Method and system for determining the location of a shelf rail arrangement - Patents.com

Abstract

1. A method for locating a shelf rail device, the position of which is unknown, installed on a shelf rail, the method comprising the following method steps: automatically locating the shelf rail device in a plane by wireless communication between the shelf rail device and a plurality of wireless devices whose positions are known; and automatically adding a third coordinate to the position in the plane by using additional data to locate the shelf rail device in space, the additional data indicating the third coordinate and associated with the shelf rail device.

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The present invention relates to a method and system for determining the location of a shelf rail assembly. [Background technology]

[0002] A method for determining the location of a radio tag is known from WO 2014059824 A1, in particular for a group of radio tags configured as a multi-electronic price display device, in that a location signal is a) transmitted by one or more radio tags with known location and received by one radio tag with unknown location, or b) transmitted by one radio tag with unknown location and received by one or more radio tags with known location, in both cases a) and b) whereby reception characteristics of the location signal are determined and provided as a criterion for determining the location of the radio tag with unknown location.

[0003] In practice, this method has proven to be very useful for finding lost individual radio tags again. In this case, it is not necessary to determine the exact location in space. Rather, it is sufficient that the location of the unknown radio tag can at least be limited in order to manually search and identify the unknown radio tag in a limited area. However, when using this method to systematically determine the location of all radio tags, an unreliable amount of power is consumed by the individual radio tags and results are only obtained after a relatively long processing time. This results in a very short battery life, especially in the case of battery-operated radio tags. The maintenance costs that arise from this are not justified for this use. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0004] [Patent Document 1] International Publication No. 2014059824 [Patent Document 2] International Publication No. 2014053376 Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0005] It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an improved method. [Means for solving the problem]

[0006] This problem is solved by a method for determining the location of a shelf rail device whose position is unknown according to claim 1. The subject of the present invention is therefore a method for determining the location of a shelf rail device whose position is unknown, which method comprises the following method steps: automatically determining the location of the shelf rail device in a plane by wireless communication between the shelf rail device and a plurality of wireless devices whose positions are known, and automatically adding a third coordinate to the location of the shelf rail device in the plane by using additional data to determine the location of the shelf rail device in space, the additional data indicating the third coordinate and associated with the shelf rail device.

[0007] The measures of the invention have the advantage that localization of a (particularly electronic) shelf rail device mounted on a shelf rail is performed much more accurately, significantly faster and with much less overall power consumption, which is achieved by splitting the spatial coordinate determination into two sub-steps.

[0008] As a first substep, a reliable and widely used wireless localization is used. With this localization, a reliable localization is performed in one plane, preferably in a horizontal plane. In particular, this localization has proven to be very useful for indoor localization, especially in the sales areas of retail stores or supermarkets, since such spaces often have a large surface area and, in comparison, a relatively low ceiling height. In this space, multiple wireless devices for wirelessly localizing the shelf rail device can be installed at a distance from each other, mainly, for example, on the ceiling, at intervals or positions that are optimal for wireless technology. Accordingly, this process of localizing the shelf rail device in one plane (for example, on the plane of the ceiling on which the multiple wireless devices are installed or projected parallel to the ceiling) provides results with high accuracy.

[0009] However, the situation is different when using a third coordinate (z coordinate) which is necessary to identify the spatial point where the shelf rail device in question is located in addition to the other two coordinates (x and y coordinates) that indicate the location in a plane. Experience has shown that wireless methods do not provide the required accuracy in the z direction. This can be due to an unfavorable ratio between the floor area and the ceiling height of the sales floor and various conditions that interfere with optimal radio propagation in the sales floor (shadowing, reflections, interference signals of other radio systems). Also, the (horizontal) spacing in the third coordinate direction between adjacent shelf rail devices is relatively small. As a result, the problem of inaccuracies in wirelessly identifying the third coordinate increases.

[0010] In order to overcome this problem of the wireless method, according to the invention, the second sub-step, i.e. the wireless determination of the coordinates of the surface, is now additionally performed by automatic incorporation of additional data, i.e. the wireless localization is not omitted completely, but rather used for the range of automatic localization (localization within the surface) where the wireless technique provides results with acceptable accuracy under given range or use conditions.

[0011] Thus, the weak point of the fully automatic wireless localization of the shelf rail device (position resolution in the third coordinate (z-coordinate)) is eliminated by automatically incorporating additional data for the localization of the shelf rail device in the third coordinate direction, i.e., a third coordinate obtained in a different way is added to the two coordinates of the surface obtained wirelessly.

[0012] In this regard, the additional data associated with a shelf rail apparatus means that the additional data provides a specific third coordinate for a specific shelf rail apparatus, the association being achieved by a unique identifier for the shelf rail apparatus, to which the third coordinate is also "bound."

[0013] However, if these additional third coordinates are valid for all shelf rail devices in a group, i.e., if the group of shelf rail devices has all of the third coordinates that identify the shelf rail devices in the spatial location of the group of shelf rail devices, then these additional third coordinates may be assigned to the group of shelf rail devices.

[0014] Rather than relying on the discovery by wireless communication of the two first coordinates for positioning within the plane, the determination of the third coordinate is based on a method other than said wireless communication, in particular not based on wireless communication, i.e. the third coordinate is determined by a method other than the method for determining the other two coordinates, in which case the coordinate pair of the plane determined by wireless communication is automatically used for the three-coordinate three-dimensional position description.

[0015] That is to say, in this case, to obtain a complete localization, several highly power-saving steps are combined, each of which should be able to be executed quickly and problem-free, and each of which itself provides a partial result that is automatically combined in a reliable and problem-free reproducible manner into the final result for a complete localization.

[0016] Unlike the method of determining location based on a group of radio tags described at the beginning, each shelf rail device only needs to wirelessly communicate to determine its own unique location according to the method of the present invention. Furthermore, expensive, complex, and potentially long-lasting wireless communication to determine a relatively difficult-to-determine third coordinate as accurately as possible is avoided by replacing the wireless communication to determine the third coordinate.

[0017] Further preferred and further configurations of the invention are set out in the dependent claims and the following description.

[0018] Generally, a shelf rail refers to the front end of a shelf of a shelf. The shelf rails, as well as the arrangement and number of shelves, are arranged one on top of the other, i.e. along the z-coordinate of space. Generally, the shelf rails extend in a plane oriented perpendicular to the z-coordinate, and a position along the shelf rail can be uniquely identified in this plane by the x- and y-coordinates of a Cartesian coordinate system. The choice of the origin of this coordinate system is arbitrary and therefore a matter of convention.

[0019] It is self-evident that other coordinate systems may also be used for localization, such as for example a cylindrical coordinate system.

[0020] In the simplest case, the shelf rail device may be a shelf rail wireless device (e.g., a wireless transceiver) that is installed on the relevant shelf rail, or may be an integral, and possibly modularly removable, component of the shelf rail.

[0021] The shelf rail apparatus may be configured with an electronic shelf label having a corresponding wireless module for communicating with the shelf label's access point, for example to receive data for display on the shelf label's display, or for transmitting, for example, the shelf label's battery status or shelf label display update status via the shelf label's access point, however, the wireless module may also be utilized for wireless communication to identify location.

[0022] Besides the electronic shelf label, other electronic functions may be used as the shelf rail device. These various devices may include basic functions or basic configurations without listing all: sensors such as temperature sensors or proximity sensors; cameras for still image capture or video recording or infrared imaging; input devices such as keyboards or key fields or rotary knobs or touch screens; display devices such as electronic shelf displays with one or more light emitting diodes (LEDs), video screens, or energy-saving phase-stable display technologies such as electronic ink or electronic paper, or active display technologies such as liquid crystal displays (LCDs) or organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs). Thus, the above devices mainly have one basic function. However, such devices may have multiple basic functions combined, or may have one main basic function to which other supporting functions are added. These electronic devices may therefore also provide additional communication capabilities, such as an NFC interface, to operate the device, or to transmit data to and from the device, or to control the device's functions from close proximity (a few millimeters to a few centimeters), or to establish a link between the product and the electronic device, or may also provide additional communication capabilities, such as a Bluetooth low power radio module, to wirelessly communicate with compatible wireless devices at further distances.

[0023] In the case of wireless communication for in-plane location purposes, for example, an infrastructure of WLAN access points can be used as shelf label access points, which can be used to determine, for example, by triangulation, coordinate pairs for locating devices in a plane.

[0024] However, preferably, to automatically determine the location within the plane, ultra-wideband wireless communication is used between a plurality of ultra-wideband wireless devices whose positions are known and the shelf rail apparatus, in particular between a plurality of access points equipped with a plurality of ultra-wideband wireless devices and installed at different positions with known positions relative to the shelf rail apparatus, and the shelf rail apparatus. Thus, the advantages of ultra-wideband wireless communication (UWB wireless devices for short) can be perfectly utilized to determine the exact indoor location of the apparatus within the plane.

[0025] In this case, conventionally known means such as "Two-way Ranging" (abbreviated as TWR), "Time-difference-of-Arrival" (abbreviated as TDoA) or "Phase-Difference-of-Arrival" (abbreviated as PDoA) may be used.

[0026] The UWB radio devices can be individually configured and distributed in the store as fixed devices with known positions for UWB wireless communication, for example on the ceiling of the store. Also, a combination radio device consisting of a WLAN access point and a UWB radio device may be provided. As a result, no additional installation costs are incurred for the UWB radio devices, since a WLAN infrastructure is generally always desirable and necessary. In this case, each combined radio device constitutes a fixed device with known position for UWB wireless or communication-based positioning in a plane.

[0027] It may also be the case that in the store, for example for the purpose of controlling the shelf rail devices, a shelf rail device network that is provided specifically for this purpose is operated by a shelf rail device access point. In parallel with this, a UWB radio device with a known position may be operated or installed. In this case too, a combination radio device consisting of a shelf rail device access point and a UWB radio device may be realized in further combination with a WLAN access point, if necessary. In this case too, the respective combination radio device forms a fixed device with a known position for determining the position in a plane in a UWB radio or communication manner.

[0028] As described above, the automatic addition of the third coordinate is not based on a wireless location method. Rather, the additional data can be retrieved from a data structure stored in an electronic data bank. In this case, the third coordinate can indicate a z-coordinate in the classical sense, for example in meters or millimeters. Preferably, the data structure indicates as the third coordinate on which shelf surface of the shelf the corresponding shelf rail device is installed. That is, the third coordinate does not necessarily indicate a classical z-coordinate, but rather in units defined by the shelf or the individual structure of the shelf itself, for example the first shelf surface, the second shelf surface, the third shelf surface, etc., or for example the bottom shelf surface, the middle shelf surface, the top shelf surface, etc. In order to express the physical third (z) coordinate in units such as meters, naturally a common unit of length may be stored to appropriately indicate the number of multiple shelf surfaces.

[0029] The data structure is constructed by obtaining identification data of a shelf rail device and assigning the identification data to the shelf surface on which the shelf rail device resides, where a logical link is digitally established and stored between the shelf label device uniquely identified by the identification data and the shelf surface on which the shelf label device is installed.

[0030] The data structure may be constructed before the two coordinates of the surface are wirelessly determined, i.e., the data structure may already be constructed during installation of the shelf or installation of the shelf rail device on the shelf, with the advantage that immediately after the coordinate pair of the surface has been wirelessly determined for a given shelf rail device (in which case the identification data of the respective shelf rail device has also been obtained), the associated third coordinate can be incorporated with knowledge of the identification data, and a space, in particular a position in the planogram, can be directly allocated or assigned to the shelf rail device in question.

[0031] If the construction of the data structure is performed after wirelessly identifying two coordinates of a surface, the two coordinates of the surface must first be buffered until a third coordinate belonging to the two coordinates can be obtained and used to add to the two coordinates of the surface.

[0032] In this case, to assign the identification data to the corresponding shelf surface, the identification data is automatically read from the shelf rail device by a portable information management device, shelf surface data is generated in the information management device by receiving an input to identify the shelf surface, and the identification data is transmitted together with the shelf surface data to an electronic data bank, preferably by wireless communication, and stored in the electronic data bank.

[0033] In this case, therefore, the identifier of the shelf rail device in question is first identified. This can be done, for example, by a barcode or QR code attached to the shelf rail device, which is read by a portable information management device used by the retailer's employees. However, this identification can also be performed by obtaining a flashing light signal, in which identification data is encoded and which is emitted by the shelf rail device. This identification can also be performed by RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) or NFC (Near Field Communication) between the shelf rail device in question and the portable information management device.

[0034] The shelf surface on which the relevant shelf rail device is installed is determined by an employee entering information on a portable information management device, for example by operating a touch screen or a specified key, or by voice control, thereby determining from where the information management device generated the shelf surface data.

[0035] The identification data and shelf surface data thus obtained are transmitted from the information management device to a database, where they are associated with each other and stored as a linked data pair.

[0036] As noted above, identification can be performed by acquiring an optical signal, which requires that a portable information management device be pointed generally in the direction of the appropriate shelf rail device by an employee and held near the shelf rail device, if necessary.

[0037] However, the allocation to the shelf surface can also be performed in a fully automated manner, in which in order to allocate the identification data to the corresponding shelf surface, the shelf rail device outputs a first signal that can be optically sensed or mechanically processed, a digital image of the shelf on which the corresponding shelf rail device is located is created by a camera and computer-processed in such a way that by recognizing the optical signal in the digital image, the shelf surface on which the shelf rail device transmitting the optical signal is located is identified, and the shelf surface data generated from this shelf surface is transmitted, preferably by wireless communication, to an electronic data bank and stored in the electronic data bank.

[0038] Particularly preferably, the identification can also be automated, in which case the shelf rail device outputs its own identification data by means of an optically detectable or mechanically processable first signal, which is extracted from the digital image by computer processing and transmitted together with the shelf surface data.

[0039] The computer processing of images of a scene acquired by a camera, either as still images or video sequences, for the purpose of identifying the image or information content is carried out by a computer, on which software programmed for this purpose is executed, the corresponding programming being conventional for a person skilled in the art of computer-aided image processing.

[0040] To acquire the images, multiple cameras carrying corresponding image capture areas can be installed, for example, on the ceiling of the sales floor or on other objects in the sales floor, which can be connected to said computer in a wired manner, for example by power over Ethernet, or wirelessly, for example by WLAN, and the acquired images are provided digitally to said computer for image processing there.

[0041] However, in order to ensure as problem-free an image acquisition as possible, it has proven to be beneficial to use the shelf itself for determining the position. That is, mechanical structures of the shelf itself, such as, for example, supports or reinforcements of the shelf, can be used to support the camera. In this connection, it has proven to be particularly beneficial if a camera is installed on the shelf rail of a first shelf and this camera photographs a second shelf across the shelf aisle, on which a shelf rail device is installed that outputs an optically detectable or mechanically processable signal. With this arrangement, no additional installation or orientation problems that would otherwise be required in the prior art need to be considered, or additional mechanical structures for fixing the camera are completely omitted. In particular, the shelf rail itself is used to directly fix the camera.

[0042] Typically, the shelves are arranged along the shelf aisles in a parallel orientation, and are often, but not necessarily, of the same length. Thus, cameras mounted at different positions along the shelves can be easily installed on each shelf on both sides of the shelf aisle, and the opposite shelves can be photographed without any problems. Even if the shelf aisles extend, for example, at an angle to each other, or (even if only on one side) in a curved or wavy or circular manner, good photography of the opposite shelves is not impaired.

[0043] These cameras may have (auto)focus and zoom functions and may have a controllably (by means of a motor) adjustable objective lens, so that the imaging field can be adapted automatically, in particular computer-controlled.

[0044] As noted above, the shelf rail apparatus can be configured in a variety of ways, and thus multiple such shelf rail apparatus may be installed on the same shelf rail. However, it has proven particularly beneficial when the shelf rail apparatus is a shelf rail controller that provides power, preferably in a communication technology manner, to at least one shelf rail client installed on its shelf rail, and the location determination of the shelf rail controller is used to limit the location of that shelf rail client to a known range of the shelf rail.

[0045] In this case, the shelf rail (and of course the shelf rail client and shelf rail controller) can be configured to power the shelf rail client in a contactless or contact manner.

[0046] Contactless power supply at the shelf rail can be realized, for example, by integrating an NFC communication module into the shelf rail client and a conductor loop structure into the shelf rail, where the shelf rail controller is configured as an NFC reader to provide the power supply and communication technical supply.

[0047] For contact-type power supply at the shelf rail, a number of electric wires can be integrated into the shelf rail, which extend along the longitudinal extension of the shelf rail and are contactable at said longitudinal extension. To contact these electric wires, the shelf rail controller and the shelf rail client have contacts. An electronic communication module in each of the controller and the client allows data exchange and power supply via these electric wires.

[0048] In both cases, i.e. contactless power supply at the shelf rail or contact power supply, the shelf rail controller can be connected to the retailer's communication network, for example a LAN, either wired or wirelessly, and therefore to a central or local server or cloud-based management software for managing the respective devices.

[0049] In the case of wireless connection, mainly standardized communication methods or protocols, such as, for example, WLAN, ZigBee, Bluetooth, etc., can be used. For wireless connection, naturally, proprietary communication methods or protocols, such as, for example, those known from WO2014053376, can also be used. In this case, the disclosure content regarding the time slot communication method described therein is taken as reference. However, here, unlike the system disclosed in WO2014053376, this time slot communication method is used for communication between a shelf rail controller access point and a group of shelf rail controllers assigned to this shelf rail controller access point. Shelf rail clients or other electronic devices on the shelf, such as, for example, so-called electronic shelf labels, can use completely different communication protocols or communication methods for communication with the shelf rail controller on the shelf rail.

[0050] In this system, since it is known which shelf rail controller powers which shelf rail client on its own shelf rail, it is practically sufficient to perform location determination only for each shelf rail controller, and it is possible to simultaneously know where the shelf rail client belonging to the located shelf rail controller is located, limited to each shelf rail, depending on the geometry or dimensions of the corresponding shelf rail.

[0051] By determining the position of the shelf rail controller on the one hand and the positions of its shelf rail clients on the other hand by groups, the power budget is significantly improved, since the aforementioned position determination can be performed by only one device per shelf rail, i.e., by the shelf rail controller alone, and as a result, power for these position determination operations is only required in the shelf rail controller.

[0052] The automatic computational derivation of the positions of the other shelf rail clients, limited to the known range of the shelf rail, is performed without requiring power for these shelf rail clients. Thus, the overall power required overall, i.e. for the entire system, is reduced. This is further advantageous, since the individual power required for the shelf rail clients only needs to be supplied from an independent power storage, such as a battery or a rechargeable battery, or from the power storage of the shelf rail controller. Thus, the power storage can be operated for a longer period of time, or in other words, the maintenance of the power storage for replacement or new charging is reduced. Also, as explained, the power balance is improved even in the case of cabled power supply by the shelf rail controller, since here again, fewer communication operations are required to locate the components of the system.

[0053] In order to achieve a more accurate localization of the individual shelf rail clients on the shelf rail, it may be proposed that a digital image of the corresponding shelf rail is created by a camera or by the camera(s) already described, and the position of the shelf rail client along the corresponding shelf rail is determined by computerized image evaluation. In this case, based on the appearance image of the individual shelf rail client, a computerized process can be used to infer the identifier of the shelf rail client. In this case, in order to identify the shelf rail client, for example, the image content of the display of the shelf rail client can be evaluated, since the content of this display is basically known to the computer controlling the system. In the absence of a display, another unique feature of the appearance of each shelf rail client can be used to assign each shelf rail client to at least one device class.

[0054] It has proven to be particularly advantageous for the shelf rail client in question, whether or not it has a display, to output its own identification data by means of an optically sensible or mechanically processable second signal emitted therefrom, which upon computer-processed image evaluation the identification data is extracted and the position of the shelf rail client in question along the shelf rail is determined.It is therefore sufficient to provide, for example, a small light-emitting diode, which emits, for example, at the front face of the shelf rail client, an optical signal, preferably a modulated optical signal (a pulse-code modulated optical signal, a brightness- or luminosity-modulated or hybrid-modulated or chromatic modulated optical signal), which is used to identify and, if necessary, simultaneously locate the shelf rail client on the shelf rail in question.

[0055] To determine the third coordinate, wireless communication may be used, as already mentioned at the beginning. In this case, however, the method used to determine said third coordinate differs from the method used to determine the two coordinates in the plane, i.e., the distance between the shelf surfaces can be calculated by a time-of-flight measurement with a TOF sensor, and / or the classification of the shelves, i.e. the allocation to the corresponding shelf surface, can be performed, for example, by measuring the signal strength of the radio signal along the third coordinate.

[0056] Thus, by using the above means, it is possible to ensure that a highly accurate planogram is created that digitally visually represents the items displayed on the shelf. In any case, it has proven extremely useful for generating and maintaining the planogram if the third coordinate directly represents or represents the corresponding shelf surface. In this planogram, all shelf rail devices and the shelf rail itself as well as other objects installed on the shelf rail are accurately located and represented in three dimensions.

[0057] According to another aspect, a plurality of shelf rail controllers mounted on or positioned on the shelf rails, identified or otherwise identified at their respective locations as described above, are configured to transmit beacons. In general, a beacon refers to a radio signal that marks a fixed location, specifically the location of each of the transmitting shelf rail controllers, and the radio signal enables another (particularly portable or substantially freely mobile) radio device (e.g., a radio positioning system, in which a radio signal receiver of the radio positioning system may be constituted, for example, by the customer's mobile phone or may be fixed to or integrated into the customer's shopping cart) to determine a relative location, such as a direction and / or distance, relative to each of the transmitting shelf rail controllers.

[0058] The radio signal can transmit a uniquely recognized identifier or identifiers of the respective shelf rail controllers, which identifiers can then be used by the radio device or downstream thereof to identify which of the multiple shelf rail controllers is involved and thus obtain the position of that shelf rail controller. However, the radio signal can also transmit the position of the respective shelf rail controller itself, which position can then be directly used by the radio device, which provides multiple positioning results based on the received beacons.

[0059] Due to the presence of multiple shelf rail controllers installed side-by-side in relatively close proximity, a relatively large number of beacons are used at each location of the wireless device, and the positioning results obtained from these beacons are forwarded to a central server where they can be variously processed or evaluated, for example to determine customer flow or dwell time in front of the shelf (time and / or location components).

[0060] Due to the relatively high local density of beacons at each location of the wireless device, the location of the wireless device relative to a shelf rail controller whose location is known can be determined with an error of up to about 20 cm. This allows not only a presence recognition around the shelf, as in conventional systems, but also a relatively accurate location determination along the shelf, and possibly even along this coordinate, as the wireless device moves accordingly along the height of the shelf. If the wireless device is incorporated into a device that follows the movement of the wearer's hand, such as a smart watch (e.g., an Apple Watch or similar device) or a hand-worn personal digital assistant, it can also automatically know where the hand is moved on the shelf, i.e., which level the hand enters and possibly where on each level a product is touched or removed from.

[0061] Thus, the shelf rail controllers transmitting beacons form the basis for a relatively dense network of wireless beacons with known locations, i.e., a wireless positioning system, which can be used to locate a portable wireless device up to the time it enters a shelf level. Furthermore, the high density of shelf rail controllers allows the transmission power for transmitting the beacons to be kept relatively low, while still providing a sufficient number of beacons at each arbitrary location among the shelves for a wireless device to locate and ultimately locate the wireless device.

[0062] These and other aspects of the invention are illustrated by the figures described below.

[0063] The invention will now be described in more detail again with reference to the accompanying drawings, which are based on non-limiting embodiments, in which the same components are marked with the same reference numerals in the different figures, in which: [Brief description of the drawings]

[0064] [Figure 1] This shows the shelf arrangement in a store with multiple shelves of different lengths when viewed from the ceiling to the floor. [Diagram 2] The shelf arrangement is shown in side view along the longitudinal extension of the shelves. [Diagram 3] 1 shows an aisle defined by two shelves to illustrate a second embodiment. [Figure 4] 11 shows a passage for explaining a third embodiment. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0065] In Figure 1, the layout of a store 1 is shown, where three shelves R1, R2, R3 are arranged. Each shelf R1, R2, R3 has a specific length. All shelves R1-R3 have equal height and width. The side views of these shelves can be seen in Figure 2.

[0066] Each shelf R1-R3 has five (shelf boards or) shelf surfaces E1-E5 arranged one above the other. In this case, the top fifth shelf surface E5 can be seen in the selected view (FIG. 1). In this embodiment, all shelves R1-R3 have shelf surfaces E1-E5 at the same height per plane, respectively. Of course, the shelves may be configured differently.

[0067] Each of the shelf surfaces E1-E5 has one shelf board 2 on the left and right side. As a result, 30 shelf boards 2 are provided in total. The outer side of each shelf board 2 is terminated by a shelf rail 3 supporting shelf rail controllers RC1-RC30 as shelf rail devices. These shelf rail controllers are configured and provided to manage shelf rail clients (not shown) installed or attached to the respective shelf rails 3. In the selected view, only the shelf rail controllers having the codes RC9, RC10, RC19, RC20, RC29 and RC30 of the fifth shelf surface E5 out of the 30 shelf rail controllers RC1-RC30 can be seen.

[0068] Furthermore, two shelf rail device access points 4 (abbreviated as access points 4) are installed on the ceiling of the store 1. These access points 4 are configured and provided for wireless technical management of the shelf rail controllers RC1-RC30 using the applicant's time slot communication method described in a known publication. These access points 4 are wired to a server 5 of the store 1 by LAN wiring. In the server 5, management software is executed for shelf rail device management and logistics management. For a simpler illustration, other commonly used network components such as switches etc. are not shown. By using the server 5, data can be provided to or retrieved from the shelf rail clients installed on the respective shelf rails 3 via the access points 4 to which the groups of shelf rail controllers RC1-RC30 are respectively assigned and the shelf rail controllers RC1-RC30. If the shelf rail clients are electronic shelf labels, the image content of the individual displays can be determined and status information can be retrieved from the shelf labels.

[0069] Furthermore, six UWB radio devices 6 are installed on the ceiling of the store 1. The locations of these UWB radio devices 6 are known to the server 5. In this case, these UWB radio devices 6 are also connected to the store's server 5 by LAN wiring. However, these UWB radio devices 6 may also be connected to this server 5 wirelessly.

[0070] Each of the shelf rail controllers RC1-RC30 has two radio modules (not shown in detail), where a first radio module is configured and provided for wireless communication with the access point 4 and a second radio module is configured and provided for wireless communication with the UWB radio device 6.

[0071] Using UWB radio between UWB radio device 6 and shelf rail controller RC1-RC30, the location of shelf rail controller RC1-RC30 within store 1 is determined, with the constraint that only two coordinates in a plane are evaluated, namely the x and y coordinates of the Cartesian coordinate system shown in Figure 1. This process is carried out in a fully automatic manner under the control of server 5. Server 5 controls shelf rail controller RC1-RC30 and UWB radio device 6 to carry out the UWB wireless communications necessary to determine location in a known manner, and to provide the data obtained in this manner to server 5 for further processing and location of shelf rail controller RC1-RC30 in the XY plane.

[0072] Combining Figures 1 and 2, we obtain for each controller RC1-RC30 a coordinate pair KP with X and Y coordinates, respectively, in the notation (Xi, Yi): -RC1, RC3, RC5, RC7, and RC9 are coordinate pairs (X1, Y1), -RC2, RC4, RC6, RC8, and RC10 are coordinate pairs (X2, Y1), -RC11, RC13, RC15, RC17, and RC19 are coordinate pairs (X3, Y2), -RC12, RC14, RC16, RC18, and RC20 are coordinate pairs (X4, Y2), -RC21, RC23, RC25, RC27, and RC29 are coordinate pairs (X5, Y3), -RC22, RC24, RC26, RC28, and RC30 are each a coordinate pair (X6, Y3).

[0073] Naturally, the numerical values ​​thus determined for what is essentially the same X or Y coordinate may have slight variations or deviations, but such variations or deviations do not in any way affect the sufficient accuracy and predictability of the numerical values ​​obtained by UWB wireless communication, which are necessary for localizing the controllers RC1-RC30 in the plane.

[0074] The server 5 stores the thus determined coordinate pair (Xi, Yi) of the plane for each controller RC1-RC30 together with the respective identification data ID4 of said respective controller RC1-RC30. In another step, the coordinate pair (Xi, Yi) is extended or supplemented by a third coordinate that is necessary for the three-dimensional localization.

[0075] This is performed at the server 5 by automatically populating the server 5 with pre-entered additional data that is stored within a data structure at the server 5 .

[0076] According to a first embodiment, the data structure is constituted by a portable information management device 7, which in this case may be a personal digital assistant (PDA), operated by an employee of the store 1 and used, among other things, to logically link a product (not shown) to an electronic shelf label fixed to the shelf rail 3 on which the product is located.

[0077] However, in this connection, the PDA 7 is used to identify the shelf surface E1, E2, E3, E4 or E5 for each shelf rail controller RC1-RC30. In this case, the PDA 7 capable of short-range wireless communication is kept close to each shelf rail controller RC1-RC30, which is also capable of short-range wireless communication, and the respective identification data ID is retrieved from this shelf rail controller. The shelf surface on which the corresponding shelf rail controller RC1-RC30 is installed is then selected on the touch screen of the PDA 7. This input is received by the PDA 7, compiled or converted into shelf surface data RED indicative of the respective identified shelf surface E1-E5, and transmitted to the server 5 together with the respective identification data ID of the queried controller RC1-RC30.

[0078] This process is illustrated in Figures 1 and 2 by positioning PDA7 near the twentieth shelf rail controller RC20, and can be repeated for all shelf rail controllers RC1-RC30.

[0079] In the server 5, by using a unique identification data ID for each shelf rail controller RC1-RC30 that defines the relationship to the respective shelf rail controller RC1-RC30, the shelf surface E1, E2, E3, E4 or E5 grasped for each shelf rail controller RC1-RC30 is added to the pre-specified coordinate pair KP, thus completing three-dimensional position determination.

[0080] Thus, in an excerpt, the three-dimensional position coordinates are obtained for each shelf rail controller RC1-RC30 as follows: - RC1 (X1,Y1,E1) - RC2 (X2,Y1,E1) - … - RC15 (X3,Y2,E3) - … - As RC30 (X6,Y3,E5).

[0081] 3, the passage between two shelves R2 and R3 is shown in perspective to illustrate a second embodiment of the data structure configuration, where the shelves R2 and R3 are simplified to a shelf rail 3.

[0082] According to this second embodiment, the data structure is automatically constructed. For this purpose, each shelf rail controller RC1-RC30 is equipped with an LED 8 (LED stands for Light Emitting Diode), and each shelf rail controller RC1-RC30 is configured to output its own optically coded identification data ID as a blinking signal by means of the LED 8 according to a control command from the server 5. A camera 9 photographing the corresponding shelf R2, R3 from obliquely above the corresponding shelf R2, R3 acquires the blinking sequence of the LED 8 together with the shelf rail 3 arranged on the shelf surface E1-E5. The photographing areas of the two cameras 9 are indicated by dashed lines 10. These digital images are transmitted wirelessly, for example via a WLAN network, or wiredly via a LAN network, to the server 5, where they are evaluated in a fully automatic manner on the basis of software. As a result, a data structure is obtained, from which additional data for adding the third coordinate are automatically taken or extracted. Of course, when the images are evaluated in this fully automatic manner, it is not necessary to construct a static data structure from which additional data can be extracted only after the creation of the data structure. Rather, each data set of additional data can be used to add the third coordinates so-called "on the fly" immediately after it has been created.

[0083] 3, in order to illustrate a third embodiment of the data structure configuration, Fig. 4 shows in perspective the passage between two shelves R2 and R3, which are again simplified to a shelf rail 3.

[0084] In this third embodiment, the data structure is also automatically configured. In this case, the shelf rail controllers each have a camera 9 in addition to the LEDs 8, but are power-saving and compact. A number of cameras 9 installed on opposing aisles capture or photograph the front of the opposing shelves, including the shelf rails 3. The shelf rails 3 are equipped with a number of shelf rail controllers that output their own identification data ID by means of a flashing signal under the control of the server 5. The digital image thus obtained is transmitted to the server 5 as described above and evaluated there in order to generate additional data and thus to determine the third coordinate.

[0085] The shelf rail controllers RC1-RC30 thus located with high precision form the basis for other system functions.

[0086] The basis includes associating other shelf rail objects installed on the shelf rails of the respective shelf rail controllers RC1-RC30 with location determination in order to involve the other shelf rail objects in the planogram. These shelf rail objects may also include simple paper or synthetic resin labels that do not require electronic devices. The paper or synthetic resin labels can be logically assigned to one of the shelf rail controllers via the respective product information included on the surface of the paper or synthetic resin labels. However, these shelf rail objects also include electronic devices, i.e. shelf rail clients that access the system or server 5 through the respective shelf rail controllers RC1-RC30, for their own electronic functions. To accurately determine their location, knowledge of which shelf rail 3 of the multiple shelf rails 3 the electronic device or shelf rail client assigned to one of the multiple shelf rail controllers RC1-RC30 is installed on can be utilized. In this case, naturally, each shelf rail client is also logically assigned to only one shelf rail controller RC1-RC30. In technical terms, such logical assignment is called "linking". The linking can be performed by image detection and evaluation of the characteristic appearance or image content of the shelf rail client, as described above. The position of the shelf rail client along the respective shelf rail can thus be precisely recognized and determined. If the shelf rail client is also equipped with a unique LED for outputting a blinking signal, then in order to determine the three-dimensional position of the corresponding shelf rail client, only the respective blinking shelf rail client needs to be found in the captured images or video of the camera and assigned to the corresponding shelf rail 3. If the shelf rail client is also configured to transmit unique identification data in the blinking signal, its identification as well as its location can be performed by image evaluation of the images or videos captured with the camera.

[0087] Moreover, the highly accurate location of the shelf rail controllers RC1-RC30 allows for highly accurate location or tracking of objects. In this case, unlike the case where a few UWB radio devices are arranged on the ceiling of the store 1, these shelves R1-R3 on which the shelf rail controllers RC1-RC30 are installed are themselves anchor points for locating objects, or in a mobile sense, for tracking objects. The anchor points, because of their identified location, are equipped with UWB radio devices and allow for highly accurate direct location of objects moved along the shelf aisle on the shelves R1-R3 that form the "side walls" of the shelf aisle. Also, the transmission power for UWB wireless communication can be reduced accordingly, because the mobile UWB radio devices are always in close proximity to the UWB radio modules of the shelf rail controllers RC1-RC30, which are fixed to the "side walls" and have known positions. This contributes to an energy-efficient use of the technology. Furthermore, to locate a movable UWB radio device, only a group of a predetermined number of shelf rail controllers RC1-RC30 directly adjacent to the object (e.g., only 1-10 in the immediate vicinity of the object) need to be used. This group of shelf rail controllers RC1-RC30 operating to locate and track the movable UWB radio device can be dynamically adapted to the current location of the movable UWB radio device or to changes in the location of the movable UWB radio device. Thus, the activated portion of the group of shelf rail controllers RC1-RC30 used to locate the object is changed to continually adapt to the movement of the object and thus "follow" or "accompany" the object throughout the store. Shelf rail controllers RC1-RC30 installed further away from the object to be tracked, i.e., shelf rail controllers RC1-RC30 that are not necessary to locate the object, can be shut down. This shut down further reduces the energy demand of the system, and in particular the absolute requirement for locating the moving object. The moving object with UWB radio device may for example be a PDA of an employee of the store 1 or of a customer, or may be integrated into a customer's mobile phone.Such UWB radio devices may also be integrated into the electronics of (smart) shopping carts. These tools can be used for high-precision indoor navigation within a store.

[0088] Generally, all these means are used under the control and management of a higher-level management mechanism, e.g. a server 5 or a cloud-based management software. This means that the respective management mechanism activates the above-mentioned location determination means by computer-based control of the respective system components or controls the execution of said location determination means.

[0089] It should further be noted that the shelf rail controller and shelf rail client, or electronic devices in general, comprise electronic circuits in which various functions are realized by the electronic circuits, optionally by executing software. The electronic circuits may be constructed in a discrete or integrated electronic circuit or a combination thereof. Also, microcomputers, microcontrollers, application specific ICs (ASICs) may be used in combination with analog or digital electronic peripherals, as required.

[0090] It should further be noted that the shelf arrangements shown in Figures 1-4 are, of course, for illustrative purposes only and are simplified for ease of understanding, and that the above may be readily adapted to much more complex arrangements of shelves and shelf rails, particularly daisy-chained arrangements of shelves and shelf rails.

[0091] Finally, it is pointed out again that the figures described in detail above are merely embodiments that can be modified in various ways by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the invention. For the sake of completeness, it is also pointed out that the use of the indefinite article "a" does not exclude the possibility of a plurality of the relevant features.

Claims

1. A method for identifying a position of a shelf rail device (RC1-RC30) installed on a shelf rail (3) and whose position is unknown, comprising the steps of: The method comprises the following method steps: - automatically determining the position of said shelf rail device (RC1-RC30) in a plane by wireless communication between said shelf rail device (RC1-RC30) and a number of wireless devices (4; 6) whose positions are known; - automatically adding a third coordinate to the location in the plane by using additional data to identify the position of the shelf rail device (RC1-RC30) in space, the additional data indicating the third coordinate and relating to the shelf rail device (RC1-RC30).

2. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein ultra wideband wireless communication is used between the shelf rail device (RC1-RC30) and a plurality of ultra wideband radio devices (6) whose positions are known, i.e. a plurality of access points equipped with the ultra wideband radio devices (6) in particular and spaced apart from the shelf rail device (RC1-RC30) at different locations whose positions are known, in order to automatically identify the position within the surface.

3. 3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the additional data is retrieved from a data structure stored in an electronic data bank, the data structure indicating on which shelf rail (E1-E5) of a shelf (R1-R3) a corresponding shelf rail device (RC1-RC30) is installed as the third coordinate.

4. 4. The method of claim 3, wherein the data structure is constructed by obtaining identification data of the shelf rail device (RC1-RC30) and assigning the identification data to a shelf surface (E1-E5) on which the shelf rail device (RC1-RC30) resides.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein in order to assign the identification data to a corresponding shelf surface (E1-E5), the identification data is automatically read from the shelf rail device (RC1-RC30) by a portable information management device (7), shelf surface data is generated in the information management device (7) by receiving an input for identifying the shelf surface (E1-E5), and the identification data is transmitted to the electronic data bank together with the shelf surface data, preferably by wireless communication, and stored in the electronic data bank.

6. The method according to claim 4, wherein, in order to assign the identification data to the corresponding shelf surface (E1-E5), the shelf rail device (RC1-RC30) outputs a first signal that is optically detectable or mechanically processable, a digital image of the shelf (R1-R3) on which the corresponding shelf rail device (RC1-RC30) is located is created by a camera (9) and computer-processed so that, by recognizing the optical signal, the shelf surface (E1-E5) on which the shelf rail device (RC1-RC30) transmitting the optical signal is identified in the digital image, and the generated shelf surface data is transmitted to the electronic data bank, preferably by wireless communication, and stored in the electronic data bank.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein the shelf rail devices (RC1-RC30) output their own identification data by a first signal that is optically sensible or mechanically processable, and the identification data is extracted from the digital image through computer processing and transmitted together with the shelf surface data.

8. The method according to claim 6 or 7, wherein the camera (9) is installed on a shelf rail (3) of a first shelf (R1-R3), and the camera (9) photographs a second shelf (R1-R3) on which the shelf rail device (RC1-RC30) that outputs an optically detectable or mechanically processable signal is installed, across a shelf aisle.

9. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 8, wherein the shelf rail device (RC1-RC30) is a shelf rail controller that supplies power, and preferably also communication technology, to at least one shelf rail client installed on its own shelf rail (3), and the position determination of the shelf rail controller is used to limit the position of the shelf rail client to a known range of the shelf rail (3).

10. 10. The method of claim 9, wherein a digital image of the corresponding shelf rail (3) is created by a camera (9) and the position of the shelf rail client (RC1-RC30) along the corresponding shelf rail (3) is determined by computerized image evaluation.

11. 11. The method according to claim 10, wherein the shelf rail client outputs its own identification data by means of a second optically detectable or mechanically processable signal outputted from the shelf rail client, and upon evaluation of the computer-processed image, the identification data is extracted and the position of the corresponding shelf rail client along the shelf rail (3) is determined.

12. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 11, wherein the shelf rail device, in particular also configured as a shelf rail controller, is configured to transmit a beacon.

Images