With ComQi’s Application, Panasonic Introduces Light ID to U.S. Retail Market for the First Time

New York, NY, Aug. 2 — A new technology tie-up between Panasonic and ComQi will enable retailers to easily connect consumers to messaging on digital signage, by using encoded light signals embedded in the screens.

With Panasonic’s Light ID technology incorporated into digital signage, consumers can point their smartphones at ComQi-powered displays and automatically pull down more detailed information that interests them – such as product description and promotions – to their devices.

Light ID technology is similar to QR codes or bar codes, but written in light. An imperceptible flashing white LED beam, built into the lighting source that illuminates the LCD display, transmits the signal, which is tied to content scheduled by ComQi’s digital signage management platform called EnGage.

ComQi’s EnGage platform has been integrated with Light ID and is now available to retailers and other marketers. “This compelling technology is yet another addition to EnGage’s IoT capabilities,” says ComQi’s CEO Ifti Ifhar, “and a step, as well, towards enhancing the shopping experience, by making the offline-to-online (O2O) approach more seamless for both retailers and shoppers.”

“We are proud to offer this breakthrough technology, which can provide the right information to people in a convenient way, especially in info-dense environments such as malls, airports and rail stations,” says Richard Hsu, VP of Engineering at AVC Networks North America, a unit of Panasonic Corporation of North America in Newark, NJ. “With this ComQi initiative, Panasonic marks the first commercial application of Light ID in the U.S. retail market, and we look forward to rolling it out at multiple pilot sites. We expect that this technology will further enhance Panasonic’s ability to grow into a larger retail solutions provider in North America.”

About Light ID Technology

Light ID allows targeted content to be activated by simply launching an app, and pointing the phone camera at the LCD screen’s light source–even from a distance. Because Light ID has a high-speed transmission rate, information will decode and move to a user phone almost immediately.

• Light ID’s low interference properties allow marketers to provide different messages through multiple transmitters installed next to each other. In contrast, signals sent using Bluetooth or sonic waves have interference issues when multiple transmitters are in close proximity.
• Light ID can also be used for non-digital applications, like printed posters illuminated by light boxes.

About ComQi

ComQi is a global leader providing a cloud-based Shopper Engagement Technology that influences consumers at the point of decision, in-venue, using all digital touch-points: digital signage, mobile, video, touch, web, and social networks. ComQi is a global company headquartered in New York with offices in Toronto, and London with over 16 years of expertise and an install base across every continent.

For more information, contact:
Ashita Nagori, ComQi Inc
marketing@comqi.com
212-675-7820

Weld Royal, Panasonic Corporation of North America
weld.royal@us.panasonic.com
201-248-7859