Containerized ESL Integration for Synchronized Digital Signage
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing digital signage systems are separate from electronic shelf edge label systems, requiring separate applications for management and lacking integration for coordinated content delivery and monitoring.
Innovation Solution
Implementing containerized applications on a digital signage network to manage and monitor electronic shelf edge labels, allowing for integrated digital signage advertising by deploying and running containerized applications on digital signage players to control and monitor ESL systems, and enabling communication and resource management between ESLs and digital signage players.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If digital signage systems and electronic shelf edge label systems are kept separate, then each system can be managed independently with dedicated applications, but the system complexity increases and integration capability deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges digital signage and electronic shelf edge label systems into a unified architecture where a single application can manage both ESL devices and digital signage players. The ESL system and digital signage system share common infrastructure including the same application deployment mechanism, monitoring interface, and content management capabilities, eliminating the need for separate management applications while reducing overall system complexity.
2Ease of operation
If separate applications are used to manage digital signage and ESL systems, then each application can be optimized for its specific function, but the ease of operation deteriorates due to multiple management interfaces
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a universal management application that can control both ESL devices and digital signage players through a single interface. The system uses a common application deployment mechanism that can target multiple device types, and a unified monitoring interface that displays status information from both ESL and digital signage systems, allowing operators to manage the entire ecosystem from one application rather than switching between multiple specialized applications.
3Adaptability or versatility
If containerized applications are deployed to integrate ESL and digital signage systems, then the adaptability and integration capability improve, but the device complexity increases due to virtualization infrastructure
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces containerized applications as intermediary software components that run on the digital signage players and enable communication between the ESL system and digital signage system. These containers act as mediators that can monitor ESL devices, receive promotional content from the digital signage system, and trigger synchronized actions such as LED flashes or screen displays on ESL devices, providing integration capability without requiring complex virtualization infrastructure across the entire system.
Data Source
AI summary
Methods and systems for deploying and running containerized applications over a digital signage network involve: deploying packaged containerized applications to a remotely located digital signage player, and using a containerized application management and communications interface of the player to install and initialize the packaged containerized applications into running containerized applications, each running containerized application for monitoring communicatively coupled external computer systems and to generate monitoring information. One of the external computer systems includes an electronic shelf edge label system with an electronic shelf edge device, and the running containerized applications transmit instructions to the electronic shelf edge device to generate a human perceptible signal as the digital signage player causes promotional content to be played on an electronic display of the digital signage player in an area proximate thereto, and the containerized application is configured to monitor the electronic shelf edge device and communicate monitored information over the network.