Eye Tea

Technology blogs and news recently have given lots of coverage to the international Consumer Electronics Show 2010, in Las Vegas, which closed yesterday.   We’re into technology for business rather than consumer gadgets on this blog, and that’s why a new offering called LightTouch(TM) from Light Blue Optics particularly caught my eye.  Have a look at the images in this slideshow.

There are some cracking opportunities for businesses in the sectors I work for.

• Retail – In-store brochures for customers to search.  You could advertise related or similar items that you sell, by projecting images next to a static display.  You could tell customers whether the item is in stock or can be ordered.  You could tell customers where to get the item they want, on the shop floor.
• Coffee shops and pubs – give customers something to do.  You could provide board games, gambling, or perhaps today’s newspapers or website access.   If you want to focus on the professional market you could offer business information and email or other simple applications.  Provide them for free to encourage visitors; or pay-per-play to generate revenue.
• Food outlets – provide the menu.  No more tatty-looking or dirty menus.  Customers don’t have to wait to order what they want.  Waiting staff are freed up to concentrate on delivering food and service.

So what’s my quick legal assessment of those ideas?  For the on-the-wall catalogue and on-the-table menu, the images you use will come from your photographer or the supplier; in each case you need their permission to use the image.  In the coffee shop/ pub example, you need a gambling licence for gaming, and you might need permission to use or replicate popular board games.

This technology also gives you an opportunity to profile customers’ behaviour or get their personal details, to provide you with business planning data or possibly revenue from selling the information.  There’s a bit of data protection compliance to deal with here – nothing insurmountable, but there’s plenty of scope for red faces and public censure for those who don’t bother.  There must be loads of other business models that could use this technology.  Any ideas?

See Light Blue Optics website: LightTouch(TM).