Casio Brings Talking Flat People (And Things) To Retail Counters

January 8, 2013 by Dave Haynes

Anyone who reads this thing regularly knows how little enthusiasm I have for the Talking Flat Lady virtual people things that have shown up at places like airports, hospitals and even drug stores.

They’re wildly expensive, irritating and, frankly, stupid. But end-users attracted to shiny, pretty beads keep ordering them. There’s a reason most of these things are roped off (so people don’t take swings).

Now we have more word on a Casio Computer variation on a product the Japanese company says will take the digital signage business by storm and “revolutionize storefront advertising.”

The revolution will take the form of a mini-talking flat person or object parked on a countertop.

Beyond awesome.

Driving this exciting new business, says a release, is Casio Signage, a newly developed, powerful tool for helping store owners gain an edge over their competition by attracting more new and repeat customers.

Storefront advertising needs to catch the attention of customers and then be interesting and relevant enough to invite them in. The Casio Signage Business takes a revolutionary new approach leveraging optimum storefront advertising tools and cloud services to attract new customers and increase repeat visits.

Casio Signage is a cutting-edge storefront advertising tool with the power to captivate passers-by with a realistic-looking character that talks to them from the screen. The screen itself is actually shaped like the character, which can be freely selected to match the characteristics needed to bring people into a given store. The character’s appearance and voice can be changed easily to keep repeat customers from losing interest. Casio Signage is also very compact and requires no installation work, making it easy to place almost anywhere in the store. It also offers multilingual support for visitors who speak various languages, and its light source lasts approximately 20,000 hours.

Together with innovative cloud services such as the issuance of digital coupons, stores with Casio Signage will enjoy an edge over the competition.

Main Features of Casio Signage

Realistic images help captivate passers-by and attract customers

The screen itself is shaped like the character or person, and it talks to potential visitors to the store to get their attention and invite them in.

Content to keep repeat customers from losing interest

Retail users simply provide Casio with a still image and text, and Casio then animates the image and adds the voice. No video production is required for stores. This process makes it easy to edit the animation to keep repeat customers from losing interest.

Compact size that can go almost anywhere in a store

Small 458 mm × 536 mm footprint. No installation work is required.

Multilingual support for diverse visitors

Available languages include English, Chinese, Korean, Spanish, and more. Customers themselves can select the language they want to hear.

Cloud services to realize unique retail promotion plans

Casio can provide cloud services like digital coupons for customers with a smartphone.

Long-lasting light source

The originally developed Laser-LED Hybrid Light Source by Casio delivers approximately 20,000 hours of life.

Goofy, I think. However, there is no end of merchandising stuff in retail that mystifies me, and there are lots and lots of people who find the whole projection film thing quite amazing. So the marketplace will decide if this is indeed goofy or brilliant.