An interactive kiosk is a computer terminal displaying specialized hardware and software that provides access to information and applications for communication, commerce, entertainment, or education.
Initial interactive kiosks are sometimes similar to phone booths, but have been embraced by retail, food service and hospitality to improve customer service. Interactive kiosks are usually placed in high pedestrian traffic settings such as shops, hotel lobbies or airports.
Technology integration allows kiosks to perform various functions, evolving into self-service kiosks. For example, a kiosk can allow users to order from store catalogs when items are not in stock, check library books, find information about products, issue hotel key cards, enter public utility bill numbers to conduct online transactions, or collect cash to exchange for merchandise. Customized components such as hopper coin, bill acceptor, card reader and thermal printer enable kiosks to meet the owner's specific needs.
Video Interactive kiosk
History
The first self-service standalone kiosk was developed in 1977 at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign by pre-medical student Murray Lappe. Content is created on PLATO computer systems and can be accessed by a plasma touch screen interface. The plasma screen panel was found at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign by Donald L. Bitzer. The Lappe Kiosk, called The Plato Hotline allows students and visitors to find movies, maps, directories, bus schedules, extracurricular activities, and courses. While debuting at the U of Illinois Student Union in April 1977, more than 30,000 students, teachers and visitors stood in line for the first 6 weeks, trying their hands on a "personal computer" for the first time.
The first successful interactive kiosk network to be used for commercial purposes was a project developed by Florsheim Shoe Co.'s shoe retailers, led by their executive VP, Harry Bock, which was installed around 1985. Interactive kiosks created, created and customized by ByVideo Inc. from Sunnyvale, CA. The network of over 600 stalls provides promotional images and videos for customers who want to buy shoes that are not available in retail locations. Style, size and color can be selected, and the product is paid at the kiosk itself. The transaction was sent to the Florsheim mainframe in St, Louis, MO, via a dialup line, for home delivery or store the next day via Federal Express. Hardware (including microcomputers, display systems, touch screens) is designed and built by ByVideo, while other components (such as CRTs, floppy disks, printers, keyboards and physical housing) are sourced from other vendors. The videodisc material was created quarterly by ByVideo in Florsheim direction, in ByVideo's advanced video production facility in CA. This kiosk network operates for over 6 years at the Florsheim retail location.
In 1991, the first commercial kiosk with internet connection was shown in Comdex. This app is for searching for a lost child. The first original documentation of the kiosk was a 1995 report by Los Alamos National Laboratory detailing what the interactive kiosk was. It was first announced at comp.infosystems.kiosks by Arthur, the original usenet moderator.
In 1997, KioskCom was launched to provide trade shows for organizations that want to deploy an independent self-service kiosk, and continue to provide this service to this day. This trade show takes place twice a year, and offers corporate education and demonstrations for successful self-service implementation.
The first company to launch an interactive kiosk program at the state level was Imperial Multimedia in 2007. Imperial Multimedia installs an interactive kiosk in 31 of Virginia State Parks and this electronic kiosk includes an overview of parks, printable maps, street points, points of interest, tours trail videos, and emergency information.
Today's stalls combine classic vending machines with high-tech communications and robotics and complex mechanics. Such interactive kiosks may include independent checkpoints, e-ticketing, information and street search, and sales. Electronic kiosks have become a bigger part of the retail landscape because users embrace technology in their everyday lives. One example of a powerful retail kiosk business is Redbox, a movie rental kiosk company. Redbox was formerly a subsidiary of Outerwall, Inc., another popular company popular for Coinstar kiosks.
Maps Interactive kiosk
Design and construction
The aesthetic and functional design of interactive kiosks is a key element that drives user adoption, up-time and overall affordability. There are many factors to consider when designing interactive kiosks including:
- Aesthetic design: The design of enclosures is often a driving factor in user adoption and brand recognition.
- Production volume: This will determine which manufacturing process is appropriate to use (eg sheet-metal, thermoformed plastic, etc.).
- Kiosk software: The kiosk hardware interactive functionality is largely determined by software programs and kiosk software configurations.
- Graph message: Plays an important role in communicating with potential users.
- Maintenance and thermal design: Critical to maximize the time-up (time between failures or freezes).
- Component specifications: Common components include Touch screen, P.C., pointing device, keyboard, bill acceptor, mag-stripe and/or barcode scanner, surge protector, UPS, etc.
- Ergonomics: It's important to ensure easy and easy user accessibility. â € <â € <
- Regulatory compliance: In the US, it's important to design into the ADA. Electrical standards include UL in the US and CE in Europe. In retail space you have a PCI certification in the US that is descended from VISA PED (relative of Chip and PIN in Europe).
- Interface design: Designing for interactive kiosks usually requires bigger buttons and a simpler decision tree than designing for interactive web-based or computer. Interesting interesting animations and short residence time are important.
- Durability: The location of the destination kiosk will greatly affect the construction because the materials and electronic requirements are very different for indoor and outdoor kiosks.
Interactive kiosks around the world
Government use
Some countries have implemented national kiosk installations for various purposes. One example of such large-scale installations can be found in the UK, where thousands of dedicated destination kiosks are now available to assist job seekers in finding jobs.
The US Department of Homeland Security has created an immigration kiosk where visitors register when they enter the United States. There is also an Outlet kiosk where visitors sign up when they leave the US.
Internally, the US government has agencies such as the Postal Service that use kiosk for their employees who are disconnected to update their training and monitor and maintain its benefits.
In India, digital kiosks are used for various purposes, such as bill payments.
Industrial use
It is estimated that more than 1,200,000 kiosk terminals exist in the US and Canada alone.
Groups that use kiosks in their business environments include: Delta Airlines, United Airlines, JetBlue Airways, GTAA, Future Shop, Home Depot, Target Corporation, and Wal-Mart.
Kiosk types
Telekiosk
tele kiosk may be considered a technical successor in the telephone booth, a publicly accessible device used for communication. These can include email, fax, SMS, as well as standard phone service. Telekiosk is rarely seen again.
Telekiosks gradually appeared around Britain in the first years of the 21st century. Some are located in shopping centers and transport terminals, with the aim of providing detailed local information. Others are in public areas, including motor service areas and airports.
The International Telecommunications Union promotes the use of telecoskos in Africa and parts of Asia where local communities have no access to communications technology. Part of this work discusses the "digital divide" between rich and poor countries. However, there are great practical benefits. The scheme in Bhutan aims to provide an E-Post system, where messages are delivered over the phone, then hand-delivered to rural areas, reducing the problem of transporting letters in the countryside. Health, agriculture, and education information is also available.
Financial services kiosk
Financial service kiosks can provide the ability for customers to make transactions that typically require a bank teller and may be more complicated and longer to do than desired at an ATM. This is sometimes referred to as a "bank-in-a-box" and the first major example is the Vcom unit placed at 7-11 in the US.
These units are usually called 'multi-function kiosk financial services' and the first iteration back in the late 1990s with VCOM products placed in convenience stores Southland (7-Eleven). Check-cash, bill payments and even distribute cash cards. The new multi-function engine has been used in the "c-store" market supported by Speedway and others.
In 2010, the largest bill payment kiosk network was AT & T for phone subscribers that allowed customers to pay their phone bills. Verizon and Sprint have similar units for their customers
Photo kiosk
An interactive kiosk that allows users to print images from their digital images. An example of a marquee begins with Kodak which at one point has more than 100,000 units and runs in the US. Many of these units are customized PCs with LCDs which will then print to a central printer in Customer service. Two main classes of photo kiosks exist:
Digital Orders Station - This type of photo kiosk is inside a retail location and allows users to place orders for prints and photographic products. Products are usually manufactured in stores by digital minilabs, or at other locations to ship directly to consumers, or return to the store for pickup at a later time. The Digital Orders Station may or may not support instant printing, and typically does not handle payments.
Instant Print Station - This kind of photo kiosk uses an internal printer to instantly create photo prints for paying self-service customers. Often in public locations (hotels, schools, airports), Instant Print Station handles payments. Often such a system will only print 4x6-inch prints, although the popular color sublimation photo printer in 2008 allows for 4x6, 5x7, 8x10, 8x12. It's more about supplying economy labor and chassis size.
Newsstand
An Internet kiosk is a terminal that provides public Internet access. Internet kiosks sometimes resemble telephone booths, and are usually placed in settings such as hotel lobbies, long-term care facilities, medical waiting rooms, apartment complex offices, or airports for quick access to e-mail or web pages. Internet kiosks sometimes have billing acceptors or credit card swipes, and almost always have a computer keyboard, mouse (or a stronger fixed trackball), and monitors.
Some Internet kiosks are based on payment models similar to vending machines or Internet cafes, while others are free. General arrangements with a paid kiosk are used by internet kiosk owners to enter into partnership with the owner of the location, pay a flat rate for floor space rental or a percentage of the monthly revenue generated by the machine.
An internet kiosk has been the subject of hacking activity. Hackers will download spyware and capture user activity through keystroke logging. Other hackers have installed hardware taping hardware hardware that captures user activity.
Businesses that provide Internet kiosks are encouraged to use specialized kiosk software and management procedures to reduce exposure to liability.
Newsstand
Many amusement parks like Disney have unattended outdoor ticket kiosks. Amtrak has a self-service self-service ticket kiosk. Busch Gardens uses kiosks for amusement parks. Cruise ships use ticket kiosks for passengers. Check-in kiosks for car rental companies like Alamo and National already have national applications. The ticket room for the train station and metro station has a ticket kiosk that sells transit tickets, train tickets, transit tickets, and train tickets.
Movie ticket kiosk
Many cinema chains have special ticket machines that allow their customers to buy tickets and/or pick up tickets purchased online. Radiant and Fujitsu have been involved in this segment.
Newsstand
A new way to order internet cafes from a tablet kiosk. Kiosk is available next to the cashier station so the waiting time is reduced for all guests. This kiosk is very visual and includes product builders to help with order accuracy and customization.
DVD seller kiosk
An example of a seller's kiosk is a DVD rental kiosk manufactured by several manufacturers, where users can rent DVDs, secured by credit cards for $ 1 per day.
One of the larger DVD Vending Kiosks companies is Outerwall, Inc. which owns and operates Redbox kiosks throughout North America. They also operate a Coinstar kiosk too.
Visitor management and security kiosk
Visitor management and security kiosks can facilitate visitor check-in processes in businesses, schools, and other controlled access environments. The system can check blacklists, run criminal background checks, and print access badges for visitors. School safety concerns in the United States have led to an increase in these kiosk types to filter and track visitors.
Create directories and tag wayfinding
Many shopping centers, hospitals, airports, and other large public buildings use interactive kiosks to allow visitors to navigate in buildings. Harris County Hospital District, Baptist Hospital of Miami, Philadelphia Children's Hospital and Cayuga Medical Center are just a few medical centers that use interactive touch screen kiosks with building directories and search solutions.
Registration of clinics and medical clinics and check-in kiosks
Hospitals and medical clinics look for kiosks to allow patients to perform routine activities. Kiosks that allow patients to check in for scheduled appointments and update their personal demographics reduce the need to line up and interact with the registrar. In areas where patients have to pay together, kiosks will also collect payment. Because requirements for documentation, exemption and approval are increased, kiosks with integrated signature capture devices can present documentation to patients and collect their signatures. Business cases for registration and check-in kiosks are built around:
- workload reduction,
- data quality improvements,
- the consistency of the registration process, and
- improving patient experience.
Large community hospitals have been able to reduce their registration staff by 30%, improve data quality, and shorten the formation.
Newsstand
Museums, historical sites, national parks and other tourist/visitor attractions often use kiosks as a method of conveying information about a particular exhibition or site. Kiosks allow guests to read about - or view videos - artefacts or specific areas at their own pace and in an interactive way, learn more about the areas that interest them most. The Rockwell Museum in New York City uses touch-screen tablets to provide visitors with easily accessible and relevant labels for specific exhibits. The Penn State All sports museums use interactive kiosks to display updated information about Penn State athletes and sports teams past and present. Ellis Island National Immigration Museum now offers citizens tests that are available for visitors to go online via information kiosks. Additional kiosk displays include an interactive exhibit "Threads of Migration" featuring three touch screen kiosks as part of the "The Journey: New Eras of Immigration" section, which includes immigration since 1954.
Reliability kiosk
Reliability is an important consideration, and as a result many specialized kiosk software applications have been developed for the industry. The interface of this app with billing acceptors and credit card swipes, measurement time, prevents users from changing software configurations or downloading computer viruses and enabling kiosk owners to view revenue. Threats to reliability stem from vulnerability to hacking, allowing access to the OS, and the need for session or hardware restarts.
Industrial kiosk segment
The kiosk industry is divided into three segments: kiosk hardware, kiosk software, and kiosk apps. The kiosk software locks your operating system (be it Apple, Windows, Android, or Linux or ChromeOS) to restrict kiosk access and/or hardware functionality. This allows users to interact with apps that serve self-service purposes as mentioned above.
Manufacture kiosk industry
The historical electronic kiosk though is an independent enclosure that accepts user input, integrates many devices, including software GUI applications and remote monitoring and is widely deployed across all industry verticals. This is considered "Hardware Kiosk" in the kiosk industry.
POS "kiosks" are "lane busting" check-outs as seen at major retailers like Home Depot and Kroger.
Simple touchscreen terminals or panel-pcs are another segment and enjoy most of their footprint in retail POS apps and usually face employees. Terminals include the NCR Advantage (740x terminal) and IBM Anyplace computer terminal. These units are considered "kiosks" only in sent functions and usually merely incorporate touch screens, barcode scanners and/or magnetic stripe readers.
Market segments for kiosks and self-service terminal manufacturers include photo kiosks, government, airlines, the internet, music, retail loyalty, HR services and finance, just to name a few.
Customer flow, queue and check-in
This segment includes check-in patient's health and special flow type "take a number". Devices range from simple ticket dispensers to biometrics (fingerprint readers) to check-in patients.
The basic kiosk application in the hotel industry is to reduce waiting times for guests at check-in/checkout and lighten the reception desk. Typically, hotel kiosks are located in the lobby and integrated or interfaced with the hotel property management system. The machine allows guests to fill in and sign a registration card, choose a room, issue a hotel key card, check out additional offers or upgrades and order and pay for it. In retail, clients can place orders online at stores for home delivery, avoiding queues at fast-food restaurants and publishing library books. Generally, kiosks are seen as improvements to retail or hospitality offerings rather than changing staff members.
See also
References
External links
- This article is based on material extracted from Free On-line Computing Dictionary before November 1, 2008 and entered under "license" terms of GFDL, version 1.3 or later.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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