Technology update Continued from page 14


Signagelive and AOPEN showcase voice-activated digital signage


Signagelive and AOPEN show- cased voice activated digital signage as long ago as 2017. The showcase was present- ed at Google’s Munich office featuring Google Home, and the audience was the Google Chrome for Work Summit. This is an annual event that Google hold for EMEA based end users and resellers to up- date them on the latest tech- nologies from Google and ven- dor partners. Signagelive has supported Google with this event in the past and this year was no different. With the help of AOPEN, Signagelive showcased the Web Triggers feature to in-


stantly change content run- ning on devices. Using Google Home the user can start a con- versation with a bot and con- trol the content displayed on a Signagelive managed smart display or player. In this case, the new Chromebox Mini from AOPEN was used. Signagelive is a cloud-based digital signage platform provid- er which is purchased through distribution and reseller chan- nels. Customers are supported at no additional cost. You can turn your Chrome device into an interactive kiosk with content interaction and management tools provided by Signagelive. Using Google Home the user


can start a conversation with our bot and control the content displayed on a Signagelive managed smart display or player, a Google Chromebox, for instance, however,


this would work


equally well with any of our supported media players. Applications are many and varied from a business assistant through to a re- tail assistant where prod- ucts and availability can be shown just by asking for what you are looking for. To find out more contact sales@signagelive.com


TrouDigital: voice-activated digital signage pioneers


“A clear message has echoed around the technology world in the past 12 months: voice search changes everything. We couldn’t agree more,” TrouDigi- tal blog written by Lee Gannon. “One thing seems certain to us. Voice-activated digital signage won’t be a passing novelty. It’s not a gimmick you will see once demonstrated at a trade show and hardly again beyond that.” “The whole technology is set to move in this direction. In the near future, audiences and cus- tomers will go up to any digital display, start talking to it and expect interaction.”


“At the moment, talking to Al- exa or Siri might still feel like a very private thing, too socially awkward for public. But this anxiety barrier is quickly com- ing down. In homes around the world, users are becoming more comfortable talking to their de- vices.! “It’s only a matter of time un-


til the majority of people will be comfortable speaking to their tech at work and out in public. By 2020, 50% of all searches are predicted to be voice. A fundamental mentality change is imminent, a new type of con- sumer behaviour is emerging that all businesses need to seri- ously anticipate.” “That brings us to voice-ac- tivated digital signage. Our developers at TrouDigital have been working on an integra- tion between our signage plat- form and the Google Assistant. We’ve seen how popular inter-


Signagelive and AOPEN showcase voice activated digital at Google’s Munich office featuring Google Home for the Google Chrome for Work Summit.


MATRIX Voice from AdMobilize MATRIX Voice


is the latest


advancement from AdMobi- lize, the artificial intelligence and computer vision compa- ny. “Put simply, the company that introduced AI-powered audience analytics to the dig- ital signage industry is now bringing voice recognition functionality to both manu- facturers and systems inte- grators, alike, through its MA- TRIX product line,” explains AdMobilize co-founder and CEO Rodolfo Saccoman. “We believe that voice en- gagement technologies will make digital signage a more compelling and sticky com- munications solution for an even broader range of vertical markets. The combination of audience analytics and voice recognition functionality truly represents the next chapter in this constantly evolving in- dustry — and AdMobilize is at the forefront of making this chapter a reality.” Available for only $55.00,


MATRIX Voice will integrate with any voice recognition service (Amazon Alexa, Goo- gle


Assistant or any other


third-party service) at any time. “MATRIX Voice puts the power of flexibility direct- ly in the hands of the manu-


facturer and systems integra- tor, freeing them from being confined to any one of the cur- rently available voice services. This enables plug-and-play custom voice solutions to go mainstream,” Saccoman em- phasized.


Equally important, according to Saccoman, is the complete security


that MATRIX Voice


provides. For retailers who do not want Amazon listening to, recording and storing all store information on its cloud, MA- TRIX Voice is the ideal solution as it provides the capability to process voice recognition at the edge and not strictly in the cloud. MATRIX Voice can be run on a Raspberry Pi or standalone, thanks to an optional module (ESP32) that equips it with a micro-controller as well as Wi- Fi and Bluetooth connectivity. MATRIX Voice has an 8 micro- phone array, a 3.5mm audio output jack, 2 speaker outputs, a 3 A audio amplifier, 24 ex- pansion GPIO ports, 64 MB of RAM, 64 MB of Flash, and the second tier Spartan 6 FPGA that allows manufacturers and integrators to customize the functions of the GPIO pins as well as implement one’s own audio and voice algorithms.


P18 AV News September 2019


active signage is, whether it’s through touch or something like our ‘lift and learn’ fea- ture. The only challenge with these solutions, however, has often been cost. Touch screen monitors still have a significant price premium, and ‘lift and learn’ displays require addi- tional materials and ultimately space.”


“One of the reasons we are so excited about voice-activat- ed signage is it’s accessibility to all. The Google Home and Amazon Echo are taking over in part because they are affordably priced to consumers. With our own voice-activated digital sig- nage, we intend to follow this trend. We want to see even the smallest of schools and local businesses welcoming this in- novation as this is where it can have the largest impact.” “At least initially, we will be introducing a set number of voice-triggers that allow us- ers to interact with content on their screens. We believe the introduction


of voice-triggers


will have a huge influence on the type of content people are creating too. On a screen up in a reception area, a welcome message might be designed for visitors that can be activated with the command “Welcome”. For


employee-facing screens,


content such as training videos or sale targets might equally be triggered with bespoke com- mands: “Play the new employee training video” and “Show this week’s sales targets”. There are


endless applications for way- finding screens, e.g. “How do I get to _______”, retail with product information and edu- cational content for schools.” “Ultimately, voice-activat- ed digital signage will invite different industries and users to really tailor the solution to their needs. Whole new uses for digital signage are likely to emerge, taking the tech- nology in interesting new directions. At TrouDigital we are committed to the princi- ple that voice brings real util- itarian value to users rather than being merely a ‘nice to have’ add-on feature.” “The way this is going to be achieved is through con- versation with our users, across different sectors. Our voice-triggered solution will be an evolving project, con- stantly in a state of refine- ment.”


Email mario@troudigital. com for more information.


From a software perspec- tive, the company has created 3 library layers to program the MATRIX Voice.


The first lay-


er, HAL, allows integrators to program it in C++, providing the closest access to the hard- ware. The second layer, MA- TRIX Core, contains protocol buffers and ZeroMQ that en- able designers to program the MATRIX Voice in over 40 lan- guages for complete interop- erability with any pre-existing code base. Finally, the third


and highest layer, MOS (MATRIX Open System), empowers users to easily and quickly program the MATRIX Voice in JavaScript with as little as 1 line of code as well as take advantage of the compa- ny’s remade infrastructure which includes dashboard, remote de- ployment through its CLI tool, simple communication between devices (crosstalk), and much more. “Let’s say you have 50 digital screen directories already in- stalled within a mall,” Saccoman


explained. “With MATRIX Voice you can now place it within the top or bottom of the directory (depending on space and opti- mal audio clarity for the micro- phones) and then use a 3rd par- ty voice recognition service to create custom ‘wake’ words and responses to enable the shop- per to ask, ‘Directory, where is Macy’s?’ and have the directory respond with the route to Ma- cy’s from the shoppers location. All sorts of voice activated cues and information can now be


programmed into a digital signage network, opening up the door to a whole new se- ries of applications.”


AdMobilize continues to bridge the gap between the digital revolution and disrup- tive computer vision analyt- ics, ultimately infusing ma- chine learning into formerly ‘unintelligent’ displays. Sac- coman concludes that the era of “touchless technologies” will power the renaissance of the digital signage industry.


AdMobilize co-founder and CEO Rodolfo Saccoman: “With MATRIX Voice you can now place it within the top or bot- tom of the directory (depend- ing on space and optimal audio clarity for the microphones) and then use a 3rd party voice recognition service to create custom ‘wake’ words and re- sponses to enable the shopper to ask, ‘Directory, where is Ma- cy’s?’”


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