Navigating through the sea of audio visual delights on display at this year’s Infocomm 2008 trade show in Las Vegas, a few undeniable trends are emerging. The first is that the transition from analog signage to digital displays is well under way, driven by solutions ranging from corporate communications to retail and every possible application in between. This trend has even given birth to a new organization called the Digital Signage Association. The other major trend (which was our primary reason for attending this show) is the revolution surrounding touch technology as a primary method of PC interaction. A technology once relegated to point of sale devices and public kiosks, touch displays are now taking root as the preferred method of interacting with applications and content. Suppliers are delivering touch enabled displays for education, design collaboration and a variety of solutions targeting digital presentation.

I’ll jump right into the good stuff. By now, many of you may have heard about the Microsoft Surface technology – an interactive multi-touch table designed for retail and hospitality applications. We were able to demo the technology that inspired Microsoft – the GestureTek Multi-touch Illuminate Table. This engaging touch table allows for multiple points of simultaneous interaction with iPhone-like gesturing such as finger pinch to zoom and swiping to organize content elements on the screen. The GestureTek representative we spoke to acknowledged that they are still trying to determine the best applications for this intriguing device. Imagine your BrightShow presentation software running on this!

Another very high-touch display option was discovered at the Stewart Filmscreens booth. There, we witnessed a large scale StarGlas touch wall that provided a huge wow factor. Imagine interacting with media on a screen as large as a traditional video wall! Based on IR (infrared) beam technology, I found it to have better precision than many other displays based on the same touch technology. In the past, Deven and I have developed concepts for experiential spaces that included a large touch wall component, but the AV technology wasn’t mature enough to match the vision. Based on the overwhelming number of suppliers addressing large scale touch displays, I’d say the technology is no longer a limitation.

Within the touch technology realm, another trend of note is how suppliers are responding to the way people want to interact. The Steven Spielberg film “Minority Report” provided a vision of how we might one day interact with and control digital media. That vision is being carried forward by both user interface designers and AV suppliers. At the Kortek booth, we were able to intuitively interact with a large touch display to navigate a cityscape in real time, zoom into a building and watch live webcams from inside the structure. As BrightDoor develops Z-axis support required for multi-tenant and commercial clients, technology such as Kortek’s Interactive Digital Board will provide an impressive way to display our solution.

Finally, I couldn’t resist including our very own David Johnston providing scale to the world’s largest plasma display – Panasonic’s 103″ TH-103PF9UK. At $69,990 per unit, I’d say the list of potential buyers for this beast is fairly limited. In all, our journey through the technology wonderland that was Infocomm 08 has been meaningful on multiple levels – providing both inspiration for new BrightDoor product features and helping us gain a deeper knowledge of new AV products that could give our clients a competitive advantage.