Method for controlling electronic shelf labels - Patents.com

Abstract

1. A method of controlling an electronic shelf label attached to a shelf rail at a position along the shelf rail and controlled by a local rail controller on the shelf rail, the rail controller storing a list of display data, elements of the list of display data to be provided to an electronic shelf label indicating information to be displayed on the electronic shelf label, the rail controller detecting an attachment of an electronic shelf label to the shelf rail or a removal of an electronic shelf label from the shelf rail, and the rail controller initiating an operation taking into account the list of display data based on detection of the attachment or removal of the electronic shelf label.

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The present invention relates to a method of controlling electronic shelf labels that are attached to a shelf rail at a location along the shelf rail and controlled by a local rail controller on the shelf rail. [Background technology]

[0002] In modern stores, it is common to display product and price information by electronic shelf labels (abbreviated as ESL). Reordering products in a store or optimizing the current layout of the store frequently changes the arrangement of products and ESLs on the shelves. With known ESL systems, manual initialization of ESLs and assignment of ESLs to products is required after such reordering. This is also necessary for newly installed ESLs.

[0003] Such initialization is performed in order to have the correct information displayed on the ESL. Essentially, this initialization involves providing the correct information so that the ESL can display information about applicable products installed in its vicinity.

[0004] Manual initialization of the system is time consuming. Because of the manual labor, labor costs increase with the number of ESLs in a field office.

[0005] In addition to this manual initialization, manually binding ESLs to products or manually loading product and pricing information into the ESLs and locating each ESL significantly increases time and labor costs. Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0006] It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a method by which the above mentioned problems are overcome. [Means for solving the problem]

[0007] This problem is solved by a method according to claim 1. The subject of the invention is therefore a method for controlling an electronic shelf label attached to a shelf rail at a position along said shelf rail and controlled by a local rail controller located on said shelf rail, whereby said rail controller stores a list of display data, elements of said list of display data are to be provided to an electronic shelf label and indicate information to be displayed on said electronic shelf label, said rail controller detects an attachment of an electronic shelf label to said shelf rail or a removal of an electronic shelf label from said shelf rail, and said rail controller initiates an operation taking into account the list of display data based on detection of said attachment or detection of said removal of an electronic shelf label.

[0008] The solution according to the invention has the advantage that changes in mounting the electronic shelf label on the shelf rail are automatically and autonomously detected in the local shelf rail system, which essentially consists of the shelf rail itself and a local rail controller attached to this shelf rail. Since the shelf rail controller holds the entire set of information (indicated by a list of display data) that must be displayed by the electronic shelf label attached to the shelf rail, the said rail controller can autonomously determine during its processing the necessary actions, which are initiated by installing a new ESL on the shelf rail or by removing an ESL from the shelf rail. The term "the shelf rail" means the shelf rail on which the rail controller is mounted or the shelf rail on which the rail controller is supported and the shelf rail on which the rail controller controls the ESL after the mounting of the ESL.

[0009] Each element in the list of display data (referred to herein as a list element) indicates information, preferably product information and / or price information, that should be displayed by one unique ESL for a particular product that is to be installed or has already been installed on the shelf floor to which the shelf rail is attached. The list elements may also contain other information, such as appearance information used to control the appearance of content displayed by the ESL.

[0010] The list of display data may reflect the order in which the products must be placed on the shelf floor along the shelf rail, which order may be determined by another data structure associated with the list elements and stored by the rail controller.

[0011] The list of display data is actually a part of the planogram that defines the location of the products in the entire store. This part shows a "local planogram" for each shelf floor. This local planogram, which is stored by the rail controller and provides specific information about the placement of the products on each shelf floor, provides the basis for all operations performed by the rail controller to automatically display each information by the appropriate ESL attached to the shelf rail.

[0012] With regard to the above operations, it should be noted that several operations may be initiated and / or executed in succession or simultaneously. These operations by the rail controller are then described in detail below.

[0013] Further particularly advantageous and refinement embodiments of the invention are set out in the dependent claims and below.

[0014] According to one aspect of the invention, the rail controller acquires identification data from each of the ESLs whose attachment it detects and stores the acquired identification data. The identification data is then stored in a list of ESLs currently attached to the shelf rail, allowing a list of ESLs currently attached to the shelf rail to be created, modified, or extended by the local rail controller. The list also indicates the number of ESLs already attached to the shelf rail later than an ELS registered earlier in the list of ESLs. If no ELSs are attached to the respective shelf rail, the list of ESLs is empty.

[0015] According to another feature of the invention, the rail controller deletes the stored identification data for each ESL whose removal is detected. Thus, the list of ESLs is automatically modified as soon as the removal of an ESL is detected by the rail controller. When an ESL is removed, the number of list elements is reduced.

[0016] Therefore, the list of ELS is a dynamic list that lists all ESLs currently attached to the shelf rail. If all ELSs are removed, the list of ELSs will eventually be emptied after this situation is detected by the rail controller.

[0017] In essence, when a new ESL is installed on a shelf rail or when an ESL is removed from a shelf rail, the entries in this dynamic list are updated by the local rail controller.

[0018] In both situations, the detection of the attachment or removal of an ESL can be performed digitally by the rail controller, which retrieves the identification data of the ESL continuously or at sufficiently short intervals. To update the list of ESLs, this list is searched and each element is checked to see if the corresponding ESL is still available on the shelf rail or if it has been removed. If the identification data of an ESL is not recognized or has not been recognized once or for a certain period of time, this element is removed from the list.

[0019] However, to further conserve power, the rail controller may be woken up to poll for the identification data by a wake-up signal that is generated when the ESL is removed from the shelf rail or when the ESL is attached to the shelf rail. This wake-up signal may be recognized by the rail controller and may initiate a software routine that retrieves the identification data. For example, the software routine may begin execution when the wake-up signal is received at an interrupt input of the rail controller's microcontroller or microprocessor.

[0020] Depending on the technical design that realizes the physical signal interaction between the ESL and the rail controller, an activation signal can be generated when the state of the capacitive, inductive or wire-based coupling between the ESL and the rail controller changes. This change in state of the coupling affects electronic circuitry in the rail controller. This change in state can either trigger the generation of an activation signal (e.g., by electronic detection of a circuit connection) or generate the activation signal directly.

[0021] In practice, it has been found that mistakes frequently occur when ESLs are mounted on shelves or shelf rails because too few or too many ESLs are attached to the shelf rails, i.e. the wrong number of ESLs are attached to the shelf rails. It has therefore proven useful to check whether the correct number of ESLs is on the shelf rails. Preferably, such a check is performed automatically based on the detection of the attachment or removal of ESLs on the shelf rails, in particular by a (dynamic) list of ESLs that is preferably created based on the detection of the attachment or removal of ESLs. This automatic check can provide the above mentioned operation.

[0022] Based on the dynamic list of ESLs, the rail controller can easily check whether a 1:1 relationship exists between the recognized ESLs (attached ESLs) and the elements of the list of display data. It has been found to be particularly beneficial if a number of elements are counted in at least one of both lists, and preferably in both lists, i.e., in the list of ESLs and in the list of display data.

[0023] Therefore, it is beneficial to confirm a mismatch between the number of electronic shelf labels attached to the shelf rail and the number of list elements in the display data list based on the detected attachment or the detected removal.

[0024] The identified discrepancies allow special operations to be initiated before each list element is loaded into the ESL from the list of display data. Such special operations can be performed in two situations that indicate either there are too few ESLs attached relative to the number of list elements, or there are too many ESLs attached relative to the number of list elements.

[0025] It is therefore particularly advantageous for the rail controller to control the timing and / or content of the information displayed by the electronic shelf label depending on the presence or absence of the inconsistency, as will be described below.

[0026] According to a preferred embodiment, in operation, only after the inconsistency is resolved, the rail controller controls all attached electronic shelf labels to display information indicated by list elements assigned to the list in the display data. Only when the correct number of ESLs is available on the shelf rail, the ESLs are provided by the display data.

[0027] This solution provides the advantage that the store clerk who attaches the ESLs to the shelf rails can immediately know when the correct number of ESLs has been reached, because the ESLs receive the data and subsequently display the corresponding list element of the list of display data. The store clerk only needs to attach ESLs to the shelf rails until all ESLs display the corresponding predefined information. The store clerk does not need to pay attention to whether he or she forgot to place an ESL on the shelf rail as in the case of conventional systems. Instead, the store clerk can concentrate on the correct placement (placement) of the ESL with respect to the associated product. This solution therefore allows ESLs to be attached to the shelf rails more quickly and at the same time more accurately.

[0028] This measure also provides the advantage of avoiding premature, i.e. erroneous, assignment and transmission of indication data to an ESL, which would otherwise have to be corrected by multiple transmissions of the indication data, resulting in increased power consumption in the system and potentially confusing store personnel monitoring the ESLs on the shelf rails.

[0029] Moreover, according to a further feature of the invention, the rail controller generates, as the operation, a support signal or data indicative of support information depending on the identified discrepancy, this means allowing direct or indirect interaction with a user, which may typically be a store employee managing the installation or removal of an ESL on a shelf rail.

[0030] Such supporting signals may be human understandable signals, such as acoustic or optical signals, but they may also be (optical / radio) signals that must be interpreted and executed by another unit or device, such as a mobile phone or tablet computer (e.g. a personal digital assistant (PDA)), in order to be understandable by the store staff.

[0031] Preferably, the rail controller includes a light emitting element, in particular a light emitting diode (LED), and controls its light emission in dependence on the supporting signal or data.

[0032] The light emitting element can be used to transmit information to other units or devices, in particular a camera, which captures the light signal and provides its digital code (by radio signal) to another unit or device (e.g. a PDA), where the digital code is evaluated and its content or meaning is made available to the store clerk.

[0033] However, the light emitting element is preferably used to directly inform the store clerk about the current status of the rail controller or the shelf rail without any intermediate device. The light information is therefore predefined and known to the store clerk. For example, the light emitted by the light emitting element may flash as long as an incorrect number of ESLs are attached to the shelf rail. If the correct number of ESLs are on the shelf rail, the light emitting element may, for example, be continuously lit or alternatively not lit and flashing. Depending on whether too many ESLs or too few ESLs are present on the shelf rail, or depending on whether a mismatch exists, the light emitted by the light emitting element may flash variously and / or light up in different colors.

[0034] Preferably, the rail controller includes at least two light emitting elements, in particular light emitting diodes, and controls the lighting depending on the support signal or data, where one light emitting element is used to light or flash if too few ESLs are attached to the shelf rail, and the other light emitting element is used to light or flash if too many ESLs are attached to the shelf rail. Alternatively, one of the two light emitting elements may be provided to indicate when an incorrect number of ESLs are attached to the shelf rail, while the other light emitting element may be provided to indicate when the correct number of ESLs are attached to the shelf rail.

[0035] A store attendant may be informed about the mounting status of the shelf rail by the ESL directly or in addition to the light emitting element. Therefore, it is advantageous for the rail controller to control the information displayed by at least one of the electronic shelf labels mounted on the shelf rail depending on the support signal or the support data. By this measure, an already mounted ESL can be used under the control of the rail controller to indicate to the store attendant, for example, whether too many ESLs or too few ESLs are available on the shelf rail. The ESL therefore receives the support signal or the support data without taking into account the list of display data and processes the support signal or the support data.

[0036] The ESL can display information indicated by the support signal or support data instead of or in addition to the list elements of the list of display data. Thus, for example, the ESL can display "ESL MISSING" until the correct number of ESLs are provided on the shelf rail. Thereafter, the display changes to the corresponding product and / or price information.

[0037] However, it is also possible to display product and / or price information for ESLs already attached to the shelf rail before the mounting process is finished. This embodiment may also be applied in a situation that will be explained in more detail later, where the mounting order is pre-determined so that the correct list elements are always provided to the ESL after the appropriate ESL is mounted. In this case, the ESL can display the annotation "ESL is missing" in addition to the product and / or price information. The displayed information, in particular text and / or images, can thus be superimposed. The rail controller and / or the ESL can be designed to delete the support information after it has been processed. Preferably, the support information is deleted when the correct number of ESLs is mounted on the shelf rail.

[0038] The following describes the provision of display data, in particular product and / or price information, to each ESL stored in a list element of the list of display data.

[0039] According to a further feature of the invention, as an operation, the rail controller controls the newly attached ESL to display information indicated by one of the list elements of the display data, by which means the allocation of display data to an ESL, which may take a long time as known in the prior art, is automated and performed dependent on the detection of the attachment or removal of an ESL.

[0040] Therefore, the rail controller is advantageously designed to send a list element of the list of display data to the newly installed ESL, so that the newly installed ESL can display this data. This display can be performed immediately after inserting the ESL into the shelf rail or at a later time. Thus, as mentioned at the beginning, this operation can also be initiated only when the correct number of ESLs are present.

[0041] As already explained, the rail controller advantageously creates a list of ESLs currently attached to the shelf rail. As a function of the list of ESLs, the rail controller controls the ESLs to display the information indicated by the list elements in the display data. Thus, it is also possible that one list element of the list of display data is provided or assigned by the rail controller to each of multiple ESLs. In other words, each ESL can be assigned to only one list element on a group basis. This multiple list element assignment of one list element to multiple ESLs may be stored in a structure of data linked to the list of display data by independent indicator data. This situation occurs when multiple adjacent ESLs on a longer shelf display the same information about a product or a group of products installed along a sufficient length of the shelf. To address this situation, multiple list elements of the list of display data can hold the same information about a product or a group of products. Thus, multiple ESLs displaying the same information can be installed adjacently along this section of the shelf on which the product or group of products is installed.

[0042] Apart from this exception, typically, one element of a list of multiple ESLs is assigned 1:1 to one element of a list of display data.

[0043] In accordance with a preferred embodiment, the display data list indicates a planned sequence of products to be installed along the shelf rail, and the rail controller assigns newly attached electronic shelf labels to respective list elements according to the planned sequence.

[0044] In this embodiment, by default, the store clerk is required to place the ESLs on the shelf rail in a fixed order, for example from right to left. A first ESL attached to the shelf rail is assigned to a first list element in the list of displayed data. A second ESL attached to the shelf rail to the left of the first ESL is assigned to a second list element in the list of displayed data, and so on. In this embodiment, each element in the list of multiple ESLs is assigned to one of the list elements in the list of displayed data.

[0045] By this means, the rail controller can match multiple ESLs to the associated display data with a very small amount of data and without requiring additional measurements.

[0046] As mentioned at the beginning, it is advantageous for the rail controller to delete the stored identification data of the ESL whose removal has been detected. If the ESLs are removed by the store clerk in the reverse order in which they were installed, the list of these ESLs is always updated and the planned sequence of the products determines the allocation of the list elements of the installed ESLs to the respective list elements of the list of display data. In general, as a special advantage of this embodiment, the rail controller can send the correct list element of the list of display data to the newly installed ESL immediately after its installation is detected. This also allows the store clerk to check the match between the contents displayed by the newly installed ESL and the products already installed on the shelf. In this example, the rail controller may indicate by the above-mentioned means that the ESL is still missing. In particular, the rail controller does not have to count the ESLs or compare the list of ESLs with the list of display data. This facilitates the internal processing of the rail controller. Optionally, the rail controller may store indicator data indicating that a particular list element has already been sent to the ESL.

[0047] However, the rail controller may delay sending list elements to an ESL until the number of ESLs matches the number of list elements.

[0048] According to a further embodiment of the invention, ESLs may be attached to the shelf rail in any order, i.e., in any sequence and at any location. Thus, according to a further feature of the invention, a list of representation data indicates planned locations of a plurality of products to be installed along the shelf rail, the rail controller obtains position information for a newly attached electronic shelf label, the position information indicating a location of each of the electronic shelf labels along the shelf rail, and the rail controller assigns to the newly attached electronic shelf label a list element of the list of representation data that corresponds to the obtained location of the newly attached electronic shelf label.

[0049] The planned position of a product may be indicated by the position (or order of appearance) of the list element in the list of display data, or may be indicated by an indicator or a value stored in or associated with each list element.

[0050] Both the planned position and the position information can be stored in various units or without units. For example, the position can be indicated by a ranking, so that the rightmost position is indicated by the number 0, the position to the left of this position is indicated by the number 1, etc. The position may also be indicated by, for example, a length, such as a distance to the right edge of the shelf rail, so that the planned position of the first product can be stored as, for example, 7 cm, etc. The planned positions may define relative positions between different products or groups of products, or even between ESLs.

[0051] Preferably, a position detection device or a position detection stage may be provided that provides position information integrated into another device. Thus, preferably, a position detection device is provided that measures the position of a newly attached ESL on the shelf rail, and the rail controller is designed to compare this (detected) actual position with a target position, which is derived from a list of display data.

[0052] According to a preferred embodiment, obtaining said position information is based on a remote device, in particular a camera, which images the respective shelf rail and implements a position detection device.

[0053] Unless the ESL receives any other command, the ESL may be designed to display a graphic or a code showing its identification data. Such a code may for example be a QR code, a bar code or a code consisting of letters and numbers. In this case, such a graphic or such a code may be recorded by a remote device. As a result, the position of each ESL can be easily determined by known image processing methods.

[0054] Such position information may be obtained in addition to or instead of position information regarding the shelf rails themselves.

[0055] Therefore, in a further embodiment, obtaining the position information is advantageously based on a code detected by a newly attached electronic shelf label on the shelf rail itself. The detected code or data that may result from the detected code can be transmitted to a rail controller. The rail controller, having recognized the code or its meaning, can then determine the position of the ESL along the shelf rail based on the code or on the data record. However, it is also possible that the position has already been determined in an ESL that has recognized the code or its meaning, and information about the position is transmitted by this ESL to the rail controller. The position information transmitted to the rail controller therefore directly comprises the position of the respective ESL or information that enables the rail controller to determine the position of the respective ESL.

[0056] So, in summary, the position detection stage can be incorporated into an ESL, which sends position information to a rail controller. The position detection stage may be embedded in the rail controller, such that the position information is generated by the rail controller itself. The position detection stage may be embedded in a separate device installed on the shelf rail that sends position information to the rail controller.

[0057] In all embodiments, the position detection device or stage is realized by hardware elements and software running on a programmable controller and is designed to provide position information.

[0058] The coding of the shelf rail can be performed mechanically. Thus, the shelf rail can have several recesses of different shapes and / or dimensions. The ESL can have dedicated mechanical sensors that sense these recesses or, more precisely, their dimensions or proportions. Such mechanical sensors can be, for example, hooks that still perform the task of fixing the ESL to the shelf rail by mechanical interaction with these recesses. Depending on the position where the ESL is installed along the shelf rail, the hooks move deeper or shallower into the respective recess. This means that the recess, i.e. the position, can be inferred depending on the movement distance of the hook detected along the extension of the recess until it reaches the structural boundary of the recess. After the hook has been successfully attached to the shelf rail, the ESL provides not only its identification data but also measurement data indicating the position information of the mechanical sensor, i.e. the sensor that determines the position of the hook. This allows the rail controller to determine which ESL is attached where along the shelf rail.

[0059] According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the mechanical coding of the shelf rails (of the individual lengths of the various recesses) is based on the well-known Gray code.

[0060] The coding may be performed optically, so the shelf rail may have multiple symbols or multiple codes or multiple recesses of various shapes and / or multiple sizes or multiple dimensions, especially in two dimensions, that can be sensed by the optical sensor of the ESL.

[0061] On the one hand, the ESL may have a dedicated optical sensor, which may be a photoelectric sensor or in particular a camera, capable of photographing the sign, the code or the recess on the shelf rail. Also, the ESL may be provided with a lighting element, for example an LED, which illuminates the optically obtainable code so that the code can be obtained faster. Then, like a mechanical sensor, the ESL can transmit the data recorded as position information together with the identification data to the rail controller.

[0062] An ESL may include distance sensors designed and / or positioned to measure the distance to an adjacent element (another ESL or a rail controller) along the shelf rail. Measurements of all ESLs installed on the shelf rail are provided to the rail controller, which evaluates the measurements and calculates the exact positions of these ESLs along the shelf rail.

[0063] On the other hand, a remote device embodied as a camera mounted on the ceiling of the store or on another side of the shelf aisle may be provided to detect the shelf rail and identify where the ESL covers the sign, code or recess along the shelf rail. This image data may be compared with older image data and / or a list of already identified ESLs to identify which positions are newly covered or occupied. This newly covered or occupied position is thus the position of the last ESL installed. However, based on the captured image, image processing software may identify the absolute position of the newly installed ESL on the shelf rail, because, for example, the code covered by the newly installed ESL is not visible in the captured image of the shelf rail.

[0064] A button or contact may be placed at a specific location along the shelf rail that closes a circuit when an ESL is installed. Thus, the rail controller, knowing which button or contact is placed at which location along the shelf rail, can recognize when one of the elements is activated and from that knowledge, identify the location of the newly installed ESL. Activation of the elements affects the electronic circuitry individually and thus corresponds to coding.

[0065] As will be further explained below, the shelf rail preferably has a number of electrical conductors for submitting energy or information to the ESL. These conductors may be used to determine the location of the ESL through resistance measurements. The rail controller can determine the location of the ESL from the known electrical resistance of the ESL and the inherent resistance of the electrical conductors and / or based on empirical values. Generally, an ESL has at least two contacts intended to contact electrical conductors. Energy or power can then be supplied to the ESL. To determine the location, the ESL can be designed to switch to a location mode in which the ESL has a predefined resistance between two contacts. Thus, for example, the ESL can be switched such that a resistance is connected between these contacts, rather than requiring an electrical system to operate the ESL in its normal mode. A few seconds after or within a few seconds of determining the location, the ESL switches back to its normal mode in which it can extract energy from the shelf rail.

[0066] Similarly, the location may be determined by inductive or capacitive energy and / or information transfer, where results regarding the location of the ESL may be derived from magnetic or electric fields or changes in magnetic or electric fields.

[0067] As described above, the transmission of energy and / or information based on electrical conductors has proven to be beneficial, and therefore, according to a preferred embodiment, the rail controller and the electronic shelf label are designed to be connected to each other through electrical conductors, which are supported by the shelf rail.

[0068] The conductor may be a stripline or a sheet.

[0069] The shelf rail or a surface layer of the shelf rail may be designed like a printed circuit board, the conductors being designed on the shelf rail like a printed circuit board as conductor tracks.

[0070] Preferably, the electrical conductors are uninsulated wires that are preferably installed in grooves in the shelf rail and run along the entire length of the shelf rail so that they can be contacted by the contacts of the ESL at any location along the shelf rail.

[0071] As mentioned above, the electrical conductors may be used for energy and / or information transfer and location. In particular, the wires may be used to signal that an ESL has been attached to or removed from a shelf rail. This may be done by signaling / data transmission or by transmitting a change in the electrical characteristics of the shelf rail bus system implemented by a rail controller that accompanies the electrical conductors.

[0072] Finally, it is noted that the electronic devices described throughout the description of this patent application may be realized by well-known discrete and / or integrated electronics. Wherever an interface is required, one skilled in the art can select and design appropriate interface circuits to enable data and / or signal communication. A programmable device may be composed of a microprocessor and some peripheral electronic devices. Such a programmable device may also be realized by a microcontroller or an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), etc. The execution of software routines on such devices provides the computer-implemented functions described herein.

[0073] There are several ways in which an ESL may be attached to a shelf rail. For example, the ESL may be attached to the shelf rail by a plug connection. The ESL may be attached to the shelf rail by a hook. Such a hook may be mounted to the shelf rail. The ESL may be locally secured against removal by one or more pins. The ESL may be attached to the shelf rail by an adhesive connection.

[0074] These and other features of the present invention are illustrated in the figures described below.

[0075] In the following, the invention will be described again on the basis of exemplary embodiments with reference to the attached drawings, which do not limit the scope of the invention. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0076] [Figure 1] 1 shows a portion of a shelf with shelf rails and products installed on the shelf floor. [Diagram 2] Shows installed ESLs on shelf rails of shelf. [Diagram 3] Shows consecutively installed ESLs on shelf rails. [Figure 4] Shows consecutively installed ESLs on shelf rails. [Diagram 5] Shows consecutively installed ESLs on shelf rails. [Figure 6] Shows consecutively installed ESLs on shelf rails. [Figure 7A] ESL is detailed. [Figure 7B] ESL is detailed. [Figure 8A] A cross section of a shelf rail is shown. [Figure 8B] 1 shows a cross section of a shelf rail with an attached ESL. [Figure 9] The underside of the shelf rail is shown. [Figure 10] 1 shows the underside of the shelf rail with the coating. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0077] 1 shows a part of an electronic shelf label system 1 used to explain the method according to the present invention. Typically, in such a system 1, a large number of electronic shelf labels (herein abbreviated as ESLs) are controlled by a central data management device, e.g., a server located within a retailer's storefront or a cloud-based software solution (both not shown), to display information on products and / or prices for products installed near each ESL. Typically, communication devices between the central data management device and the ESLs consist of wired or wireless communication devices such as switches, routers or access pins.

[0078] The description will be limited to one level 3 of shelf 2 here, since this is sufficient to explain the invention.

[0079] FIG. 1 shows a shelf rail 4 mounted on the front edge of a shelf 3. The shelf rail 4 supports a rail controller 5 mounted on the right end of the shelf rail 4 when viewed from the front. The shelf rail 4 includes a housing that covers three electrical conductors 7 and the electronics of the rail controller 5 (not shown in detail). A first electrical conductor is provided as a ground potential, a second electrical conductor is provided to provide power or to be used for specific purpose communication (e.g., to initiate a polling sequence for all attached devices (ESLs)), and a third electrical conductor is provided for data communication (in high speed synchronous bidirectional communication mode or low speed communication mode) and for communication with the rail controller 5 when an attached device (ESL) requests communication. The electrical conductors 7 extend along almost the entire length of the shelf rail 4 and are shown by dashed lines because they are mounted hidden on the back side of the electrical conductor carrier 6. The electrical conductors 7 are designed as uninsulated wires. As a result, the conductors 7 can be contacted on the underside of the conductor carrier 6 to an ESL located anywhere along the shelf rail 4. The conductors 7 are provided and used to supply energy (power) to the ESL mounted on the shelf rail 4 and to exchange data and / or signals with the ESL mounted on the shelf rail 4 under the control of the rail controller 5 of the shelf rail 4. The rail controller 5 together with these conductors realizes the local bus system of that shelf rail and, so to speak, the local electronic shelf rail subsystem of the ESL system 1, which is embedded in the mechanical structure of the shelf rail 4.

[0080] The illustrated shelf rails 4 and ESLs 9a, 9b, 9c, 9d are designed to be attached to one another, as will be explained in more detail with reference to Figures 7A-10.

[0081] 1 shows four groups of products 8a, 8b, 8c, and 8d on a shelf 3. Information about the products 8a, 8b, 8c, and 8d and corresponding display data are stored in a list of display data in the rail controller 5. The rail controller 5 receives the list of display data from a central management device (not shown) via a wireless communication device having the above-mentioned access point (not shown). Each list element of the list of display data belongs to only one group of products 8a to 8d.

[0082] The group of products 8a on the far right (as seen from the front) is represented by the first list element of the list of display data. The group of products 8b on the second right is represented by the second list element of the list of display data, and so on. It is assumed here that the rail controller stores the list elements of the list of display data in the intended sequence or order of the product groups, according to which the product groups must be placed on the shelf floor. Furthermore, the rail controller 5 includes two light-emitting diodes, designed as EDs 10a, 10b, which are visible in front of the housing and which are intended to inform the store clerk of information regarding the current state of the arrangement of the ESLs 9a-9d on the shelf rail 4. Depending on the state in which the shelf rail 4 has the ESLs 9a-9d, the rail controller 5 is designed to control the transmission of light signals by the LEDs 10a and 10b.

[0083] According to an embodiment of this feature, the first LED 10a lights up for a predetermined period of time, e.g., 10 seconds, when the correct number of ESLs 9a, 9b, 9c, 9d have arrived on the shelf rail 4. If too few ESLs 9a, 9b, 9c, 9d are attached to the shelf rail 4, the second LED 10b lights up continuously. If too many ESLs 9a, 9b, 9c, 9d are attached to the shelf rail 4, the second LED 10b flashes.

[0084] 1, but since the rail controller 5 receives the list of display data, and therefore the groups of products 8a, 8b, 8c, 8d are already known to the rail controller 5, the rail controller 5 generates and sends a corresponding support signal to the second LED 14a, which lights this LED 14a continuously until the situation changes.

[0085] 2 shows the shelf rail 4 after a store clerk has attached a first ESL 9a to the shelf rail 4 below the right-most group of products 8a. The newly installed ESL 9a signals its presence to the rail controller 5 on the shelf rail bus by acting on the power or signal lines of the three conductors 7 according to predetermined means, and then, after the rail controller 4 starts transmitting its identification data, the ESL 9a transmits its identification data to the rail controller 5 via the signal lines of the shelf rail bus. The identification data is stored in the ESL identification data list (hereinafter referred to as the list of ESLs) in the rail controller 5. In this case, the identification data of the newly installed ESL 9a indicates the first element of the list of ESLs.

[0086] Because the number of elements in the ESL list is less than the number of list elements in the display data list, i.e., because the number of ESLs 9a attached to the shelf rail 4 and the number of list elements in the display data list still do not match, the controller continues to light the second LED 10b.

[0087] Additionally or alternatively, the rail controller 4 can send supporting data to the installed ESLs 9a, which in turn prompts the display of a message informing the store attendant of discrepancies such as "1 / 4 already installed" as to how many ESLs 9a are already installed and how many ESLs 9a must be installed on the shelf rails 4. A command, such as "Add more ESLs", may be displayed by the ESL, however this command will not be further described in this exemplary embodiment.

[0088] In FIG. 3, another ESL 9b has been attached to the shelf rail 4. Again, identification data for the new ESL 9b is requested by the rail controller 5 as described above, and it is added to the list of ESLs in the rail controller 5.

[0089] The second LED 10b continues to light because the number of groups of products 8a, 8b, 8c, 8d and the number of ESLs 9a, 9b, 9c, 9d attached to the shelf rail 4 still do not match.

[0090] In FIG. 4, another ESL 9c is attached to the shelf rail 4 and its identification data is also included in the list of ESLs in the rail controller 5.

[0091] Since the mismatch continues, the second LED 10b continues to light up.

[0092] In FIG. 5, another ESL 9d is attached to the shelf rail 4 and its identification data is also included in the list of ESLs in the rail controller 5.

[0093] At this time, the list of ESLs has the same number of elements as the list of display data. That is, since there is no mismatch, the rail controller 5 turns off the second LED 10b and activates the first LED 10a for a preset period of 10 seconds. At this time, the store clerk can confirm from the lit first LED 10a that the correct number of ESLs 9a, 9b, 9c, and 9d have been attached to the shelf rail 4.

[0094] The list of display data and the list of ESLs are stored in the same sequence or order, so that each list element constitutes a first list that matches the list elements of a second list that defines the assignment of each list element from the list of display data to each list element of the lists of ESLs 9a, 9b, 9c, 9d.

[0095] In this manner, a first list element of the list of display data contains product and price information for the first group from the right, consisting of products 8a. This list element is therefore transmitted from the rail controller 5 to the first ESL 9a from the right via the shelf rail bus. This transmission is performed in an addressing communication mode using the identification data of the first ESL 9a, available in the list of ESLs in the rail controller 5, to address the first ESL 9a. A second list element of the list of display data contains product and price information for the second group from the right, consisting of products 8b. This list element is transmitted to the second ESL 9b from the right during the addressing communication mode. A third list element of the list of display data contains product and price information for the third group from the right, consisting of products 8c. This list element is transmitted to the third ESL 9c from the right during the addressing communication mode.

[0096] Finally, the fourth list element of the list of display data contains product and price information for the group consisting of the fourth product 8d from the right, which is sent to the fourth ESL 9d from the right during the addressed communication mode.

[0097] FIG. 6 shows ESLs 9a, 9b, 9c and 9d having each list element received from the list of display data and displaying corresponding product and price information by means of their displays (screens 11) as seen from this front view.

[0098] At this point LEDs 10a, 10b are no longer illuminated. If the store attendant continues to add ESLs, a mismatch is detected by the rail controller 5 and the second LED 10b will flash until the situation changes.

[0099] When a store attendant removes an ESL from a shelf rail 4, the rail controller detects the removal by signaling from the ESL to the rail controller 5 over the data or power lines of the shelf rail bus, or during a periodic polling sequence in which the rail controller 5 checks the identity of the ESL on the shelf rail 4. Depending on the current installation situation, the rail controller 5 can possibly detect the presence or absence of a mismatch and appropriately signal the detected situation to one of the two LEDs 10a or 10b.

[0100] Figures 7A and 7B show in detail ESL 9a, which is representative of all ESLs 9a-9d, where Figure 7A shows a backside view of ESL 9a, while Figure 7B shows a side view of ESL 9a.

[0101] The ESL 9a includes two hooks 12 that can be locked into recesses 14 in the shelf rail 4 shown in FIGS.

[0102] The ESL 9a shown in Figures 7A and 78B also includes three contacts or contact pads 13 intended to contact the conductors 7. The contact pads 13 lead from the housing of the ESL 9a to a gap into which the conductor carrier 6 can be inserted. The contact pads 13 are also visible through a through hole in the housing on the rear side. In this case, the contact pads 13 can be easily contacted for service or maintenance purposes.

[0103] FIG. 8A shows a cross section of shelf rail 4.

[0104] Here, the conductors 7 are enclosed by the plate-shaped conductor carrier 6 in such a way that only a part of the cross section of the conductors 7 protrudes from the cover 6. As a result, the conductors 7 can be contacted by the contact pads 13.

[0105] At the ends of the shelf rails 4 , electrical conductors 7 make electrical contact with electronic components of the rail controller 5 , not shown in detail.

[0106] FIG. 8B shows a shelf rail 4 with an attached ESL 9a. The ESL 9a has been moved from under the shelf rail 4 towards the conductor carrier 6 so that the conductor carrier 6 can be slid into the gap in the housing of the ESL 9a and each of the contact pads 13 of the plurality of contact pads 13 can finally contact a respective conductor 7 that establishes an electrical connection between the ESL 9a and the rail controller 5. Since all ESLs 9a-9d are connected to only three conductors, the local rail bus system uses a synchronous (bidirectional high-speed) communication mode in which the rail controller 5 acts as the master and the ESLs 9a-9d are slaves. In this bidirectional communication mode, display data and other status data are communicated to the individually addressed ESLs 9a-9d. In this case, an asynchronous (low-speed) communication mode is also provided. In the asynchronous (low-speed) communication mode, each ESL 9a-9d can transmit a communication request after it has been attached to the shelf rail 4, for example. As a result, the rail controller 5 is informed about the newly attached ESL. This asynchronous communication mode may be used by the ESLs 9a-9d to transmit their identification data and other parameters to the rail controller 5. As a result, the rail controller 5 can efficiently use the synchronous communication mode with each ESL 9a-9d. This asynchronous communication mode is also used by the rail controller 5 to initiate a polling sequence on the local rail bus to determine which ESLs among the multiple ESLs listed in the ESL list are still attached to the shelf rail 4. This allows the rail controller 5 to determine which ESLs 9a-9d have been removed or removed from the shelf rail 4 of the rail controller 5, respectively, and thus to keep the list of ESLs up to date.

[0107] FIG. 9 shows the back surface of the shelf rail 4 on which the ESLs 9a-9d are attached according to the above description. The ESL 9a is attached to the shelf rail 4 at an arbitrary position, and information regarding the exact position is not available. In this figure, the recess 14 that the hook 12 of the ESL 9a grips can be seen. The conductors 7 of the shelf rail 4 are visible through the recess 14. By using such a shelf rail 4, the multiple ESLs 9a, 9b, 9c, and 9d are basically attached to the shelf rail 4 in order from right to left relative to the position of the rail controller 5, so to speak, in a predetermined assembly or mounting direction (in a predetermined order). This is a prerequisite for the rail controller 5 to properly assign the correct display data (display information) to these ESLs in the predetermined order. In such an embodiment, if one or more ESLs are removed from shelf rail 4 and the removal order (which is the opposite order to the mounting order) is not observed, it becomes necessary to remove all ESLs from shelf rail 4 and thus reestablish the proper relationships between the multiple ESLs mounted on shelf rail 4 in a new mounting process and the information to be displayed by each ESL.

[0108] In response, position information can be obtained that indicates the actual location of each ESL along the shelf rail 4. Then, if a particular shelf rail 4 is used, as described with respect to FIG. 10, the position information can be used to send the appropriate list element of the list of display data to the correct ESL.

[0109] Figure 10 shows the underside of a coded shelf rail 4. Here, the coding is performed by recesses 14 of different dimensions (different lengths measured perpendicularly to the longitudinal extension of the shelf rail 4). The hooks 12 are pressed by a spring inside the ESL 9a against the ESL 9a, which is attached to the shelf rail 4, until they come into contact with the lower edge of the recesses 14. The electronics of the ESL 9a consist of a distance sensor, which detects how far the hooks 12 have moved or in which position they are. Based on this detection for each hook 12, a distance value is measured which indicates the distance of this hook 12 from its starting position.

[0110] In short, for each ESL 9a, 9b, 9c, and 9d attached to the shelf rail 4, two distance values ​​are measured, which mean one unique position for each hook 12. Since the recesses 14 in the shelf rail 4 are designed such that these two distance values ​​for each ESL can be unambiguously assigned to only one unique position of each ESL 9a-9d along the shelf rail 4, this pair of distance values ​​provides one unique position information for each of these ESLs 9a-9d. This position information is transmitted to the rail controller 5 together with the identification data of each ESL 9a-9d.

[0111] The rail controller 5 then knows the pattern of the recesses 14 and the respective code portions indicating their respective positions and can therefore process the position information, i.e. determine the exact positions of the ESLs 9a-9d on the shelf rail 4. Based on the exact positions derived for each ESL 9a-9d, the rail controller 5 sends the appropriate list element of the display data to the correct ESL 9a-9d. In this embodiment, the list of display data or the associated data may include permissible range information along the shelf rail 4 for each individual ESL 9a-9d. As a result, the ESLs 9a-9d do not need to be installed in an exact position, but rather can be installed within a predefined position along the shelf rail 4. This further facilitates the shelf rail installation process.

[0112] Finally, it should be noted again that the figures described in detail above only include representative embodiments that can be modified in a variety of ways by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the present invention. For completeness, it should also be noted that the use of the indefinite article "a" does not imply that each feature cannot occur multiple times.

Claims

1. 1. A method for controlling electronic shelf labels (9a, 9b, 9c, 9d) attached to a shelf rail (4) at positions along the shelf rail (4) and controlled by a local rail controller (5) on the shelf rail (4), comprising the steps of: the rail controller (5) stores a list of display data, elements of the list of display data being to be provided to the electronic shelf labels (9a, 9b, 9c, 9d) and indicating information to be displayed on the electronic shelf labels (9a, 9b, 9c, 9d); the rail controller (5) detects attachment of an electronic shelf label (9a, 9b, 9c, 9d) to the shelf rail (4) or removal of the electronic shelf label (9a, 9b, 9c, 9d) from the shelf rail (4); The method further comprising the step of: based on the detection of the attachment or removal of the electronic shelf label, the rail controller (5) starting an operation taking into account a list of display data.

2. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the rail controller (5) acquires identification data from each of the electronic shelf labels (9a, 9b, 9c, 9d) whose attachment has been detected, and stores the acquired identification data.

3. 3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the rail controller (5) deletes the stored identification data for each electronic shelf label (9a, 9b, 9c, 9d) for which the removal is detected.

4. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, further comprising: determining whether or not there is a mismatch between the number of electronic shelf labels (9a, 9b, 9c, 9d) attached to the shelf rail (4) and the number of list elements in the display data list, based on the detected attachment or the detected removal.

5. 5. The method of claim 4, wherein the rail controller (5) controls the timing and / or content of information displayed by the electronic shelf labels (9a, 9b, 9c, 9d) depending on the presence or absence of the discrepancy.

6. 6. The method according to claim 5, wherein as said operation, only after said inconsistency has been resolved, said rail controller (5) controls all attached electronic shelf labels (9a, 9b, 9c, 9d) to display information indicated by list elements assigned to the list of display data.

7. 5. The method according to claim 4, wherein the rail controller (5) generates, as said operation, a supporting signal or supporting data indicative of supporting information depending on the identified discrepancy.

8. 8. The method according to claim 7, wherein the rail controller (5) comprises light emitting elements (10a, 10b), in particular light emitting diodes, and controls the light emission in dependence on the supporting signal or supporting data.

9. 9. The method according to claim 7 or 8, wherein the rail controller (5) controls information displayed by at least one of the electronic shelf labels (9a, 9b, 9c, 9d) attached to the shelf rail (4) depending on the support signal or the support data.

10. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 9, wherein as said operation, said rail controller (5) controls a newly attached electronic shelf label (9a, 9b, 9c, 9d) to display information indicated by one of a plurality of list elements of said display data.

11. 11. The method according to claim 10, wherein the list of display data indicates a planned sequence of a plurality of products (8a, 8b, 8c, 8d) to be installed along the shelf rail (4), and the rail controller (5) assigns newly attached electronic shelf labels (9a, 9b, 9c, 9d) to respective list elements according to the planned sequence.

12. a list of display data showing the planned positions of a number of products (8a, 8b, 8c, 8d) to be installed along said shelf rails (4); - the rail controller (5) obtains position information for the newly attached electronic shelf labels (9a, 9b, 9c, 9d), this position information indicating the position of each of the electronic shelf labels (9a, 9b, 9c, 9d) along the shelf rail (4); The method according to claim 10, wherein the rail controller (5) assigns to the newly attached electronic shelf label (9a, 9b, 9c, 9d) a list element of a list of display data which corresponds to the obtained position of the newly attached electronic shelf label.

13. 13. The method according to claim 12, wherein obtaining the position information is based on a remote device, in particular a camera, imaging the respective shelf rail (4).

14. 13. The method according to claim 12, wherein obtaining the location information is based on a code detected by a newly attached electronic shelf label (9a, 9b, 9c, 9d) on the shelf rail (4) itself.

15. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 14, wherein the rail controller (5) and the electronic shelf label are designed to be connected to each other via electrical conductors (7), the electrical conductors (7) being supported by the shelf rail (4).

Images