Touch-screens seep into interactive furniture and advertising
As an implementation, Zytronics’ Projected Capacitive Technology (PCT) goes into HUMElab TABATA table which incorporates a large format, HD, touch-enabled display. The table format with a horizontal screen allows users to play complex multi-user games (up to 40 simultaneous touch points), to order food (in the context of a restaurant) or to surf the web and connect with friends via social media.
Supplied to HUMElab in 22, 32 and 42-inch formats, each sensor features customised printed borders with sleek polished edges to support a bezel-less design. Zytronic’s PCT technology is manufactured using a micro-fine metal matrix of sensing elements (only 10 microns in diameter) embedded into a laminated substrate.
It allows complex gestures recognition and designed with the ZXY200 multi-touch controller, it supports ‘palm rejection’ firmware so that practically, a table could ignore anomalous, large touch points (such as a static coffee mug or a plate). This feature is also important when users are likely to lean over the active area.
Although the company’s main business drivers include information kiosks, ATMs and industrial touch-screen solutions, touch tables represent a new interesting growth application for Zytronic’s multitouch p-cap technology.
“The uses are diverse – we are currently working on a project to supply several hundred touch sensors for installation into the European showrooms of a major car brand, to be used as a marketing/sales tool, for customers to browse and select options, etc” wrote us Sales & Marketing Director Ian Crosby.
“We’ve also seen projects in hotels, restaurants, corporate offices and retail. Putting a large interactive display in a horizontal (table) format as opposed to mounting it on a wall, makes the screen much more social and collaborative, as several people can engage with the device simultaneously, share information, etc.”
“Interactivity in digital signage is still pretty rare in unit terms. What we’ve seen is that companies like JC Decaux, will install large interactive screens to support a specific marketing campaign, which may last days or a few weeks, and then remove them.
I think this is because an interactive campaign is quite costly – there’s the cost of adding touch to the display, and then the interactive software content also has to be developed. There are some companies installing “street furniture” for public information which are also used for advertising in “downtime”.
On the power consumption side, Crosby also arguments that today’s high brightness displays using LEDs are much more efficient than the CCFL lamps that typically light up paper posters. They also often have dynamic brightness control, self-dimming in the evenings to conserve power, and in some cases even switching off when no-one is near (IR detection), he says.
“One interesting trend that we’ve seen is advertisers using the smaller displays and touchscreens in fixed self-service terminals such as ATM’s vending machines, ticket machines. It seems to be a win-win – the companies managing the hardware gain advertising revenue by renting out their network to show ads when the terminals are not in use, and the advertisers get access to a large pre-installed base of screens in busy public areas”, Crosby concluded.
Visit Zytronic at www.zytronic.co.uk
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