If you’re interested in digital signage, then you probably remember the movie “Minority Report” with Tom Cruise and Colin Farrell. It was a good movie, but Steven Spielberg’s decision to tap future-thinking thought leaders to help him design what life would be like in the year 2080 took it to the next level. Ten years ago, we saw the future of displays, which included talking personal-based advertising and the movie’s leading conceit: transparent displays in which the information was controlled by gestures. Tom Cruise would stand in front of a huge display and, by using a gesture-based “language” (that was actually developed for the movie by engineers) he would sift through text and video to find where future crimes would occur.

The man who helped design that aspect of the movie, John Underkoffler, Chief Scientist of Oblong Industries, delivered the opening keynote the 2012 Digital Signage Expo on March 7, 2012. A graduate of MIT, Underkoffler made his mark at the school in the mid 90s by trying to

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About the author

Lisa Nadile - Managing Editor

Lisa Nadile is Managing Editor for TechDecisions. She has been a technology journalist for over twenty years and has never lost her love of technology and the way it changes (and improves) our lives. She has written for many magazines and websites on the development of computers and the Internet, and is enjoying her new mission in the audiovisual sector.