With Apple’s introduction to the consumer market of its touchscreen phones in 2007, and with the wild success of its new iPhone X — which has seen Apple effectively doubling-down on gesture and touch interactivity by removing the heretofore ubiquitous physical Home button –- gesture and touch interactivity are clearly the future for consumer and commercial electronics.
The advantages of touch and gesture interaction versus mouse and keyboard are clear. It is more intuitive and easier to learn, more accessible — especially for those with physical limitations, a group of people who are especially excited about new developments in eye-tracking and voice recognition interactivity –-, it is faster and it makes sense that touch and gesture support would be the future of device/human interaction as everyone is already an expert in using their muscles and voice to communicate needs, desires and accomplish tasks. Touch, voice and gesture interactivity is more and more what people expect and desire.
Due to the above advantages and clearly seen trends, it should be no surprise that large wall-sized displays are beginning to incorporate touch support.
Digital signage has been around for many years, but only in the last couple of years or so have traditional video walls started adapting touchscreen technology, and they have become an extremely interesting and exciting emerging market. The possibilities are tremendous for businesses and organizations of every kind.
In addition to other improvements to wall-sized displays –- such as higher contrast ratios, higher color intensity, light-reflection resistant materials, thinner and lighter bodies, smaller bezels and thus gaps, and 4K and Ultra High Definition pictures –- multi-touch support is the most potentially significant new development. It is poised to revolutionize the ways businesses, corporations, public buildings, educational institutions, retailers, television broadcasters and other entities will interact and engage with their audiences and customers and how employees will collaborate and get work done.
Touch and gesture supported wall-sized displays are being utilized in prestige and executive meeting rooms at mid-size and large corporations for enhanced data visualization and employee collaboration purposes.
The advantages of large, touchscreen displays at trade shows or similar events.
Potential customers would be immediately attracted to your display’s unique infographics, while the promise of a multi-touch, large-size display means that your business could easily receive reams of information from leads who interact with your display. This paperless, digital lead information gathering method could be further reinforced with contests, giveaways or other offers of value in return for entering in personal data.
Further, interactive displays can be huge in terms of reinforcing and effectively communicating your brand’s unique products or services through interesting, engaging and interactive content. Also full of promise here is the idea of gamification, whereby your wall-sized display can be used as a platform for games that multiple users can participate in at the same time.
Perhaps retailers are most well positioned to capitalize on the advantages of multi-touch, large screen public displays.
As next-generation of optical-touch screens comes into wider adoption, your store’s digital signage – which is typically controlled by a networked content management system — can serve a multitude of purposes in enticing and encouraging potential customers to take advantage of deals, including with laser-focused discounts and promotions that are catered to a specific customer who’s smartphone has an app that facilitates this kind of integrated shopping experience.
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Or consider that, with optical recognition displays –- which detect infrared lightwaves and are the next generation of touchscreen display technology due to their numerous and downright revolutionary advantages and functionalities –- will be able to easily read QR-like codes that are attached to products. Simply by applying the paper code to the display, nearly instant information would be presented. Then, perhaps an interactive app relating to the product would start up, allowing a customer to play around with -– harking back to gamification here –- or mix and match different products.
If you’re excited about what this emerging technology can do to boost and enhance your business, please don’t hesitate to speak out or leave a question, and remember that we here at GSE Audio Visual offer a comprehensive line of services and products for any AV solution you could imagine, including for the best, most current large touchscreen displays. Rent our products or consider a permanent fixture. In either case, we will go the extra mile in providing great customer service, including in speedy and professional hardware installation.