Samsung 3D Projection Mapping In Amsterdam

Just watch the video!

The Flypaper buzz

After reading all the hype about flypaper, I decided to give their do it yourself digital sign-age platform a shot.

From flypaper.com "The Flypaper Platform is a cost effective solution to generate high-quality Flash and video content for digital signage networks without custom programming, big budgets and long production schedules. "

So there you have it, build your own flash presentations for Digital Signage without having to hire a professional designer or developer. But as a professional Designer I asked myself, is this software for me too?

After building my own presentation in flypaper (making sure to investigate every possible button and dialog box) my initial impression was that this was a slick little piece of software. But after watching the horrid presentation I created play over and over, I started to question the purpose of it.

Flypaper is a very very power point inspired program, albeit more intuitive and pleasing to look at. However that's just it, with all the pre-built animations, buttons and transitions to use that's just what your going to end up getting, a very power point looking presentation from the 90s. While you can customize some of these items, it is very limiting in comparison to flash. So as a designer my tendency would be to construct different elements like backgrounds, buttons and animations with your standard adobe products and import them into flypaper and use it as a composer of sorts to get away from the power pointy look and feel. Which then raised some questions. Whats the point? Will it save me any time? It does create simple buttons and flash transitions quicker than flash, but usually this is only a fraction of the time involved in creating a presentation. Most of the time is spent creating custom graphics, editing video clips, pulling dynamic data (xml, rss twitter you name it) ect. So why wouldn't I just do this all this in flash and save all the headache of trying to introduce one more program into the mix of content creation.

After consulting other professional designers on their thoughts, I was left to think only one thing. Cool, but not for me. Unless of course its free :) Now back to the main target audience "non-designers". Frankly it kind of makes me sick to my stomach thinking that this stuff could catch on to non-designers. There is already an over abundance of bad flash animations by less than par designers out on the web. That's just what we need now, this stuff seeping into he digital signage industry with even less competent people creating content. I work for a digital sign-age company, and we started back in the early 90s giving customers the content creation software, but after doing on site visits we noticed that the displays looked absolutely horrid and quickly yanked complete control from the customers limiting them to update specific zones of a screen themselves.

The Flypaper buzz states that its going to be a "game changer" in the digital signage industry.

I think there are a few designers out their that might adopt it simply because they just can't get the hang of flash, but other then that I think the main audience is going to be for non-designers.

It will have great appeal to people trying to deploy signage on a budget. However, do you really want Sally from HR creating content and exposing how unprofessional you really are?

A commenter from CNET summed up it up well:

The client buys a finished production … or they can buy a handy cam and shoot it themselves. We don’t have a problem with this, because we know that the next time they want to do a video production, or a Flash animation, they’ll come back to someone who knows how to do it right.

InfoComm: Panasonic breaking news

At the Panasonic InfoComm breakfast this morning, the tech giant announced several new product offerings as it continues to make a play into the digital signage market.

While Panasonic has been synonymous with "plasma," the company has decided to introduce two LCD displays (42- and 47-inches) for high-light deployments where the brigther LCD displays make more sense. Those will become available in July at price points of around $1,400 for the smaller and just under $1,900 for the larger.

The company also announced the availability of two new 3D-capable, full HD large-format displays (85- and 103-inches), also available in July, as well as a 152-inch full-HD, 3D-capable plasma display that should hit the market early next year.

Panasonic reps also showed off the company's crisp and extremely effective 3D capabilities, while also acknowledging that its position to this point as a provider solely of "3D with glasses" limits the technology's effectiveness in the digital signage space. The company believes the image quality with autostereoscopic just isn't there yet, and it wants to make sure it can do "3D without glasses" well before it tries to get it to market, reps said this morning.

www.digitalsignagetoday.com

Mobile marketing and its impact on digital signage

Technology prognosticators have been saying for some time that this decade will be the decade of mobility. Judging by the events of the past couple of months, it would appear that the prognosticators may be right, and that those within the digital signage industry need to take serious note.

Less than two months ago, Google announced the purchase of a company called Admob for $750 million. On Jan. 6, 2010, Apple announced the purchase of a company called Quattro Wireless for nearly $300 million. The focus of Admob and Quattro is to sell ad space on mobile phones and then recruit mobile Web site and application developers to support the process for getting the ad’s on phones.

The process, which is an example of “mobile marketing,” works essentially like this:

• The aggregator sells ad space to advertisers/agencies based upon an agreed set of ad placement criteria (e.g. dates of placement, times of placement, viewer demographics, etc.).

• The ad and associated placement criteria are entered into the aggregator's database for eventual selection and placement within a mobile Web page and/or application.

• Concurrent with the process of selling ads, the aggregator works to entice mobile Web/app developers to participate in the ad delivery process.

• Participating Web/app developers add a script to their Web/app code. This script will ultimately query the aggregator’s system for an ad to place and render within the Web page or application.

• As a mobile user views the Web page/app containing the integrated script, the script communicates information/criteria (e.g. type of phone, time, date, etc) to the aggregator.

• The aggregator’s system selects the appropriate ad based upon the information/criteria provided by the script and then returns the ad back to the user's phone.

• The Web page’s/app’s script then renders the ad as a part of the Web/page. If the user clicks on the ad, the click through is recorded and control is passed accordingly.

Each step of the process is methodically tracked and reported. Ad delivery statistics and click‐through metrics are collected real‐time and provided as evidence to the advertisers and/or their agencies to substantiate the aggregator’s billings. The process, as a whole, is not that radically different in concept from that used by digital signage aggregators, but there are however some marked differences in what the two models can support:

• In the mobile model, the placement and delivery of ads can be managed to a very granular level. For example, mobile aggregators can deliver ads directly to an individual and even tailor the ads to the individual's historical preferences. This is possible in the digital signage space but only if the signage is interactive and the viewer registers at the sign, which is not typically a part of today's standard digital signage deployment model.

• In the mobile model, the user can respond to a personalized call to action right from their phone. This is possible on interactive digital signage, but as outlined in the previous point, the call to action cannot be personalized unless the viewer registers with the sign. Even if the viewer registers with the sign, it is not customary for digital signage viewers to consummate personal transactions on larger screens ‐ kiosks, yes ‐ 40 inch screens, questionable.

• In the mobile model, the user can receive and respond to an ad virtually anytime and anywhere so long as there is wireless coverage. This is not true for digital signage. The viewer must be in viewing proximity of the sign for the ad to be seen. Again, responding to ads while at the screen is not typically a part of the traditional one‐to‐many usage model of digital signage.

So what are the implications of mobile marketing to those within the digital signage value chain?

First, we are in a new era of mobile communications that is manifest by the explosive growth of a new generation of sophisticated smartphone ‐ one that is a part of a new mobile ecosystem. Because of this, mobile marketing will continue to advance and become more widely adopted over the next couple of years.

For example, advances in location‐based cell phones will add a new level of granularity to ad delivery and neutralize one of digital signage's greatest strengths ‐ location-oriented content delivery. The implication here is that those in the digital signage industry will need to be as sensitive to what is occurring in the mobile industry as they are to what is occurring in their own industry.

Second, one has to consider the old adage that "advertisers will follow the money.” Like it or not, mobile technologies can support very measurable marketing campaigns. Also, mobile marketing has the potential to generate very high response rates. It is clear that large, highly visible brands understand this and are investing very large sums of money to capitalize on the “move to mobile.” Those playing in ad‐based digital signage must realize that they are in competition for those same ad dollars and be prepared to execute a counter response. Those with digital signage offerings that do not depend on ad funding must also be prepared to neutralize mobility’s push for the viewers’ eyeballs.

Third, if you haven’t noticed already, people are looking down more than ever ‐ at their cell phones of course. Look around. It’s happening at an accelerating rate. In fact, during a recent trip to a bagel restaurant where digital signage was installed, it was noted that patrons, if not engaged in conversation, were almost universally engaged with their phones. On that particular visit, not once was anyone observed looking at the signage. Digital signage software companies and network operators alike need to start thinking about how they will support a convergent experience between the screen and the mobile handset. Purveyors of digital signage will need to give mobile users a reason to look at the signage before, during and even after they look at their handset.

In summary, big, unprecedented things are happening in the mobile space. It's a new day for mobility ‐ one like we've never seen before. There will be broad and profound implications to the digital signage industry. The industry, as well as individual players in it, must be aware of what is happening and have a strategy in place to compensate for the threat mobility represents. Strange as it may seem, that strategy better include mobility.

iBar

iBar is a system for the interactive design of any bar-counter. Integrated video-projectors can project any content on the milky bar-surface. The intelligent tracking system of iBar detects all objects touching the surface. This input is used to let the projected content interact dynamically with the movements on the counter. Objects can be illuminated at their position or virtual objects can be "touched" with the fingers.

The iBar system is ready to be installed completely into any kind of bar-counter, there's no need for any further installations on the ceiling or something like that. The software is flexible and can be adjusted and enhanced.

Videos, Newspaper, Brochures, Games, Fun, Visuals. Ambience etc

Putting the touch into touchscreens

YOUR eyes tell you that your hand is locked in a vice-like mechanical device, but your fingertips tell you you're stroking fur. Welcome to the world of haptics, where nothing is quite how it feels.

As neuroscientists decode how we process signals from nerves that sense touch, engineers are beginning to use their discoveries to dupe us into feeling something that isn't there. Given the right kind of manipulation, a smooth surface can be made to mimic the feel of a range of materials, and a solid slab can be made to feel like shifting sand.

As well as producing weird tactile illusions, haptics have practical uses. For example, tactile feedback can make touchscreen devices more intuitive to use, says Vincent Hayward, head of haptics at the Institute of Intelligent Systems and Robotics at Pierre and Marie Curie University in Paris, France. Such systems are already in use on some smartphones in which actuators within the touchscreen produce a basic "clicking" sensation when the screen is pressed.

read more at newscientist.com

Interactive Trading Wall

Rise Display shows off an introductory look at thier new interactive teaching wall for business school trading labs. If you are attending AASB in Anaheim stop by and give a look for yourself at booth #126. If you are unable to attend here is an overview on youtube.