Overview
Consumers today are faced with advertisements everywhere they turn. Billboards line busy highways, signs and banner ads grace store windows, all representing different brands and speaking to a multitude of audiences. Businesses are over stimulating their customers, but are failing to reach them at a personal level. Brands aren't interacting with their target audience in order to understand who they are. There's an underlying need for businesses to reach today's consumers in a way that goes beyond traditional advertising methods that have been used in the past.
How did the Idea Hatch?
Digital Signage is growing rapidly, proving to be much more effective than traditional print-on-cardboard signs, because they engage customers so much more effectively. The AT&T Digital SignageSM team asked, how can we take engagement to the next level? They challenged AT&T researchers, in collaboration with Intel, to make Digital Signage interactive. The challenge inspired a new way of thinking about brand recognition that goes beyond traditional forms of advertising, encouraging consumers to participate in the message.
About the Project
Digital Signage, when combined with AT&T WatsonSM speech recognition technology and other human-machine interaction capabilities, allows customers to interact with the advertisement or signage through speech, image, and touch, and through wireless connectivity. In a joint effort between the Converged IP Services and Speech Services departments in AT&T Labs Research, and an outside collaboration with Intel, Digital Signage combines entertainment advertising with an interactive layer of experience for the consumer. AT&T researchers Jay Wilpon and Chris Rice pioneered this technology "mash-up" to revolutionize the way consumers interact with advertising and signage.
The Future
- Enhance the customer experience. Advertisements move from passive to active, inviting customers to explore products in an informative and playful interaction.
- Increase customer loyalty. Digital Signage has the ability to interact with mobile devices, save consumers' favorites, and offer individually-targeted incentives; by leveraging personalization in retail environments, customers are more likely to be loyal to a product or brand.
About the Researchers
Jay Wilpon, executive director, Speech Services Research, AT&T Labs, has contributed to more than 10 patents, as well as multiple speech technologies, throughout his career with AT&T. He has collaborated on projects such as Assistive Technology, AT&T's WatsonSM speech recognition technology and Speech Mashup.
Chris Rice, executive director at AT&T Labs Research, has executed more than 20 patents while at AT&T, ranging from Tracking Variable Conditions Using Radio Frequency Identification to Automatic Wireless Service Activation in a Private Local Wireless System.
Ben Stern is a researcher at AT&T labs. His recent work focuses on integrating sensors (speech, vision, touch, wireless) and presentation technologies to create compelling applications that interact with people in public venues. He is co-inventor of over 15 patents in the areas of speech and communications technology.
