KioskCom/DSS: Phredboard pulls print and physical into digital signage

At this year’s KioskCom Self Service Expo and the digital signage Show in Las Vegas, Kirkvision president and CEO John Kirkpatrick is showcasing his patent-pending new display technology for kiosks and digital signage that allows viewers to drag photos or physical products into the digital sign.

Partnering with the digital signage Group at their booth, Kirkpatrick demonstrated the new Phredboard (Phred, for photo realistic electronic display board) to expo attendees.

The new tech allows people to use touch to drag items set up outside of the digital display area into the display. So if there’s a photo set up outside of the monitor, someone could touch it and drag it into the digital display and then manipulate it or access its content.

The demo had an image of a faux magazine cover that people could drag into the monitor and then open up and explore the contents.

“So photos can transition into and onto the digital,” he said. “And this can actually be physical product. It can be prints; it can be a cell phone in a jewel case…You could touch a Blackberry and bring it into the digital, so what you’re able to do is launch from outside of the display area.”

The application would be especially useful in the retail and museum spaces, he says.

The new tech also will allow deployers to do large-format displays for a lower cost, Kirkpatrick says, since the monitor will be a smaller part of the display rather than the entire display. It also will allow users to interact with the touchscreen at a more comfortable size, he says.

And the digital content can be Flash or Windows, and the monitors can be any monitors transformed into touchscreens through any of several means, also helping to reduce the equipment cost, he says.

“The idea is to do it at a fraction of the cost,” meaning more money/attention can be spent on the creative or content side, Kirkpatrick said. “No one’s ever seen this before…So hopefully we can play a little role in driving this whole market forward in a slightly different way.”