A Wider Net

Unison^TM, sold as “The Collaborative Meeting Experience^TM“, is a premium meeting collaboration service that consists of 1-3 computer monitors on every table and an extensive suite of collaboration activities. The monitors-on-the-table approach helps bring the meeting down from a large didactic presentation to feel more like a group of intimate discussions.

The activities include a Q&A handling system, “U-Ask”, that assists with gathering and moderating questions from the audience to the presenter, as well as allowing direct answers back to the individual tables. “U-Learn” is a real-time assessment and certification system. “U-Think” enables group collaboration, brainstorming, and decision making. “U-Select” is a polling and issue-ranking tool. “U-Talk”, “U-Tell Us”, and “U-Compete” provide additional capabilities for communication, surveys pre-, post-, and during events, and competitive learning. I recommend checking out their web site, which has detailed information about the different components.

We’re excited to have Unison participate at our Innovation Day open house because they understand how to maximize the productivity of meetings. Their team includes learning professionals, developers, and seasoned meeting production veterans. Their system reflects a passionate commitment to making the most of every meeting-goer’s time and expertise. And their commitment doesn’t stop at the tool. In fact, a large part of a Unison deployment is the planning, during which they work closely with the meeting planners to develop the most effective curriculum possible. It takes a fair amount of planning and strategic thinking to properly execute a Unison meeting, but it’s worth it. Careful planning insures that the right information is gathered in pre-event surveys to enable productive discussions and brainstorming sessions. Paying attention to what’s on the mind of attendees before they arrive helps align the presentation materials, the discussion topics, and the decision-making activities.

Everyone is familiar with the phrase “Death by PowerPoint” and for good reason. It feels like a crime to think of endless speeches and slide shows as communication. Bringing the audience into the presentation through audience participation and Q&A is only the beginning. Systems like Unison excite audiences, allowing them to ask tough questions, prioritize critical issues, brainstorm to reach solutions and consensus, and make informed decisions that have broad support and, as a result, a higher likelihood of successful execution.

It’s also interesting to me that this is a face-to-face solution. If I were to build a productive virtual meeting technology, this would be a sound framework to make everyone feel like an active participant even when they’re not together. This is pretty much how I would do it. Couple this with the intangibles and social networking aspects inherent to face to face meetings, and you may have the ultimate meeting experience.

It’s hip to be square. Actually, it’s hip to be square on the same planet where it’s hip to be called “Huey”. And when it comes to video we’re bored with square. Granted, regular standard definition TV isn’t technically square. It’s a nearly square rectangle- a “squectangle”. High Def TV is w-i-d-e, which is another adjective that isn’t exactly hip. But w-i-d-e-screen is still square(ish). B-O-R-I-N-G!

Take a trip to Circuit City and bask in the Squectangular jungle of TV’s and Computer Monitors. Everywhere you look - nothing but clean right angles and super-huge images of Nemo the clownfish. Maybe that’s why plasma screens have so little impact on exhibits. They get bigger, brighter, and cheaper every year, and they get less and less impressive. It’s hard enough to be “eye-catching” in a trade show booth, but if your video display is similar to, or even smaller-than, your typical attendee’s living room sets, then you may find them looking elsewhere for visual stimulation.

Custom shaped screens have been around for years, and typically involve cutting a sheet of grey diffusive acrylic into a simple shape like a circle. Small versions of this on a simple stand have been called “Lollipop screens”. Not every exhibitor is comfortable specifying technology called a lollipop, but when it comes to visual appeal, circle takes the square.

3M has changed everything with their new Vikuiti rear-projection film. Vikuiti (vigh-cue-it-ee) Film is a dark grey material that can be applied easily to glass or acrylic. It can be cut with scissors. It can also be applied to curved surfaces. What makes this material really special is its unique ability to produce very bright high contrast images in high ambient light situations. That’s right - a great picture in a trade show booth.

The demonstrations I saw at Infocomm were fun and diverse. A large circle screen was the simplest example, looking bright and bold compared to acrylic circles I’ve seen in the past. Then they had a cool display cut in the shape of a soda bottle that kept filling and bubbling and spelling out messages. And as if that wasn’t enough to sell the story, they had a person cutting out shapes of fish from a large sheet in front of us. A projection of a lively underwater scene created an impossible-to-ignore display. As you’ll see in the attached image, it’s not just the shape but also the (complete lack of) thickness and the way it floats in mid-air when applied to a large sheet of glass.

It’s a compelling look. It’s easily shaped into a logo or product. It’s bright, and fine in high ambient light. It’s thin - making flat panel displays downright pudgy. It will be at Innovation Day. And it’s not square.

With all the buzz around the world of RSS, it seems like few have been able to actually monetize it. I ran into a company that is starting with a good idea. Offertrax is focused on enabling merchants and their products with RSS. The idea is that 97% of people leave without purchasing from e-commerce sites. RSS is a way to gain a level of commitment when the full sales conversion is not reached, continuing the conversation with the buyer – hoping to eventually bring them back to the site, or in-store, to buy.

From a consumer perspective RSS is a nice way to get information on our terms. Whether it is a feed from a news paper or blog (like this one) or from merchants as companies enable them, RSS puts the control back into the consumers’ hands.

What I keep waiting for is someone to arm the world of bloggers with a way to capitalize on their readers the way that affiliate programs did in the late 90s. Perhaps RSS’ role will be to leverage communities as buying groups or simple as an easier way to manage the flood of spam.

One thing is for sure; RSS is about to hit big. Whenever Microsoft agrees with anyone else, you know something’s brewing. Microsoft and Mozilla have agreed to use the same icon for RSS even loading it into MS Office 2007– a new standard….

the logo they agreed on….

http://blogs.msdn.com/rssteam/archive/2005/12/14/503778.aspx

You can check them Offertrax here:

www.offertrax.com

Having just written about clever input devices in my Gesturetek entry, I figured this was a good time to mention the revolutionary Cintiq tablet from Wacom. It’s a stylus-based wireless graphics tablet interactive pen display that has a monitor built in so you can draw right on the screen. Apparently Wacom (pronounced “Waw-com”, which you can repeat four times fast for that tell-tale Pac-Man sound) creates the input technology for most if not all of the tablet PC’s out there. This, therefore, is a tablet computer with higher precision, and less… computer. It will be at Innovation Day, so I look forward to trying it out - it looks like a graphics designer’s dream.
They even have a payback calculator that lets you figure out how quickly this little productivity booster will pay off in productivity gains.

This device is also being marketed as an interactive input device. As a tablet device, it is sleek, light, and wireless. Because the computer is not part of the device, you can upgrade the PC any time. This may be a better choice for doctor’s offices and trade show exhibits than tablet computers. I’m not sure, but I imagine it is considerably more theft-resistant as well. If you’ve tried one of these, let me know. Otherwise, I will share our findings.

For nearly 20 years we computer users have been part of a point-and-click world. Whether we move a mouse, roll a trackball, bend a stick, or slide along a pad - we have a device that we must manipulate in some fashion in order to use a computer. The purpose of this man-machine interface is to interpret a gesture and translate it into a logical control. Nothing is more simple than point and click, said Apple and Xerox back in the ’80’s, and they were right - mostly.

Simpler interfaces are upon us. PDA’s brought forth the era of the stylus. Pointing with a stylus is a comfortable, familiar interface because you interact directly - point and tap. (Of course, PDA’s also brought back handwriting as an input method which is just nutty to me, but we’ll let that go). Touchscreens allow us to point directly at what we want. You simply point and touch. Don’t try that at Yoga class. Tablet computers (wicked big PDA’s) are a pen-meets-PC mashup with laptop display capabilities, handwriting familiarity, point-and-peck simplicity, and a degree of precision that makes PDA’s and Touchscreens envious.
Now there are gesture-based interfaces. You simply… point. No point and click. No point and tap. No point and touch. Just point. It may not be as sexy as telling your Hondacura to “Find nearest Starbucks” and may not fly in countries where pointing is rude, but pointing interfaces are very “Minority Report” (cool) without the “Tom Cruise” (not).

Gesturetek has long been a pioneer in the field of gesture-based input. Three of their most popular products: HoloPoint, GroundFX, and Illuminate allow you to interact with content by pointing, waving, or even kicking, and all three are coming to our upcoming Innovation Day. I have used all of these devices before, and I just love them. HoloPoint combines a transparent holoscreen and a gesture-based pointing interface. The video image appears to float in mid air, and to interact with it, you simply point at it. Illuminate is similar except the video is projected onto a frosted piece of glass, allowing you to touch the video surface like a touch screen. Unlike a touch screen there is no technology in the video screen - it is really a piece of glass, and that makes it more elegant, reliable, and vandal-proof. GroundFX, a system that combines large video projection with gesture-tracking input, can be used on the ground or on the wall. You can point, wave, and kick at it and it reacts.

Gesturetek also provided technology for Microsoft’s XBOX 360 Live Vision Camera, also on display at Innovation Day. They also designed technology for mobile phones to support gesture-based games. The obvious question is - who holds the phone while you’re busy pointing and waving?

Gesture-based input devices aren’t suitable for every application. They aren’t super-responsive, and they aren’t super-precise. They are, however, magical, compelling, intuitive, and fun. They create interactive experiences that are memorable and cool. Gamers can rest their thumbs, and Boston drivers can rest their other finger. I encourage everyone thinking about exhibits, installations, and events to consider how powerful it is to have your guests point - at your content, at your products, and at your brand.

Philips has an exciting entry in the 3D TV space - the 42″ WoWvx display. Using a built-in lenticular lens, this display produces three-dimensional images without the need for glasses. It also has a wide viewing angle - something uncommon among static lenticular 3D pieces. I’ve seen displays like this before, and this one has a much higher brightness spec, and it has a much higher resolution, so I’m pretty excited to see it at Innovation Day. This is an obviously great fit for exhibit traffic-stopping, as well as visualizations for biotech, high tech, and real estate. As I mentioned in a previous post, there is a chance this device is compatible with the VuCAM 3D capture binoculars.
I find anything that can break free of the “flat” of flat panel displays is a major win. I’m a big fan of moving screens, oddly shaped screens, and really anything that departs from what you’d see in your neighborhood Circuit City.

Many years ago a previous employer of mine used to send out a “3D demo in a box” to it’s customer and prospects. It contained a 3D stereo slide viewer and a pair of slides for each image. The effect was startling. We were producing corporate theater, special events, and permanent installations that featured lasers, large video screens, pyrotechnics, wild environments, and other special effects. This was the first time we could remotely convey what our shows and installations looked like. The slide viewers were effective partially because of the stereoscopic 3D images, and partially because they were backlit, producing far more vibrant images than print pieces.

Step into the 21st century with VuCAM - a wild new product from StereoVision Imaging. This set of high-tech binoculars captures and displays 3D images all by itself. It can export those images to 3D displays and CAD systems. It can even make 3D images that you can view with those red/blue paper glasses. This seems like a natural solution for meeting planners looking to conduct site visits and share their experience with colleagues and/or customers. It also makes a novel way to capture attendees experiences at an event. One thing I’m not sure about it whether the pictures can be made into the ultimate 3D technology - Viewmaster reels. They’re coming to Innovation Day, along with a 3D screen from Philips that might be able to display them in 3D without glasses, so I will be sure to ask and let you know.

The effect of scent on an immersive experience has always intrigued me. You can’t deny that odor profoundly impacts experience. If you have ever tried to enjoy red wine with a stuffy nose then you know what I mean. Also, what is a whale-watch without the salty fishy sea air? And what would the Indy 500 be without the stink-blend of gasoline, sunscreen, and b.o.? Ok, not the best example. Consider instead the powerful “new car smell”, the drug-like aroma of chocolate, or the apparently irresistble teen body sprays.

Using scent to enhance audience experience has been around for some time. Back in the 1960’s, Smell-O-Vision was introduced into motion picture theaters, offering 30 different scent cues. John Waters released the film Polyester in 1982 with Odorama - a set of scratch-and-sniff cards that were manipulated by the audience on cue. Retailers and hotels have discovered the positive effects of scent on the customer experience. One major furniture retailer discovered that the smell of leather helped sell leather furniture.
The trick with scents is to deliver them accurately to an audience on cue. With this ability you can enhance any experience including Broadway shows, movies, shopping environments, attractions, and even browsing the web. At one point a bold startup called Digiscents invented a scent “printer” that you could hook up to your PC and deliver scents triggered by special codes on web pages. I believe they are in research mode now, having replaced their product website with a blog.
One of our Innovation Day participants, ScentAir, has a tried-and-true method of delivering scents on cue using their unique ScentWave and ScentPOP scent machines. They were recently covered in Time Magazine - an article well worth the read if you’re interested in the use of scent in retail and event experiences. It’s easy to write this off as a superfluous gimmick, but if you read through the Time article, the information at the Digiscents Blog, and the Scentair website, you will probably agree that the science is valid, compelling, and worth a try.

Recently we were discussing technology innovations for printed communications. I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not an authority in the world of things you can print on (except, apparently, bottle openers). In fact, I think that I may have remarked at one point long ago that “print innovation” was an oxymoron (which is a wholesale mistake and I apologize). That embarrassing little admission is important for you to understand where my next bit of idiocy came from. I was shown a picture of a product called Z-Card. It’s essentially a two-sided colored sheet of paper folded between two thin credit-card-sized cardboard ends. When folded, it fits anywhere a credit card fits. When unfolded, it’s a… well, it’s a piece of paper. My initial reaction was (to the tone of a dull drooling Homer Simpson) “ooOOooh… Folded Paper!”. The counter-reaction was an appropriate email slap.

When I finally got one of these in my hands, however, I became one of the converted.

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Mirage Motion Media produces a unique wall-mounted lightbox that creates the illusion of 3D moving images as you walk by. What makes this remarkable is the fact that this sign has no moving parts, and no electronics other than a couple of light bulbs. The illusion is created by producing a special ultra-high-resolution print piece that is viewed through a series of incredibly narrow slits. Depending on where you stand, you see through the slits to view a different part of the printed graphic. As you walk by, you see a continuous series of images through the slits, creating the illusion of moving video. While loosely related to the Zoetrope, the stereo effect and larger images make this a powerful advertising medium. (I guess another BIG advantage over the Zoetrope is the fact that this is only 4″ thick, and a Zoetrope capable of images this large would be the size of one of those inflatable swimming pools at Walmart.) The illusion is startling and often results in people walking back and forth to make the image animate forwards and backwards. It’s clearly most effective next to moving sidewalks and areas where traffic flow is continuous. New graphics can be printed and inserted by simply lowering the hinged (and locked) front glass.

 ADDENDUM - They appear to be out of business.