78
I first thought it was a camera but there was no point, After some searching I found that these things could communicate optical,, so that might be it, if so how do they work?
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 09 Dec 2023
78 points (100.0% liked)
Technology
37604 readers
146 users here now
A nice place to discuss rumors, happenings, innovations, and challenges in the technology sphere. We also welcome discussions on the intersections of technology and society. If it’s technological news or discussion of technology, it probably belongs here.
Remember the overriding ethos on Beehaw: Be(e) Nice. Each user you encounter here is a person, and should be treated with kindness (even if they’re wrong, or use a Linux distro you don’t like). Personal attacks will not be tolerated.
Subcommunities on Beehaw:
This community's icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
The top white rectangle is a multi-color LED (presumably RGB). Can't make out what's in the bottom, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was some form of light sensor for (literally) flashing new information onto the tag.
Yup. They use ceiling-mounted IR transmitters that are a bit like a big multi-directional TV remote control.
I'm pretty certain these ones use visible light, with ceiling-mounted LEDs. They flash at specific frequencies that are imperceptible to the human eye, but can be interpreted by the electronic shelf label. Here's a whitepaper explaining the concept.
Source: for 20 or so years, I worked in technology for some of Australia's largest retailers, and we tested a lot of these sorts of things in our labs. Very cool stuff.
They're IR. Source: I have 5 Pricer labels sitting on the counter next to me.
Ah, fair enough. It's been a long time since I clapped eyes on the test ones we had.
Hmm. They're very common in NZ now, however it appears that document is talking about modulating the actual normal shop lighting, not just an independent transmitter.
I redid the electrical in a supermarket already fitted out with Pricer gear, and we went from dumb electronic-ballasted fluoros to dumb-driver LEDs, no DALI and certainly no comms uplink or modulation smart enough for that. I'm aware that the document suggests power-line communication to the drivers, but these were off the shelf dumb drivers/ballasts.
The ceiling mounted Pricer transceivers would have been doing all the transmitting, and as I never saw any visible light coming out of them, and the HF ripple and instability from the shop lighting would have been significant, I think it's pretty safe to say they were using some form of IR.
The light is visible, the flashing isn't.