Electronic price display device using modular segment electronic paper display

Abstract

The present invention relates to an electronic price display device for displaying price information by modularizing a segment electronic paper display that displays a single-digit number in a seven-segment manner, and then inserting, into a connector, the number of segment electronic paper displays that corresponds to the number digits required for displaying currency-specific price information of various countries, and driving same.

Description

Electronic price tag using prefabricated segment e-paper display

[0001] The present invention relates to an electronic price display, and more particularly, to an electronic price display that displays prices in various currencies (currencies) of various countries using a seven-segment electronic paper display.

[0002] Electronic price tags are being used to replace paper labels used to provide product price information in retail stores such as supermarkets.

[0003] The electronic price tag receives price information about the product from the management server via a wireless device and outputs the received information via a display.

[0004] Electronic price tags are designed to operate on low power and typically use electronic paper displays.

[0005] Even if an electronic paper display is used, large electronic price tags can lead to significant power consumption. Furthermore, because electronic price tags typically display the entire product price on a single display, they face limitations regarding the number of digits per currency. This means that a single display cannot display different digits for different currencies, such as the Korean Won, Japanese Yen, US Dollar, Euro, or Vietnamese Dong.

[0006] The present invention aims to provide a large electronic price display that consumes less power than a single display, has a low manufacturing cost, and can display digits for various currencies.

[0007] An electronic price indicator using a segment electronic paper display according to one aspect of the present invention includes a communication module, one or more segment electronic paper displays, a driving circuit, and a front connector.

[0008] The communication module receives and stores price information to be displayed via wireless communication.

[0009] A segment e-paper display is an e-paper display having one or more externally exposed contact terminals, which displays one number or one number and a display symbol in a seven-segment manner.

[0010] The driving circuit receives price information to be displayed from the communication module and controls the segment electronic paper displays to display numbers or numbers and display symbols corresponding to the number of digits.

[0011] The front connector section includes a predetermined number of digits of price information to be displayed on the connector, and the connector inserts a segment electronic paper display so that the contact terminals of the display are connected to the driving circuit section in a circuit manner.

[0012] According to an additional aspect of the present invention, an electronic price indicator using a segmented electronic paper display may further include a fixed character display panel.

[0013] The fixed character display panel is included in one or more dummy card form without externally exposed contact terminals and is inserted into the connector at the front or back position.

[0014] According to an additional aspect of the present invention, an electronic price indicator using a segmented electronic paper display may further include a rear connector portion.

[0015] The rear connector section has the same shape as the front connector section and includes the same number of connectors as the front connector section, but the arrangement of the connector positions is opposite to that of the connectors in the front connector section.

[0016] This type of electronic price display displays price information on both sides.

[0017] According to the present invention, it is possible to manufacture a large electronic price display that consumes less power than a single display, has a low manufacturing cost, and is easy to display prices for various currencies.

[0018] FIG. 1 conceptually illustrates an example of an electronic price display of the present invention using individual segment electronic paper displays for each digit.

[0019] FIG. 2 conceptually illustrates an example of an electronic information display of the present invention that also displays currency using a fixed character panel instead of a segmented electronic paper display.

[0020] Figure 3 illustrates an example of displaying product price information through an electronic price display of the present invention.

[0021] Figure 4 conceptually illustrates an example of displaying product price information on both sides using the electronic price indicator of the present invention.

[0022] The aforementioned and additional aspects are concretized through embodiments described with reference to the attached drawings. It is understood that various combinations of components of each embodiment are possible within the embodiment, unless otherwise stated or inconsistent with each other. Each block of the block diagram may in some cases represent a physical component, but in other cases may be a logical representation of a portion of the function of a single physical component or a function spanning multiple physical components. Sometimes, the entity of a block or a portion thereof may be a set of program instructions. These blocks may be implemented in whole or in part by hardware, software, or a combination thereof.

[0023]

[0024] Electronic shelf labels display product information, such as prices, received via wireless communication networks from store shelves in large supermarkets, general stores, and other locations. Electronic shelf labels communicate with a management server via a nearby gateway among multiple gateways.

[0025] Additionally, electronic price indicators can generally receive information or control commands via short-range wireless communication via a manager terminal.

[0026] Electronic shelf labels receive product information, such as price, country of origin, product image, discount information, and barcodes, from a management server via a gateway and display it. The gateway and electronic shelf labels are connected wirelessly. For example, the electronic shelf label and gateway can be connected via Zigbee, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), or UWB (Ultra-Wide Band) communications.

[0027] Electronic shelf labels typically adopt electronic paper displays, which are displays that only consume power when the information they are displaying changes, to reduce power consumption.

[0028] Electronic paper (e-paper) is a display technology that applies the characteristics of regular ink to paper. Unlike traditional flat panel displays, which use backlights to illuminate pixels, e-paper uses reflective light, much like regular paper. Therefore, e-paper can continue displaying changes without consuming power.

[0029] Various displays, including electronic paper displays included in conventional electronic price tags, are displays in which the entire display area is composed of a single panel.

[0030] The electronic paper display adopted by electronic shelf labels is an Active Matrix Electrophoretic Display (AM EPD), which includes dot-matrix displays and segment displays. Electronic shelf labels often adopt segment displays due to their advantages in terms of manufacturing costs.

[0031] Electronic price tags with segment displays have a fixed number of digits for displaying price information, making them unchangeable. This is because the price display is a single panel, meaning it's integrated. If a larger number of digits is required, only a portion of the electronic price tag must be manufactured separately, inevitably driving up manufacturing costs.

[0032] Figure 1 conceptually illustrates an example of an electronic price indicator of the present invention using individual segment electronic paper displays for each digit. An electronic price indicator (10) using a segment electronic paper display according to one aspect of the present invention includes a communication module (100), one or more segment electronic paper displays (110), a driving circuit unit (120), and a front connector unit (130).

[0033] Unlike conventional electronic price indicators that display price information including a seven-segment display, the electronic price indicator (10) of the present invention does not display price information through an integrated display, but rather displays price information by modularizing a seven-segment display (110) that displays one number for each digit and then combining the modularized seven-segment display (110) as many digits as necessary. That is, the electronic price indicator (10) of the present invention uses an assembled segment display that is assembled and used according to the number of digits (5 digits in the example of FIG. 1) of price information that the modularized seven-segment display (110) is intended to display.

[0034] The communication module (100) receives and stores price information to be displayed via wireless communication. The communication module (100) of the electronic price display of the present invention can receive price information from a management server (not shown) via a gateway (not shown), and, depending on the aspect of the invention, can receive price information from an administrator's administrator terminal (not shown) via short-range wireless communication such as NFC.

[0035] The segment electronic paper display (110) may include an electronic price indicator having a number greater than the number of digits of price information. The segment electronic paper display (110) is used by being connected to a connector (131) described below, and has contact terminals (111) that are exposed externally at a portion connected to the connector (131). The contact terminals (111) provided by the segment electronic paper display (110) include contact terminals connected to segments (horizontal strokes, vertical strokes, and display symbols (e.g., decimal points)) corresponding to numbers and display symbols. Depending on the number to be displayed, an electrical signal is input to specific contact terminals to turn the corresponding segment on or off.

[0036] Accordingly, the segment electronic paper display (110) is an electronic paper display equipped with externally exposed contact terminals (111) and displays one number or one number and a display symbol in a seven-segment manner. In addition, the segment electronic paper display (110) includes as many digits as the number to be displayed by the electronic price indicator (10) of the present invention. The segment electronic paper display (110) may be either a common-anode type or a common-cathode type.

[0037] The driving circuit unit (120) receives price information to be displayed from the communication module (100) and controls the segment electronic paper displays (110) to display numbers or numbers and display symbols corresponding to each digit position. The driving circuit unit (120) controls the on / off of each segment (vertical stroke, horizontal stroke, display symbol) of the segment electronic paper display (110) corresponding to each digit position, and generates and outputs a control signal to display the numbers. Depending on the aspect of the invention, the driving circuit unit (120) may generate and transmit a control signal at once for all segment electronic paper displays connected to the entire number of digits to be displayed, or may generate and transmit a control signal sequentially for each digit.

[0038] The front connector section (130) includes connectors (131) into which segment electronic paper displays (110) corresponding to each digit position are inserted, for a predetermined number of digits of price information to be displayed. At this time, each connector (131) has a segment electronic paper display (110) inserted so that the contact terminals (111) of the display are connected to the driving circuit section (120) in a circuit manner. In the example of FIG. 1, a segment electronic paper display (110) displaying the ones digit is inserted into connector 1 to display a number corresponding to the ones digit, a segment electronic paper display (110) displaying the tens digit is inserted into connector 2 to display a number corresponding to the tens digit, a segment electronic paper display (110) displaying the hundreds digit is inserted into connector 3 to display a number corresponding to the hundreds digit, a segment electronic paper display (110) displaying the thousands digit is inserted into connector 4 to display a number corresponding to the thousands digit, and a segment electronic paper display (110) displaying the ten thousand digit is inserted into connector 5 to display a number corresponding to the ten thousand digit.

[0039] The electronic price display (10) of the present invention has a number of connectors determined according to the number of digits to be displayed, and the front connector section (130) can be configured with a different number of connectors according to the number of digits of price information to be displayed. In the event that the number of digits to be displayed changes in the future, the front connector section (130) can be configured by changing it and conveniently expanding the number of digits that can be displayed by adding a necessary segment electronic paper display (110).

[0040] FIG. 2 conceptually illustrates an example of an electronic information display device of the present invention that uses a fixed-character panel instead of a segmented electronic paper display to display currency. According to an additional aspect of the present invention, an electronic price display device (10) using a segmented electronic paper display may further include a fixed-character display panel (150).

[0041] The fixed character display panel (150) is a dummy card-shaped panel without externally exposed contact terminals and is inserted into the connector at the frontmost or backmost position. The fixed character display panel (150) used at the frontmost position is used to display currency symbols (e.g., currency symbols such as dollar, won, yen, etc.) and, in terms of cost, uses a dummy card-shaped panel of the same size as the segment electronic paper display (110). The fixed character display panel (150) used at the backmost position displays a fixed number (e.g., 0) used due to a large currency unit and, in terms of cost, uses a dummy card-shaped panel of the same size as the segment electronic paper display (110). A plurality of fixed character display panels (150) used at the backmost position may be used.

[0042] FIG. 3 illustrates an example of displaying product price information through the electronic price display of the present invention. FIG. 3 illustrates an example in which three different currency symbols are used, and the fixed character display panel (150) displaying the currency symbols is a panel other than the segmented electronic paper display (110). As shown in the examples in FIG. 3 (b) and (c), the segments of the segmented electronic paper display (110) displaying currency after the decimal point may be smaller than the general number of digits (the number of digits above the decimal point), but are not limited thereto. In addition, FIG. 3 (c) illustrates an example in which display is possible up to the hundreds' place, but when the price information to be displayed does not include the hundreds' place, the first digit does not display any numeric information. FIG. 3 (d) illustrates an example in which the fixed character display panel (150) is used in which the number 0 is displayed in three fixed digit positions to display the 0 of the last digit.

[0043] Figure 4 conceptually illustrates an example of displaying product price information on both sides using the electronic price display of the present invention. According to an additional aspect of the present invention, the electronic price display (10) using a segmented electronic paper display may further include a rear connector portion (140).

[0044] The rear connector part (140) has the same shape as the front connector part (130) and includes the same number of connectors (141) as the front connector part (130), but the number of connectors (141) is arranged opposite to that of the connectors (131) of the front connector part (130).

[0045] The rear connector section (140) also includes connectors (141) into which segment electronic paper displays (110) corresponding to each digit are inserted, corresponding to a predetermined number of digits of price information to be displayed. At this time, each connector (141) is inserted into a segment electronic paper display (110) so that the contact terminals of the display are connected to the driving circuit section (120) in a circuit manner.

[0046] The electronic price display (10) of the present invention has a number of connectors determined according to the number of digits to be displayed, and the rear connector part (140) can be configured with a different number of connectors according to the number of digits of price information to be displayed. In the event that the number of digits to be displayed changes in the future, the number of digits that can be conveniently displayed can be expanded by changing the rear connector part (140) together with the front connector part (130) and adding a necessary segment electronic paper display (110).

[0047] This type of electronic price display (10) displays price information on both sides.

[0048] While the present invention has been described above with reference to the accompanying drawings and examples, it is not limited thereto and should be construed to encompass various modifications that would be readily apparent to those skilled in the art. The scope of the patent claims is intended to encompass such modifications.

Claims

1. A communication module that receives and stores price information to be displayed via wireless communication; An electronic paper display having externally exposed contact terminals, wherein one or more segment electronic paper displays a number or a number and a display symbol in a seven-segment manner; A driving circuit unit that receives price information to be displayed from a communication module and controls segment electronic paper displays to display numbers or numbers and display symbols corresponding to the number of digits; A front connector section including a predetermined number of digits of price information to be displayed, wherein a segment electronic paper display is inserted and a connector for connecting the contact terminals of the display to the driving circuit section in a circuit manner; An electronic shelf label using an assembled segment electronic paper display, including:

2. In paragraph 1, One or more fixed character display panels that are inserted into a connector in a front or rear position but have no externally exposed contact terminals; including more, Electronic shelf label using prefabricated segment electronic paper display.

3. In paragraph 1, A rear connector section having the same number of connectors as the front connector section, but with the connectors arranged in the opposite order to those of the front connector section; Including more, Displaying price information on both sides, Electronic shelf label using prefabricated segment electronic paper display.

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