NZ243247A

NZ243247A - Controlling large message displays over payphone network

Info

Publication number: NZ243247A
Application number: NZ24324792A
Authority: NZ
Inventors: Michael John Russell
Original assignee: Alcatel Australia
Priority date: 1991-07-03
Filing date: 1992-06-22
Publication date: 1995-02-24

Description

<div class="application article clearfix" id="description"> 24 32 4 7 Priority Date(s): rso.'.iw Coinpiete Specification Filed: Class: V+SH-jmAw;. . licfx. . „ 2 4 FEB 1995 Publication Date: P.O. Journal, No: ORIGINAL NEW ZEALAND PATENTS ACT 1953 COMPLETE SPECIFICATION "PAYPHONE ADVERTISING DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM" WE, ALCATEL AUSTRALIA LIMITED, 000 005 3t^) A Company of the State of New South Wales, of 280 Botany Road, Alexandria, New South Wales, 2015, Australia, hereby declare the invention for which we pray that a patent may be granted to us, and the method by which it is to be performed, to be particularly described in and by the following statement: 1 24 3 2 4 7 Technical Field This invention relates to an arrangement for providing large displays which can be controlled from a remote location. Applications of such displays include advertising and warnings of traffic conditions such as fog. 5 Background Art Payphone management systems with centralised control are known. Australian Patent No. 608467 (Anritsu Corp.) discloses a system for monitoring and controlling pay telephones from a central location. Each telephone has purpose built communications equipment to transmit and receive messages from a central 10 control computer. In this system the pay phones contain monitors which check the phone for faults. The phone can transmit a fault signal to the central control computer. The central control computer is also capable of transmitting messages to the phone. The phone contains registers in which these messages can be stored. Thus it is possible to change parameters in the phone over the phone line from the central 15 computer. This may be used , eg., to adjust tariff rates. This invention makes use of the possibility to display operation instructions or advertising messages to the user of the phone from the central computer. These messages may be displayed on a small LCD screen in the phone. Disclosure of the Invention. 20 This specification discloses a system which makes use of a central control computer to control large scale displays making use of the communication facilities provided in pay phones connected to a payphone management system. In a first embodiment the signals from the central computer used to drive the LCD display on the phone are connected to a large scale display mounted on or out-25 side the phone box and visible to passing traffic. The large scale display may be located some distance from the phone box and connected to the payphone by cable. 2 24 3247 Thus selected messages transmitted from the control centre can be displayed directly. The microprocessor 6 may be used to convert the messages into a form suitable to drive the display. Where there is a processor dedicated to the display this conversion can be done in the dedicated processor. 5 In a second embodiment the display includes storage means so that the display can be maintained in the absence of signals from the control centre. The storage may be inherent in the display, eg. if the display is of the electromagnetic "flip-disc" type such as provided by Ferranti. Alternatively the storage may be electronic so that the display may be made up of a matrix of light bulbs or LEDs. The message can be 10 changed by sending a new message from the central control and storing it in the memory. In a third embodiment processing and storage means may be associated with the display. Thus the display can be dynamic, eg. a continuously moving strip type message spelt out by flip-discs or light bulbs. In this instance the communication with 15 the control centre can again be minimised so that communication need only take place when it is desired to change the message. In a fourth embodiment, the system may be equipped with sensors to detect the approach of vehicles. Thus the illuminated sign can be switched off until a vehicle is within a predetermined distance. This option provides energy saving. 20 A fifth embodiment envisages the use of fog detectors to measure visibility on the road beyond the display. This could then be used to give a hazard warning on the display. In a sixth embodiment the display includes a processor which records the time of day and duration of advertisements. This information is used to bill the advertis-25 ers. Brief Description of the Drawings. 3 24 3247 Figure 1 shows a first system embodying the invention. Figure 2 shows a second embodiment including a display memory. Figure 3 shows a third embodiment including a display memory and processor means. 5 Figure 4 shows a fourth embodiment including traffic proximity detectors. Figure 5 shows a fifth embodiment including fog detectors. Figure 6 shows a sixth embodiment including a processor with display time measuring capability and communication means to transmit the information to the central control. 10 Modes of Carrying Out the Invention. The invention will be described with reference to the drawings. Referring to Figure 1, the control centre such as the payphone management system described in Australian Patent No. 608467 includes a computer controlling communication with a plurality of payphones, of which only one is shown at 4, via a 15 first modem 2 which is connected to a switch 3 to which the payphones are connected. Each payphone 4 includes a further modem 5 and a microprocessor 6. An output from microprocessor 6 is connected to an external display 7 to control the operation of the display. Display 7 may be powered from a power source 8 which may be derived from the power mains. 20 The normal operation of the payphone management system 1 is described in Australian Patent No. 608467. One of the features of such a central control 1 is its ability to send messages to a selected payphone. In accordance with our invention certain of these messages include address information indicating that their destination is the external display. These messages are transmitted via modem 2 and through 25 switch 3 to the selected phone or phones 4 where they are received by modem 5 and conveyed to microprocessor 6. This microprocessor 6 is programmed to recognise the 4 24 324 address information and to send the message to the external display 7 which then displays the message. In Figure 2 a memory 9 has been included between microprocessor 6 and display 7. This may be useful where the microprocessor and its associated memories are 5 heavily loaded. The memory 9 stores the display messages until they are changed from the control centre. Thus the display 7 does not need to be in constant communication with the control centre as it can display a message stored in memory 9 until the message is changed. In Figure 3 a processor 10 has been added to the system shown in Figure 2. 10 Such a processor can be used to control the manner in which the display is operated. This can be used to generate moving images or scrolled messages on the display. Typical of this application would be for the microprocessor to control the lights in the display via suitable interface circuitry, issue commands to a pre-configured display by means of control signals, or even in the case of VDU style displays to write 15 the appropriate data to the display memory. Figure 4 shows a display system including sensors 11 and 12 to detect the approach and departure of vehicles. The detectors may be, eg., optical sensors, pneumatic tubes laid on the road, inductive loops buried in the road or other suitable detectors. 20 The detectors may signal either the payphone microprocessor 6, display processor 10, or a switch 13 in the power circuit of the display of the approach of a vehicle. The display is then illuminated for a preset time or until the vehicle has left the display area. Thus the energy used to illuminate the display is conserved. In the embodiment shown in Figure 5 a fog detector 15 is placed in a fog prone 25 area and when fog is detected, the detector can cause the display to show a sign warning of the hazard ahead: eg. "Warning FOG Next 2 km". A fog detector may 5 4 324 consist, eg., of a light disbursal detector comprising a directional light source and number of light detectors to detect whether or not the light is being disbursed. In Figure 6 the display processor 10 records the time for which a particular message is displayed. This allows the advertiser to be billed for use of the display and 5 the display can be used by several advertisers in the same billing period. The display can thus be used on a time share basis. The advertisers would not be billed for the time the display was used for hazard warnings or other "housekeeping" messages. A further modem 14 permits the billing information to be read from the control centre 1. 10 In a further embodiment additional hazard warnings may be displayed by enabling emergency workers to program in messages. The emergency workers are provided with a magnetic card which can be read by a card reader, eg. in the phone and then dialling an ID code and a hazard message code. This causes the microprocessor 6 in the phone to initiate a stored hazard message corresponding to the hazard mes-15 sage code. The hazard message may be stored in the payphone microprocessor's memory or in the memory 9 dedicated to the display. From the above an additional application may be a drive-in payphone booth. When a car drives up to the phone, sensors detect presence of the car, turn on lights / start advertising display in front of vehicle. This could even be a "TV" type display 20 showing a restaurant menu, etc. in a store just down the road. Pressing a button on the phone could connect (via phone network) the user to the store and allow pre-ordering. ISDN phones with 2B + D (ie. 2 voice + data channel) will be looking for applications for the data channel. In payphones this may be useful for this style of ap-25 plication (ie. selling spare data capacity). Industrial Applicability. 6 H 32 47 This invention is used to operate electronically controlled display signs by using the control communication system used to supervise groups of public payphones. While the present invention has been described with regard to many particulars it is understood that equivalents may be readily substituted without departing from the scope of the invention. </div>

Claims

<div class="application article clearfix printTableText" id="claims"> 243247 What We claim is:-

1. A controllable message display system for remotely controlling from a central control station the presentation of a message on a remote display means, wherein said control station is a payphone management control station for 5 managing a plurality of payphones of the type incorporating a processor means, said payphone management control station including means for selectively transmitting encoded management control signals or encoded message display signals to a payphone's processor means which includes an output means coupled to a display means proximate said payphone, said processor being 10 programmed to distinguish messages intended for the display means coupled thereto from messages for control ling said payphones.

2. A system as claimed in claim 1, including memory means for storing message display signal information.

3. A system as claimed in claim 2, including a further processing means 15 programmed to use said stored message display signal information to control said display means.

4. A system as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the display means is located adjacent a road, and wherein fog detector means are located adjacent the road and at a distance from the display means, the fog detector 20 means being connected to the display means via control means to cause a warning to be displayed when the fog detector means detects the presence of fog. ALCATEL AUSTRALIA LIMITED (A.C.N. 000 005 363) 25 B. O'Connor Authorized Agent P5/1/1703 </div>