Methods for guiding people towards a product

Abstract

To provide an improved method for guiding people to a product and an improved system for implementing said improved method. [Solution] A system 1 installed inside a supermarket building includes the steps of: assigning a wireless beacon to a product and radiating it from a wireless beacon transmitter on an electronic shelf label 2 that is spatially close to the product or installed at a determined location on the product; receiving the radiated wireless beacon with a mobile device 12 which is a wireless beacon receiver that can move locally with a person; and activating the electronic shelf label when the wireless beacon receiver moves into a predetermined operational activation area around the wireless beacon transmitter.

Description

Technical Field

[0005] , ,

[0001] The present invention relates to a method for guiding a person to a product, which is particularly applicable to an order picking system for guiding an order picker.

Background Art

[0002] Recently, many supermarkets have provided their customers with the so-called "pick & collect service". Therefore, a customer can order the products ordered by the customer, and the articles are collected within the supermarket by an employee (referred to in technical terms as a so-called order picker) and arranged for the customer who is trying to purchase. To collect the articles ordered for the customer, the order picker moves throughout the store together with the portable information terminal (PDA) of the order picker used to display the order items, and directly selects the corresponding products from the shelves. All the electronic shelf labels (ESLs) installed at the positions of a plurality of products logically linked by the ESL assist the order picker by operating the light-emitting diodes of the ESLs to blink. The blinking light-emitting diodes guide the order picker to the products to be selected.

[0003] However, this means that a very large number of ESLs may have to blink simultaneously and for a long period of time until the corresponding products are collected, the order picker approves the collection, and the corresponding ESL stops blinking.

[0004] However, the blinking involves a large power consumption. The large power consumption is significant not only for battery-operated ESLs whose battery life is significantly reduced, but also for power-operated ESLs.

Summary of the Invention

Problems to be Solved by the Invention

[0005] Therefore, the object of the present invention is to provide an improved method for guiding people to a product and an improved system for carrying out the improved method, so as to solve the above-mentioned problems. [Means for solving the problem]

[0006] This problem is solved by the display system described in claim 1. Therefore, the subject of the present invention is a method for guiding a person to a product. In this case, the method includes the following steps: emitting a radio beacon from a radio beacon transmitter assigned to the product and located substantially in spatial proximity to the product or installed at the intended location of the product; receiving the emitted radio beacon with a radio beacon receiver that is locally movable in particular with a person or device; and activating an operation when the radio beacon receiver moves into a predetermined operational activation area around the radio beacon transmitter.

[0007] The means according to the present invention offers the advantage that the occurrence of an operation resulting in power consumption of the system depends on the relative position of the radio beacon receiver to the radio beacon transmitter. Therefore, when the radio beacon receiver and the radio beacon transmitter are very far apart from each other, no operation is activated at all, and as a result, no power is consumed. A predetermined operation activation area defines the area in which it is meaningful to activate an operation to guide a person to a product and to allow power consumption in the system. Furthermore, the dimensions of the operation activation area can be easily adapted so that a person can use the operation to find a path toward a specific product.

[0008] In short, the present invention offers two main improvements: reducing power consumption in the system and improving retrieval efficiency by focusing on the attention of the person searching for the product.

[0009] Preferably, the method is applied or used within a product display area, particularly within a supermarket, where multiple products or a group of multiple products are displayed in a predetermined location.

[0010] In a particular embodiment of the method, the wireless beacon receiver is locally movable in the vicinity of the merchandise display area along with a person carrying the wireless beacon transmitter. The wireless beacon receiver may also be locally movable in conjunction with a device to which the wireless beacon receiver is attached or embedded, such as a shopping cart pushed by a person.

[0011] The radio beacon transmitter may be assigned to this product by (directly) by the product itself, or by being logically linked to this product (indirectly) through another device that carries the radio beacon transmitter or has the radio beacon transmitter. This logical link is stored as data, for example, in a database.

[0012] Furthermore, particularly beneficial embodiments and other embodiments of the present invention are described in the dependent claims and the following description.

[0013] In general, stores such as supermarkets and wholesalers to which this method is applicable may have fewer or more electronic display devices. The number of display devices installed may depend on the size of the supermarket and / or the number of goods or product groups.

[0014] Such an electronic display device may consist of multiple so-called electronic shelf labels (ESLs) installed on multiple shelf rails at multiple locations along shelf rails adjacent to multiple product groups or products. These product groups or products are logically linked to the ESLs. To display price information for the products and / or the multiple product groups or products, these ESLs are generally made of display screens with low or near-zero power consumption (e.g., by electronic paper or electrophoretic technology). The content displayed by the displays is provided by content data transmitted to these ESLs by wireless signals or wired connections, and generally conveys text and / or images similarly displayed by the displays.

[0015] Such an electronic display device may consist of a so-called video rail having one or more video screens, which are installed on (or along) the shelf rail or constitute the shelf rail itself.

[0016] In contrast to ESL, the video rail consists of a video display screen and is therefore capable of displaying images and / or virtual electronic shelf labels. These virtual electronic shelf labels can be freely positioned along the display of the video rail and may be superimposed on or embedded in the images. The content data is also provided to the video rail to transmit images and / or virtual electronic shelf labels that are similarly displayed by the display.

[0017] Such an electronic display device may be configured as a smart poster that enables a display specific to the situation on the display screen of the electronic display device.

[0018] Content data is generated and provided by a data delivery system. This data delivery system may consist of cloud-based (software and hardware) services or local servers within the supermarket premises. In either case, the software runs on a computer architecture that processes text or images to be clearly displayed on each electronic display device in a human-readable format. This processing creates content that is encoded in an appropriate data format and provided to the electronic display device.

[0019] Generally, a data delivery system is connected to a communication network configured to deliver content data to each electronic display device via wireless or wired signals. Such a communication network may have wireless access points, each configured to perform wireless communication with a group of multiple electronic display devices. Such a communication network may also have multiple routers or controllers, etc., to which the multiple electronic display devices are preferably connected in groups.

[0020] Generally, a data provision system has store management software that manages a database that stores a plan of the entire store, the shelves, the products on those shelves, and the electronic shelf labels linked to each product. Such a data structure is commonly known as a shelf layout. Therefore, the data provision system allows individual content, either automatically generated or determined by an authenticated user of the display system, to be displayed on individual electronic display devices.

[0021] Furthermore, the data provision system may have one or more (portable or fixed) computer-assisted input devices that allow an authenticated user of the display system to select or determine human-readable text or images to be displayed on one of a group of electronic display devices or a group of electronic display devices. Such input devices may be, for example, computer terminals, personal digital assistants, mobile phones, tablet computers, etc. These input devices run user interface software on their computer hardware. The user interface software is programmed to allow the user to perform appropriate interaction processing with the user to select or determine human-readable text or images and to interface with store management software. Furthermore, these input devices have the hardware and software necessary to provide the data provision system with representations of human-readable text or images in digital format, for example, in an intermediate data format or as content data.

[0022] For this reason, such portable devices may also be used by authenticated users, referred to herein as “order pickers,” to collect goods according to orders received from customers. Various aspects of the order-picking process are described below in detail. However, it should be noted that the method of guiding a person into a product display area where goods are displayed may also be applied from the perspective of a customer walking through a supermarket and collecting goods according to their shopping list. In this regard, the customer’s portable device may be a smartphone or tablet computer carried by the customer.

[0023] As described above, in a preferred use case of the present invention, the person induced by the method according to the present invention is an order picker. In this specification, the wireless beacon receiver is an electronic mobile device of the order picker having a display screen, and displays product information of a product or a list of products to be selected by the order picker. This product information or this product list or list of product information can be directly input or uploaded to the mobile device for this purpose. Each mobile device of a plurality of order pickers provides a shopping application that supports the order selection and collection process so that each order picker can process individual orders of a plurality of customers. Each data may be received from the data providing system, and the respective data may be pushed to the mobile device, or the mobile device may be automatically synchronized with the shopping application.

[0024] Such an electronic mobile device includes the following plurality of components including a wireless beacon receiving stage for receiving a wireless beacon: - Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), - Smart phone, - Tablet computer, - Smart watch, - Smart trolley, It may be composed of one of the components.

[0025] These components can be adapted to the work of selecting ordered items on the software side and / or the hardware side. This means that the computer of such a device runs an application for selecting ordered items. The application provides functions necessary for the order picker on the mobile device side. These mobile devices also have electronic circuits for wireless receivers in order to receive wireless beacons, extract and use wireless beacon data contents, and / or further process the wireless beacon data contents transmitted by the wireless beacons.

[0026] The wireless beacon transmitter includes the following multiple components including a wireless beacon transmitting stage that emits a wireless beacon: - An electronic shelf label (generally, this electronic shelf label is attached to a shelf rail that defines a shelf, particularly a shelf floor board on which goods can be placed. Such a shelf label may be configured as a tablet display or a clothing tag.), - A rail to which a shelf label or other device can be attached (this means that the shelf rail itself of the product display tablet or the (front) rail may have an electronic device of the wireless beacon transmitting stage.), - The electronic rail controller configured to control a plurality of electronic shelf labels or other electronic devices attached to the rail of the electronic rail controller (in this embodiment, the electronic device of the wireless beacon transmitting stage is built into the rail controller at the central position of the rail. Therefore, the ESL controlled by the rail controller does not require any additional optional electronic devices to constitute the wireless beacon transmitting stage.), - An electronic label attached to a product (in this embodiment, the electronic label may be configured as a radio frequency identification tag (RFID-Tag) or a near field communication device (NFC-Device) that can be mainly used to identify a plurality of products. In this case, the functionality of the electronic label is enhanced by the wireless beacon transmitting stage that adapts the functionality to the method according to the present invention.), It is realized by at least one of the components.

[0027] The purpose of the operation is to let the order picker notice that the order picker is close to at least one of the plurality of products on the shopping list. Therefore, the operation executed when the product or the display location of the product is spatially close is characterized by at least one of the following multiple means (see below), and / or it is beneficial that the product can move together with the order picker.

[0028] Therefore, according to the first aspect of this function, the operation is performed by an electronic device installed in (very) close proximity to the product (e.g., by an ESL or rail controller, or by a rail tag or RFID tag or an NFC tag attached to the product). According to the second aspect of this function, the operation is performed by an electronic device that is locally movable with the order picker (e.g., a PDA, tablet computer, smartphone). According to the third aspect of this function, the operation may be performed in particular simultaneously by an electronic device installed in (very) close proximity to the product (see "First aspect of this function") and an electronic device that is locally movable with the order picker (see "Second aspect of this function"). The "means described above" are hereby listed as follows: - Changes to person-readable content displayed on a display screen, in particular picking information. For example, an order number, product number, product name, or a note such as "It's here" or "It's near you" may be displayed to a person. - The generation of visual effects on the display screen. For example, the display screen may rapidly flash or change the appearance of the content on the display screen in order to dynamically change the appearance of the content and draw attention to the content itself. - Generation of visual effects by a light source. For example, an LED that flashes, lights up, or changes color may be provided. The LED may be mounted on a locally movable electronic device or on an electronic device installed in close proximity to the product. - Execution of vibration by vibration stage. This allows the order picker to be notified that they have arrived in the action activation area without taking their eyes off their current work. Separating this action from checking visual content for the purpose of collecting items increases the order picker's work efficiency. This is because, for example, while the order picker's PDA is vibrating, the order picker can continue to visually check the list of items without being interrupted. Furthermore, this ensures that other people, such as customers or other order pickers, are not interrupted by this action. - Generation of an acoustic signal by an acoustic signal generation stage. The acoustic signal also has the advantage of separating this operation from checking visual content for the purpose of collecting items, and therefore similarly increasing the work efficiency of the order picker. This is because, for example, while the order picker's PDA is emitting a sound, the order picker can continue to visually check the list of items without being interrupted. Naturally, the sound can also be heard by other people near the electronic device emitting the sound. Different order pickers may be assigned different tones so as not to interfere with each other.

[0029] The operational activation region is defined by the radio beacon signal strength set by the radio beacon transmitter and / or by a default threshold for a received signal parameter, the signal parameter indicating the radio beacon received by the radio beacon receiver, and the default threshold set by the radio beacon receiver.

[0030] When the radio beacon signal strength is set by the radio beacon transmitter, the activation region is essentially defined by the radio beacon transmitter. This activation region is the area in which the radio beacon can be reliably received by the radio beacon receiver. Essentially, the radio signal strength is set by the radio signal output used to radiate the radio beacon. This radio signal output determines the maximum distance from the radio beacon transmitter at which the radio beacon can be received and processed. In some embodiments, a variable or adaptable radio signal strength may be used on the radio beacon transmitter side to model or modify the activation region.

[0031] If a default threshold for a received signal parameter is set by the radio beacon receiver, that received signal parameter originates from the received radio beacon signal. Generally, such reception may be performed by the radio beacon receiver. In this case, for example, the reception quality or so-called received signal strength indicator (RSSI, milliwatts, or output level in decibels (dBm) relative to milliwatts) is calculated by the receiver's electronics. Thus, the radio beacon transmitter can define a level or value for this parameter as a default threshold for this parameter. In this embodiment, the operational activation area may be defined to be narrower than the maximum distance measured from the radio beacon transmitter at which the radio beacon can be received and processed. The radio beacon may be used to modify or change the width of the operational activation area during operation for various reasons on the radio beacon receiver side. The radio beacon allows for flexible adjustment of the width of the operational activation area.

[0032] Furthermore, a combination of both functions may be applied to define the operating startup area.

[0033] Furthermore, it is beneficial that the activation of the operation depends on changes in the signal parameters used to represent the received radio beacon.

[0034] On the other hand, this feature allows for consideration of different positions of the radio signal receiver when it is necessary to determine whether or not an action should be triggered. For example, a different action may be triggered when the order picker is closer to the product rather than further away.

[0035] On the other hand, this function allows for consideration of the movement trajectory of the radio signal receiver when a decision needs to be made as to whether or not an action should be triggered. Generally, the movement trajectory of the radio signal receiver is traced by the movement of the order picker carrying the radio signal receiver, corresponding to temporary changes in the signal pattern. For example, a different action may be triggered when the order picker approaches an item rather than when they move away from it.

[0036] In some embodiments, for example, a radio signal receiver may be configured to activate operation on an ESL that functions as a radio beacon transmitter. A radio beacon is transmitted from this radio beacon transmitter and received by the radio beacon receiver. This requires a special technical challenge in which the radio beacon transmitter and the ESL can communicate directly with each other.

[0037] However, according to the aspects of the present invention, the radio beacon receiver transmits the received radio beacon data content, in particular, to a central control stage, which, based on the data content, identifies each radio beacon transmitter that emitted the data content by the radio beacon and activates an action relating to the identified radio beacon transmitter. The control stage knows the relationship between multiple products in the store, multiple ESLs, and multiple radio beacon transmitters, and controls the content displayed by these ESLs and also controls the actions of these ESLs, so that the control stage can respond to a specific ESL based on the received data content in order to perform an action. In this example, the activated action may be the flashing of a single screen or LED for only the ESL from which the data content originates among the multiple ESLs.

[0038] For example, the central content section may be composed of a data delivery system.

[0039] In this case, it is beneficial for the control stage to store a data structure that links a specific product to a specific radio beacon transmitter. If the radio beacon transmitter is embedded in, for example, an ESL, the ID data of the radio beacon transmitter and the logical link between the ESL are also stored by the central control stage, and therefore a specific product linked to that particular ESL is also linked to the radio beacon emitted by the radio beacon transmitter in that ESL.

[0040] Therefore, according to another aspect of the present invention, the control stage activates an action relating to a radio beacon receiver that has received the data content. This function enables the activation of an action on the order picker's mobile device that may be used to activate an action that is personalized for the order picker.

[0041] The activated operation may be suspended until confirmation of completion of the task is received from the order picker. Such suspension may result in prolonged power consumption. Therefore, it is beneficial for the activated operation to terminate when the radio beacon receiver leaves the predetermined operation activation area. Termination of such an operation allows for the cessation of operations that depend on the movement of the order picker, regardless of whether the task is completed or not. Thus, power-consuming operations, even if the task is still ongoing, are terminated within a predetermined period, i.e., immediately after the order picker leaves the operation activation area.

[0042] However, according to a further aspect of the present invention, the activated operation is terminated when a termination signal is received. Such a termination signal may be received from the order picker via the order picker's mobile device, or it may be received directly by the ESL, for example, by NFC communication with the order picker's mobile device.

[0043] As described above, a variety of radio beacon transmitters and receivers can be provided, and a variety of different operations can be activated. This method can, in practice, be implemented as follows: An order picker pushes a smart trolley equipped with a wireless beacon receiver through a store aisle. The order picker is wearing a smartwatch, which also has a wireless beacon receiver. In this example, both the smart trolley and the smartwatch each form a wireless beacon receiver. In this case, the wireless beacon transmitter may be implemented as an ESL with an LED. When the order picker approaches an ESL assigned to one of several items the order picker is looking for and enters its activation area, a first action may be activated. These first actions may include both the smart trolley and the smartwatch displaying text indicating that the item is nearby. Simultaneously, a signal may be sent to a server or data provider system, which then activates an action on the ESL side. These actions may include the ESL displaying text and the LED flashing. As the order picker continues to approach the item or its wireless beacon transmitter, the smartwatch begins to vibrate. The intensity or frequency of the vibration increases as the distance to the product decreases. This means that the order picker can perceive the location of the product without having to search for it. In this example, when the order picker places the product in the shopping cart, this can be automatically recognized by the shopping cart via pattern recognition, an NFC interface, or QR code reading. At this point, the action initiated to guide the order picker to the product is stopped. It should be noted again that this is only one example of how these means can be combined; other combinations are possible.

[0044] In general, the radio beacon used in the configuration of this invention can be any radio signal that transmits the information described herein. In a preferred embodiment, the radio beacon used is a Bluetooth radio beacon. In a more preferred embodiment, the radio beacon used is a Bluetooth low-power radio beacon. Thus, the equipment used to transmit and receive radio beacons is configured according to the type of radio beacon to be generated.

[0045] Finally, it should be noted that the electronic devices described in this patent application may consist of well-known discrete and / or integrated electronic circuits. Where necessary interfaces are provided, those skilled in the art can select and configure appropriate interface circuits to enable data and / or signal communications. A programmable device may consist of a microprocessor and several peripheral electronic circuits. Such a programmable device may consist of a microcontroller or an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), etc. The execution of software routines on such a device provides the functionality performed by the computer described herein.

[0046] These and other aspects of the present invention can be seen from the following figures.

[0047] The present invention will be described again below with reference to the accompanying drawings, based on representative but not limiting embodiments. In these different drawings, the same components are denoted by the same reference numerals. These drawings are schematic representations. [Brief explanation of the drawing]

[0048] [Figure 1] This shows an electronic shelf label system used to guide order pickers via mobile devices. [Figure 2] This is a block diagram of the electronic shelf label system used in the system. [Figure 3]This is a block diagram of the mobile devices used in the system. [Figure 4] This is a diagram showing how mobile devices are moved along shelf aisles by shop pickers. [Modes for carrying out the invention]

[0049] Figure 1 shows the basic concept of an electronic shelf labeling system 1 (abbreviated here as System 1) installed inside a supermarket building. This system consists of multiple electronic shelf labels 2 (abbreviated here as ESLs). The ESLs 2 are installed on shelf rails 3 (abbreviated here as Rails 3). Rails 3 are installed on the front edge of the shelf boards 4 of the shelves 5.

[0050] Shelf rail 4 is used to display items not shown in the diagram for the sake of simplification.

[0051] ESL2 is used to display product information and pricing information to customers who select the product themselves, sometimes using digital purchase. However, product information, in particular, is also used by order pickers or store pickers who select the product according to an order determined by the customer, who does not wish to select the product themselves. This human-readable information is displayed on the ESL2's display screen 6. Furthermore, the ESL2 has a light-emitting diode 7 (abbreviated as LED7) for emitting a human-perceptible light signal. The LED7 is used to attract the attention of the customer or order picker to each ESL2 when the light signal is emitted. Therefore, the LED7 can be used to guide the customer or order picker to the respective ESL2 in order to find the specific product to which each ESL2 is logically associated. In contrast to the ESL display screen 6, where the displayed information is very easy to read only when the display screen 6 is viewed from the front, the flashing of the LED7 can also be clearly perceived by viewing the corresponding ESL2 from the side. This means that the flashing of LED7 can be fully perceived even when looking along the shelf aisle, and therefore LED7 is a useful element for guiding customers or order pickers from a distance to the desired product. The visibility of the emitted light signal is enhanced by an optical guide. This optical guide surrounds the LED 7 and is configured to deflect the light emitted by the LED 7 laterally. The optical guide protrudes from the surface of the display screen 6 to improve the lateral visibility of the emitted light. The optical guide is not shown in detail in the figure.

[0052] In this exemplary embodiment, ESL2 also functions as a wireless beacon transmitter.

[0053] Furthermore, Figure 1 shows a data delivery system for providing content data D1 to ESL2 via a communication network 9 so that ESL2 can display the information transmitted by content data D1. In this case, the data delivery system is a server 8 that runs the requested shop management software application and is located in a separate server room (not shown) in the back office or supermarket. Thus, server 8 is configured to function as a control stage. The communication network 9 consists of a wired local area network (abbreviated here as LAN 10). LAN 10 connects server 8 to an access point of a wireless local area network (abbreviated here as WLAN-AP 11). WLAN-AP 11 is used to communicate with a mobile device 12. In this example, as described below, the mobile device 12 is also a wireless beacon receiver and has corresponding components for this wireless beacon receiver. The mobile device 12 is a type of portable information terminal used by supermarket employees to establish a link between products and ESL2. In this process, the barcode scanner (see Figure 3) of the mobile device 12 scans the barcode, which is the product's EAN code, on the product or on the product's packaging, and also scans the ID code of the ESL2 displayed on the ESL2's display screen 6. Subsequently, the mobile device 12 transmits the scanned codes to the server 8 via WLAN-AP 11 and WLAN-communication C1. The server 8 then creates a data structure that stores the logical link between the ESL2 in the store and the products displayed in the store. Prior to this creation, the ESL2 installed in the store is initially registered by the server 8 so that it is ready for use in the store. Location information may also be provided by the mobile device 12 so that the shelf layout of the store is completed and stored in the data structure by the server 8.

[0054] In this embodiment, the mobile device 12 has a display screen 28 for displaying human-readable content, particularly product information and / or location information.

[0055] Figure 1 also shows two electronic shelf access points (each abbreviated as ESL-AP13). These ESL-AP13s are used for a server 8 to communicate with ESL2 during ESL communication C2 in order to supply content data D1 to ESL2 and / or to set predetermined parameters, or to receive or request predetermined operating conditions from ESL2. ESL2 and ESL-AP13 are configured to use an ESL communication protocol that is generally different from the protocol used in WLAN communication C1. Some examples of such ESL communication protocols are the applicant's Zigby® or Occupied Time Slot Communication Protocol, which is illustrated in this application and published in the Patent Cooperation Treaty patent application specification WO2015 / 124197A1 (pages 2-22). Here, each ESL-AP13 can connect to the respective ESL2 registered with that respective ESL-AP13. Here, the ESL2 located on shelf 5 in the right half of Figure 1 is assigned to the ESL-AP13 shown directly above shelf 5, and the ESL2 located on shelf 5 on the left side of this figure is assigned to the ESL-AP13 shown directly above shelf 5. To ensure proper wireless communication with the ESL2s, the two ESL-AP13s operate on different wireless communication paths to avoid using the wireless communication path occupied by the WLAN-AP11.

[0056] The block diagram of the electronic device of ESL2 shown in Figure 2 is described below.

[0057] ESL2 has an ESL-radio module 14 configured to perform ESL communication C2. Generally, the ESL-radio module 14 consists of a conventional transmit / receive circuit connected to a conventional antenna circuit. ESL2 also has an ESL controller 15 that controls communication via the ESL-radio module 14 and other modules such as a first LED module 16, a first display module 17, a first battery module 18, and a radio beacon transmission stage 19. The battery module 18 acts as the power source for ESL2 and provides a first supply voltage VCC1 relative to a reference potential GND1. To display information transmitted by content data D1, the display module 17 has a display screen 6 and electronics for driving this display screen 6. To control the operation of the display screen 6, the display module 17 may have a separate controller (not shown). The LED module 16 has at least one LED 7 and electronics for driving the LED 7 under the control of the ESL controller 15. The radio beacon transmission stage 19 has radio signal transmitting electronics connected to an antenna circuit. Since both are conventional circuits, they are not shown in detail in Figure 2. To individually identify each ESL2 that has transmitted a wireless beacon, the wireless beacon transmission stage 19 is configured to transmit a wireless beacon that transmits a unique ID code as data content. The logical link between each ESL2 and its unique ID code is stored in the data structure described above. In its simplest form, the data content may be the unique ID code of the ESL2 that has already been used to associate the ESL2 with a product. These electronic modules of the ESL2 are connected by a first (data / signal) bus 21.

[0058] The following describes the block diagram of the electronics of the mobile device 12 shown in Figure 3. The mobile device 12 has a WLAN radio module 22 configured to perform WLAN communication C2. This WLAN radio module 22 consists of a conventional transmit / receive circuit connected to a conventional antenna circuit. The mobile device 12 also has a mobile device controller 23. This mobile device controller 23 controls communication between the WLAN radio module 22 and other modules such as a second LED module 24, a second display module 25 which may have a conventional LCD display 26, a second battery module 27, and the already described beacon scanner module 28 and radio beacon receiving stage 29. The LED module 24 has at least one other LED 30. To attract the attention of the user (employee / order picker), this other LED 30 is used to emit a light signal under the control of the mobile device controller 23. The display module 25 is used under the control of the mobile device controller 23 to display instructions, in particular a shopping list or items on the shopping list, to the order picker. The wireless beacon receiving stage 29 is configured to receive wireless beacons transmitted by ESL2 and transmit their data content to the mobile device controller 23. This data content is transmitted from the mobile device controller 23 to the server 8 via the WLAN wireless module 22 during WLAN communication C1. These electronic modules of the mobile device 12 are connected by a second (data / signal) bus 31.

[0059] The data content received by server 8 allows server 8 to determine that the mobile device 12 has entered the receiving area around the ESL2 that transmitted its respective wireless beacon. Because server 8 stores and manages the shelf layout, the location of each ESL2 is known to server 8. As a result, server 8 also knows that the mobile device 12 is within a predetermined area around each ESL2 that is the source of the received data content.

[0060] The method for guiding the order picker will be described below with reference to Figure 4. Figure 4 shows two shelves 5. For the sake of simplification, only a number of rails 3 that define the extent of the left and right aisles are shown. In this case, it is assumed that the aisles are significantly longer (e.g., 30 meters) than the transmission range (e.g., 5 meters) of the multiple ESL2 radio beacon transmission stages 19 installed on these rails 3. It is also assumed that the order picker downloads the order from the server 8 to the order picker's mobile device 12, and that the screen 28 of the mobile device 12 displays a list of the ordered items A, B, and C along with the number of items A-C. Walking along the y-axis of the coordinates shown in Figure 4 means that the order picker carries the order picker's mobile device 12 as they move through the aisle.

[0061] Regarding the collected items, it is assumed that these items are displayed at positions A, B, and C on shelf 5. To avoid overloading Figure 4 with codes, only the ESL2 codes associated with items A, B, and C are shown.

[0062] The mobile device 12 enters the aisle and receives beacon signals from the wireless beacon transmission stages 19 of the first ESL2 on the left and right sides of the aisle. The respective data content is extracted from the received wireless beacon and transmitted to the server 8. The server 8 recognizes the ESL2 associated with product A and receives a command from the server 8 to start flashing its LED 7 as an operation illustrated by a series of consecutive lines 33. This flashing attracts the attention of the order picker, who then takes product A from the shelf on the left. At this time, the order picker authenticates the order for product A, which is transmitted to the server 8, and the server 8 sends a command to the ESL2 associated with product A to stop the flashing of LED 7.

[0063] As the order picker continues walking along shelf 5, the order picker's mobile device 12 enters the receiving range of the wireless beacon transmitted by the ESL2 associated with product C. Following the procedure already described in relation to product A, the LED 7 of each ESL2 also begins to flash in operation. Since product B is listed above product C in the list of products AC, the order of these products in this list is immediately changed in operation, and product C is now placed in the center of the display screen 28 in place of product B. Similarly, once the order for product C is authenticated, the LED 7 of the ESL2 associated with product C stops flashing.

[0064] Finally, as the order picker moves further down the aisle and reaches the receiving area of ​​the ESL2 wireless beacon associated with product B, the server 8 instructs each ESL2 to begin flashing its LED 7 as an action. This continues until the order picker picks up product B and authenticates the order for product B. After that, the flashing of LED 7 stops.

[0065] In Figure 4, arrow 34 indicates the path an order picker takes along shelf 5, guided by flashing LED 7 towards products A, B, and C to be purchased. In this case, the present invention has been described based on a passage between two shelves, but it should be noted that this method can naturally be used effectively with more complex passage or shelf structures.

[0066] It should be noted that the electronic devices described in this patent application may consist of well-known discrete and / or embedded electronic devices. Where an interface is required, a person skilled in the art can select and configure a suitable interface circuit (transceiver) to enable the transmission of data and / or signals. The programmable device may consist of one microprocessor and several peripheral electronic devices. Such a programmable device may consist of a microcontroller or an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), etc. The execution of software routines on such a device provides the functionality performed by the computer described herein.

[0067] Finally, it should be noted again that the embodiments described in detail above are merely examples of how those skilled in the art can modify them in various ways without departing from the scope of the invention. For completeness, it should also be noted that the use of the indefinite article "one" does not mean that each feature may not be plural.

Claims

1. A method for guiding people to products (A, B, C), the method comprising the following steps, namely - A step of emitting a radio beacon from a radio beacon transmitter (2) that is assigned to one product (A, B, C) and is located in near spatial proximity to this product (A, B, C), or installed at the intended location of this product (A, B, C), - The step of receiving the emitted radio beacon with a radio beacon receiver (12) that is locally movable, particularly together with a person or device, - The step of activating operation when the wireless beacon receiver (12) moves into a predetermined operating activation area around the wireless beacon transmitter (2), The method including the said method.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the person being guided is an order picker, and the wireless beacon receiver is an electronic mobile device (12) that includes a display screen (28) and displays product information or a list of products (A, B, C) to be selected by the order picker.

3. The aforementioned electronic mobile device (12) includes the following multiple components, including a radio beacon receiving stage (29) that receives the radio beacon: - Mobile information terminal (12), - Smartphone, - Tablet computer, - Smartwatch, - Smart Trolley, The method according to claim 2, comprising one of the components.

4. The aforementioned wireless beacon transmitter (2) includes the following multiple components, including a wireless beacon transmission stage (19) that emits the wireless beacon: -Electronic shelf label (2), - Rails to which shelf labels or other devices can be attached, - An electronic rail controller, configured to control a plurality of electronic shelf labels or other electronic devices attached to the rail of the electronic rail controller, - Electronic labels attached to products, The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, which is realized by at least one of the components.

5. The operation is carried out by the following multiple means, which are spatially close to the product, or installed in the intended location of the product, and / or are locally movable together with the person: - Human-readable content displayed on the display screen, especially changes to picking information, - The generation of visual effects on the display screen, - The generation of visual effects by light sources, - Vibration execution by vibration stage, - Generation of acoustic signals by the acoustic signal generation stage, The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized by at least one of the means.

6. The aforementioned operation startup area is - By the radio beacon signal strength set by the radio beacon transmitter (2), and / or - Pre-set by the default threshold of the received signal parameters, The method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the signal parameter describes a radio beacon received by the radio beacon receiver (12), and the default threshold is set by the radio beacon receiver (12).

7. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the activation of the operation depends on a change in the signal parameters used to describe the received radio beacon.

8. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein the wireless beacon receiver (12) transmits the received wireless beacon data content of the wireless beacon in particular to a central control stage (8), and the control stage (8) recognizes each wireless beacon transmitter (2) that emitted the data content by the wireless beacon based on the wireless beacon data content, and activates an operation relating to the recognized wireless beacon transmitter (2).

9. The method according to claim 8, wherein the control stage (8) stores a data structure that links specific products (A, B, C) to specific wireless beacon transmitters (2).

10. The method according to claim 9, wherein the control stage (8) activates an operation relating to the wireless beacon receiver (12) that has received data content from the wireless beacon receiver (12).

11. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 10, wherein the activated operation is terminated when the wireless beacon receiver (12) is moved from the predetermined operation activation area.

12. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 11, wherein the activated operation is terminated when a termination signal is received.

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