摘要 |
<p>In a system for displaying prices in a retail store, improved system architecture and stored programs are disclosed to permit improved accuracy in confirming the physical location of display devices called labels (15). A response from a label to the host, or central computer (11), has appended to it an additional message by an appender (12), one of a plurality of appenders (12) located throughout the architecture. The appender's message permits localization of the labels (115). A power-on status flag in a response from the labels (15) permits the central computer (11) to determine, through global inquiries to all the labels (15), whether any of the labels (15) has had an interruption of power. A dongle (82) or RF-linked (82) bar-code scanner (81) permits store personnel to send messages to the central computer (11) to request that labels (15) in a particular subarea (83) of store display alternative information such as the amount of inventory for items in that subarea (83).</p> |