Not Your Father's Touch Screen

If the word “touch screen” calls to mind a clunky, low-res box about a foot wide, displaying a dim image of a typewriter keyboard which, if you press on it hard and long enough, will eventually show you a building directory -- perhaps it''s time to update your knowledge base.

Today, video producers can deliver true interactivity of the type that has long been available on computer playing CDs and DVDs, but deliver it on high definition displays up to 60 inches across.

With a twist on the old saying, this is not your father''s touch screen. Instead, the new interactive displays combine a touch-sensitive overlay from such vendors as Smart Technologies (www.smarttech.com) with plasma and LCD panels in the new generation of larger sizes and higher resolutions.

“This option combines the interactivity of a website with the high quality video of television production,” says Jennifer Jantzen, executive producer at Advanced Method in Seattle, WA, a producer of online audio visual content. (www.advancedmethod.com). “The growth potential is exponential over the next five years,” she adds. “Even in the last two years, we''ve had more and more people come to us asking for these interactive solutions. We used to have to go out and sell it.”

Jantzen sees extensive applications for the new interactive tools in hospitality, trade shows, travel and tourism, and corporate settings. In contrast to both the old fashioned touch screen tools and computer-based interactive multimedia, she adds, the new environment “is much more like creating a TV commercial.” The new displays feature sleek designs, highly sensitive touch screens, fast data retrieval and refresh rates and top quality video.

Content creators must combine the attention to interactivity they brought to computer programs with a new focus on professional quality video production. Among other virtues, the option to tailor a presentation to specific audiences is now broader than ever, says Josh Weisberg of Scharff Weisberg in New York (www.swinyc.com). “Until recently you didn''t have that choice,” he says. “You had to guess what your demographic would be and design broadly.”

Weisberg says his company still sees more demand for “conventional” linear video productions than for interactive programs, but interest in the latter is growing. One possible result, he thinks, is to lure back to video some of the large number of highly skilled multimedia designers who moved over to the web during the last decade. “Maybe before the web boom there were more people interested in doing interactive (video) things than there are now,” he says, adding that web design “is where the money is.”

Scott Tallman, vice president/Marketing at Smart, says “there''s still a big learning curve” involved in HD, large-screen interactivity. “This is still pretty new to the world as a whole,” he observes. But content creators will soon realize how much more scope the bigger screens offer them. “You can do a lot more with your content,” he explains. In a corporate office or demo center, he says, “instead of just running a five-minute looping video you can do product videos, commercials, or other things. The visitor can choose what ads he''s going to see.”

Designing for the larger displays, though, may force many video creators to re-think some of their basic equations. Weisberg thinks a person close enough to a 50-inch plasma screen to touch it is also too close to see it properly, and Jantzen agrees that practical testing is critical to achieve just the right mix of image size, viewing distance, and content design.

Still, she adds, “we''re getting a lot of positive feedback” from clients.