Abstract:
A shelf talker for displaying short and longer term information includes a backplane including a plurality of electrical conductors; a plurality of single character display chips mounted on the backplane in electrical contact with the electrical conductors for displaying the short term information; and a graphic overlay located over the backplane bearing the longer term information and defining apertures for displaying the short term information displayed by the single character display chips.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION  
       [0001]     The present invention relates to shelf talkers and shelf talker display systems.  
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0002]     Retailers are increasingly turning to electronic shelf label (ESL) systems to handle the price changing needs in their stores. Along with ESL systems, integrated within the shelf rails, are the use of larger shelf talkers used to attract the customers attention by portraying a special item or price. U.S. Pat. No. 5,448,226, issued Sep. 5, 1995 to Failing, Jr., et al. shows such a system where a shelf talker is placed at a location where an item is on sale or of special interest to the customer. Failing refers to the shelf talkers as cards or printed material attached at a particular item location. Failing claims a management system whereby a shelf talker is detected upon insertion into an ESL, indicating to a database that a shelf talker has been deployed at that location.  
         [0003]     The shelf talker disclosed by Failing is a printed card that must be removed and a new card printed when the information to be displayed, such as the item price, changes. This process is not only costly from a printing standpoint, but also labor intensive.  
         [0004]     U.S. Pat. No. 5,771,005, issued Jun. 23, 1998 to Goodwin, III discloses a shelf talker that is described as an auxiliary display attached to an ESL. It electrically connects to the ESL by way of a connecting header and associated rows of connector pins. Goodwin&#39;s auxiliary display is described as an LCD with silk screening for color. One problem with using a conventional LCD display is the thickness of the display. Goodwin illustrates his LCD displays as rather thick allowing for the glass layers customarily found in liquid crystal displays. In one claim, Goodwin even describes two displays back-to-back and protruding orthogonally from the ESL. This makes for a very thick and rigid display jutting out from the ESL making it susceptible to breakage due to collisions from carts and customers. Conventional LCD displays also need continuous power in order to display the information thereby consuming the power in the battery provided with the shelf talker.  
         [0005]     Another problem with the shelf talker disclosed by Goodwin is that the static information, such as UPC and other long term product information is screen printed on the auxiliary display. It is not convenient for stores to custom screen print their own shelf talkers to match the items and special pricing information.  
         [0006]     There is therefore a need for an improved shelf talker that avoids the problems noted above.  
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0007]     The need is met according to the present invention by providing a shelf talker for displaying short and longer term information that includes a backplane including a plurality of electrical conductors; a plurality of single character display chips mounted on the backplane in electrical contact with the electrical conductors for displaying the short term information; and a graphic overlay located over the backplane bearing the longer term information and defining apertures for displaying the short term information displayed by the character chips.  
       ADVANTAGES  
       [0008]     The shelf talker of the present invention can be provided as a thin flexible electronically writable shelf talker that is easily manufacturable by picking and placing the single bistable liquid crystal character chips on a flexible back backplane. The chips require no additional power once written and the shelf talker maintains the display of information until written again. The advantage of the individual character chips is that they can be manufactured in quantity prior to the design of the backplane of the shelf talker, and later placed on a custom fabricated back plane to yield any one of a number of different configurations for the shelf talker.  
         [0009]     The printable graphic overlay that is adhered to the backplane, which can be printed locally and may have long term static information such as store icons, UPC, static text and other product or non-product related information. This provides a simple way to address the needs of retailers who desire varying formats on their shelf talkers, whether product specific or generic, with no effect on the fabrication of the characters. A large variety of shelf talker layouts can be designed and only the backplane and trace paths need to change. Manufacturing of the bistable character display chips are independent of any layout configuration. Short term information such as price changes, cost per unit, and savings information can be changed electronically by way of an electronic writer. 
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0010]      FIG. 1  is a top view of a single character display chip according to the present invention;  
         [0011]      FIG. 2  is a cross sectional view of a single character display chip taken along lines  2 - 2  in  FIG. 1 ;  
         [0012]      FIG. 3  is a top view of a backplane used with the single character display chips according to the present invention;  
         [0013]      FIG. 4  is a top view of a completed shelf talker according to the present invention;  
         [0014]      FIG. 5  is a perspective view of a shelf talker writer used to electrically change the short term information according to the present invention;  
         [0015]      FIG. 6  is a cut-away view of the shelf talker writer of  FIG. 5 ;  
         [0016]      FIG. 7  is a cross sectional view of the shelf talker taken along lines  7 - 7  of  FIG. 6 ;  
         [0017]      FIG. 8  is a partial an enlarged view of  FIG. 7  showing the electrical contacts used to write to the shelf talker; and  
         [0018]      FIG. 9  is a schematic block diagram of a shelf talker system according to one embodiment of the present invention.  
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION  
       [0019]     Referring to  FIGS. 1 and 2 , a single character display chip  10  is constructed by forming a conductive common electrode layer  14  on a substrate  12 . A layer of bistable liquid crystal material  16  is deposited, for example by roll coating, on the conductive common electrode layer  14 , leaving an exposed area of layer  14  for making electrical contact. Electrically conductive character segments  18  are then formed, for example by thick film printing on the bistable liquid crystal layer  16 . The character segments  18  may be arranged, for example to produce numeric characters  0 - 9  as well as a slash, a decimal point, a dollar sign, and a cent sign. The optical state of the bistable liquid crystal material between the character segments  18  and the common electrode layer  14  can be changed by selectively applying drive voltages to the character segments and the common electrode layer  14 . Once the optical state bistable material has been changed, it remains in that state indefinitely without further power being applied to the electrodes. The single character display chip can be made as shown for example in U.S. Ser. No. 10/134,185, filed Apr. 29, 2002 by Stephenson et al., which is incorporated herein by reference.  
         [0020]     Referring to  FIG. 3 , a backplane generally designated  25 , comprises a flex circuit substrate  27  on which conductive traces  35  are formed. An insulator layer  40  is formed over conductive traces  35 . Exposed contact pads  30  at the top of the backplane  25  are used for electrical contact to a writing device. Additional exposed contact dots  45  in the insulator layer  40  provide electrical contact locations with the conductive traces  35  to contact the printed conductive character segments  18  of single character display chip  10 . The single character display chips  10 , several of which are shown attached to the backplane  25 , are attached by conductive adhesive between contact dots  45  and the printed conductive character segments  18  of single character display chip  10 . The conductive adhesive can be applied as individual spots, or as a single layer of anisotropically conductive adhesive as is known in the art.  
         [0021]      FIG. 4  shows a completed shelf talker  65 . A printable graphic overlay  50  is attached to the backplane  25  with an adhesive backing  55  on the backside of the printable graphic overlay  50 . Openings  58  are provided in the printable graphic overlay to expose the single character display chips  10 . Long term printed information  52  such as a store logo and other information may be pre-printed on the graphic overlay  50 .  
         [0022]     A shelf talker writer  70  shown in  FIG. 5  is used to electrically change the short term information on the single character display chips  10  of shelf talker  65 . The shelf talker writer  70  is electrically connected to a power supply and database having short term pricing information. The shelf talker  65  is inserted into slot  95  of writer  70  with the contacts  30  of shelf talker  65  facing downward.  
         [0023]     In a cut-away of the shelf talker writer  70 ,  FIG. 6  shows a slot  95  with alignment edges  98  and positioning surfaces  85 . Also shown is a shelf talker presence sensor  100  which provides an electrical signal to indicate the presence of a shelf talker  65 , which then drives the roller drive system  90  to move the shelf talker  65  downward into the shelf talker writer  70 . A second home sensor  101  provides an electrical signal to indicate a seated position of edges  60  of shelf talker  65  to positioning surfaces  85  of writer  70 , which in turn shuts off the roller drive assembly  90 . The shelf talker writer  70  includes a circuit board  75  with contact pads  80  aligned with contacts  30  of the shelf talker  65 . Circuit board  75  includes a drive circuit  82  that supplies drive signals to the contact pads  80 . The drive circuit is supplied with write data via a serial port  84  from an external source such as a personal computer as described below.  
         [0024]      FIG. 7  shows a partial cross section from  FIG. 6  with a shelf talker  65  seated in position. An enlarged view of the interface area in  FIG. 8  shows the contact pads  30  of shelf tag  65  in position adjacent to the contact pads  80  of circuit board  75 . Once shelf talker  65  is seated on positioning surfaces  85 , a solenoid  105  drives block  110  forward creating firm contact between contact pads  80  and contacts  30  of the shelf talker  65 . Electrical signals are then sent to change the short term information on single character display chips  10 . After the writing process is completed, the roller drive assembly drives the shelf talker  65  upward to the original inserted position for the store clerk to remove. Once written, the shelf talker  65  can be attached to any shelf pricing system by way of a clip as is known in the art.  
         [0025]     Referring to  FIG. 9 , a shelf talker system using a shelf talker of the present invention includes a database transceiver  175  that sends information derived from a central database computer  180 , to a personal computer transceiver  160  in the portable personal computer  140 . Commands from the keyboard interface  155  and shown on the display  145  are sent to the shelf talker writer  70  by way of the laptop central processing unit  150  through communication cable  170 . Power  130  is supplied to the shelf talker writer through power cable  135  to circuit board  75  for powering the sensors  100  and  101 , roller motor drive  90 , solenoid  105 , and a digital camera  126  located in the shelf talker writer  70 . Upon writing the shelf talker  65 , the digital camera  126  sends an image back to the portable personal computer  140  through communication cable  170  where character recognition software compares the actual written characters to the database. If the data is inconsistent, an error message is posted on display  145 .  
         [0026]     Also shown in  FIG. 9  is a printer  185  used to print long term information  52  on shelf talker  65 . The data originating from the central database  180  is sent to the portable personal computer  140 , which then sends the data to the printer  185 . The printing of long term information can thus be done locally and customized with individual store related information.  
         [0027]     The invention has been described in detail with particular reference to certain preferred embodiments thereof, but it will be understood that variations and modifications can be effected within the spirit and scope of the invention.  
       Parts List  
       [0028]    
       
           10  single character display chip  
           12  substrate  
           14  common electrode layer  
           16  bistable liquid crystal  
           18  electrically conductive character segments  
           25  backplane  
           27  flex circuit substrate  
           30  backplane contact pads  
           35  conductive traces  
           40  insulator layer  
           45  contact dots  
           50  printable graphic overlay  
           52  long term printed information  
           55  adhesive backing  
           58  opening in printable graphic overlay  
           60  shelf talker edge  
           65  shelf talker  
           70  shelf talker writer  
           75  circuit board  
           80  circuit board contact pads  
           82  drive circuit  
           84  serial port  
           85  positioning surfaces  
           90  roller drive system  
           95  slot  
           98  slot edge  
           100  presence sensor  
           101  home sensor  
           105  solenoid  
           110  block  
           126  camera  
           130  power  
           135  power cable  
           140  portable personal computer  
           145  display  
           150  central processing unit  
           155  keyboard interface  
           160  personal computer transceiver  
           170  communication cable  
           175  database transceiver  
           180  central database computer  
           185  printer