Irecently attended a trade show in Las Vegas that was completely devoted to electronic digital signage (EDS). The show—with less than 200 booths and just shy of 4,000 attendees —was fairly large, but nowhere near as huge as a big international sign show. But when it comes to interesting new technologies, the show packed quite a wallop. 

 

It seems that every time I turn around I see another new technology coming out of the EDS sector. And whether you’re involved with EDS, thinking about checking it out, or steadfastly ignoring it, I believe it’s a good idea to be aware of some of the interesting stuff that’s coming to market. Let’s look a few.

 

I’d seen glasses-free 3-D screens demoed at previous EDS shows and the effect was less than impressive. The no-glasses 3-D effect displayed at this show was much improved, especially if you could manage to sand directly in front of the video screen. Still, in my opinion glasses-free 3-D technology is not yet ready for prime time. When viewed from even a slight angle, the images lost their coherence and were not effective. 

 

Not surprisingly, gesture-based interactive technology—similar to that used in smart phones—seemed like it was everywhere, often being used on very large-scale screens. Some variants of this concept were quite elaborate, such as Adidas’ giant Intel-powered interactive video wall of sports shoes. Some allow you to not only navigate through an interactive menu, but to actually manipulate and enlarge photo images—or even moving video images—just by just using your fingertips on the screen. 

 

The one that really caught my eye was a gesture-based screen where interactivity was achieved through hand gestures alone—but without having to actually touch the screen. Gestures made near the screen were enough to move images and navigate menus. Can they really do that? Yes, actually. They can. 

 

A handful of vendors were showing flexible LED screens that not only could be easily wrapped around an oval display, but are also much lighter than traditional LED screens. The idea expands the application possibilities for LED-based EDS screens. 

 

The most interesting new technology I saw—and the one that has a very practical use for P.O.P. applications—was a new LCD screen technology where the screen is actually clear and the images dancing across it are translucent. Imagine a display window, say a grocer’s freezer case. Now you can decorate that freezer case window with moving images while retaining the ability to see the stock behind the glass. You’re kidding, right? Nope. I saw it with my own eyes. 

 

Then there were the behind-the-scenes data-collecting type technologies. Here the idea is to let the EDS advertiser know who is looking at their sign display and how long they are looking at it. With built in imaging technology, an advertiser can learn the sex, approximate age and scan time of any passerby that looks at the display. Frankly, this kind of technology makes me a bit nervous. Thank goodness the industry is moving forward with a good set of privacy standards. 

 

In the end, it’s going to boil down to what works and what doesn’t. I found it very gratifying to see that almost all of the display booths at that show contained some form of traditional large-format printed graphics, banners, textiles and other familiar signage displays. Okay, back to work.