Touchscreen technology has become a common part of American life with its integration into mobile devices like phones and MP3 players. There are also many benefits that touchscreens provide to the casino and hospitality industries. Your operation may be looking to integrate or expand its touchscreen usage, but what are some of the best companies that provide these products, and what important things should you know about them? CEM presents a buyer review here, highlighting a few of our picks. We show you what 3M, Elo TouchSystems and TabletKiosk can provide you, from projected capacitive touch to operating systems and applications. These are the guys at the forefront of the technology, and this is what you need to know.
3M Touch Systems
Of course, we all know that 3M is much more than Post-Its, and if you walked by their booth at G2E, you most likely saw how many passers-by were intrigued by the display on the corner, the Multi-Touch. CEM even named it one of the show’s best bets.
But 3M Touch Systems, as we know it today, wasn’t always part of the well-known Fortune 500 company. It was created with 3M’s acquisitions of Dynapro Thin Films in 2000 and MicroTouch Systems in 2001. Today, it is a business unit of the 3M Electro & Communications Business, a group of the 3M company.
“MicroTouch had a very strong presence in the gaming space, manufacturing and selling touchscreens and electronics,” David Henry, marketing manager for 3M Touch Systems, explained. “We then began to build the 3M Touch Systems brand out from there.” As to how they’ve stayed strong in the gaming space, Henry noted that the last 10 years saw the gaming and retail/hospitality industries really begin to converge from a technology perspective. ATMs and slot machines are not as far apart as we may think they are, in terms of the functionality of the technology.
Henry said that, in terms of the touch base, 3M’s product is largely considered the industry standard. “Durability and liability are the two primary features of our product,” he said. “We build our own electronics platform and support our own electronics platform specifically for this market. From a competitive standpoint, that’s a big competitive advantage to us, because we invest so much money in the electronics portion of our business to meet the needs of this market.”
One way 3M ensures both its products and executives are on top of their game is by employing the business practice of Six Sigma. Henry verified that it is a huge part of what they do.
Another thing 3M—both its touch division and company as a whole—prides itself on is listening to the customer and developing products based on that feedback. Henry affirmed they take VOC, or voice of customer, very seriously, and also use an approach they refer to as bench to bench. “Our technical staff actually faces the customer,” he explained. “The sales person is our primary lead on accounts, but we generally have our technical people interface with our customer’s technical people, so that’s a big difference compared to other companies.”
Partnerships are also key to their advanced innovation. In October 2010, 3M announced its investment in Perceptive Pixel Inc., a developer of advanced multi-touch solutions based in New York City. This combination of technologies only makes both components even stronger.
3M’s PCT, or Projected Capacitive Technology, is definitely an industry innovation. The technology is one of the only multi-touch solutions made by a leading manufacturer that can register more than 10 simultaneous touch events with a 6-millisecond response time. And at the recent Consumer Electronics Show, 3M Touch Systems previewed three new multi-touch displays based on PCT. The newest additions include a 23-inch industrial design display with an innovative ergonomic design to address a variety of multi-touch user scenarios—all designed to create a truly immersive and natural user experience.
There, 3M also debuted its newest 32-inch and 22-inch chassis LCD displays that offer “true” 10-plus finger multi-touch on a durable glass surface, with a wide-viewing angle, high definition display and robust metal housing.
3M’s multi-touch displays are compatible with Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP and Linux operating systems, and allow for a variety of engaging single, multi-user and collaborative applications.
“From our standpoint, touchscreens are certainly a value-add into the slot machine,” Henry stated. “They typically have very rapid ROIs, but the primary thing is they have to be durable and be prepared to withstand 24/7 operation.”
One major slot machine manufacturer that turned to 3M was Bally Technologies, employing the iDeck™ for its ALPHA 2™ Pro Series™ gaming cabinets. According to a company press release: “3M PCT’s outstanding surface durability and multi-touch capabilities are some of the key factors in Bally Technologies’ decision to replace its traditional mechanical button deck with this new next-generation user interface. … 3M’s anti-stiction touch surface allows fingers to move smoothly across the screen, and is built to withstand most of the rugged demands of everyday casino environments.”
Looking ahead, Henry said: “We have products in every single casino in [Las Vegas] and cities around the world. A majority of our installations are slot machines, and I think that’s really the focus we are looking at as Bally and other customers of ours move toward multi-touch—it’s getting more 3M content in the slot machine.”
And for the future of touch technology, Henry sees additions to the multi-touch story as well as creating better experiences for clients and their customers. 3M’s general goal, he says, is to create a more immersive experience with customers, and that’s the future of touch.
3M Touch Systems at a Glance
Year Founded: 2000
Locations: Texas, Minnesota, Massachusetts, and sales offices in many worldwide locations
Executives: George W. Buckley, Chairman, President and CEO
Website: www.3M.com/touch
Elo TouchSystems
Elo TouchSystems, a business unit of Tyco Electronics, was founded in 1971 and, today, is one of the top touchscreen technology providers. And with the company’s exciting new initiatives, they are definitely one to keep an eye on.
They, of course, are a major supplier for the gaming industry, but also have applications for the hospitality, financial, transportation and health care fields. Elo offers the broadest offering of touch solutions, including acoustic pulse recognition, AccuTouch five-wire and AT4 four-wire resistive, CarrollTouch infrared, IntelliTouch/SecureTouch/iTouch surface wave, and surface and projected capacitive technologies.
Elo’s B-Series touchcomputers, released in 2010, garnered attention for its useful POS capabilities. The company says these computers answered the industry need for a single compact and retail-hardened touchcomputer platform to support countertop, pole- and wall-mounted applications. The B-Series portfolio consists of three highly configurable, rugged and cost-effective all-in-one touch systems. The computers increase configuration options, coming standardized with multiple connectivity ports and featuring three high-performance processor configurations.
The company’s newest touch innovation was unveiled at the recent ICE trade show in London. The Elo TouchSystems 2242L provides OEMs and software developers a ruggedized, 22-inch open-frame touchmonitor built to reliably run multi-touch gaming, wayfinding, concierge services and other touch-powered self-service programs. It is powered with IntelliTouch Plus surface acoustic wave (SAW) touch technology, and is compatible with the Windows 7 operating system.
The IntelliTouch Plus technology is unlike other multi-touch systems, utilizing three axes of touch information to deliver sensitive, accurate, drift-free recordings of two simultaneous touch locations anywhere on the screen, regardless of position or pressure applied. The IntelliTouch Plus touchmonitor utilizes pure-glass construction to deliver excellent imagery and high light transmissions and is not affected by variations in ambient or extreme light. It also supports a finger, gloved hand or soft stylus activation and has durable, scratch-resistant glass.
Murtaza Amiji, director of business development, says what really sets Elo’s products apart from its competitors is that no one else has the technologies and breadth of touchscreen products that they do. “We carry 10 different touch technologies today, and there is no one technology that fits all the environments and all the requirements in all the markets,” he said. “A lot of our competitors tend to focus on one technology and try to forfeit them into products that sometimes aren’t meant to be used with that technology. We don’t do that.”
He also says Elo has the largest portfolio of touch technologies and sensors, and carries not just the screens, but also corresponding systems like monitors, touchcomputers and large format displays for interactive digital signage.
Gary Sadamori, manager, marketing and communications, said it all comes back to an ingredient story. “The better the quality of ingredients that go into the system, the better the system,” he noted. “Our systems are designed to function in relatively harsh and rugged environments. It’s important that the system be as rugged as possible to stand up to the rigors of public use. Those are some of the things that we have been working on really hard for a long period of time.”
The way Elo ensures top-quality product is through rigorous testing. “Basically, we test the product until it breaks,” Sadamori explained. “The reason for that is we want to find literally the weakest link in our system. We use that information to make the next system better. We always test to destruction.”
Elo guarantees a long product life. They offer a three-year standard warranty on all products. “We offer industrial-grade products with higher quality and longer life,” Amiji noted.
Another great thing about the company is that they are truly global. Elo has sales and distribution centers all over the globe. This means wherever you are, you have worldwide support and customer service. So if you’re in Brazil and need to fix or replace a monitor, you don’t need to bother with shipping it to the U.S.
Amiji says the most important thing for customers to remember when it comes to touchscreens is that they are not all the same. “There are different technologies for different uses and applications,” he said. “The human computing interaction area is evolving and there are lots of other exciting technologies at play. We’re working on all sorts of stuff, so stay tuned.”
We sure will.
Elo TouchSystems at a Glance
Year Founded: 1971
Number of employees: 96,000
Locations: Menlo Park, Calif.; Kessel-Lo, Belgium; Yokohama, Japan; Su Zhou, China; and additional offices throughout Europe, Latin America and Asia/Pacific
Executives: James O’Toole, Vice President and General Manager
Luc Mergeay, Vice President, Worldwide Sales
Steven Abramovich, Vice President, North America and ANZ
Ken North, Director, Engineering and Technology
Website: www.elotouch.com
TabletKiosk
This next company provides not only ultra-cool touchscreens, but touchscreen PCs that are portable—making your job easier when you’re on the move. TabletKiosk’s specialty is providing mobility essentials for the enterprise.
The company began in 2003, when businesses were looking to leverage the flexibility of a mobile slate with the power of a PC to improve productivity, increase information flow and enhance the customer experience.
TabletKiosk made their way into the gaming industry when they were approached by two major gaming entities—one global vendor interested in developing a real-time mobile betting solution, and a government gaming entity looking to maximize real estate and increase productivity at the gaming table. Needless to say, both were signed shortly after. Now, the current customer base includes installs at Ameristar Casinos, M Resort and Casino, Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, The Venetian, The Palazzo (where they are used as mobile wagering devices for sports betting) and several bingo halls.
Sometimes having convenience also means diminished quality. That is definitely not the case here. “Because we manufacture products designed for the enterprise customer, TabletKiosk is committed to building products based on ‘best of breed’ components, with triple quality testing throughout the production cycle,” said Martin Smekal, CEO of TabletKiosk. This results in a less than 1 percent failure rate at the customer level.
It is this triple testing that ensures the finished product is the best it can be. The company’s manufacturing staff in Taiwan directly oversees factory production and conducts the first two tests on the factory line and at the Taiwan office prior to shipment. When the products arrive in the U.S. and undergo final assembly, they are checked once more to guarantee reliability and customer satisfaction.
TabletKiosk has many options for any customer. And they begin by getting to know you and your needs first. “When we first meet with a prospective client, we ask a lot of questions about the project to ensure that we recommend the proper touchscreen for the project,” Smekal explained. “We have a channel strategy in place and offer a multi-tiered program for partnership. Typically, we are open to working with a client’s preferred technology dealer as a reseller, or we can recommend a local dealer who can best service the customer.”
And of course, products can be customized, including options for private label, unbranded devices or device reconfiguration. Some examples of customization include securing the tablet PCs with proprietary security screws or mounting solutions to comply with regulators, disabling buttons or covering ports for security reasons in public deployments.
“In addition to offering slate customization, our products are also designed to offer our enterprise customers unparalleled flexibility in the way that they use and interact with their touchscreens,” Smekal said. “For example, a business professional can use our 12-inch tablet PC as a component to a traditional desktop setup, then switch instantly to a mobile tablet offering both touchscreen input and handwriting recognition for an important meeting down the hall.”
Smekal said the proof in the ROI pudding is the product’s lifespan, including its enterprise life cycle of approximately 24 to 36 months. Its business accessories are backward and forward compatible, meaning they can be used with past and future product revs to extend and protect the original investment.
TabletKiosk is scheduled to release a new generation of its 12-inch flagship product, the Sahara Slate PC®, in Q1 2011. “Based on initial market research, plus feedback from G2E and recent press announcements regarding other tablets coming soon to the market, we are confident these new systems will be the most powerful tablet PCs available at their launch,” Smekal stated.
This new release, the Sahara Slate PC i500 series, features an Intel® Core™ i7 vPro processor, supports up to 8 GB RAM, runs Microsoft® Windows® 7 Professional and is 64-bit capable, comes standard with sunlight-enhanced outdoor viewable displays, and allows you to toggle between Active Digitizer mode and a new, proprietary capacitive touchscreen panel with multi-touch capability.
Smekal said that the most important thing for operators to remember when it comes to touchscreens is that the way you interact with the computer determines the type of touchscreen you’ll need. Capacitive touchscreens, for example, will only react to the touch of a human hand as they need an electrical circuit to be completed in order to read the positional data. Therefore, if you are required to wear work gloves, or want to be able to press a button with an object like the edge of a credit card or tip of a pen, a resistive touchscreen would be a better choice since they are activated purely by pressure.
Durability is another factor to consider, as machines being used during the workday endure more wear than your home computer. As touchscreens are often one of the more fragile components in a tablet, durability and serviceability are very important.
Smekal predicts that touchscreens will become even more ubiquitous within one to three years. Even common household appliances, he said, will be operated via some type of touch panel—and then increasingly, voice and body gesturing. “The business market will quickly follow suit, and the number of applications, including industry-specific, developed for touch will grow exponentially.
TabletKiosk at a Glance
Year founded: 2003
Number of employees: 35
Headquarters: Torrance, Calif.
Manufacturing: Taipei, Taiwan
Executives: Martin Smekal, CEO
Ronna Silverman, COO
Dan Levy, VP Product Development
Gene Uenteunen, VP Client Services & Warehouse Logistics
Website: www.tabletkiosk.com
For sales information: sales[at]tabletkiosk.com
Amanda Huggett is the Managing Editor for Casino Enterprise Management. She can be reached at (701) 293-7775 or editor2[at]aceme.org.
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