[Industrial IoT] RFSENSOR driven link-quality based eink updates

Problem to Solve:

Prevailing AP/gateway enabled eink[Electronic shelf labels] , outdoor link signage updates success rates will not be the same always , this loss/improper update of data are due to the following reasons

a) shuffling of the floor-plan logistics

b) Reorganization of the racks; crates; trolleys

c) Unnoticed internal/external obstructions [Construction infrastructure; buildings/Trees]

d) Freezer/cold-storage reachability issues

Moreover the classification of e-ink types which can listen and update themselves only to specific radios like 433MHz only , Zigbee only , BLE , WiFi so the downlink link supported radio AP/GW types are also scattered in the enterprise network. Objective is to infer such problems through RF sensor based monitoring 24/7 and make sure monitoring and bulk updates are always effective, without missing any partial updates or failure to update certain e-inks placed away from its read/write perimeter

Enhanced e-inks come with customer attraction features like customer facing flashing indicators(for promotion and brand engagement through the flash indicator. It helps to draw shoppers attention to specific product or promotions to encourage spending) which will be placed normally outside shop perimeters , sometimes if enough signal strengths are not available then its rolling update goes for a toss

A National Retail Federation study shows retailers lose about $50 billion in inventory every year

• Due to poor sales, customer dissatisfactions
• Risk of incorrect nutrition labels, which imposes regulatory penalties
• Missing enterprise-level visibility into entire scale network and data integrity impacts operating margins
• If eink update RF link-quality are not well maintained then it will cost deploying resources to each location to fix the labels , manual overhead (Even though Remotely updates label formats, images, presets and other multimedia changes doesn’t get implied)
• Lack of Speedy restocking and can’t comply improving planogram compliance

Sensor-Analytics based infrastructure is very critical for enterprise business operations, to ensure and product RF environment of enterprises in real-time, helping enterprise segment make smarter and faster decisions.

Enterprise shelf management(e-ink)

GAP:

• No solution available in market which could hookup with WIFI APs and perform closed loop analysis backed by m/c-learning.
• Requires lot of manual shop floor management tagging upon offer updates (Big pain points for the shop owners)
• Loss of sync with POS leads to manual intervention and support-staff movement across floors to bill the items which results in very long queuing 
• During offer updates store owners had to pre-plan and allot crew to do manual shelf tagging 

Solution

• One-touch update/pre-provision of the pricing/offer updates 
• When consumers walk by e-ink shelf items start interacting with consumers and assist them 
• Shop owners geographically will have access to each items that’s been shelfed and as demand increases through backend system update demand vs response metrics (SAP HANA/Oracle)
• Also keeps track of Zombie shelfed item and its location being beaconed 
• When near exp-date products locations will be pin-mapped and will prompt the owners for immediate clearance

Novelty of the MVP

This radio sensor can gauge all types of e-ink(Indoors[Electronic Shelf Labels],Outdoors[Signages/Ad-Boards]) downlink spectrum abnormalities/anomalies through info-push tests and gauge the prevailing over the air link-quality metrics before triggering centralized MASS/BULK e-ink data updates within a matter of few seconds

• Compelling use/case for this type of sensor deployments would be for the warehouses, factory-floors , malls, stores , mega-enterprise market segments , Hospitals with eink logistics/equipment signage monitoring and maintenance updates , Public transportation pit stops