transmits a message addressed to
EPL 14 containing a command to turn on the LEDs 29. The transceiver 24 of EPL 14
receives the message from the EPL computer 12 and transmits an acknowledgment
signal to the EPL computer 12. The control circuit 16 controls the power source 18 to
supply power to the LED unit 28 causing the LEDs 29 to be switched on. When
switched on, the LEDs 29 are luminous enough to allow the EPL 14 to be
distinguishable from other surrounding EPLs and so attracts the attention of the
customer to the items with which the EPL 14 is associated.
If the status indicator of the EPL data file 36 indicates that the LEDs 29 of
the LED unit 28 of EPL 14 should be OFF, EPL computer 12 transmits a message
addressed to EPL 14 containing a command to turn off the LEDs 29. The transceiver
24 of EPL 14 receives the message from the EPL a computer 12 and transmits an
acknowledgment signal to the EPL computer 12. The control circuit 16 controls the
power source 18 so as to discontinue the application of power to the LED unit 28
causing the LEDs 29 to be switched off.
Figures 4 and 5 show an alternative embodiment of the EPL 14 in which the
LED unit 28 of the EPL 14 may operate in a manual mode where the LED push-button
30 is manually activated by store personnel, or in an "automatic " mode
where the LED unit 28 is controlled automatically by the EPL computer 12. The
LED unit 28 includes a LED control circuit 42 which controls the application of
power to the LED 29 of the LED unit 28 and a LED push button switch 44 which
includes the LED 29 internally. As shown in Figure 5, the LED push-button switch
44 is located on the front surface of the housing of the EPL 14 so that the LED 29 of
the EPL 14 can be manually activated and deactivated by store personnel. Power is
applied to the internal LED 29 when the push button switch 44 is manually engaged
in the "ON" position and power is removed from the LED 29 by the LED control
circuit 42 when the push button switch 44 is engaged in the "OFF" position. When
in the "on" position, LED 29 is luminous enough to allow the EPL 14 to be
distinguishable from other surrounding EPLs and attracts the attention of the
customer to the items with which the EPL 14 is associated.
Power supply 18 includes a first battery, which is typically a non-replaceable
battery 40, and a second battery, which is a replaceable battery 38. Non-replaceable
battery 40 is the primary power supply for the EPL 14 and replaceable battery 38 is
the primary power supply for the LED unit 28. The LED control circuit 42 controls
the application of power to the LED unit 28 while the control circuit 16 controls the
application of power to the various components of the EPL 14 and. Thus, the non-replaceable
battery 40 may act as a backup power supply for the LED unit 28 while
the replaceable battery 38 may act as a backup power supply for the other
components of the EPL 14. It should be understood that the power supply may
include solar cells or a combination of batteries and solar cells.
The control circuit 16 receives LED control messages via the transceiver 24
from the EPL computer 12 and transmits control instructions within the messages to
the LED control circuit 42. The LED control circuit 42 may operate so that power
is supplied continuously by the power source 18 to the LED 29 or is supplied as a
pulse signal so that the LED 29 appears to flash. The EPL data file 36 also stores
LED operating information (manual/auto - off, on, continuous/pulse power
application) to allow EPL computer 12 to control the operation of the LED unit 28
of the EPL 14. When the LED unit 28 is being controlled by the EPL computer 12
in the automatic mode, the LED control circuit 42 disables the LED push button
switch 44.
The use of a LED push button switch 44 incorporating an LED allows store
personnel to easily activate the LED 29 of the EPL 14 associated with a product
which is subject to a promotion so as to attract the attention of customers to the
promotion. Similarly when the product promotion ends, the LED 29 of the EPL 14
associated with the product may be switched off by store personnel. It should be
understood that other types of lighted witches and light/switch combinations may be
used instead of the LED push button switch 44, but the LED push-button switch 44
is particularly suitable because it requires very little area on the front surface of the
housing of the EPL 14 in comparison to that which might otherwise be used by an
overlay.