Patent ID: 7669768

Claim:
A remotely-alterable electronic-ink based display label for displaying graphical indicia, said remotely-alterable electronic-ink based display label comprising: an addressable display assembly including a layer of electronic ink including a bi-stable non-volatile imaging material disposed between an activation layer and a transparent electrode layer located above said layer of electronic ink, for activating said layer of electronic ink at particular locations to display graphical indicia on the surface of said addressable display assembly, wherein said layer of electronic ink does not require electrical power to maintain the display of said graphical indicia; an antenna layer for transmitting and receiving electromagnetic signals; an integrated circuit layer, operably connected to said antenna layer and said addressable display assembly, and supporting (i) an on-board battery power component for supplying electrical power to components in said remotely-alterable electronic-ink based display label, (ii) a storage element for storing said instructions, programs and data, and (iii) a programmed processor in electrical communication with said addressable display assembly and said antenna layer, and using said programs to process said instructions and data for (a) determining the graphical indicia to be displayed by said addressable display assembly, (b) controlling and coordinating operation of said addressable display assembly, and (c) generating output signals for instructing said addressable display assembly to display the determined graphical indicia; a signal transmitting structure, supported on and operably connected to said integrated circuit layer, for transmitting electromagnetic signals from said antenna layer, to at least one remote activator module; a signal receiving structure, supported on and operably connected to said integrated circuit layer, for receiving electromagnetic signals from said at least one remote activator module, using said antenna layer; wherein said received electromagnetic signals carry information corresponding to at least one of said programs, said instructions, said data and said graphical indicia to be displayed by said addressable display assembly; wherein said integrated circuit layer on is responsive to electromagnetic data signals received from said at least one remote activator module, by said antenna layer and said signal receiving structure; wherein said addressable display assembly is responsive to said output signals generated by said programmed processor, to display the determined graphical indicia; and wherein said antenna layer and said integrated circuit layer are arranged and stacked together behind and within the spatial extent of said addressable display assembly so as to form said remotely-alterable electronic-ink based display label having a stacked-layer construction.