Method for delivering different departments of a supermarket with department specific informations

Claim 1

A method for delivering to different departments of a supermarket equipped with a plurality of shopping carts department-specific informations which are digitally stored in central control equipment, subsequently transmitted on lines to the respective department and transmitted there in a wireless manner to be received and reproduced by the receiving units of the shopping carts within the respective department, wherein each of said department-specific informations is digitally processed before being stored in the central control equipment, subsequently time-compressed in a certain cycle and, after having been transmitted on lines to the respective department, serially transmitted in a wireless manner; and wherein each information transmitted in compressed form and having been received by the receiving units of the shopping carts within the respective department, is temporarily stored and, after expansion to the original information length, finally reproduced in analogous form in the audio-frequency range.

Claim 2

A method for delivering to different departments of a supermarket equipped with a plurality of shopping carts department-specific informations which are digitally stored in central control equipment, subsequently transmitted on lines to the respective department and transmitted there in a wireless manner to be received and reproduced by the receiving units of the shopping carts within the respective department, wherein each of said department-specific informations is digitally processed before being stored in the central control equipment, subsequently time-compressed in a certain cycle and, after having been transmitted on lines to the respective department, serially transmitted in a wireless manner; and wherein each information transmitted in compressed form and having been received by the receiving units of the shopping carts within the respective department, is temporarily stored and, after expansion to the original information length, finally reproduced in analogous form in the audio-frequency range.

Claim 3

A method for delivering to different departments of a supermarket equipped with a plurality of shopping carts department-specific informations which are stored in decentralized equipment associated with the respective department, transmitted from there in a wireless manner and reproduced after having been received by the receiving units of the shopping carts within the respective department, wherein each of said department-specific informations is digitally stored, subsequently time- compressed in a certain cycle, and serially transmitted in a wireless manner; and wherein each information transmitted in compressed form and having been received is temporarily stored, expanded to the original information length, and subsequently reproduced in analogous form in the audio-frequency range.

Claim 4

A method for delivering to different departments of a supermarket equipped with a plurality of shopping carts department-specific informations which are stored in decentralized equipment associated with the respective department, transmitted from there in a wireless manner and reproduced after having been received by the receiving units of the shopping carts within the respective department, wherein each of said department-specific informations is digitally stored, subsequently time- compressed in a certain cycle, and serially transmitted in a wireless manner; and wherein each information transmitted in compressed form and having been received is temporarily stored, expanded to the original information length, and subsequently reproduced in analogous form in the audio-frequency range.

Claim 9

The method according to any of claims 3 to 6 wherein, after acoustic reproduction of a selected additional informative item, the same or some other informative item kept at stand-by or being continuously transmitted can be selected and recalled by means of the keyboard provided on each shopping cart, whereupon the previous selection is cancelled, and all additional informative items, either kept at stand-by or being continuously transmitted, are again serially transmitted in time-compressed form to the receiving unit of the shopping cart within the department area where only the newly selected informative item is expanded to the original information length and reproduced in analogous form.

Claim 10

The method according to any one of the preceding claims wherein, together with or immediately following each acoustic reproduction of department-specific information or optionally before acoustic reproduction of additional informative items, a preferably coded signal indicating effective delivery of such information is sent by wireless transmission to a receiving device within the respective department, where the signal is either recorded or, completed by a department-specific code, transmitted to the central storing and/ or processing equipment.

Claim 11

The method according to any of claims 1 to 4 wherein: (al) any department-specific information or additional informative item is read and digitally processed in the central control equipment at a rite of at least twice the maximum frequency of the (audio-frequency) signal, is stored in parallel form at the sampling rate in a memory associated with the respective department, transmitted. on lines in time-compressed form and in a certain cycle at a considerably higher rate to the respective department to be serially sent by wireless transmission into the department area; (b1) any department-specific information transmitted in timecompressed form is received by the receiving unit of any shopping cart within the department area, is filed in a temporary store at the receiving end, recalled therefrom by converting means in expanded form at a clock rate preferably equal to the sampling rate used in the central control equipment, and subsequently reproduced in analogous form in the audio-frequency range; and (b2) any desired additional informative item can be selected from the transmitted, time-compressed informative items by means of a keyboard provided on every shopping cart of the shopping center, the selected informative item being then expanded by converting means to the original information length and reproduced in analogous form in the audio-frequency range.

Claim 12

The method according to any one of the preceding claims wherein acoustic reproduction of department-specific information and additional informative items is controlled by means of identifying pulses in such a manner that any information is acoustically reproduced in complete form from beginning to end.