LGE Using Mall Screens, France

Gail Chiasson, North American Editor

LG Electronics of France recently turned to GestureTek technology to create a unique interactive consumer experience to promote the company’s array of mobile phones.

Mall passers-by are drawn to the eye-catching displays and can interact with the custom multi-touch content that recreates the phone’s general layout.

lgLG Electronics and its communications group, Publicis Stella, wanted to create a unique interactive consumer experience to promote the company’s array of mobile phones. They turned to systems integrator MTC ArScénique and Illuminate Multi-Touch Display technology from GestureTek.

MTC ArScénique is a provider of audiovisual technology for
permanent and temporary installations at events, retail locations and in other large public spaces.

LG Electronics’ aim was to breathe new life into existing
kiosks installed in malls throughout France. Its management envisioned interactive display units using advanced gesture recognition technologies so that mall shoppers could enjoy a ‘virtual cell phone’ experience, and get an actual sense of the phone’s applications.

The solution was to integrate GestureTek’s Illuminate display technology directly into the existing kiosks. Using an ultra short-throw lens video-projector, MTC ArScénique created a 35” vertical screen showing an interactive image of dual-touch phone. Custom multi-touch content was created in Flash by MTC ArScénique’s content development team.

The content recreates the phone’s general layout. Information retrieval is either directly interactive (such as pointing to menu items for music, video and picture access) or through a series of short automatic sequences (for example, when a user points to the ‘make a call’ icon, an actual phone call simulation occurs, after which the user is returned to the system’s ‘home page’).

“In this way, the public can virtually access most of the phone’s applications,” says Emmanuel Ducros, CEO of MTC ArScénique. “The interactive experience is like using a large tactile smart phone.”

The campaign is currently running at 15 locations in malls in France. The screens are four metres by two meters.

Ducros says that audience reaction has been fantastic so far because the displays are eye-catching and the content is extremely easy to use.


Leave a Reply