The owners of Honolulu-based software company EpicRays can see the writing on the wall. Increasingly that writing is in pixels rather than paint.

The 8-month-old company is trying to turn today's old-fashioned static, commercial signs into the dynamic digital signs of tomorrow. Their preferred medium is ever larger and cheaper flat-screen liquid crystal displays.

So-called digital signs have been around for years primarily as video billboards. EpicRays and others are trying to create new applications for the technology ranging from menu boards and wayfinding directories to automated order kiosks in restaurants, retailers and other locations.

EpicRays' products can be found at the Dole Plantation tourist attraction, fast-food restaurant Taco Bell in Kahala and at retailer Crazy Shirts.

The company's founders "are all small-business owners as well, so we all struggle to reach the consumer and to put the message out there," said EpicRays co-founder Blaine Kimura. "There's Internet, TV and print. This is a whole other medium (and) it's wide open now as far as we're concerned."

Within the digital signage market the retail-signage sector is rapidly growing. That segment of the market generated $347 million in sales during the first quarter of this year, according to El Segundo, Calif.-based market research firm iSuppli Corp. Annual sales of digital retail signage are expected to surge to $2.8 billion by 2011 as retailers adopt the technology to better communicate with customers amid frequent product revisions and a lack of knowledgeable sales staff, according to iSuppli.

At Dole Plantation four 42-inch LCD displays were installed by EpicRays this week to create a new digital menu board. The new system, which will be turned on Friday, will allow Dole to quickly change menus to offer special menu items depending on the day or even the weather.

"We have that flexibility now," said Mike Moon, general manager for Dole Plantation. "It opens up a world of opportunity and marketing options."

EpicRays in-house developed software packaged with equipment provided by partner Best Buy. The systems start at $1,500 to $2,000 for one display with a recurring licensing fee of about $50 a month.

For retailers the value of digital signage is in linking the displays to information systems so that, for example, a store can automatically advertise a sale on an overstocked or perishable item.

EpicRay's Internet-based software also allows a business to remotely program and control these displays. That's the case with Crazy Shirts, which runs digital signs at both its Royal Hawaiian Shopping Center store and its Ala Moana Center location from the company's corporate office in Halawa.

For now the displays are used to show the company's products in everyday use. However, the company is only beginning to tap the technology's potential, said Mark Hollander, president and chief executive of Hawai'i retailer Crazy Shirts.

"The future is wide open on this," he said. "The beauty of this particular system really is in its flexibility. For us (the value is in) the ability to direct content toward either specific items or promotions that we may be working toward, or to focus it entirely around lifestyle really help us to put our product in context."

EpicRays said it's working with an unidentified local supermarket chain and fast-food chain, and a Mainland chain of dental offices among other potential customers.

"The amount of interest and number of installations going on in Hawai'i is just tremendous," said Paul Higashi, another EpicRays co-founder.

Reach Sean Hao at shao@honoluluadvertiser.com.