Update A Digital Sign, By Texting It
June 2, 2023 by Dave Haynes
Orlando-based software and services provider Xpodigital has developed an interesting, and patented, capability for quickly revising announcements and calls to action on networked screens around a venue, using text messaging.
The company, which has been around forever and mainly focused on the business events sector, has developed what it calls Text-to-Screen technology.
To change out a text overlay on a message up on a big LCD or LED display, a user can pull out his or her phone and send SMS messages to the platform using specified commands related to, I think, an HTML5 file.
There are, of course, other ways of changing messages on the spot, versus sitting down at a desktop. There are dedicated smartphone apps, like what Samsung has for prosumer TVs. There are CMS platforms that have a mobile UX as an option, and desktop UXs that open and run on a small phone screen. I am even aware of a company – Local Business Patriots – that enables updates via email.
Text messaging, however, is super common and simple. The trade off is that the capability is limited to changing words on a screen. It’s not anything close to control of the screen, player or content schedule.
Nonetheless, it’s interesting. You can see in this Linkedin video how a message gets changed out on the spot, via texting.
Hmm. With Intuiface’s web triggers support, we’ve been offering IFTTT and Zapier integrations for years, enabling users to trigger any change – not just text changes – in a running Intuiface experience by sending a text message. (IFTTT and Zapier are both services that integrate independent web applications and connect them through automated workflows. SMS is just one of the thousands of applications that can be integrated with Intuiface – or with any other application compatible with those services.) I couldn’t find Xpodigital’s patent, but I’d be very curious to know its scope. Patents can be very narrow, I suppose…..
Updating screens easily is an important use-case in many cases. We’ve done projects in the past using SMS (none currently). I’d be very interested in finding the patent and reading what it says as it seems quite odd they would get a broad patent for using tech that has been available for a long time. Kudos to them though.