Touchless interactive screens

By PAUL BRISLEN

Vodafone was so impressed by a New Zealand company's touch screen technology it has put giant 127cm plasma display units in its company-owned stores throughout the country.

Next Window builds a touch screen overlay that sits on top of giant screens for the commercial retailer market and has come up with a process that means users don't have to actually touch the screen to make it work, according to chief executive Al Monro.

"Our screens use small cameras along the edge that see where the customer touches and triangulates the position from that."

Traditional touch-screen technology requires a touch-sensitive plate on the screen itself. Monro says that limits the size of the display.

"If you double the height and width you increase the surface area four-fold, which makes it impossible to build them to this size."

"This size" is a 127cm Panasonic plasma display that has a Next Window touch panel overlay on top built for Vodafone's flagship Queen St store.

Next Window is working with several screen manufacturers, such as Panasonic, to build big digital signs and has already signed resale deals in Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, the US, Britain and Saudi Arabia.

The Next Window technology works with just about any of today's displays - plasma, LCD or even projector.

Monro said that because customers did not need to touch the screen, a huge potential existed for after-hours shopping using a giant display in a shop window.

"You could be walking past the shop after it's closed and have your eye caught by a TV commercial or whatever and begin to interact with the system."

Vodafone is excited by the possibilities. Retail channel manager Neville Pulman said the screens gave Vodafone a great deal of flexibility in its marketing without destroying the look and feel of each store.