Why touch screens?
Intuitive touch screens take digital signage to a higher—more interactive
and personalized—level. They enable you to not only reach customers with
your message, but also be more responsive to their immediate needs.
These dynamic, media-rich screen overlays are becoming “must-haves” for any
application where you want to give users easy and quick access to content
that’s relevant to their particular interests, whether it’s for:
• wayfinding
• visitor services screens in lobbies
• interactive trade show booths
• customer “self-service” stations
• retail PoS/PoP displays
• or any educational environment
The iCOMPEL™ digital signage player supports playing of content in
single or multiple zones on a digital signage display. But with the proper
license activated, you can also turn the player into a interactive sign
and kiosk platform.
Touching a specific zone on a screen causes a command to be issued to the
iCOMPEL, which, in turn, causes the media being played to change.
You can even set a zone within the screen to play HTML media. When a user
touches that zone, they can interact with a Web page you specify—great
for putting your electronic product catalog before any audience!
You, or any designated “media manager,” determines how the iCOMPEL responds
to the touch.
The flexibility of iCOMPEL.
In a typical application, the iCOMPEL player sits between the back-office
network and public touch screen display.
On the network side, the iCOMPEL links to the back-office LAN via an
ordinary CAT5 cable connection.
On the touch screen side, you need a VGA video cable and a USB cable for
the exchange of touch screen information between the player and the screen
(which can be any analog resistive device that reports X/Y coordinates on
an absolute coordinate basis).
A screen can be divided into multiple zones and each zone can have an
independent playlist with touch interactivity. This way, you can dedicate
a certain area of the screen to a specific item of interest.
Screens can be configured to respond to a touch anywhere on the panel or
react differently when pressed in different areas of the panel.
You can schedule a layout (the image one sees on the screen) to run at
specific times of the day and week, or change according to commands embedded
within a playlist associated with the zone.
You can also configure any layout to work on a timeout basis. When a period
of time lapses after a screen's been touched, the layout will automatically
revert to another layout.
For an iCOMPEL optimized touchscreen, see our
NEC®/3M® iCOMPEL Touchscreen LCDs or read the brochure.
Make it reactive, too!
With the iCOMPEL, interactivity goes beyond touch screen support. It also
supports general-purpose input/output (GPIO) capabilities.
Through the GPIO interface, the playing of onscreen information can be
triggered (or halted) by signals originating from external device inputs.
These can be external infrared motion detectors, light sensors, switches,
push buttons, building control systems—even external SCADA collection systems.
The possibilities are endless. Set up a screen to provide emergency
notification during crises—based on a signal sent when a secure door is
opened or when an environmental condition occurs. Or simply use a screen
to welcome visitors walking through your main door. You can even have a
screen change from a static display to an interactive touch screen when
someone approaches.
Just connect the external device through the iCOMPEL GPIO adapter. It provides
four input lines for binary events, such as motion detection, contact closure,
or other device signaling. In some cases, you can even power simple detection devices.
For details on how to activate touch screen and contact closure capabilities
on an iCOMPEL player, contact our FREE Tech Support.
Our experts can also recommend accessories for cost effectively extending
serial signals over long distances.