Electronic Shelf Label via Visible Light Communication
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Solution Overview
Problem
Electronic shelf labeling (ESL) systems rely on expensive wireless network communication adapters for updating prices, which increases costs and may not be efficient in rapidly changing retail environments.
Innovation Solution
The use of light communications, where pricing data is encoded into a strobe pattern and transmitted through an LED lighting system, allowing ESL modules to decode and display prices without the need for expensive wireless adapters.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If wireless network communication adapters are installed in each ESL module for automatic price updates, then price update capability is improved, but module cost increases significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The existing lighting system is made multi-functional by enabling it to perform both illumination and data communication functions. The lighting fixtures are equipped with light-emitting elements that can modulate light intensity to encode pricing data, allowing the same hardware infrastructure to serve dual purposes without adding dedicated wireless communication modules to each ESL unit.
Solution Approach 2:
Light signals serve as an intermediary medium for data transmission between the central management system and ESL modules. Instead of direct wireless electronic communication, pricing information is encoded into light intensity variations that ESL modules with light sensors can detect and decode, creating a new communication channel that avoids the need for expensive wireless adapters.
2Device complexity
If light communications are used to transmit pricing data through LED lighting system, then module cost is reduced, but communication reliability may be affected by ambient light conditions
Solution Approach 1:
The lighting system uses periodic modulation of light intensity at specific frequencies to encode communication signals. By varying light intensity in structured temporal patterns (on-off keying or pulse width modulation), the system creates distinguishable signal characteristics that can be detected against ambient light backgrounds, improving signal-to-noise ratio and communication reliability.
Solution Approach 2:
The ESL modules employ dynamic threshold adjustment and adaptive signal processing to distinguish modulated communication signals from static ambient light conditions. The system dynamically adjusts sensitivity parameters based on detected ambient light levels, maintaining reliable communication across varying environmental conditions without requiring expensive shielding or isolation hardware.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This solution reduces costs by leveraging existing lighting infrastructure, enabling efficient and rapid price updates in retail environments while conserving energy through selective module activation.
Implementation Method 1
selecting a frequency of communication above a specified strobe rate for a lighting system illuminating the retail environment and transmitting a directive to a controller for the lighting system directing the lighting system to communicate the pricing data to a shelf labeling module associated with the selected product. Thereafter, in response to the directive, the controller encodes the pricing data into a strobe pattern of the lighting system and activates the pattern
Implementation Method 2
Each module includes a power supply, processor, memory, a display, an optical sensor, and firmware storing a computer program executing by the processor and detecting during execution, a photonic signal, determining from the signal whether or not a message has been specifically directed to the module
Data Source
AI summary
A method for ESL utilizing light communications includes selecting for ESL, a product stocked on shelf slotting space in a retail environment and querying a database with an identifier for the selected product and receiving in response to the querying, pricing data for the selected product. The method additionally includes selecting a frequency of communication above a specified strobe rate for a lighting system illuminating the retail environment and transmitting a directive to a controller for the lighting system directing the lighting system to communicate the pricing data to a shelf labeling module associated with the selected product. Thereafter, in response to the directive, the controller encodes the pricing data into a strobe pattern of the lighting system and activates the pattern thereby communicating the pricing data to the shelf labeling module which then decodes the pricing data from the strobe pattern and display the pricing data in a display.