Claims:WE CLAIM:

1. An environment friendly and safe electronic banner in form of complete device comprising:

a renewable energy driven solar panel for power generation in operative connection with Li-Po battery based power storage;

a rashberry pi interface;

an electronic display;

a power management unit adapted to continuously monitor power in said Li-Po Battery and operatively co-operating with said rashberry pi interface adapted to favour controlled shut down of rashberry pi before complete power drainage from said Li-Po battery based power storage.

2. The environment friendly and safe electronic banner in form of complete device as claimed in claim 1 comprising automatized shut down of the rashberry pi interface including its rashberry pi board when battery level in said Li-Po battery based power storage is close to its set lower level.

3. The environment friendly and safe electronic banner in form of complete device as claimed in claim 1 or 2 comprising means to sense the required level of daily power consumption and selectively providing the power storing Li-Po battery capacity based thereon.

4. The environment friendly and safe electronic banner in form of complete device as claimed in anyone of claims 1 to 3 wherein the rashberry pi interface including its rashberry pi board is connected to the solar panel through the Li-Po battery and said power management unit which provides required steady current including maximum power point tracking to ensure that the charging of the battery is optimized, and provides a control line back to the board.

5. The environment friendly and safe electronic banner in form of complete device as claimed in anyone of claims 1 to 4 wherein said power management unit includes charge Controller or volt / current meter combined with their solar charger and Power Boost with a USB port to monitor voltage of the Li-Po battery based on set voltage level of said Li-Po battery which is 4.2V when full and 3.7V when nearly empty enabling shut down of the raspberry pi board at around 3.7V before completely draining out of the battery.

6. The environment friendly and safe electronic banner in form of complete device as claimed in anyone of claims 1 to 5 adapted for wifi, internet browsing, live broaddcasting, video.

7. The environment friendly and safe electronic banner in form of complete device as claimed in anyone of claims 1 to 6, wherein the solar panel includes photovoltaic solar cells for generating the electrical power to charge the Li-Po battery.

8. The environment friendly and safe electronic banner in form of complete device as claimed in anyone of claims 1 to 7, wherein the rashberry pi is configured to establish operative connection between an information storage element and electronic display the required information on the electronic display;

said processor is adapted to process the information to be displayed via HDMI connector to pass the multimedia digital signal which finally displayed in the electronic display;

said HDMI connector is adapted to receive the signal and stereo audio signals based information fed from the storage element for sending across a HDMI cable for connection to the electronic display, whereby said connector into the digital signals enables scaling of the information particularly in form of image to fit as per size, format and resolution of the electronic display.

9. The environment friendly and safe electronic banner in form of complete device as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 8, includes the reduced usage of plastic and increased usage of renewable energy;

said invention is adapted as a simple and low cost alternative for existing PVC banner for displaying information, advertisements and like in institutes, organizations or public places.
, Description:FIELD OF THE INVENTION:
The present invention relates to electronic banner. More specifically the present invention is directed to a cost-effective environment friendly solar-powered electronic banner for displaying information, advertisements and like in a public place.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION:
Banner is basically a piece of cloth bearing a slogan or design or information or images hung in a public place. The basic objective of the banner is to spread information among the public.
Presently, the banners are primarily prepared by using plastic and it is leading to major disposal problems effecting the environment. As there is a continuous move towards reducing the usage of plastic based things and the hazardous problems effecting the environment, there has been a need for developing an alternate medium for spreading information among the public which can decrease the need of conventional plastic based banner.
Apart from the move to decrease the use of the plastic, recently there is also been a need for increasing the renewal energy. Renewable energy is an energy collected from renewable resources, which are naturally replenished on a human time scale, such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides, waves, and geothermal heat. Renewable energy often provides energy in four important areas: electricity generation, air and water heating/cooling, transportation, and rural (off-grid) energy services. Based on REN21's 2017 report, renewable contributed 19.3% to humans' global energy consumption and 24.5% to their generation of electricity in 2015 and 2016, respectively.
Based on this above persistent needs of the present age, the present invention is focused on reducing the usage of plastic and increasing the usage of renewable energy by developing renewable energy driven electronic banner.
OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION
It is thus the basic object of the present invention is develop a renewable energy driven electronic banner which would reduce the usage of plastic and increase the usage of renewable energy.

Another object of the present invention is to develop a simple, low cost solar power driven electronic banner for displaying information, advertisements and like in a public place.

Yet another object of the present invention is to develop a solar power driven environment friendly cost effective electronic banner which would contributes in making the society digital by reducing the usage of plastic and making the environment safe for the next generations.

A further object of the present invention is to develop an environment friendly cost effective renewable energy driven electronic banner which would provide a static as well as better visual experience in displaying the information electronically and the information includes the banner for the purpose of academic activities such as workshop , conference, cultural events, seminar etc. organized by academic institutions or in other sectors as an alternative of hazardous PVC based conventional banner so as to avoid the serious negative environmental impact with respect to poisonous PVC uses.

Yet another object of the present invention is to develop a renewable energy driven environment friendly and safe electronic banner which would operate in an adaptive and fail safe manner in accordance with availability of the renewable energy storage for displaying information, advertisements and like in a public place.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION:
Thus according to the basic aspect of the present invention there is provided an environment friendly and safe solar power driven electronic banner. The uniqueness of the present electronic banner lies on the use of electronics display and solar cell instead of conventional PVC based banner by reducing the environment pollution from the waste of the banner and utilizing the sustainable energy sources.

As a move towards reducing the usage of plastic based things and the hazardous problems effecting the environment, the present invention have been come up with an environmental friendly solar based electronic banner. The present solar power driven cost effective-environment friendly electronic banner completely works with the solar power and replaces the current plastic banners in the society in a cost-effective way, so that every organization can afford. The present solar power driven electronic banner can have applications in small scale organizations like colleges, shopping malls, function halls and smart cities.

In a preferred embodiment, the present environment friendly and safe solar power driven electronic banner comprises

a renewable energy driven solar panel for power generation in operative connection with Li-Po battery based power storage;

a rashberry pi interface;

an electronic display;

a power management unit adapted to continuously monitor power in said Li-Po battery and operatively co-operating with said rashberry pi interface adapted to favour controlled shut down of rashberry pi before complete power drainage from said Li-Po battery based power storage.

In a preferred embodiment, the present environment friendly and safe electronic banner comprises automatized shut down of the rashberry pi interface including its rashberry pi board when battery level in said Li-Po battery based power storage is close to its set lower level.

In a preferred embodiment, the present environment friendly and safe electronic banner comprises means to sense the required level of daily power consumption and selectively providing the power storing Li-Po battery capacity based thereon.

In a preferred embodiment of the present environment friendly and safe electronic banner, the rashberry pi interface including its rashberry pi board is connected to the solar panel through the Li-Po battery and said power management unit which provides required steady current including maximum power point tracking to ensure that the charging of the battery is optimized, and provides a control line back to the board.

In a preferred embodiment of the present environment friendly and safe electronic banner, the power management unit includes charge Controller or volt / current meter combined with their solar charger and Power Boost with a USB port to monitor voltage of the Li-Po battery based on set voltage level of said Li-Po battery which is 4.2V when full and 3.7V when nearly empty enabling shut down of the raspberry pi board at around 3.7V before completely draining out of the battery.

In a preferred embodiment, the present environment friendly and safe electronic banner is adapted for wifi, internet browsing, live broaddcasting, video.

In a preferred embodiment of the present environment friendly and safe electronic banner, the solar panel includes photovoltaic solar cells for generating the electrical power to charge the Li-Po battery.

In a preferred embodiment of the present environment friendly and safe electronic banner, the rashberry pi is configured to establish operative connection between an information storage element and electronic display the required information on the electronic display;

said processor is adapted to process the information to be displayed via HDMI connector to pass the multimedia digital signal which finally displayed in the electronic display;

said HDMI connector is adapted to receive the signal and stereo audio signals based information fed from the storage element for sending across a HDMI cable for connection to the electronic display, whereby said connector into the digital signals enables scaling of the information particularly in form of image to fit as per size, format and resolution of the electronic display.

In a preferred embodiment, the present environment friendly and safe electronic banner includes the HDMI to VGA converter for VGA port enabled display.

In a preferred embodiment of the present environment friendly and safe electronic banner, the electronic display preferably includes Liquid crystal display screen.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE ACCOMPANYING FIGURES
Figure 1a illustrates Process flow of environment friendly solar powered electronic banner operation in accordance with the present invention
Figure 1b shows front view of environment friendly solar powered electronic banner in accordance with the present invention.
Figure 1c shows side view of environment friendly solar powered electronic banner in accordance with the present invention.
Figure 2 shows solar panel with solar cells for driving the electronic banner prototype in accordance with the present invention.
Figure 3 illustrates LCD display screen side view in accordance with the present invention.
Figure 4 illustrates LCD display screen top view embedded with Raspberry pi based processor in accordance with the present invention.
Figure 5 illustrates the Raspberry pi used in the electronic banner of the present invention.
Figure 6 depicts the mutual interconnection and the HDMI converter and its interfacing with the display and Rasberry Pi based processor.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION WITH REFERENCE TO THE ACCOMPANYING DRAWINGS:
As stated hereinbefore, the present invention discloses an environment friendly and safe solar power driven cost effective electronic banner for reduction (eradicate) of the effect of vinyl banners on environment, reduction of the cost regarding banners and posters, uses of renewable energy, contribution in making the world digital. The electronic banner of the present invention is applicable for such colleges, universities where every day different stakeholders are using some banners for different purposes. These banners are for one time use only. It becomes waste after the occasion is over. So, in such scenario, the electronic banners (e-banner) are having potential application. Similarly, in a smart city, it will be a good move towards digitalization and reducing PVC waste by incorporating e-banner.

The present renewable energy driven cost effective-environment friendly electronic banner, as a whole is an unique combination of solar panel-Raspberry pi processor-HDMI connector-LCD display system that has not reported earlier for bannering purpose called as e-banner. The process flow of the present e-banner is given in figure 1a.

As per the figure 1a, 1b and 1c, the present renewable energy driven electronic banner preferably includes renewable energy driven solar panel for power generation from solar energy, rechargeable battery such as Li-Po battery based power storage, a rashberry pi based controlling processor, one or more electronic display and a power management unit.
The Solar panel (shown in figure 2) is disposed in operative connection with Li-Po battery based power storage. The Solar panel collects the solar energy and then converts into electrical power which is then useful to charge the Li-Po battery. This battery acts as a power source to the e-banner components including the rashberry pi interface of the present e-banner system and the display screen which is preferably LCD screen as shown in figure 3 and 4.
The rashberry pi interface including its rashberry pi board as used in the present e-banner system do the necessary processing of generating signal to display information in the LCD screen where the information is preferably in the jpg or pdf format. Moreover, if the users want the add ons like, video streaming, wifi, it must be enabled with such computation.

One of the major technological issues faced for using the rashberry pi interface is that sudden power off may lead to potential damage of the Raspberry Pi. The present e-banner system introduces the protection from such cases by incorporating autonomous turn off when the voltage drops to a specific threshold which corresponds to complete power drainage from power storage is being detected.

Another technical challenge in developing a combination of solar panel, LCD display, Li ion Battery, Raspberry Pi 3 and VGA-HDMI converter is the choice of solar cells and to connect the display with raspberry pi. The issue arises if the display is older, that is not having HDMI port. In such cases, it is recommended to use HDMI to VGA converter. Results is that it can solve the major purpose of displaying banner but possible ad on cannot be fetched. This limitation is addressed by introducing the display having inbuilt HDMI port. Another issue may arise if the pins are connected incorrectly as there is no fuse protection on the raspberry pi. So, at most care need to be taken during the installation.
Both the LCD screen and the Raspberry Pi 3 processor get the driving power from the battery. The raspberry pi 3 is a credit-card sized electronic board and can be used as a desktop computer if set up properly. The Raspberry Pi is a remarkable device, but it is not effective until an operating system is installed. NOOBS is of the easiest operating system installers which contains Raspberry Pi OS and Libre ELEC. It also provides a selection of alternative operating systems which are then downloaded from the internet and installed. Here, the fundamental purpose of the Raspberry Pi is only to display the information. Thus the information to be displayed is processed and sent via HDMI port which finally made the LCD to display the information or the advertisements. The processing of information in raspberry pi is basically the successful instalment of NOOBS.
The power storing battery as used in the present e-banner system has a power storage capacity of 2500 mAh with nominal voltage of 3.7 V and the charging voltage of 4.2 V sufficient to supply the driving power to the LCD, the Raspberry pi, and the HDMI connector.

The power required by the Raspberry pi to work is 10-15 watts, 12V, 2-2.5 amps. This raspberry pi processor is connected to the LCD screen which works by blocking light. Specifically, the LCD screen is made of two pieces of polarized glass (also called substrate) that contain a liquid crystal material between them. A backlight creates light that passes through the first substrate. At the same time, electrical currents cause the liquid crystal molecules to align to allow varying levels of light to pass through to the second substrate and create the colours and images that is displayed.
The present electronic banner system also includes the HDMI connector to bridge the raspberry pi and display unit. It’s clear that a number of different things have to happen, all at the same time; things that require more than connecting the two together. It is better to avoid older display which is not having HDMI port and only having VGA port. Moreover, such cases may be addressed by introducing an HDMI to VGA converter. It will not increase the cost as such and can connect HDMI signal from a raspberry pi to a VGA connection on an older display.

The computing blocks of the Rasberry Pi is given in the figure 5 and the raspberry pi including their mutual interconnection and the HDMI converter and its interfacing with the display and the Rasberry Pi is described in the figure 6.

The major challenges faced are to protect the Raspberry Pi while powering it from such solar-powered power storage. The operating system of the Raspberry Pi processor must be safely shut down before power is removed from the Pi or the SD card (or the Pi board itself) else it may gets damaged permanently. Therefore, it is understood that Voltaic USB batteries may not be the good choice for autonomous Raspberry Pi for this invention, since they provide a continuous power supply until the capacity is drained, then gets turned off all on a sudden without warning.

It is found that one way to protect the raspberry pi from abruptly turning off is to monitor the raw voltage of the Li-Po battery and have the Pi autonomously turn itself off when the voltage drops to a specific threshold.
The voltage of the Li-Po battery is monitored with the power management unit which includes SwitchDoc Labs SunAirPlus Charge Controller or the Adafruit INA219 volt / current meter combined with their Solar Charger and Power Boost (5v USB @ 500mA) with a USB port. The voltage for typical LiPoly Battery (3.7V, 2500mAH) is 4.2V when full and 3.7V when nearly empty, so to shut down raspberry pi board at around 3.7V so that it doesn’t completely drain the battery and damage the SD card.
It is important to know how much power the system consumes on a daily basis as per the increased dimension. In such situation , the present e-banner system includes manes to find out how many watts it uses then multiply by 24 to get the overall watt-hours, so that a battery can be selected that’s at least twice this big so that user can get through a full day of rain/clouds on the battery alone. Then the solar panel is needed to be selected about 5-10X larger than the wattage user needs. So if the system runs at 5V and draws 200mA consistently, that’s 1W so pick a panel that’s 5-10W.
Connecting a 5 V single board computer with integrated wireless connectivity such as the Raspberry Pi 3 to a solar cell requires an intermediate battery and power management unit to provide the steady current that is required. Using the methodology provides the maximum power point tracking to ensure that the charging of the battery is optimized, and provides a control line back to the board. This allows the board to be used in areas where power is not available and still supply data back to the screen.

As per the requirement, the power management unit is thus used to ensure fail safe operation of the Raspberry Pi while powering from the solar-powered power storage.

The solar panel for power generation as used in the present e-banner system preferably included waterproof solar panel having 19 to 15 Watt power generation capacity. The solar panel for this system preferably includes photovoltaic at least three to four solar cells for generating the required electrical power.

EXEMPLARY DEMONSTRATION
In this invention, the solar panel is used to generate power enough to power up the raspberry pi interfaced with LCD display by storing the power in the Li-ion battery. The raspberry pi is used to read and write the information and images required to display on LCD screen instead of PVC made use and through display. The HDMI connector is configured to send the raspberry pi generated signal to display. A micro SD card is used to install the software’s in to the Raspberry pi.
An academic institution in southern India is chosen as the target field and an extensive survey has been made. The use of conventional PVC based banners and its total cost is also estimated by considering one year data analysis.
The estimation of amount of PVC in a Banner is as follows:
Amount of PVC present in a vinyl banner is = 300 gsm (grams per square meter).
Average dimension of a flex banner is = 45inch.
45 inch display = 0.5546 square meter.
No. of gsm’s of PVC banner required for a flex banner is = 300x0.5546=166.38 grams per banner.
On an average a small organization (Target field: an autonomous engineering college at Tirupati, Andhra pradesh, India) requires 300 banners in 15 different places in the campus per year for different purposes.
It is calculated that 748.71kg of PVC is produced from these banners per year.
The environmental Impacts have also been studied. PVC, a poison plastic is one of the largest source of dioxins (a chemical which is harmful to living organisms). Dioxins are very persistent in the environment and their toxins get bio-accumulated in the food chain of ecosystems which causes a variety of health problems in all organisms (including humans). Their by-products are highly toxic. PVC flex banners can cause cancers and infertility.
Estimation of price of a conventional Banner is as follows:
Average cost of a banner (45 inch) is Rs. 400/-
On an average, an organization like the said college requires 300 banners per year.
So the Total cost is (300x400) = 1,20,000x15 = Rs.18,00,000/-
Cost of display board (45 inch) is Rs.15000/-
Cost of Solar cell is Rs.3000/-
Cost of Raspberry pie is Rs.2200/-
Cost of micro SD card is Rs.400/-
Cost of Battery is Rs.3500/-
Cost of other components is Rs.1000 /-
Total cost of an E-Banner is Rs.25,100/-
Cost of 15 E-Banners is 15x25,100 Rs.3,76,500/- whereas, the conventional Banner Cost estimated for SVEC per year : Rs.18,00,000 /-. Thus the present invention is not only making impact by reducing environmental hazards but also saving a considerable cost for the purpose.
Thus, by incorporating all the components with this invention builds a system which ensures an e-banner and in this invention, the use of only renewable energy ensures a step to green approach. The detailed investigation and analysis show that a significant lowering of environmental pollutants. Besides, the cost associated with the e-banner is very less compare to the total cost associated with the existing PVC banner. The following add on like live telecasting, Wi-Fi browsing, video player, etc. can also be incorporated as per the user need. Sample outputs are shown (Figure 1a, and Figure 1b) below where a Jpeg image and pdf is displayed. From all the figures it is shown that whenever a specific object is required to display, e-banner is capable enough to display the same. It confirms that the system is not specific type of the display object file and it can easily serve the purpose of displaying the content. This system (Figure 1b) is appropriate to use in colleges, universities, functions, small organizations and in smart cities to display the advertisements.