CETW walking the talk, using customer engagement tools April 6, 2011 by Dave HaynesThe Customer Engagement Technology World (aka CETW or CET World or the trade show formerly known as KioskCom) is coming up quick. Not going. Not because I don’t want to, but mostly because flights to San Fran from Toronto are freakin’ expensive for whatever reason, and rooms are definitely not at Lost Wages rates. The …
Battery-powered displays and kiosks cut the cord March 25, 2011 by Dave HaynesChester Niziol had me up to the Toronto-area R&D digs of one of his companies, ideaLAB, something like a year ago to show me a prototype of a display he was working on that ran off nothing but batteries for a full business day. It was a little bulky and prototypey (invented word), but I …
Newad confirms Scala as software driving expanded resto-bar screen network March 22, 2011 by Dave HaynesI think Philippe Marchessault, the EVP of Ops at Montreal-based Newad, must have spent something like three years looking over his options for software and hardware vendors for its screen network in Canadian bars and restaurants. I know because we chatted several times and I pointed him in a few directions. After all that due diligence, he …
Very cool: 3D Projection-Mapping Blasted From Half-mile Out To Sydney Opera House Sails March 18, 2011 by Dave HaynesThis looks pretty spankin’ amazing on a bunch of levels. A week-long music festival in Sydney, Australia will culminate with a performance at the city’s iconic concert hall by the YouTube Symphony Orchestra – some 100 classical musicians from around the globe who auditioned online to be part of this event. The big concert on …
Cheating face detection the Twisted Sister way March 15, 2011 by Dave HaynesI have been doing some writing lately about face detection technology and certainly getting better educated about the issues and arguments around privacy issues as it relates to cameras and software looking for and bracketing faces. Engadget has an interesting piece up about an NYU student who figured out how face detection could be thwarted …
EnQii's Passport enters crowded mobile retail app field March 14, 2011 by Dave HaynesEnQii sent a newsletter/release out late afternoon about its launch of a new mobile phone app called EnGage Passport – a white-labeled application that allows retailers who are using EnQii’s DS platform (or not) to to make targeted savings offers to shoppers when they enter a store. Users download the EnGage Passport app and are …
Augmented Reality meets Kinect, makes Magic … Mirror March 7, 2011 by Dave HaynesTech blogger Robert Scoble has a fascinating guest post up on TechCrunch about a recent visit to the Silicon Valley R&D lab of SRI International, which has some 1,700 researchers doing work on tremendously important things like medical imaging, and not so important things like the future of shopping. I was, of course, most interested …
Are iPads suitable for digital signage? March 3, 2011 by Dave HaynesAre iPads suitable for digital signage? This is more an open question than something I can really answer here, but the all the discussion and attention stirred up by the iPad 2’s release got me thinking. I’d love to hear from people who have taken a crack at using the tablets – or iPad’s increasing …
TI intros new $51 HD video processor for digital signage (among a few things) March 1, 2011 by Dave HaynesExercising the absolute caveat that I am no propeller-head and don’t pretend to understand much of the inner workings or many of the acronyms, I do know enough to find this release today from Texas Instruments quite interesting … TI is introducing a new software compatible, power-efficient TMS320DM8148 DaVinci digital media processor that can do …
Sharp uses mirrored bezels to "hide" video wall seams February 28, 2011 by Dave HaynesOne of the things that caught my eye when running around at DSE was the big three-by-three video wall Sharp had at the front of its booth, and particularly some interesting trickery the manufacturer came up with to somewhat hide the seams between the display panels. This may be an old trick for all I …