Methods and apparatus for reduced electronic shelf label power consumption

Abstract

An electronic shelf label (ESL) system with having a reduced power consumption ESL is described. In one aspect, the ESL system extends battery life and increases the time between battery replacements by turning off the display segments of an ESL's display at predetermined times, such as, for example, when the store is not open or when the tags are not being viewed by customers. If a blank display is undesirable, due to possible confusion with a malfunctioning ESL or battery outage, then a single segment or a limited number of segments may be turned on. In one aspect, one of an ESL's registers which contains the display contents maybe loaded with a “blank” indication, or spaces, which results in the ESL not displaying any text and all of the display segments being turned off. In a preferred embodiment the register containing the “blank” indication is a reserved register and is located at the same register address for all ESLs in a retail establishment, allowing a single broadcast message to be transmitted to all ESLs to turn the displays off. By using such a broadcast message, an entire retail establishment may have its ESLs turned off quickly, rather than having to address each of the ESLs individually. Prior to the store reopening, a second broadcast message may be transmitted to cause the ESLs to resume normal displays.