The present invention relates to the field of retail displays and more particularly relates to a retail display system with automatic and computer controlled shelf lighting to draw shoppers' attentions to items thereon displayed and a lighting structure for use with the system.
Retail displays are a cornerstone of the free-market economic system. As the system is driven by selling goods and services, displays and advertisements are necessary to inform the consumer as to the availability goods and services for sale. To this end, companies spend large amounts of money developing displays that attractively showcase products for sale. One of the simplest concepts is the merchandizer or “merchandizer,” a specially built construction for holding quantities of product for sale to the consumer. Many different types of merchandizers have been developed for the display of different types of goods, from clothing to food stuffs to toys to almost any item that can be sold. Merchandizers are designed to not only hold product for sale and allow consumers to see and inspect the product, but also to attract a customer's attention, showcase the product in a positive light and create the desire to buy the product. Many studies have been made into consumer psychology and one common understanding is that a well-lit display can be useful in drawing the consumer's attention and stimulating the purchase impulse.
The key components of any merchandizer are: 1. to draw the consumers' attentions to the items for sale; 2. to display and hold goods in an attractive manner that allows for consumer inspection; and 3. to hold sufficient quantities of goods so that goods are still available even after some items have been purchased. Lighting has previously been used to enhance a merchandizer, and some lighting has even been motion sensitive in order to reduce power consumption and attract a consumer's eye. The present invention is a lighted display system that effectively draws a consumer's attention to the display and enhances the aesthetics of the display and the products.
The present invention represents a departure from the prior art in that the lighted display system of the present invention allows for intelligent and responsive lighting of the display. The lighting system also comprises sensors, other input devices, and programmable computer controls so that the display will react to environmental conditions and also interact with a consumer. Previous lighted displays merely illuminated a product or area in a merchandizer or case, or utilized a patterned lighting display to draw attention. Recently, some displays, in particular larger merchandising cases, have incorporated lighting timers and motion sensitive switching to activate lights if a consumer passed by and keep them on while sufficient activity is detected around the display. These prior art uses of lighting, however effective for their intended purposes, are not truly interactive and only react simplistically to environment.
In view of the foregoing disadvantages inherent in the known types of retail displays, this invention provides an interactive retail display. As such, the present invention's general purpose is to provide a new and improved retail display that utilizes sensors and other input to adjust lighting of the display to interact with the display's environment and shoppers
To accomplish these objectives, the retail display comprises a retail merchandizer with integrated lighting, a CPU and at least one environmental input. The input may be sensory, such as a motion or light sensor, or it may be cued to the shopper through the use of RFID chips, loyalty cards or other identifying marker. Upon receiving input, the CPU processes the data, compiles it with information in a database and chooses a response illumination pattern. Database information would include information on the shopper, such as past purchases and favorite products, and product data, including promotional, discount, and sale data.
The more important features of the invention have thus been outlined in order that the more detailed description that follows may be better understood and in order that the present contribution to the art may better be appreciated. Additional features of the invention will be described hereinafter and will form the subject matter of the claims that follow.
Many objects of this invention will appear from the following description and appended claims, reference being made to the accompanying drawings forming a part of this specification wherein like reference characters designate corresponding parts in the several views.
Before explaining at least one embodiment of the invention in detail, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited in its application to the details of construction and the arrangements of the components set forth in the following description or illustrated in the drawings. The invention is capable of other embodiments and of being practiced and carried out in various ways. Also it is to be understood that the phraseology and terminology employed herein are for the purpose of description and should not be regarded as limiting.
As such, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the conception, upon which this disclosure is based, may readily be utilized as a basis for the designing of other structures, methods and systems for carrying out the several purposes of the present invention. It is important, therefore, that the claims be regarded as including such equivalent constructions insofar as they do not depart from the spirit and scope of the present invention.
With reference now to the drawings, the preferred embodiment of the lighted display system is herein described. It should be noted that the articles “a”, “an”, and “the”, as used in this specification, include plural referents unless the content clearly dictates otherwise.
With reference to
Auxiliary inputs 30 are also utilized. Any sensor that provides environmental data to the CPU 40 may be used as an auxiliary input, the most relevant would be a motion sensor or some form of identification sensor (like a card reader or RFID) which would be used to identify a particular consumer. Other auxiliary inputs, like a touch screen for consumer interaction, may also be used. Data is then received and compiled by the CPU 40 and a lighting program is chosen and transmitted to the lighting control processor 50. The lighting program may be of any design, ranging from the most basic to more complex. The simplest program would be to light up the merchandizer in some form of interesting pattern 60, merely to highlight the product and to grab attention. A more complex lighting pattern specifically designed to draw a consumer's attention to a featured product, usually by agreement between the manufacturer and the merchant, may also be used 70. Likewise, product data may be utilized to highlight products offered for a discount 80 and draw a consumer's attention to not only the product but the fact it is being offered for a sale price. Consumer data may be utilized to generate a display that highlights a user's favorite products 90 and increase the likelihood of an impulse buy on a non-discounted product. The combinations and patterns that may be utilized are only limited by the imagination of the programmer. It is, of course, readily appreciated that the CPU 40 and the lighting control processor 50 may, in fact, be the same processor as computing power has increased to the point that a simple processor could handle the necessary computations. In such cases, the single processor would be considered to be two that are “operatively coupled.” The databases 10, 20 are also understood to be stored on some form of memory available to the CPU 40.
The merchandizer 100 may be coupled to a point of sale (POS) terminal 200 to form a complete unit, as shown in
Although the present invention has been described with reference to preferred embodiments, numerous modifications and variations can be made and still the result will come within the scope of the invention. No limitation with respect to the specific embodiments disclosed herein is intended or should be inferred.
This Application claims priority as a non-provisional perfection of U.S. Provisional Application 61/649,906, filed May 21, 2012, which is incorporated by reference in its entirety herein.
Number | Date | Country | |
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61649906 | May 2012 | US |