Green is big business and represents a new way to do business, it has a two fold effect and helps improve the bottom line whilst helping the environment. Now digital signage kiosks and enclosures are going green.

There is a movement in the kiosk and enclosure manufacturing industry for greener products, these units will be manufactured from renewal materials and will not damage the environment as previous units did. Coupling this with cutting edge dynamic signage is a winning solution.

There are three key steps to follow: ??

* Adhering to RoHS (Restriction of Hazardous Substances)
* Using recyclable material
* Reducing power usage

In July 2006 a policy was implemented in Europe for RoHS (Restriction of Hazardous Substances), this policy was soon accepted within the businesses throughout Europe and into Asia.

This new policy was seen as a problem by some manufacturers, as it limits the amount of lead and mercury in a particular product as well as specifying which type of flame retardants to use.

The policy was one reason a company decided to buy back any kiosks or enclosures they were replacing and recycle them, by sending the old kiosks or enclosures to a specialised company that melted the steel and plastics then re-processed the product so it could be used again.

This is the way forward, with greener digital signage kiosks everyone wins including the planet!

Acer is working on a frameless laptop with touchscreen keyboard that uses the back of the panel’s glass substrate as the cover – with potential release in the second half of 2010.

Coupled with a touchscreen keyboard, the rumored device should be impossibly thin by traditional laptop comparisons. Keep in mind that we’ve already seen this Frame Zero concept from Fujitsu and Acer’s arch-rival ASUS has been showing off its dual-display laptop prototype with touchscreen keyboard for months. Even the OLPC XO-3 plans to eschew the clickity keyboard in favor of a touchscreen version.

The design will help reduce the thickness of the ultra-thin notebook and can also reduce material costs.
Acer will also adopt a touch keyboard to allow the notebook to be even thinner.

We’ve seen several efforts recently to bring Facebook photos into the offline world, such as HotPrints’ free, advert-supported albums. Now bringing such capabilities to brick-and-mortar stores comes a new initiative from Kodak that lets consumers print online photos from Facebook and Picasa using in-store kiosks.

Starting this summer, users will be able to access their web albums on Facebook and Picasa as well as Kodak’s own Kodak Gallery service. The kiosks will make 4×6in (102×152mm) prints of the photos, provided the resolution is high enough to make a quality print. Kodak says it also intends to connect with other social networking sites around the globe.

Given that more than 3 billion photos are uploaded to Facebook alone each month, there are plenty of opportunities for forging OFF=ON connections for consumers whose memories increasingly reside in the virtual world.

Kiosks – constantly making people’s life simpler eh?

Apple’s touch-screen iPad tablet will go on sale in the UK in “late April”, the company has revealed. The late April launch date applies to both models of iPad – the wi-fi only and wi-fi plus 3G – in the UK.

Apple’s UK website still gives a March launch date for the wi-fi only iPad with the 3G iPad stated to arrive in the UK in April. However, according to a press release from the company today, both devices will now arrive at the same, albeit slightly later, time.

CEO Steve Jobs unveiled the iPad back in January. The touch-screen tablet device resembles a giant iPod Touch and is designed for web browsing, playing games and reading e-books.

The news coincides with Apple’s first iPad advert, which featured during the Oscars. You see the airbrushed hands of a man at home picking up the iPad to check out videos, read the New York Times, flip through book pages, check his private mail, and that sort of thing… See for yourself.

Those who find the touchscreens on their ever shrinking gadgets too fiddly to handle, will be glad to hear scientists are developing a new touch surface… your own arm.

Developers at Microsoft Research and Carnegie Mellon University are working together to create an armband that projects an interface directly onto your skin.

They have combined a mini projector which creates a changing display with a sophisticated sensor that can tell which part of your arm is being tapped.

The researchers showed Skinput can be used to control audio devices, play simple games like Tetris, make phone calls and navigate simple browsing systems.

The gadget effectively turns your arm into a touchscreen surface by picking up various ultra-low sounds produced when you tap different areas.

Different skin locations are acoustically distinct because of bone density and the filtering effect from soft tissues and joints. The team then used software that matched sound frequencies to specific skin locations. The prototype then uses wireless technology like Bluetooth to transmit the commands to the device being controlled, such as a phone, iPod, or computer.

In April, the researchers plan to present their work at the Computer-Human Interaction meeting in Atlanta, Georgia.

2010 is the year of 3D television and theatrical film, but do not forget about still photography. Fujifilm is planning a spring shipment of its 3D camera station kiosks that are designed for spots where people are likely to take photographs, such as tourist attractions, parks, and special events.

No pricing details are known, but Fujifilm’s camera can print out 4 different size photos, which can also be altered and enhanced with 3D graphics from various templates. The company claims that to enjoy the effect, no 3D glasses are necessary. The stations are 50kg each, so do not even think about lifting one.

At the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Samsung’s 3G-enabled uVending Machine caused quite a stir.

Unlike conventional dispensers, this prototype has a massive touchscreen. Not only does it spit out Coca-Cola and Sprite, the machine also carries handsets, music and videos. There’s embedded 3G connectivity which allows vendors to revise product prices without having to be there physically as well as receive alerts whenever the supply gets low.

Extending the concept of a connected life is the media player/tablet device that “talks” to the vending machine. What this means is you can “push” content from your handheld to the vending machine and make use of the huge display of the latter. For example, if you are a video online store, you can swipe your finger across the screen on your handheld in the direction of the vending machine.

The gesture essentially “sends” information such as the video description to the vending machine so it’s easier on your eyes if you’re reading chunks of text. How this is achieved is by infrared which is used to detect when a device is near the vending machine. The data is then transferred via Wi-Fi.

Of course, you’ll still have to pay for the goods, although it won’t be at the time of purchase. Instead, this will be charged to your monthly mobile phone bill.

Content strategies and discussions will dominate the launch of new networks and the re-thinking of older networks. Content began to rise to the top of the agenda in 2009 and now in 2010 it takes a front and centre seat.

No matter what shape or size the display is, content is the fundamental element which ultimately leads to the very success, or failure, of a digital signage deployment. Some of the greatest success stories for brands in 2009 have been achieved by creating content that is relevant to the experience and activities that the consumers are engaged with at the time of interaction.

Keith Kelsen, author of “Unleashing the Power of Digital Signage” and CEO of the 5th Screen, says:

“Any team that is operating a digital signage network or is planning a network has a unique opportunity to bring excellence to this emerging industry and set some precedents. We can see this already in the work of some networks that have focused on research with innovative approaches using content as the source and cause for relevant messaging that is useful, helpful and provides a positive experience for the viewer.

“Content for DOOH will stand alone during its creative production, but content will have more continuity in 2010 with the other four screens (cinema, TV, PC and mobile) to echo its message across the digital landscape of screens. As for every screen that is put into this new landscape, it will be the experience that the consumers will take away, and what better way to impact that experience than with great content.”

Microsoft has been working on touch technology for a while. The big drawback was the hardware interface. But that is no longer the case. Here are some of the enhancements that Microsoft has done to improve the user interaction with their touch screens…

Easier grasp on PC’s.
Microsoft has enlarged icons in Windows 7 for the Start Menu, Taskbar and Windows Explorer. This makes it easier to grasp the PC. So in place of the mouse, you can open and shut programs by directly tapping or double-tapping with your fingers. You can also summon a virtual onscreen keyboard, too, though it’s nowhere near as natural as typing on a physical keyboard.

Multi-touch operations
You can also zoom in on a picture by spreading two fingers apart, or zoom out by pinching them back together. You can “right-click” by holding down one finger while you tap the screen with a second finger.

100 Point Support
Windows 7 can support up to 100 touch points, Microsoft says, though there are hardware constraints (screen size) and the genetic reality of having just so many fingers with which to perform gestures. The behavior on the screen changes depending on how many fingers you use.

Apple’s impact on the smartphone market shows no signs of letting up – but the iPhone maker is facing stiff new competition in the touchscreen stakes.

The popularity of touchscreens on smartphones has increased massively since Apple introduced its iPhone. And in the last quarter of last year, for the first time ever, touchscreen devices accounted for more than half of all smartphone shipments globally, according to research from analyst house Canalys. Another survey conducted by the analyst at the end of last year showed that more than half (60 per cent) of 4,000 consumers polled wanted a touchscreen interface on their next mobile device.

In the latest piece of research, touchscreen smartphones took 55 per cent of the market in the fourth quarter of 2009, with shipments of touchy-feely devices up 138 per cent year-on-year, according to Canalys.

By contrast, overall smartphone growth was significantly lower, standing at 41 per cent. The analyst said the total number of touchscreen smartphones shipped in 2009 was more than 75 million, with total smartphone shipments hitting 166 million.