Abstract:
An electronic label system includes a host and at least one electronic label. The host includes a first control unit for generating a text message, a first storage unit storing a graphic database, and a converting unit configured to convert the text message to a graphic message according to the graphic database. The electronic label is configured to communicate with the host for receiving the graphic message therefrom, and includes a display unit and a second control unit configured to control the display unit to display the graphic message.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION 
     This application claims priority of Taiwanese Application No. 101109187, filed on Mar. 16, 2012. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     The invention relates to an electronic label system and a method for controlling operation of the electronic label system. 
     2. Description of the Related Art 
     A conventional electronic shelf label system (as disclosed in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. US 2002/0002421 A1) has been designed to replace paper-made labels, which need to be printed, cut and pasted manually, every time information of commercial articles printed on the paper-made labels is changed. Generally, a conventional electronic shelf label system includes a host that stores sales information, and a plurality of electronic labels that are operable to receive the sales information from the host and to display the sales information. In order to properly display the sales information, which is in the form of a text message encoded by one of American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII), Unicode and Big-5 code, each of the electronic labels stores a graphic database, and is configured to convert the sales information into a graphic message according to the graphic database. The sales information is then displayed as a graphic message. 
     However, the graphic database requires a certain amount of physical memory incorporated in each of the electronic labels, and an overall manufacturing cost of the electronic shelf label system may be increased significantly when the number of the electronic labels becomes great. The overall manufacturing cost may be further increased when the electronic shelf label system is to support additional languages. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     Therefore, the object of the present invention is to provide an electronic label system having a relatively low manufacturing cost. 
     According to one aspect, an electronic label system of the present invention comprises a host and at least one electronic label. The host includes a first control unit for generating a text message, a first storage unit storing a graphic database, and a converting unit coupled to the first control unit and configured to convert the text message to a graphic message according to the graphic database. 
     The electronic label is configured to communicate with the host for receiving the graphic message therefrom, and includes a display unit and a second control unit coupled to the display unit and configured to control the display unit to display the graphic message. 
     According to another aspect, an electronic label system is for displaying information of a commercial article that has a barcode associated with the information. The electronic label system comprises a host, an electronic label and a barcode scanner. 
     The host includes a first control unit, a converting unit coupled to the first control unit, and a first storage unit coupled to the converting unit and storing a graphic database. 
     The electronic label is configured to communicate with the host, and includes a second control unit, a second storage unit, a display unit and a button. 
     The second storage unit is coupled to the second control unit and has an identification code uniquely associated with the electronic label. The display unit is coupled to and controlled by the second control unit. The button is coupled to the control unit, and enables the electronic label to transmit the identification code when being pressed. 
     The barcode scanner is for scanning the barcode of the commercial article to generate a scanning signal associated with the barcode, for communicating with the electronic label to receive the identification code, and for communicating with the host to transmit the scanning signal and the identification code to the host. 
     When the host receives the identification code and the scanning signal from the barcode scanner, the first control unit is operable to generate a text message according to the scanning signal. The converting unit is operable to convert the text message to a graphic message according to the graphic database. The host is operable to transmit the graphic message to the electronic label uniquely associated with the identification code, so that the second control unit of the electronic label is operable to receive the graphic message and to control the display unit to display the graphic message. 
     Another object of the present invention is to provide a method for controlling an electronic label system to display information of a commercial article that has a barcode associated with the information. The electronic label system includes a host, a barcode scanner and an electronic label. The method comprises the following steps of: 
     (a) configuring the electronic label to transmit an identification code that is uniquely associated with the electronic label to the barcode scanner; 
     (b) using the barcode scanner to scan the barcode of the commercial article and to generate a scanning signal associated with the barcode; 
     (c) configuring the barcode scanner to transmit the scanning signal and the identification code received in step (a) to the host; 
     (d) configuring the host to generate a text message according to the scanning signal, and to convert the text message to a graphic message according to a graphic database of the host; 
     (e) configuring the host to transmit the graphic message to the electronic label uniquely associated with the identification code; and 
     (f) configuring the electronic label to display the graphic message. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       Other features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent in the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment with reference to the accompanying drawings, of which: 
         FIG. 1  is a schematic block diagram of a preferred embodiment of an electronic label system according to the invention; 
         FIG. 2  is a schematic view of a plurality of electronic labels associated respectively with a plurality of groups of commercial articles on a shelf; 
         FIGS. 3A-3C  is a flow chart of a method for controlling the electronic label system according to the invention; and, 
         FIG. 4  is a schematic view of an example illustrating a graphic message displayed by a display unit of the electronic label of  FIG. 1  as a bitmap image. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
     As shown in  FIGS. 1 and 2 , the preferred embodiment of an electronic label system according to the present invention is for displaying information, such as prices, of a plurality of commercial articles  4 . The electronic label system comprises a host  1 , a plurality of electronic labels  2 , and a barcode scanner  3 . The commercial articles  4  are sorted and put on a shelf  5 , and each of the electronic labels  2  is configured to be disposed on the shelf  5  near a specific group of the commercial articles  4 . A packaging of each of the commercial articles  4  has a barcode  41  that is associated with the information of the commercial articles  4 . 
     The host  1  includes a first control unit  11 , a converting unit  12 , a first storage unit  13  that stores a graphic database  131 , and a first wireless transceiving unit  14 . The graphic database  131  includes graphic data that corresponds to character codes of a character-encoding system. In this embodiment, the character-encoding system is, but not limited to, one of American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII), Unicode and Big-5 code. 
     Each of the electronic labels  2  includes a second control unit  21 , a display unit  22 , a button  23 , a second storage unit  24  and a second wireless transceiving unit  25 . In this embodiment, the display unit  22  is an electronic paper module, which only consumes electrical power when an image displayed thereon is changed. For each electronic label  2 , the second storage unit  24  stores an identification code  241  unique to the electronic label  2 . 
     The barcode scanner  3  is used for scanning the barcode  41  of the commercial article  4  to generate a scanning signal associated with the barcode  41  scanned thereby. 
     The button  23  enables the second control unit  21  to transmit the identification code  241  to the barcode scanner  3  via the second wireless transceiving unit  25  when the button  23  is pressed. Afterward, the barcode scanner  3  is configured to transmit the identification code received from the electronic label  2  and the scanning signal to the host  1  via a third wireless transceiving unit  31 . 
     The wireless transmission in this embodiment is performed using radio frequency, and other techniques can be used in other embodiments. 
     Further referring to  FIG. 3 , a method for controlling the electronic label system to display information will now be described in detail. 
     First, for each of the electronic labels  2 , the second control unit  21  is operable to determine whether the button  23  is pressed in step S 01 , and to transmit the identification code  241  to the barcode scanner  3  via the second wireless transceiving unit  25  in step S 02  when the button  23  is pressed. 
     Then, the barcode scanner  3  is operable to detect the barcode  41  of one of the commercial articles  4  within a working range of the barcode scanner  3  in step S 03 . 
     In step S 04 , the barcode scanner  3  is operable to generate the scanning signal associated with the barcode  41  scanned thereby, and to transmit the identification code received in step S 02  and the scanning signal thus generated to the host  1  via the third wireless transceiving unit  31  when the barcode  41  of one of the commercial articles  4  is detected. 
     Afterward, the host  1  is operable to receive the identification code and the scanning signal from the barcode scanner  3  in step S 05 , and to generate a text message encoded by one of ASCII, Unicode and Big-5 code according to the scanning signal in step S 06 . Specifically, the text message is associated with the scanning signal, which is related to the information of the scanned one of the commercial articles  4 . 
     In step S 07 , the converting unit  12  of the host  1  is operable to convert the text message to the graphic message according to the graphic database  121 . In this embodiment, the graphic message is constructed to be displayed as one of a bitmap image and a vector-based representation. For example,  FIG. 4  illustrates an 8*8 monochrome bitmap. Each of the squares represents a pixel  6 . In this example, the text message includes a number “0”, and the converting unit  12  converts the number “0” into the graphic message as shown in FIG.  4 . The graphic message therefore can be expressed by the matrix {00000000, 00111100, 00100100, 00100100, 00100100, 00100100, 00111100, 00000000} where the number 0 represents an off state of the pixel  6 , and the number 1 represents an on state of the pixel  6 . 
     In step S 08 , the first wireless transceiving unit  14  of the host  1  is operable to transmit the graphic message generated in step S 07  and the identification code received in step S 05  to all of the electronic labels  2  that are associated with the host  1 . 
     For each of the electronic labels  2 , the second wireless transceiver  25  is operable to receive the graphic message and the identification code from the host  1  in step S 09 . Afterward, in step S 10 , the second control unit  21  is operable to determine whether the identification code received in step S 09  conforms with the identification code  241  stored in the second storage unit  24 . When the determination is affirmative, the flow proceeds to step S 11 . Otherwise, the flow proceeds to step S 12 , in which the electronic label  2  ignores the graphic message. 
     In step S 11 , the second control unit  21  of the electronic label  2 , which has the identification code  241  identical to the identification code received from the host  1  in step S 08 , is operable to control operation of the second display unit  22  to display the graphic message. 
     To sum up, the graphic database  131  is stored in the host  1  instead of each of the electronic labels  2 , and the converting unit  12  performs the conversion from the text message to the graphic message within the host  1 . As a result, each of the electronic labels  2  does not need to have additional memory, and does not to perform any task other than displaying, such that the hardware cost and power consumption of the electronic label system can be significantly reduced. 
     While the present invention has been described in connection with what is considered the most practical and preferred embodiment, it is understood that this invention is not limited to the disclosed embodiment but is intended to cover various arrangements included within the spirit and scope of the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and equivalent arrangements.