Digital signage is an electronic display used in advertising and distribution of information in public and private locations by using streaming, live and interactive displays as seen mainly in many public places such as airports, train stations, and shopping malls. A typical digital signage system simply requires a networked digital media device or single-board computer connected to a TV, monitor, or projector.

Future trends in this market include:

• Utilizing a cellular network to download digital content or coupons to cellular telephones through the digital signage panels
• Capability to support 2D and 3D graphics and to interact with consumers for a better user experience

  OMAP35x applications processors, which are designed to provide best-in-class video, image, and graphics processing, are well-suited for this end equipment as they offer an unprecedented combination of laptop-like performance at handheld power levels in a single chip. A major benefit, however, in using the OMAP platform is a reduction in total system cost. The OMAP 3 processor; specifically the OMAP3530, supports the following:

  • Live streaming video
  • 2D/3D graphics
  • Video capture in 2.5G and 3G wireless terminals
  • Supports high-level operating systems such as: Windows CE, Symbian OS, Linux, Palm OS
  • State-of-the-art power-management techniques (TI’s SmartReflex technology)

    The Core Subsystem Includes:

    • OMAP 3 architecture offers:
      • Superscalar ARM Cortex-A8 RISC core
      • Integrated Imaging + Video + Audio accelerator (IVA 2 +) that supports multi-standard (MPEG4, WMV, Real, H.263, H.264, JPEG) encode/decode at D1 (720 x 480 pixels) 30 fps
      • Integrated Image Signal Processor (ISP) for faster and higher quality image capture

    • Single-touch or multi-touch LCD screens with display resolution of WVGA (854 x 480) that make it possible to display web pages in full-page width. The LCD screen itself is controlled by a very low-power touch screen controller designed to work in power-sensitive, portable applications. Since power is of utmost importance, these controllers typically run on a single-cell battery with a supply voltage as low as 1.2V. Additionally, the touch screen controllers offer programmable resolution (8 or 12-bit), the control logic to measure touch pressure, and touch screen measurement preprocessing to reduce bus loading, thus reducing the consumption of host processor resources that can then be redirected to more critical functions.

    • External power management device that incorporates an audio/video codec, HS USB transceiver, battery charger, and embedded power control. The power portion of the device contains buck converters, multiple LDOs, an embedded power controller to manage the power-sequencing requirements of OMAP, and an RTC and backup module. Automatic and programmable gain control is incorporated with all necessary digital filtering, side-tone functions, and pop-noise reduction

    • Connectivity includes wired and wireless solution. Wireless connectivity like RFID provides end users faster, seamless transactions that are more secure than currently used systems.