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Industry Is Getting Touchy-Feely When I see an iPad sitting in a booth or Angry Birds on a screen, I am drawn to interact with it. By the time my fingers met the screen during InfoComm 2012, somebody was there explaining their product or service to me. When audio and video fail to grab my attention, a touchscreen will. I found myself walking into a lot of booths that I probably would have ignored otherwise. Beyond simply grabbing my attention, I began realizing that touchscreens are everywhere now. Digital signage booths had them for interacting with content. Video conferencing booths had them for collaboration. There were big touch displays and small touch displays. Multitouch this. Multitouch that. Touch. Touch. Touch! Even core operating systems like Microsoft Windows 8 are geared toward touch displays. It’s no wonder tablets sales have exploded over the past couple of years. Unfortunately, as much as we love technology, it’s nothing without solid use cases and demonstrable value. To that point, I applaud the various InfoComm 2012 vendors for building compelling content this year and exhibiting it. - Jim Kelly, AVI-SPL