The details of the present invention, both as to its structure and operation, may be understood in part by studying the accompanying drawings, in which like reference numerals refer to like parts, and in which:
The following detailed description is directed to certain specific embodiments of the invention. However, the invention can be embodied in a multitude of different systems and methods. In this description, reference is made to the drawings wherein like parts are designated with like numerals throughout.
To overcome the above-mentioned problems with conventional advertisement display systems, various embodiments of the present invention utilize digital signal processing (DSP) in an embedded system to provide dynamic and interesting contents at desirous times for the user of the advertisement systems.
The advertisement display system enables the user to appropriately manage the advertising content and allows the user to tailor the advertising content to meet the strategic needs of the user. For example, when the demand for a particular product is low, tailoring the advertising content to stimulate the buying urge of the consumer can increase the demand for that particular product. In another example, within a department store, during a high customer traffic hour, the advertising content can be tailored to provide short and effective advertisement to promote high turnover of fast selling items.
In one implementation, the advertisement display system enables the main office to monitor and manage point of sale (POS) transactions and sales figures real-time. Further, the advertisement display system allows the main office to adjust sales products and prices according to the result of the monitored transactions and sale figures. In another implementation, the advertisement display system includes a diagnostic capability that constantly check the health status of the display apparatus located at each store. In a further implementation, the advertisement display system allows the display apparatus to be split into multiple windows so that the apparatus can display multiple advertisements including advertisements for items other than the owner/user.
The server system 210 includes advertisement storage 212, an advertisement database 214, a branch office information database 216, and a central management server 218. The branch office system 220 includes a network modem 222, a network hub 224, a terminal 226, and a display apparatus 230. The display apparatus 230 further includes a DSP (Digital Signal Processor) chip 232, a video decoder 234, a display control part 236, a display panel 238, a Dip Switch 240, and a memory 242 for storing data.
Referring to
The units of the branch office system 220 serve various functions according to the needs of the equipment 220. For example, the network modem 222 transmits information and advertisement data received from the main office server system 210 to the network hub 224. The network modem 222 also receives data from the network hub 224 and transmits that data to the central management server 218 in the main office server system 210 through the communication network 250. The network hub 224, which, in one implementation, includes 4 to 24 ports, transmits information and advertisement data to each display apparatus 230 of a plurality of apparatus.
Moreover, the network hub 224 is configured to connect to the terminal 226, such as personal/notebook computer, to allow the terminal 226 to manage and update the information (e.g., image, price, video of a new product, etc.) displayed on the display apparatus 230. This configuration allows the terminal 226 to manage and update (i.e., local update) the displayed information in real-time. This configuration further allows the terminal 226 to prepare and transmit the needed information and advertisement data from the branch office system 220 to the main office server system 210 so that the main office server system 210 can perform faster remote update of the display apparatus 230 in the branch office system 220.
As mentioned above, the display apparatus 230 includes the DSP chip 232, the video decoder 234, the display control part 236, the display panel 238, the Dip Switch 240, and the memory 242 for storing data. The DSP chip 232 is configured to control the operation of the display apparatus 230 using an operating system such as Linux to digitally process the received information and advertisement data. The DSP chip 232 classifies the received information and advertisement data for appropriate decoding and display. For example, video advertisement data can be decoded into an MPEG-4 format for a high quality DVD player while the text or image advertisement data can be decoded into a JPEG format for an appropriately high quality text or picture.
The Dip Switch 240 coupled to the DSP chip 232 allows each display apparatus 230 to be identified with a unique Internet Protocol (IP) address so that the main office server system 210 can control and manage the display apparatus 230 making it possible for the main office server system 210 to check and confirm status of each display apparatus 230 in real-time.
The memory 242 is configured to store information and advertisement data so that the data once displayed on the display apparatus 230 does not have to be retransmitted from the main office server system 210 to be displayed on the display apparatus 230 again.
The video decoder 234 is configured to receive and convert data from the DSP chip 232 to a format appropriate for displaying the data on the display apparatus 230. In one implementation, the data received from the DSP chip 232 may be in a compressed format such as MPEG-4, and the video decoder 234 decodes the MPEG-4 data into an appropriate format for display on the display apparatus 230.
The display control part 236 is configured to control the output of information and advertisement data decoded by the video decoder 234 and displayed by the display apparatus 230. The display control part 236 also manages the layout of the information and advertisement data on the display panel 238 using metadata, video data, and/or other related text/subtitle messages.
The branch office also links with a Point of Sale (POS) system, which may include Electronic Cash Register (ECR) and other related devices such as a computer. The POS system processes input data about sales at each branch office including name and price of the product, quantity of a specific product sold, and other related sales information. The POS system further processes the input data to determine which products to order and supply and which data to display on the branch office menu board display apparatus. For example, if the price of a product is changed at the POS system, the price of that product to be displayed can also be changed in real-time. Further, if the price a product is changed at the main office central management server, the price of that product to be displayed as well as the price recorded in the POS system can be changed real-time.
As mentioned above, embodiments of the digital menu board display system as described above provide several advantages over the conventional system in that the embodiments of the present invention provide active and dynamic (e.g., real-time) advertisement on the menu board display. Since the customers are constantly viewing the display while waiting to order, the advertisement can reach more people for longer periods of time. The digital menu board display system is configured so that the display can be easily modified to suit the needs of a particular branch office. Moreover, since the menu board display system is configured to operate digitally, the system can provide Do-It-Yourself (DIY) ordering, Internet service/ordering, security camera functions, and other additional publicity and advertisement. Further, since the digital menu board display system is configured as a distributed system, the system is substantially resistant to fatal errors or faults caused by virus or shutdown of portions of the system.
The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment. As the present invention may be embodied in several forms without departing from the spirit or essential characteristics thereof, it should also be understood that the above-described examples are not limited by any of the details of the foregoing description, unless otherwise specified, but rather should be constructed broadly within its spirit and scope as defined in the appended claims, and therefore all changes and modifications that fall within the meets and bounds of the claims, or equivalences of such meets and bounds are therefore intended to be embraced by the appended claims.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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10-2006-0034668 | Apr 2006 | KR | national |