Electronic price display unit
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A price display unit adapted to be attached to a merchandise supporting means having a plurality of conductors of a signal bus extending parallel to each other along at least a portion of its length, comprising, in combination:
- a housing;
a plurality of electrical contact means extending from a rear side of said housing to engage said conductors at any selected one of a plurality of locations along the length of said supporting means;
fastener means for fastening said housing at a selected position along the length of said supporting means;
externally-sensible indicia carried on said housing to identify said display unit and its internal address alphanumeric display means attached to said housing and visible from outside said housing;
storage means for controlling said alphanumeric display means; and
control means responsive to a first pulse train occurring on said signal bus for controlling whether a second pulse train occurring on said signal bus will be stored in said storage means.
0 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
This invention pertains to an electronic price display unit which can be remotely addressed and in which the price displayed can be remotely set. Such a device is particularly useful in a retail sales business in a system employing a central computer, point-of-sale terminals, and product code readers, because it ensures that the price displayed for an item is identical to the price actually charged for the item.
470 Citations
12 Claims
-
1. A price display unit adapted to be attached to a merchandise supporting means having a plurality of conductors of a signal bus extending parallel to each other along at least a portion of its length, comprising, in combination:
- a housing;
a plurality of electrical contact means extending from a rear side of said housing to engage said conductors at any selected one of a plurality of locations along the length of said supporting means;
fastener means for fastening said housing at a selected position along the length of said supporting means;
externally-sensible indicia carried on said housing to identify said display unit and its internal address alphanumeric display means attached to said housing and visible from outside said housing;
storage means for controlling said alphanumeric display means; and
control means responsive to a first pulse train occurring on said signal bus for controlling whether a second pulse train occurring on said signal bus will be stored in said storage means.
- a housing;
-
2. A sales establishment, comprising, in combination:
- shelf means having a plurality of groups of items stored at respective ones of a plurality of locations along said shelf means;
a plurality of display units spaced along said shelf means at respective ones of said locations;
signal bus means extending along said shelf means and connected to each of said display units in parallel each of said display units comprising an alphanumeric display means, display storage means for controlling said alphanumeric display means, and control means responsive to a first pulse train occurring on said signal bus means for controlling whether a second pulse train occurring on said signal bus means will be stored in said display storage means. - View Dependent Claims (3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
- shelf means having a plurality of groups of items stored at respective ones of a plurality of locations along said shelf means;
-
8. In a sales establishment having a plurality of types of items to be sold stored at a plurality of locations, a point-of-sale terminal, and a memory means, said terminal including means for sensing a respective product code carried on each item of each type of said plurality of types of items, interrogating said memory means to obtain data stored in said memory means for each sensed product code, and means for totalizing data obtained from the sensing of a plurality of said product codes, the combination of:
- a plurality of display units located at respective ones of said locations to be associated with respective ones of said types of items;
a signal bus means extending from said memory means to each of said display units;
each of said display units carrying coded externally-sensible indicia identifying said display unit and its fixed internal address; and
a portable reader means for sensing the coded indicia of each display unit and the product code of the type of such items associated with said display unit and transmitting signals representing said coded indicia and product code to said memory means. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10)
- a plurality of display units located at respective ones of said locations to be associated with respective ones of said types of items;
-
11. A price display unit adapted to be attached to a shelf means to engage a plurality of conductors extending along said shelf means, comprising, in combination:
- a first shift register having a data input line and a clock input line, said data input line being connected to a first of said conductors;
means connected to and responsive to a first signal on a second of said conductors for applying subsequent signals on said second of said conductors to said clock input line;
means responsive to a predetermined number of said subsequent signals for interrupting the application of further signals on said second of said conductors to said clock input line and for providing a first control signal;
means controlled by said first control signal for providing a second control signal if the contents of said first shift register has a predetermined value upon occurrence of said first control signal;
a second shift register having a data input line and a clock input line, said data input line of said second shift register being connected to said first of said conductors;
means responsive to said second control signal for connecting signals on said second of said conductors to said clock input line of said second shift register;
an electronically-controlled alphanumeric display means; and
decoder means for decoding the contents of said second shift register to control said display means. - View Dependent Claims (12)
- a first shift register having a data input line and a clock input line, said data input line being connected to a first of said conductors;
Specification