Method and a system for providing product information to media displaying devices

Abstract

The present invention concerns a method for providing product information to at least one media displaying device ( 1 ) having output means and a data reception unit, the at least one media displaying device being located in at least one store ( 10 ), each store ( 10 ) comprising at least one data emitting device ( 2 ), characterized in that it comprises the steps of: (a) generating, at a central back-office server ( 3 ) connected to the store data emitting unit ( 2 ), an individual glyph corresponding to each different character or symbol of the product information; (b) generating at least a display script comprising reference and position data of said glyphs in the product information; (c) transmitting the display script and the individual glyphs to the store data emitting device ( 2 ); (d) transmitting the display script to the media displaying device ( 1 ); (e) broadcasting the individual glyphs; (f) selecting and loading in the media displaying device ( 1 ) individual glyphs corresponding to the reference data comprised in the display script; and (g) displaying the selected and loaded individual glyphs at the output means of the media displaying device ( 1 ) according to the position data comprised in the display script. The present invention also concerns a central back-office server, an media displaying device and a system thereof.

1 . A method for providing product information to at least one media displaying device ( 1 ) having output means and a data reception unit, the at least one media displaying device being located in at least one store ( 10 ), each store ( 10 ) comprising at least one data emitting device ( 2 ), characterized in that it comprises the steps of:
 (a) generating, at a central back-office server ( 3 ) connected to the store data emitting unit ( 2 ), an individual glyph corresponding to each different character or symbol of the product information;   (b) generating at least a display script comprising reference and position data of said glyphs in the product information;   (c) transmitting the display script and the individual glyphs to the store data emitting device ( 2 ) ;   (d) transmitting the display script to the media displaying device ( 1 );   (e) broadcasting the individual glyphs;   (f) selecting and loading in the media displaying device ( 1 ) individual glyphs corresponding to the reference data comprised in the display script; and   (g) displaying the selected and loaded individual glyphs at the output means of the media displaying device ( 1 ) according to the position data comprised in the display script.   
     
     
         2 . A method according to  claim 1 , wherein the display script further comprises kerning data of the glyphs in the product information. 
     
     
         3 . A method according to one of previous claims, wherein a plurality of display scripts is generated at step (b), each display script corresponding to a part of the product information. 
     
     
         4 . A method according to one of previous claims, wherein a plurality of stores ( 10 ) and a plurality of media displaying devices ( 1 ) is simultaneously involved, each media displaying device ( 1 ) displaying a specific product information. 
     
     
         5 . A method according to one of previous claims, wherein the data reception unit of the media displaying device ( 1 ) is in a standby mode except during steps (d) and (e). 
     
     
         6 . A method according to  claim 5 , wherein step (d) is implemented following a previous step of (d1) broadcasting a wakeup message for ending standby mode; and wherein a step of (e2) broadcasting a sleep message for going into standby mode is implemented following step (e). 
     
     
         7 . A method according to  claim 6 , wherein step (e) is implemented following a previous step of (e1) broadcasting a synchronization message. 
     
     
         8 . A method according to one of previous claims, wherein display scripts which are common to a plurality of media displaying devices ( 1 ) are multicast at step (d). 
     
     
         9 . A method according to one of previous claims, wherein step (d) is implemented following a previous step of (d2) transmitting a preamble to the media displaying device ( 1 ), said preamble comprising reference data of glyphs to be selected during the step (f); and wherein glyphs are broadcast with their reference data at step (e). 
     
     
         10 . A method according to  claim 9 , wherein reference data of glyphs are coded in the preambles according to a Huffman algorithm. 
     
     
         11 . A method according to one of previous claims, wherein the central back-office server ( 3 ) is connected to the at least one store data emitting unit ( 2 ) through a wired network ( 20 ), and each store data emitting unit ( 2 ) is wirelessly connected to the at least one media displaying unit ( 1 ) of the store ( 10 ). 
     
     
         12 . A central back-office server ( 3 ) comprising:
 a glyph unit configured for generating for each different character or symbol of a product information an individual glyph;   a script generator unit configured for generating at least a display script comprising reference and position data of said glyphs in the product information to be displayed in at least one media displaying device ( 1 );   a network unit configured for transmitting the glyphs and the at least one display script to at least store data emitting unit ( 2 ).   
     
     
         13 . A media displaying unit ( 1 ) comprising output means, a processing unit, a memory, a data reception unit, characterized in that:
 the data reception unit is configured to receive and load into the memory at least one display script comprising reference and position data of glyphs corresponding to the characters and symbols in a product information to be displayed;   the data reception unit is further configured to receive a sequence of glyphs with their reference data;   the processing unit is configured to determine, for each glyph if its reference data corresponds to one of the reference data loaded in the memory, and to select the glyph and load it into the memory if it is the case;   the processing unit is further configured to order the displaying by the output means of the selected and loaded individual glyphs according to the position data of the display script.   
     
     
         14 . A system comprising a central back-office server ( 3 ) according to  claim 12 , and at least one media displaying unit ( 1 ) according to  claim 13 , the at least one media displaying unit ( 1 ) being located in at least one store ( 10 ) comprising at least one data emitting unit ( 2 ) connected to the network unit of the central back-office server ( 3 ).