Low-powered RF-linked price display system
US6130603A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventor
Key dates
| Filing date | Jun 13, 1994 |
| Grant date | Oct 10, 2000 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Jun 13, 2014 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG09G2380/04
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
An electronic price display system uses an RF communications channel between a central computer and a multiplicity of electronic price display labels. Each label is powered by a voltaic cell ("battery") such as a lithium cell. The receiver-on time, which in other RF-linked systems contributes heavily to the overall battery drain, here does not contribute appreciably to battery drain because a passive RF transceiver is used to receive and address-decode the address portion of received packets. Upon an address match, the passive RF transceiver generates an interrupt to the controller of the display label, and the interrupt prompts the controller to go to a higher-power-drain state to process the received data. If the received command requires a response, the controller of the label generates a response which is transmitted via RF from the label back to the central computer.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.