Here’s an interesting and clever concept vending machine with a see through display that is being developed by a Japanese company. But firstly, he’s a few points from the video:

• They use a Vertical Full HD 65″ Transparent display. We don’t know the brand of the display. Does anyone know?
• The products behind the display can be seen through the glass. It would be cool if the screen will display information or content relating to the product that was purchased i.e Did you know…
• When the system is not being used it will display a large digital clock with animations to attract the attention of people passing by. If the animations are cool and has some humour I think it will definitely attract attention.
• You can also simultaneously see high definition text pictures and animation. It appears that the screen images/text are just in black.
• The system is driven by Intel Sandy bridge core. For more information about this processor see this link: http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/sandy-bridge/
• It also uses the Intel (they purchased the company Cognovision) Audience Impression Metric or otherwise known as AIM which is used to determine Anonymous facial recognition. The system will be able to determine the person’s gender (male or female), age and then display ads that is relevant to that person by using a camera attached at the top of the vending machine. I think it would have made more sense enclosing the camera as part of the vending machine rather than just having a webcam stuck at the top.
• In the demo, the company is suggesting that the vending machines can be used to purchase luxury items such as cosmetics and wine. I can just see the high insurance bill for this.
• The machine also has a public safety mode which can be used in times of emergency, which will show information such as the emergency routes. What would be cool and exciting to see is if the vending machine turn into a robot and usher you to a safe spot.
• There are many possibilities and opportunities with this solution. It’s all up to our imagination.

Now here’s the video:

Category: Digital Signage Blog Video

Today, we received our new HD camcorder – the Sony HDR-XR520V. We can’t reveal too much what our plans are but all we can say is that you’ll probably see more High Definition Video on our blog and most of our other websites.

We haven’t had enough time to play with it yet but so far we are quite impressed with the quality and features of the unit. Some of the features are:

• has a massive 240GB internal hard drive
• has a Exmor R technology on a 1/2.88-inch CMOS sensor (I’m not sure exactly what this means but I’m guessing its good to have)
• has a built-in GPS mapping system
• a special Active Mode image stabilization enhancement feature
• at the top of the unit also has a Sony accessory shoe which can be used to connect a microphone to it
• + too many other features that it will take too long to list.

Here’s a picture we took of the Sony HD camcorder by using our Nikon D60 Digital SLR Camera:

Sony HDR-XR520V

Category: Digital Signage Blog News, Digital Signage Blog Products

If you haven’t heard, in Australia the Federal Government is planning to spend 43 billion dollars to upgrade the Australian network infrastructure. What’s been interesting is the fact that the government did not award this project to any of the major Telcos – it will all be in house. Well this may potentially mean the infrastructure will not be monopolised by any of the Telcos. This is definitely a good thing for consumers.
Now if you’re a digital signage company you may be wondering how this may impact you. The first thing that popped into my mind was “more bandwidth…. means more bandwidth intensive applications can be used on the digital signage system”.

Here’s a list of things that popped into my mind when this was announced:

• stream or cache high definition videos to the screens – this includes live TV,  Foxtel, and even live events (Youtube has already introduced the Live Events program)
• develop real time applications on the digital signage systems
• shorter waiting times for content synchronisations
• integrate the digital signage system with wireless hotspots
• integrate with the upcoming digital radio services
• develop interactive applications that require low latency and high bandwidth
• real time monitoring of digital signage networks and quicker troubleshooting/response times

Seeing several opportunities, advertise me will hopefully launch several innovative solutions in the next couple of years so watch this space.

What innovative digital signage applications do you see taking advantage of high speed networks?

Feel free to submit your answer as a comment.

Category: Digital Signage Blog Info, Digital Signage Blog News