I just discovered the Future Now blog, run by Menlo Park think-tank Institure for the Future. There's some pretty interesting writing on this site, and it's well worth keeping an eye on; in fact I'm adding it to my daily reading list.
Of particular interest to me is a post by Franz Dill I found when reading their November archive, in which they allude to digital signage in the retail environment. They reference a BusinessWeek article and the Metro Future Store in Germany, talking specifically about digital signage's impact in retail.
As you might know, I'm actually quite enthusiastic about digital media in general due to its central importance to the "digital hub lifestyle" embodied in the Mac iLife apps, iPod, EyeTV, etc. Digital signage is something I've referred to previously because of its association with the Scala InfoChannel digital signage software, but I haven't really jumped into the subject here. As you can see from the Scala homepage, in the news area, plenty of big names are seeing the huge opportunity of this emerging field.
Just this summer, on vacation in Amsterdam, I was impressed with the LCD screens used information and advertising on the city's tram system. Not only is dynamic, colorful, full-motion video cool, the LCD and plasma screens themselves are attention-getters because they are a hot item, especially with the coming of HDTV. The hype surrounding these consumer must-haves must have some effect on making the digital signage more noticible as well.
Scala's digital signage whitepapers and published articles pages have a wealth of additional imformation on the subject from various sources, and even IBM has retail digital signage information on their site.
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