Patent Application
20130316767
1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to an electronic display structure, and particularly to an electronic display structure providing information of items in a display window or a display case in a dynamic way.
2. Description of Related Art
The items displayed in a conventional display window or display case are usually described through a static way such as a label or a sign. However, restricted by the size and/or the form of the label or the sign, the descriptions on the label or the sign are usually quite brief, and often fail to satisfy consumers since the requirements of the consumers are usually diverse.
What is needed, therefore, is a display structure capable of overcoming the limitations described.
Many aspects of the present disclosure can be better understood with reference to the drawings. The components in the drawing(s) are not necessarily drawn to scale, the emphasis instead being placed upon clearly illustrating the principles of the present disclosure. Moreover, in the drawing(s), like reference numerals designate corresponding parts throughout the several views.
The camera unit 20 produces images in a direction toward the exterior of the display structure 10, such that the user 2000 standing before the window portion 12 can be photographed. The camera unit 20 may include a camera which is capable of producing the images such as still photographs or videos. In the illustrated embodiment, the camera unit 20 is disposed in the display structure 10 and at a position behind the window portion 12, such that the camera unit 20 can produce the images of any object in front of the display structure 10. The camera unit 20 is disposed on a rail 13 and automatically moved along the rail 13 to correspond to the position of the user 2000 with respect to the window portion 12, thereby keeping the portrait of the user 2000 to be at a central portion of the images. Consequently, the face of the user 2000 can be photographed when the user 2000 faces the window portion 12. In other embodiments, the camera unit 20 can be disposed at other positions, for example, a position in the exterior of the display structure 10 and in front of the window portion 12. In addition, a plurality of camera units 20 can be used to produce images in different directions toward the exterior of the display structure 10, thereby simultaneously photographing the user 2000 in different directions.
The storage unit 30 is a device such as a high speed random access memory, a non-volatile memory, or a hard disk drive for storing and retrieving digital information, which includes an object information database 31. The object information database 31 stores object data 311. Each of the object data 311 corresponds to each of the display items 1000, which includes information about the corresponding display item 1000, for example, the name, the type, and/or the description of the corresponding display item 1000. In addition, each of the object data 311 comprises a location information I1 (not shown) of the corresponding display item 1000. The location information I1 can be, for example, the relative position of the display item 1000 in the inner space 11.
In the illustrated embodiment, the control unit 40 determines an indicating direction of the user 2000 according to the direction of a vision line of the user 2000 and the touch position parameters Pt received from the touch panel 122, wherein the indicating direction of the user 2000 is determined according to an image or a series of images produced by the camera unit 20. The control unit 40 determines an indicating direction of the user 2000 when receiving the touch position parameters Pt. In other embodiments, the control unit 40 can determine the indicating direction of the user 2000 according to the direction of a vision line of the user 2000.
The storage unit 30 can store stock information Is (not shown) of the display items 1000 in the inner space 11. Each of the stock information Is corresponds to a type of the display items 1000, for example, a series of items with different sizes which belong to a same type. In the illustrated embodiment, the control unit 40 receives personal parameters Pp (not shown) (for example, sex, age, and/or physical type) from the portable device 3000, produces available item information Ia (not shown) (for example, available sizes or colors of a same type of items) according to a comparison between the personal parameters Pp and the stock information Is corresponding to the display item 1000 indicated by the user 2000, and transmits the available item information Ia to the portable device 3000 (or the transparent display 121), such that available items corresponding to the display item 1000 indicated by the user 2000 can be viewed through the portable device 3000 (or the transparent display 121). In the illustrated embodiment, the portable device 3000 includes an application program which may automatically transmit the personal parameters Pp to the electronic display structure after receiving the object data 311 of the display item 1000 indicated by the user 2000.
In other embodiments, each of the display items 1000 can include a short distance wireless device. Correspondingly, the control unit 40 determines a location of the display items 1000 in the inner space 11 by communicating with the short distance wireless device on the display items 1000 through short distance wireless identifier(s). The short distance wireless identifier and the short distance wireless device can be, for example, a radio-frequency identification (RFID) reader and a RFID tag, respectively. In addition, the short distance wireless device on each of the display items 1000 can include the object data 311 of to the display item 1000. Correspondingly, the control unit 40 can receive the object data 311 of the display item 1000 from the short distance wireless device on the display item 1000 through the short distance wireless identifier.
The electronic display structure is capable of providing information of items in a display window or a display case in a dynamic way since the information can be created and edited through an electronic device such as computer. In addition, since the information of the items can be provided through the window portion of the display window or the display case, and the information of the items can be provided according to the requirements of individuals through using a portable device, the provision of the information is more intuitional and effective for users.
While the disclosure has been described by way of example and in terms of preferred embodiment, the disclosure is not limited thereto. On the contrary, it is intended to cover various modifications and similar arrangements as would be apparent to those skilled in the art. Therefore the range of the appended claims should be accorded the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and similar arrangements.
