DESCRIPTION

Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a supporting device for goods in exhibitors and, more specifically, to a supporting and displaying device of the type which incorporates tracks and adapted to contain merchandise on display in exhibitors.

State of the Art

As it is known, at selling points for the selling of goods to the public it is widely known the use of exhibitors or shelves. These exhibitors are typically constituted from horizontal shelves designed to hold the goods on display. On these shelves and in order to have the goods divided by type, cataloging, and price category, are typically provided tracks or guides suitable to allow the stacking and/or the horizontal alignment of the line arranged goods contained therein, and to allow the subdivision of the shelves in cataloged areas and responsible for housing and displaying the merchandise depending of the type so indicated.

More precisely, these supporting guides are shaped as a track which includes a central flat region where the goods rest, and laterally surrounded by two vertical borders which have the function both of preventing the merchandise to misalign from such an alignment, and to provide a vertical support to the goods.

Furthermore, with the purpose of indicating to the consumer both the type and/or the presence of goods onto the shelves, as well as to show the price of the goods, there are typically provided onto said tracks labels which are mounted on the frame of the shelf or onto the frame of said tracks and at a front area with respect to merchandise.

Additionally, and with the sake of communicate to the consumer information of commercial type or advertising, there are provided the so-called "shelf talkers", which are arranged in a manner protruding from the shelves where they are mounted.

Such "talkers" may have different shapes, materials, and colors but all provide for an element on which there is shown the advertising information and which is mounted in a fixed manner on the front part of the shelving via locking elements integral with the shelf talker and blocked onto the latter in a removable manner.

Brief description of the invention

The present invention aims to provide a supporting and displaying device for goods contained in a exhibitor, which device provides for the possibility of providing a dynamic information to the user and related to the goods therein contained and shown.

The present invention provides a device of support and information of the goods in exhibitors which provides a region where the commercial information are published in a dynamic manner.

Thus, the present invention provides a displaying and supporting device for supporting goods in exhibitors substantially according to the appended claims. Furthermore, the present invention provides a system for the remote controlling of one or more displaying and supporting devices for goods in exhibitors substantially according to the appended claims.

Detailed Description of the Invention

Will now be given a detailed description of a preferred embodiment of the supporting and displaying device of the present invention, given as a non limiting example, and with reference to the appended drawings, wherein:

Figure 1 is a perspective view of a shelf which incorporates a plurality of supporting devices according to the state of the art;

Figure 2 is a schematic perspective view that illustrates in greater detail a shelf, and wherein there are shown a number of commercial products in a aligned condition onto a plurality of supporting devices according to the present invention;

Figure 3 illustrates in perspective and from one side a supporting and displaying device according to the present invention; and

Figure 4 schematically illustrates the operating logic of a controlling system for controlling one or more supporting and displaying devices according to the present invention.

With reference now to Figure 1 , there is illustrated in perspective a plurality of supporting devices of the state of the art when arranged onto a shelf 2. Typically, each supporting device 1 can be disposed in a removable manner and side by side on to each other, so as to create a series of partitions on the shelf 2 where allow the horizontal alignment of the products or goods to be exhibited.

Each supporting device 1 has a pair of vertical side walls 3 which realize the partitions on the shelf 2 when the plurality of supporting devices 1 is disposed in the tiled condition, as in Figure 1. Furthermore, each device 1 has typically a front region 4 adapted to provide a surface for an information support (in the form of a removable label or similar) and such as the price of the product, the brand, etc..

With reference now to Figure 2, there is illustrated therein the shelf 2 of Figure 1 in the operating condition, and wherein a number of commercial products 5 are exposed and aligned by means of supporting devices according to the present invention.

For the sake of clarity, same parts have same numbers.

As can be seen in the figure, in addition to the normal partition between commercial products 5 that each supporting device 1 provides, the latter further provides at the front part thereof a surface 6 adapted to contain a device for dynamically displaying information, the device being a display or similar (better illustrated hereinafter).

With reference now to Figure 3, therein is illustrated in greater detail a supporting device 1 according to the present invention.

More precisely, the device 1 in addition to the standard supporting surfaces 30 of the goods and the vertical partition walls 3 for separation and containment of goods to be exhibited (the latter not shown in the figure), also has a front portion 6 which mounts one or multiple displays 60 (only four displays 60 are shown in the figure), the displays 60 allow to dynamically display information about the product contained within the supporting device 1.

The displays 60 may be of any type suitable for this purpose, for example, LED displays, OLED displays, LCD displays, TFT displays, etc..

According to the present invention, the displays 60 are capable of providing in a dynamic way any type of informative message and/or advertising to the user who stops in front of the shelf 2. Furthermore, always according to the present invention, the arrangement of the displays 60 is such that the advertising information or any information about the product can be moved also longitudinally along the series of displays 60 interfaced one with the another, i.e. the information message and/or the advertising can "move" between a display 60 and the display 60 adjacent to the former, by following a longitudinal displacement.

With reference now to Figure 4, there is illustrated a controlling system for the control of one or more devices 1 of the present invention, and also there is illustrated the operating logic of such a controlling system, according to the present invention.

With this object, there is provided a logical control of all the information and data and the whole series of displays 60 operated by a control unit and an appropriate software, the whole being housed within each supporting devices 1.

Furthermore, according to the controlling system of the present invention, there is provided that at least one or more supporting devices 1 in one or more remote locations (selling points) be remotely controlled "simultaneously" by interfacing Internet / Ethernet with a central server (Company main seat). More precisely, according to this preferred application of the system of the present invention, there are provided the following components:

a) A dedicated software installed on a PC / Server at the "Company main seat", which is accessible from the internet by a known public static IP address, alternatively reached on a dynamic public IP address by pointing a URL that is always solved through public DNS within the public IP address effectively used;

b) A "set" of hardware components located at each of the remote locations (selling points), physically housed within a single device without buttons/ports/ interfaces except the power cord, and acting as a "router" to the public network through the Internet 3G access (any mobile operator) and WiFi radio interface to the device 1 of the present invention functioning as a AP Client, equipped with a specific firmware in order to implement some functionality "ad-hoc" to TCP / IP protocol.

c) A miniaturized memory device associated to at least one display of a supporting device 1 , the miniaturized memory device consisting of a memory unit (for example, a memory card of the type SDHC standard 8 GByte or a technically equivalent device) that integrates within functionality of "WiFi AP" and "HTTP File Server" for the controlling of contents to / from towards the card itself, and to be integrated in the electronics of the monitor/displays of the device 1 of the present invention, the memory device/card being connected via a local radio link WiFi to the "Router apparatus" referred to in point (b) as above.

It should be here noted that with respect to the standard configuration of the device 1 of the present invention, there is provided a small Router apparatus powered from the mains supply at the present location, which can be positioned at any location in the environment or room where the device 1 of the present invention is positioned (e.g., 10mts away) and communicating via WiFi with the same, and providing the same a geographic connectivity of the network via the 3G mobile coverage in the area.

Advantageously and according to this preferred application, there is not need of any specific hardware at the Company main seat, but only the development of a specific software application running on the same machine PC / Server from which all the operations of remote access to the memory cards on-board to the devices 1 of the present invention will be performed, and to collect through the public Internet network all the information of all the network addresses, by which all the devices positioned at remote locations and/or the status of the devices will be accessible and monitored.

Since the connection is always initiated from the remote devices, it is essential for the overall functioning of the application specifies that the PC / Server can be reached from the Internet on a fixed public IP address or a prefixed URL always solved through public DNS within the public IP address actually used by the machine.

According to an advantageous aspect of the controlling system of the present invention, it consists in the fact that with regard to the remote locations (selling points), the system provides for the allocation of "consumer hardware components" of very low cost and high availability (for example, an on-board 3G Router with USB key and SIM data of an operator, a WiFi AP Client, an SDHC memory card with WiFi AP function or similar), and that must be appropriately configured to implement this preferred application as shown above.

In particular, some of these standard components must also be changed in their own software and reprogrammed in order to implement the intelligence required to realize the functionality of customized network on which is based the controlling system of the present invention, and which make the system able to be reached by the public Internet IP network despite the problems of dynamic IP addressing even if based on a commercial type router, Natting and private addressing typical access 3G consumer / small business that make such accesses "not transparent" to the IP traffic.

The controlling system of the present invention is thus also capable of automatically realign with the PC / Server and restore the connection after "event type" (for example, temporary lack of power supply, transient loss of the movable covering 3G, interruption of the reachability of the PC / server or network failure causes the same).

To achieve this goal it is provided that the controlling system of the present invention implements a protocol for NAT Traversal between 3G Router at the remote location (selling point) and the controlling PC / Server at Company main seat, developed "ad-hoc" for the present application, and which allows the "opening" and the "maintaining" of a persistent communication channel between the SDHC card on-board the device/devices 1 of the present invention, and the controlling PC / Server, and at the same time the monitoring from the Company main seat of the reaching of the remote devices 1 deployed in all remote locations (selling points).

Furthermore, according to the system of the present invention, there is provided an interface between the electronics of the device 1 of the present invention, and a new memory card type SDHC 8GB with functionality of repository of files to be transferred on the device 1 of the present invention.

Through this solution, it can easily be transferred RAW video files to be uploaded on the device 1 of the present invention by using a standard browser from the controlling PC / Server at the main seat, by focusing an http address (for example, of the type http://a.b.c.d:x.y.z) an which the SW on board the machine itself makes available for each of the connected remote locations.

At that point, the HTTP File Server which is on board the WiFi SDHC card will respond by displaying at the controlling PC the card contents, and by allowing the normal copy / paste / move to and from the card.

The function performed by the interface between the memory card SDHC WiFi and the current electronic device 1 of the present invention, consists of the automatic transfer of new RAW video files, when located in the WiFi SDHC, to a plurality of mini SD cards each of them being on-board associated to each of the displays 60 arranged on the device 1 of the present invention.

With this aim, a recognition logic is required for the recognition of the presence of RAW Video Files uploaded onto the SDHC WiFi, which that determines the starting of the transfer. For the implementation of the logic of recognition there is provided an on-board control file with a "preset name", to be transferred from the main seat at the end of the upload procedure to upload new video content, and which the controller of the device 1 of the present invention provides the deleting thereof at the end of the transferring between the local memory cards.

From the controlling PC / Server machine at the Company main office it will also be possible to supervise the reaching of different connected remote locations (selling points), and it will be also possible to remotely connect to the local HTTP controlling interfaces of the devices located at each location (3G Router , AP Client, WiFi, SDHC WiFi) in order to check the proper functioning of the same, for example the connection status between AP Client Router 3G and WiFi, and the status of the radio link between AP Client WiFi and the SDHC WiFi on board the devices 1 of the present invention, and also to perform remote maintenance operations in the event of faults and anomalies.

The supporting and displaying device 1 of the present invention has several advantages.

According to a first advantageous aspect of the supporting device 1 of the present invention it is provided that the same can be arranged in different configurations wherein the distance / width between the vertical sides is editable, and in order to be able to accommodate various types of products or goods to be exhibited in it.

A second advantageous aspect of the supporting device 1 of the present invention consists in the fact that it can have one or more displays 60 for displaying the information relating to a product contained therein, which the displays 60 provide information in a dynamic manner, thus increasing the transmission effect and the assimilation of the same information to the public.

A third advantageous aspect of the supporting device of the present invention consists in the fact that, since the latter is suitable to be adapted for any different types of product or goods to be exhibited and relating shelves, this involves the user (or the retailer) for a considerable reduction of the whole amount of supporting devices 1 in the warehouse, therefore a considerable reduction of the costs related for the providing of such supporting devices.

A fourth advantageous aspect of the supporting device 1 of the present invention is given by the fact that the number of displays 60 enables the displaying of any type of information or advertising message about the product contained in the supporting device 1 , thus making the latter extremely versatile, especially making no longer necessary to replace the media or information label on the shelf as a result of the replacement of the goods on display.