Tag: advertising

User experience

Important improvements of advertising with wayfinding

Some of the important improvements include:

⦁Drag-and-drop feature for changing advertisement frames

⦁Default duration setting for video adds

⦁Improved splitting of advertisement areas

⦁Easy separation of Portrait and Landscape screens

We have recently experimented with a Raspberry Pi 3 Model B, to see how it can work as media player for digital signage display or wayfinding information kiosk. As a result we can say, it works well with 2D wayfinding maps and with 3D Wayfinder Advertisement Module.

What is Raspberry Pi?

Raspberry Pi is a small credit card sized linux based open source computer. It is equipped with:
– Broadcom 64-bit quad core CPU clocked @ 1.2 GHz,
– 1GB of RAM,
– built-in WLAN and BLE modules,
– HDMI output.

But everything is soldered to the board hence there is no option to upgrade, except for the microSD card. You can also have a nice box for it, so it doesn’t look like a hackers development board.

Compared to other small form factor computers like Intel NUC or Gigabyte BRIX, it is much cheaper. Raspberry Pi with a nice case and microSD card would cost about 50..70 USD. The NUC or BRIX boxes start at 110..130 USD new, and you still need to equip them with a hard drive (SSD/HDD) and memory module(s) (DDR3/DDR4 SO-DIMM RAM) which would cost you about an extra 30 USD for a 32GB SSD and ~25 USD for DDR3 or ~30 USD for DDR4. Totalling up to about 165..190 USD.

Raspberry PI plays in Full HD, so it is not a problem to use large resolution screens.

Enable WebGL

For 3D the Raspberry is still a bit weak and by default it doesn’t have WebGL enabled. To enable WebGL you have to:
1. Open up the terminal application (or command prompt if you prefer to call it that)
2. run command sudo raspi-config
3. navigate to Advanced Options
4. enable GL support.

The GPU on the Raspberry PI 3 Model B doesn’t support floating point textures, so we cannot use transparent textures.

To build wayfinding or digital signage project based on Raspberry Pi you need to use a special linux distribution that opens a browser in full-screen mode instead of the regular desktop interface.

At the same time the kiosk based on Raspberry Pi is quite bullet-proof. There’s no need to worry about excessive power consumption as it actually only consumes about 3.7W under full load and only about 1.4W when playing a FullHD video, which is roughly 10% of the Intel NUCs ~38W while under full system load and ~18W while watching a FullHD video.

It boots up fast from a microSD card which can be easily replaced when it wears out or breaks.

Although remote managing a kiosk that uses a Raspberry Pi can prove to be quite a cumbersome task as you cannot use regular GUI remote management tools like Teamviewer or LogMeIn. The fastest way to remote manage the Raspberry Pi is to use SSH, which is a CLI (Command Line Interface) and this might scare-off most of the users that are not used to poking around via a CLI.

With 3D Wayfinder you can brand your wayfinding application just like it has been developed by yourself. It is possible to use custom loading bar and even get your own layout for administration panel.

We are using small watermark with 3D Wayfinder logo on 3D floor plans. But this only appears, when you are using free plan. As soon as you choose another plan, the watermark disappears.

When using the Business plan it is possible to customize the loading bar of your wayfinder application.

With the Enterprise license it is even possible to change the branding of the Administration Panel. This way you can offer the 3D Wayfinder under your branding or integrate 3D Wayfinder inside your digital signage solution. For Enterprise licensing, please contact us.

Advertisement add-on user manual is now publicly available. Advertisement add-on makes your wayfinding application part of your digital-signage channel. It is possible to use video and banner ads. Also set duration, layout and everything you need for managing advertisements in malls or airports.

User manual covers the most basic part of managing advertisements:

• Choosing advertisement area.
• Creating frames and modifying frame layout.
• Managing frames.
• Setting restrictions e.g. date period, when frame will be shown.
• Uploading images and videos.

Advertisement user manual is part of 3D Wayfinder administration panel manual.

Read how to add and manage different ads in 3D Wayfinder. Ads can be images or videos. It is possible to create different layouts. You can also use a “screen saver” mode. Then you can show only advertisements. This helps to profit from wayfinding, when nobody is currently using the application. It is he good opportunity for shopping center and transportation facility.

Advertisement add-on price is 99 USD per month. See also other 3D Wayfinder add-ons.

Please contact our sales team for more information.

Some of our customers prefer a “Welcome” screen for their wayfinding application. Welcome screens are good way for inviting visitors to use wayfinding, it is also a page where you can show advertisements or welcome text. To minimize the load for kiosks we change the frame-rate of our WebGL rendering engine FRAK. 

Welcome page is configur as an idle-page, when no one is using wayfinding. Usually it is set to 10+ seconds after idle time, when the welcome screen is displayed. On this view, we are hiding wayfinder map component and directory. When visitor starts to use wayfinding, then welcome screen close and floor plans with directory are activate. Certainly, the welcome screen is also helpful for customers to understand what the screen is about. Also a great way to advertise for businesses located in the mall.

To save the kiosk pc and graphics card (GPU) we set the 3D rendering (see FRAK WebGL engine) also idle. This is important for limiting the frame-rate to a minimum. Frame rate change can be invoke with Engine.startIdle(fps) and return to normal operation with Engine.stopIdle(). See 3D Wayfinder API for specific documentation.

We have also fixed a bug in SmoothOrbitController that made animations oscillate on very low frame rates.

We are pleased to announce that 3D Technologies R&D has launched a service for software developers to visualize and interact with 3D floor plans. For example users can create Wayfinding, Smart House and Architecture visualization solutions. Using 3D Wayfinder floor plan application will save development time and gives users out of the box floor plan. The solution runs on touch-screen kiosks, mobile devices and websites, which makes it well scalable.

There are many areas where indoor wayfinding solution is useful and even unavoidable, such as shopping centres, transportation stations, sports facilities, hospitals, university campuses, etc. All of these facilities have different kinds of integration needs. This service enables developers to focus on these needs and not to waste time on additional development.

3D Wayfinder takes advantage of the possibilities offered by HTML5 and WebGL, that work on all modern web browsers. Taavi Juursalu, the company’s CTO says: „Our JavaScript API enables developers to intersect and send map specific events, so customizing the map is as easy as the Google Maps API. “

The platform is currently in beta version and therefore free of charge. The company’s Sales and Marketing Manager Rainer Saar adds: „3D Wayfinder for Developers is one of a kind tool in the World today that helps to widen Digital Signage and indoor wayfinding possibilities. Our service enables any developer to start creating applications without the need for specific skills in 3D field“.

3D Technologies R&D is also offering a full wayfinding solution with 3D floor plans and customer specific software development service. Today, 3DWayfinder helps to find the way in many shopping malls and transportation hubs across the World.

The whole team of 3D Technologies R&D wishes You a merry christmas and a happy new year.

According to Google, self-service is becoming the new norm – 1 in 3 shoppers use their smartphones to find information instead of asking the store employees. 74% of adult smartphone owners aged 18 and older say that they use their phones to get directions or other information based on their current location. (Source: Pew Internet)

Way finding outdoors is easy, because there are so many different navigation softwares guided by the GPS. But people also need an indoor wayfinding solution because buildings nowadays have become very complicated. There is a great need for a simple indoor wayfinding solution for mobile devices. Therefore we offer 3D Wayfinder mobile app for Android and iOS. Soon it will be available on Windows Phone as well. It helps people to navigate indoors and get the latest deals. It is a tool for retailers to advertise their brand or product on the map. The solution has many benefits:

Today we are presenting 3D Wayfinder at Hospitality Technology Day in Meriton Grand Conference & Spa Hotel.

It’s a first time event specialized on introducing the possibilities of Digital Signage in hospitality sector.

Where is people there’s always a question of orientating – 3DWayfinder for hotels and spa’s.

We are pleased to announce that we have made ​​significant progress in the development of a WebGL version of 3D Wayfinder. We are planning to implement it in Atrium shopping center in Russia. WebGL and the power of HTML5 gives new cool designing opportunities for upcoming projects.

Our partner, Akzia Apps has created a super-awesome design. In the near future we will offer You this exclusive chance to be one of the first who gets a glimpse of this cool project. We plan to create all our future projects in WebGL to provide better user experience.

3D Wayfinder does not mean 3-dimensional buidling directory

The whole 3D Technologies R&D team is putting a lot of energy into product development to provide better navigation (wayfinding) for our existing and future partners. We are devoting a lot of time into innovating and testing new solutions. Our team is convinced that the best solutions grow out from engaging in dialogue with users of our products.

Our latest customer surveys revealed that there is also a market for more simpler version of 3D Wayfinder for smaller buildings with smaller budgets. We already receive requests for such solutions and hopefully first one will realize soon.

Maximize ROI

Advertising on smartphones and tablets has shown rising trends in the world and it is becoming more important information channel. 3D Wayfinder is an excellent channel for advertising to reach all user groups. It enables to advertise on all three platforms kiosk, mobile and web, which makes the solution an effective e-commerce channel.

Mobile & Web version

To meet the needs of our customers we have launched a mobile version for Android and iOS users. Windows Phone users can expect the mobile app soon. It has all the basic functions – search, deals, map etc. The building map is 2D so it could work smoothly and simply on most smartphones and tablets. The map is converted from 3D to 2D, to preserve its preciseness and to automate the process of updating. Exactly the same content that is in the kiosk and web version. All managed from one CMS. Mobile offer even more possibilities to integrate different custom solutions like social networks, loyal customer schemes, timetables and other useful features.

You can download the mobile app from your app store by searching “Lounakeskus” or, simply just scan the QR code below.

If you wish to see the web directory in action then visit Lõunakeskus website (South Center).

We would appreciate any feedback, so if You have any questions, recommendations or desire for cooperation, just let us know.