Patent Application
20130073431
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a merchandise display for presenting products for sale to a potential customer, and specifically, a merchandise display for wireless load control devices that may be controlled by a product control application executed on a smart phone of the potential customer.
2. Description of the Related Art
Load control devices, which may be used to control the power delivered from an AC power source to an electrical load, are offered for sale in retail stores. Such load control devices may include, for example, lighting control devices (such as wall-mounted dimmer switches and plug-in lamp dimmers), motor control devices, temperature control devices, motorized window treatments, and remote controls. To attract consumers to a particular brand of load control device, a retailer may employ a merchandise display system in the retail store. Such a display system may include a product display containing a user-removable plurality of load control devices that are packaged for sale. Such a display system may also include a demo lighting control device having a user-manipulatable actuator. The demo lighting control device is typically connected to a lighting load, such that user manipulation of the actuator affects the light intensity level of the lighting load.
Some load control devices are operable to transmit and receive wireless signals, such as radio-frequency (RF) or infrared (IR) signals. Such wireless load control devices may be controlled in response to commands originating from a WiFi-enabled smart phone (such as, for example, an iPhone® smart phone). There is a need for a merchandise display that allows a potential customer to more personally interact with the products for sale, for example, by controlling a lighting load using a smart phone in wireless communication with a load control device.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, a method of presenting a product for sale to a potential customer comprises the steps of: (1) providing a demo product in a merchandise display; (2) executing a product control application on a smart phone of the potential customer; and (3) controlling the demo product in response to the execution of the product control application on the smart phone. The method may further comprise the step of providing a scannable tag adapted to be scanned by the smart phone, such that the product control application is downloaded onto the smart phone in response to scanning the tag. In addition, the demo product may be operable to receive a wireless message for control of the demo product, and may comprise, for example, a dimmer switch for control of a lighting load.
In addition, a merchandise display system for presenting a product for sale to a potential customer having a smart phone is also described herein. The display system comprises an electrical load and a load control device electrically coupled to the electrical load for controlling the electrical load. The load control device is operable to receive a wireless message for control of the electrical load. The display system also comprises a router operable to communicate with the smart phone, such that the load control device controls the electrical load in response to the smart phone. The display system may also comprise a scannable tag adapted to be scanned by the smart phone, such that the smart phone downloads a product control application in response to scanning the tag.
Other features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description of the invention that refers to the accompanying drawings.
The invention will now be described in greater detail in the following detailed description with reference to the drawings in which:
The foregoing summary, as well as the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments, is better understood when read in conjunction with the appended drawings. For the purposes of illustrating the invention, there is shown in the drawings an embodiment that is presently preferred, in which like numerals represent similar parts throughout the several views of the drawings, it being understood, however, that the invention is not limited to the specific methods and instrumentalities disclosed.
Alternatively, the product display 100 may include another type of load control device, such as, for example, a motor control device for controlling a motor load (such as a ceiling fan or an exhaust fan), a switching device for turning one or more appliances on and off, an electronic dimming ballast for a fluorescent lamp, a driver for a light-emitting diode (LED) light source, a screw-in luminaire that includes a light source and an integral load regulation circuit, a motorized window treatment, a thermostat for a heating and/or cooling system, a temperature control device for controlling a setpoint temperature of an HVAC system, an air conditioner, a compressor, an electric baseboard heater controller, a controllable damper, a humidity control unit, a dehumidifier, a water heater, a pool pump, an audio-visual (A/V) control device, a security control device, and a home automation control device. In addition, the product display 100 may comprises one or more wireless transmitters for sale, such as, for example, an occupancy sensor, a vacancy sensor, a daylight sensor, a temperature sensor, a humidity sensor, a security sensor, a proximity sensor, a keypad, a battery-powered remote control, a timeclock, an audio-visual control, and a central control transmitter.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, the user of the product display 100 (i.e., a potential customer) uses their personal smart phone 120 to interact with one of the demo products of the product display, e.g., the dimmer switch 110, and to thus adjust the intensity of the controlled lighting load 114. The smart phone 120 may comprise, for example, an iPhone® smart phone, an iPad® hand-held tablet computing device, an Android® smart phone or tablet, or a Blackberry® smart phone. The smart phone 120 may include a global positioning system (GPS) feature for providing data regarding the location of the phone. The smart phone 120 is able to connect to the Internet to download a product control application, for example, via a mobile connection or via a WiFi connection (i.e., the smart phone may be WiFi-enabled). The user then causes the smart phone 120 to execute the downloaded product control application in order to control the dimmer switch 110 in the product display 100. The product display 100 comprises a scannable tag 122, for example, a two-dimensional matrix barcode, such as, for example, a quick response (QR) code or a Microsoft® tag, to facilitate the download of the product control application.
The product display 100 comprises a wireless router 140 and a wireless dimming control module 142, which are electrically coupled together via a wired Ethernet link 144. The wireless router is operable to receive digital messages from the smart phone 120 via RF signals 146 (e.g., a WiFi link) and to transmit corresponding digital messages to the wireless dimming control module 142 via the Ethernet link 144. The wireless dimming control module 142 then transmits digital messages to the dimmer switch 110 via RF signals 148, such that the dimmer switch then adjusts the intensity of the controlled lighting load 114 in response to the received digital messages. The product display 100 could also comprise a visual display (not shown) for displaying information regarding, for example, the energy savings achieved as the dimmer switch 110 dims the controlled lighting load 114. The smart phone 120 is also operable to receive wireless messages from the wireless router 140 regarding the status of the lighting load 114. The smart phone 120 may be operable to display information regarding the energy savings achieved by the dimmer switch 110.
Alternatively, the wireless router 140 and the wireless dimming control module 142 could be implemented as a single wireless routing device. In addition, the wired Ethernet link 144 could alternatively be implemented as a wireless communication link (e.g., a WiFi link) or any suitable communication link.
If the user wants to use a browser on the smart phone 120 to locate the product control application at step 218, the user could navigate to a webpage of the manufacturer of the dimmer switches 110, 112 using the browser on the smart phone 120 at step 220 in order to download the product control application at step 216 (i.e., without scanning the tag 122). If the user does not want to use the browser at step 218, the user could use an alternate means to locate the product control application at step 222. For example, the user could enter a product code or a store code into the scanner application on the smart phone 120 to download the product control application.
After downloading the product control application to the smart phone 120, the user executes the product control application on the smart phone at step 224.
In response to actuations of the displayed soft buttons, the smart phone 120 transmits a first wireless digital message to the wireless router 140 via the RF signals 146. The first wireless digital message includes a command for controlling the lighting load 114. The wireless dimming control module 142 transmits a second wireless digital message to the dimmer switch 110 via the RF signals 148 in response to the wireless router 140 receiving the first wireless message. The dimmer switch 110 then adjusts the intensity of the lighting load 114 in response to the command included in the second wireless message, such that the dimmer switch 110 controls the lighting load 114 in response to actuations of the soft buttons of the smart phone 120.
The first wireless message transmitted by the smart phone 120 includes a product display address that may be unique to the specific product display 100, and the second wireless message transmitted by the wireless dimming control module 142 includes a demo product address that is unique for each of the demo products in the display. According to an embodiment of the present invention, the smart phone 120 acquires the product display address from the data retrieved from the scannable tag 122. Alternatively, the smart phone 120 could receive the product display address from the wireless router 140, or could determine the product display address from the GPS location data of the store in which the product display 100. According to an alternate embodiment, the product display address is not unique to each product display 100 and may be included with the downloaded product control application. A plurality of product displays located in retail stores in different locations all have the same default product display address, such that the smart phone 120 is instantly ready to control the dimmer switch 110 of the product display 100 upon downloading the product control application (i.e., without any additional programming or configuration steps).
While the present invention has been described with the smart phone 120 communicating directly with the wireless router 140 via the WiFi link, the smart phone 120 could alternatively communicate with the wireless router 140 using cellular communications, for example, via the Internet through a cloud server managed by the manufacturer of the products in the product display 100. For example, when the user scans the scannable tag 122 with the smart phone 120, the browser on the smart phone could launch a web page that is hosted on the cloud server and display screens similar to those of the product control application for controlling the lighting load 114. Therefore, the user does not need to download the product control application onto the smart phone 120 and the wireless router 140 could simply be a wired router. Alternatively, the web page could be hosted on a device in the product display 100, for example, the wireless dimming control module 142, and the smart phone 120 could communicate directly with the wireless dimming control module 142 via the wireless router 140 and the WiFi link.
The cloud server could use the GPS location data from the smart phone 120 to ensure that the user is located within the store of the product display 100 before controlling the lighting load 114. Alternatively, the smart phone 120 could verify the presence of the WiFi link of the wireless router 140 (i.e., specific to the store in which the product display 100 is located) before the cloud server controls the lighting load 114.
The wireless dimming control module 142 could also monitor the operation of the dimmer switch 110 and the plug-in dimmer switch 112 and transmit information regarding the status and usage of the product display 100. For example, the wireless dimming control module 142 could transmit a digital message to the cloud server if one of the lighting loads 114 is burnt out or otherwise failed, and the cloud server could send an email or a text message to a manager of the store in which product display 100 is located so that the lighting load can be serviced. In addition, the wireless dimming control module 142 could transmit a digital message if one or more of the lighting loads 114 are left on afterhours. Further, the wireless dimming control module 142 could transmit information regarding the usage of the product display 100 to the cloud server, such that the retailer or manufacturer could understand what merchandising techniques have better stopping power.
Wireless load control devices are described in greater detail in commonly-assigned U.S. Pat. No. 5,905,442, issued on May 18, 1999, entitled METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CONTROLLING AND DETERMINING THE STATUS OF ELECTRICAL DEVICES FROM REMOTE LOCATIONS; U.S. Pat. No. 6,803,728, issued Oct. 12, 2004, entitled SYSTEM FOR CONTROL OF DEVICES; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/033,223, filed Feb. 19, 2008, entitled COMMUNICATION PROTOCOL FOR A RADIO-FREQUENCY LOAD CONTROL SYSTEM; and U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/384,073, filed Sep. 17, 2010, entitled DYNAMIC KEYPAD FOR CONTROLLING ENERGY-SAVINGS SETTINGS OF A LOAD CONTROL SYSTEM; the entire disclosures of which are hereby incorporated by reference.
While the present invention has been described with reference to the product display 100 for wireless load control devices, the concepts of the present invention can be be used in a product display for a wide variety of electronic device. Although the present invention has been described in relation to particular embodiments thereof, many other variations and modifications and other uses will become apparent to those skilled in the art. It is preferred, therefore, that the present invention be limited not by the specific disclosure herein, but only by the appended claims.
This application claims benefit under 35 U.S.C. §119(e) of provisional U.S. patent application No. 61/454,007, filed Mar. 18, 2011, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 61454007 | Mar 2011 | US |
