Digital Signage Central

Hitachi Ltd. has teamed up with Hitachi Information Systems Ltd. and digital video company CAD Center Corp. to start a business selling 3-D digital signage.

They plan to market digital signs to places like train stations, airports and large commercial buildings, using technologies for the delivery of 3-D graphics to display maps, routes and building information in more engaging ways.

The domestic market for digital signs was worth some 20 billion yen (US$188.32 million) in fiscal 2007 and is expected to grow 20 per cent a year as the next-generation network technologies capable of high-speed delivery of high-resolution video are put into place.

Hitachi now has what it estimates at 13 per cent of the market for digital signs. But by leveraging the appeal of 3-D images, the company hopes to have this figure up to 20 per cent in 2010.

Hitachi and Hitachi Information Systems will develop and market the hardware and the networks for content delivery to the digital signs. CAD Center will develop the 3-D content.

These 3-D digital signs will have touch-panel controls so that users will be able to switch between overhead views and feet-on-floor line-of-sight views, and to move what is displayed on-screen to read vicinity map information and follow routes to planned destinations.