DE20302302U1 - LCD display is used as the basis of a dynamic display for a door panel - Google Patents

Abstract

The information panel is used as a door panel having a dynamic display [3] , such as an LCD panel. The display has an associated memory that retains information that is entered from a controlled remote source. Electrical power for the display is provided by a solar energy cell [5a]. A photo cell [12] is used to activate the panel.

Description

German/Seven j . *; · &idigr; J U* Setfruaf 200}

Door sign with dynamically controllable display

The present invention relates to a novel door sign for the changeable signage of doors of various types (house, office, hotel room, hospital and nursing home room doors, etc.).

Signs on doors are absolutely necessary and therefore nothing special and widespread. Signs on front doors (usually in conjunction with doorbells) make it possible for postmen, for example, to properly deliver letters and packages to the addressee.

However, especially in large office and residential buildings, the signs for the individual parties are usually not uniform. Instead, the new names are first added provisionally by simply sticking on pieces of paper. This quickly leads to the entire building having a disorganized, "thrown together" and therefore unprofessional appearance, which is particularly undesirable in office buildings with customer traffic.

Furthermore, the door signs for the individual offices within a company or authority should be mentioned. Particularly in larger companies where employees often change offices, a quick renaming of the names on the door signs is only possible by temporarily sticking over the previous names, which can also create an unprofessional image of the company for potential customers. The current signage on doors is also problematic with regard to modern approaches to flexible room occupancy. In large companies, whose employees mostly work outside the company and rather irregularly in the company itself, it is not worthwhile for cost reasons to have a fixed office or a fixed place for each employee. Instead, each employee has their own lockable roll container that contains the employee's personal documents. The roll containers are tidied every evening and placed in a central room. The company maintains a certain number of standardly equipped offices, so that when the employee works in the company's own building, they always look for another, currently free place. Conventional signage of the offices with names on them would therefore not make sense.

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Conference rooms within a company or organization are also affected by rigid door signage. The corresponding door signs only show the room number. The slightly better version has a slider with which you can set "occupied" or "red" and "free" or "green" on the door sign. A more precise description of the meeting taking place in the conference room, including the time, etc., is only possible with notes on paper, which are then attached to/under the actual door sign. Particularly when information changes relatively often (daily, weekly, monthly), the appearance of door signs is often very unprofessional, no longer up to date, or is omitted altogether due to the problems outlined. This problem is also widespread in hospitals and nursing homes. In some hospitals, the names of the patients are given on the door signs. Since the occupancy of the patient rooms can change up to daily, the nurses write the names by hand on pieces of breadcrumbs and stick them in the door sign. In this way, the uniform appearance of the hospital or nursing home is completely disrupted by different handwriting and different types and colors of pens.

To avoid this, patient rooms often do not have names at all, only the room number. Visitors must therefore speak to the ward nurses to find out where the patient is. Doctors cannot tell from the outside which patient is in which room either, especially since, as already mentioned, the occupancy of the rooms can change daily.

If the door sign had the names of the patients in the room, the doctors entering the room would immediately be able to address the patients by name, giving the relationship between doctor and patient a more personal touch.

Even instructions such as "Please do not disturb" or "Please report visitors to the nurses' room" are usually handwritten on a piece of paper and simply stuck to the corresponding door.

To avoid these disadvantages of a rigid or no door sign, the present invention proposes a device for visual communication by means of an electronic display panel that is dynamically controllable.

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German/Seven ; ';♦ JJ 1 i* KetfruaC 200}

This device should also be easy to install and operate, preferably wirelessly.

Based on this, the present invention is based on the task of providing a holder for a dynamically controllable display, by means of which current information (names, room names, opening times, logos, times, etc.) can be given visually at short notice to people passing by or searching for the relevant room and, if necessary, supplemented and changed. This can be done both as brief information and extensively in words, pictures and/or the like. Furthermore, the door sign should be easy to install.

This object is achieved according to the invention by a door plate (in all possible variations with regard to size and material) for doors of all types with the protection claim 1. Advantageous further developments and embodiments, which can be used individually or in combination with one another, are the subject of the subclaims.

The sign according to the invention for doors of all types is characterized by at least one cutout formed in the door sign, in which at least one dynamically controllable display is arranged for visual communication with and/or in particular targeted information to people passing by. Such a door sign advantageously allows the simple installation of a dynamically controllable display on/next to doors of all types.

To dynamically control the display, the door sign preferably has a control module.

According to the invention, the door sign is preferably equipped with an independent power supply for the electronic components with electrical current and is thus wireless and easy to install. Solar cells, rechargeable batteries, batteries and/or the like are particularly suitable as such power supplies. The solar cells are preferably designed in such a way that they deliver a sufficient electrical voltage of at least 3 volts (V), preferably of at least 5 V, simply by absorbing daylight or nearby light sources.

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Alternatively or in addition to this, the door plate can also have a fixed connection to the power supply, which supplies the components with sufficient voltage, particularly in the event of a failure or malfunction. A connection to the fixed power supply is easy to implement, particularly in new buildings or renovations.

In order to enter and/or change the information, in particular by means of a keyboard, Bluetooth receiver/wireless network or wireless LAN, GSM and/or UMTS receiver, cell phone, organizer or the like, the door sign preferably has at least one interface with which the information intended for the visual transmission of words, symbols or transmission of targeted communication, in particular room occupancy (company, name, period) or company logos, or other information can be advantageously reprogrammed at any time. Other people (passing by/searching) or visitors are advantageously focused on as recipients of this visual information or message.

Preferably, the door plate has at least one storage medium for storing the information, for example an electronic storage element integrated in the control module, which advantageously optionally holds defined information.

An on/off control is also proposed for activating or deactivating the electronic components. It is particularly preferred to couple the on/off control with a timer, a photocell, a motion detector and/or the like, which is conceivable and advantageous.

Manual, semi-automatic and/or fully automatic retrieval or selection means are preferably used to retrieve or select the entered, processed and/or stored information, for example via the interface, a cable remote control, a wireless remote control or the like.

For the purpose of dynamically outputting the information to the display in static text/image representation, in scrolling text, in flashing form or in a combination of these forms of representation, an output medium is proposed.

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In a further preferred embodiment, the door plate has a regulating means for regulating the brightness of the display, which preferably automatically adjusts the luminosity of the display to the respective lighting conditions of the surroundings.

According to the invention, the display is preferably a shockproof, heatable, waterproof and/or backlit LCD. Furthermore, the display is preferably glare-free and can be viewed radially from an angle of 65 degrees from the central axis, so that children and wheelchair users can also read the text.

The present invention thus advantageously offers an innovative, simple, informative and comparatively cost-effective alternative to door-room labeling and thus has a very high market potential.

The present invention is described below using a preferred embodiment, to which it is not limited, and with reference to the drawings (Fig. 1 and Fig. 2),

Show it:

Fig. 1 the door plate including front plate

Fig. 2 the door plate without front panel with the individual (electronic) components

The two figures show a door sign 1, firstly the front view (Fig. 1) and secondly the interior of the door sign including electronics (Fig. 2), with at least one cutout 2 in which at least one dynamically controllable display is arranged. The display 3 is preferably an LC display, e.g. with 20x4 characters, which can be set either as a fixed text display or a scrolling function. The display 3 is also preferably capable of displaying a logo at the respective display height. Furthermore, the display 3 is preferably shockproof, heated, waterproof, backlit and connected to a brightness control which is controlled, for example, via a photocell 12. Furthermore, the display 3 is preferably glare-free and can be viewed radially from an angle of 65 degrees from the central axis.

A communicative or informative text can be programmed, for example, using a keyboard (not shown) and/or via a GSM transmitter/receiver 8. For this purpose, the system preferably uses the well-known cell broadcast in the GSM

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DS200302

Networks. Programming of a fixed text memory 9 can also be done alternatively via cell phones or organizers (not shown). Furthermore, an existing or to be created Bluetooth/radio network or wireless LAN 8 can also be used for programming.
In addition, the system is preferably also UMTS-capable.

The power supply of the electronic components 3, 4, 8, 9 and 11 is preferably provided by solar cells 5a which are also integrated in the door plate 1. However, depending on the design and type of the door plate 1, it can also be provided by a rechargeable battery 5b or a lithium buffer battery 5c and/or a direct power connection 6. The door plate 1 also preferably has a computer interface or interface 7 and an external keyboard connection (not shown). The fixed text memory 9, which is preferably integrated in the control module 4, comprises 127 memory locations of 80 characters each, which also contain special characters such as @ or €, but also logo-capable in the respective display height, which results from the number of lines. The memory 9 and the character set can be individually adapted. An on/off control 10 is provided for the activation or deactivation of the electronic components 3, 4, 8, 9 and 1. It can be implemented in various ways, e.g. in the form of an integrated black box (not shown), a timer 11, a photocell 12 and/or via a remote control.

Stored fixed texts can be called up either wirelessly using the remote control provided or via a cable remote control and/or a timer, etc.

The present invention makes use of the basic idea of a sign for any door (house, office, conference room, hotel and hospital room doors, etc.) to attach a dynamic display 3, such as an LCD display 3, in the fields previously occupied by printed text. With this display 3, various texts, characters, numbers and/or logos can be displayed in a dynamic and easily changeable form. A controller 4 controls the display 3, so that it is possible to provide changing information on the display using simple means or to change the displayed information quickly and easily at any time. According to the invention, the display 3 can preferably be supplied with the corresponding information via radio transmission, preferably by means of Bluetooth=/radio network/= receiver or wireless LAN 8 and/or GSM receiver 8.

German/Seven \ . ' I ' II »fl. fe6njsr«P£)3

DS200302

The present invention is therefore particularly suitable for installation on house and building doors, e.g. in conjunction with bells, so that the power supply is possible either via the bell transformer and/or alternatively via solar cells. The present invention is also suitable for labeling office doors, patient room doors, etc., as it can preferably be installed wirelessly. It also saves energy, as it is preferably equipped with a photocell for activation/deactivation. Using the present invention, central text input onto door signs equipped with a GSM receiver is possible throughout Germany, e.g. for property management companies or large companies, via GSM or cell broadcast. Text input can also be carried out via a Bluetooth network using a central PC with a Bluetooth interface/transmitter/receiver. The desired text is entered centrally and can be transmitted to any door sign in the network, whereby the range of the Bluetooth network is locally limited, e.g. to a company premises.

In Finland, for example, it is possible to quickly rename the names on office door signs by connecting an external keyboard. For conference rooms, it is suitable to use stored fixed texts that can be called up using a remote control.

In hotels, for example, it would be conceivable to link the system to existing chip and/or card systems on locks. This would allow the door plates to be controlled via the hotel's central computer, which manages the locking system, and the guest's name could be displayed on the door plate.

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" DS200302

List of reference symbols Door sign 1 Form cutout 2 Advertisement 3 Control module 4 Power supply 5 Solar cell 5a battery pack 5b battery 5c External power connection 6 interface 7 GSM and/or UMTS receiver 8th and/or Bluetooth/radio network/receiver or wireless LAN Storage medium 9 On/off control 10 Timer 11 Photocell 12 Output medium 13

Claims (12)

1. Door plate (1) for doors of all types, characterized by at least one shaped cutout (2) formed in the door plate (1), in which at least one dynamically controllable display (3) is arranged for visual communication with and/or (targeted) information to other persons. 2. Door sign (1) according to claim 1, characterized by a control module (4), in particular for dynamically controlling the display (3). 3. Door plate (1) according to claim 1 or 2, characterized by power supply means (5) for supplying the electronic components (3; 4; 8; 9; 11) with electrical current independently of the external power network, for example by means of a solar cell (5a), a rechargeable battery (5b), a battery (5c) and/or the like. 4. Door plate (1) according to claim 1, 2 or 3, characterized by an external power connection (6) for the (supplementary) power supply of the electronic components (3; 4) via the external power network. 5. Door sign (1) according to one of the preceding claims, characterized by at least one interface (7) for entering information, in particular by means of a keyboard, Bluetooth receiver/radio network or wireless LAN, GSM and/or UMTS receiver (8), mobile phone, organizer or the like. 6. Door plate (1) according to one of the preceding claims, characterized by at least one storage medium (9) for storing the information, for example an electronic storage element (9) integrated in the control module (4). 7. Door plate (1) according to one of the preceding claims, characterized by an on/off control (10) for activating or deactivating the electronic components (3; 4; 8; 9; 11), for example in conjunction with a timer (11), a photocell (12), a remote control and/or the like. 8. Door plate (1) according to one of the preceding claims, characterized by manual, semi-automatic and/or fully automatic retrieval or selection means (7) for retrieving or selecting the information, for example via the interface (7), a cable remote control, a wireless remote control or the like. 9. Door sign (1) according to one of the preceding claims, characterized by an output means (13) for outputting the information in static text-image representation, in scrolling text, in flashing form or in a combination of these forms of representation to the display (3). 10. Door sign according to one of the preceding claims, characterized by a regulating means (12) for regulating the brightness of the display (3), which adapts the luminosity of the display (3) to the respective lighting conditions of the environment, preferably automatically. 11. Door sign (1) according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the display (3) is a shockproof, heatable, waterproof and/or backlit LCD, which is also glare-free and radially visible. 12. Door sign (1) according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the display (3) is capable of accommodating a logo according to its respective display height or number of lines.