BELLEVUE, Wash., January 7, 2020 [BusinessWire] -- Ossia Inc. (“Ossia”), the company behind Cota® Real Wireless Power™, today announced the first ever wirelessly powered, battery-free, wire-free Electronic Shelf Label (ESL) system. Ossia will be demonstrating a mockup of a retail store aisle showcasing the Cota-powered ESLs at the Consumer Electronics Show, January 7-10, 2020.
“The brick and mortar retail industry is innovating quickly to meet changing consumer buying behaviors to compete with online purchasing,” said Mario Obeidat, CEO at Ossia. “As dynamic price changes influence online buying behavior, retailers can now offer the same competitive advantages by using Cota-enabled ESL displays to dynamically change prices across multiple products at multiple stores simultaneously, without having to worry about the maintenance of battery replacements and the environmental impact from battery disposal.”
The challenge ESLs face today with coin cell batteries is the dramatic restriction of the potential due to replacement costs, logistics and environmental impacts. ESLs with coin cell batteries have more limited functionality in the number of updates per day, multi-color displays and attention-getting LEDs. The status quo battery-powered ESL solution makes it challenging for mass market adoption in the retail environment. Conversely, Ossia’s Cota wireless power enables many new applications for ESLs that are not possible with batteries, such as active displays with notifications to employees, dynamic guidance for order picking and marketing/advertising opportunities.
In the retail world, customer satisfaction, liability, and regulatory aspects are challenging to keep register prices in agreement with shelf label prices. It can take millions of dollars in resources to staff and manually change the price on multiple products per store, per day. As the industry shifts, there is explosive growth predicted as the retail industry forecasts billions of ESLs to be installed across the Americas, Europe, and Asia by 2021.
The Cota system is flexible and scalable for supporting small, medium and very large retail deployments. Enabling hassle- free use of ESLs with minimal human interaction after deployment. Cota battery-less ESLs are hermetically sealed, reducing external humidity to extend the lifespan and quality of displays. Cota-enabled ESLs can be seen at CES with 4.2” displays, while adding three colors. Smaller displays, such as 2.7” and 2.3”, are in the works for deployments. Finally, the Cota ESL technology can support 1,000+ ESLs per Cota transmitter.
The Cota-powered ESL is environmentally friendly and doesn’t materially interfere with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Zibgee, or other wireless technologies. Once the Cota transmitter is installed into a retail environment, it can wirelessly power other devices in addition to ESL’s such as handheld prices scanners, environmental and safety sensors and eventually, consumer mobile devices.
“Wireless power enables many new applications within the retail environment,” Obeidat noted. “The battery- based infrastructure is holding us back from truly innovating in retail. Cota Real Wireless Power represents a significant step for the brick and mortar retail world to continue to compete with the growing ecommerce world.”
The Ossia team will be demonstrating the Cota-powered, battery-free ESL’s at Booth 41137 in Sands Convention Center, Halls A-D in the Smart Home section at CES January 7-10 by appointment only. To explore licensing opportunities, find out more about Ossia and its award-winning Cota® Real Wireless Power™ and get details about the company’s new Cota HOME technology, please visit the booth or go to ossia.com.
About OssiaOssia Inc. is leading the world on what is possible with wireless power. Ossia’s flagship Cota® technology redefines wireless power by safely delivering remote, targeted energy to devices at a distance. Ossia’s Cota technology is a patented smart antenna technology that automatically keeps multiple devices charged without any user intervention and enables an efficient and truly wire-free, powered-up world that is always on and always connected. Ossia is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington. Visit our website at www.ossia.com.
