Interactive kiosk


An interactive kiosk is a computer terminal featuring specialized hardware and software that provides access to information and applications for communication, commerce, entertainment, or education.
By 2010, the largest bill pay kiosk network was AT&T, which allowed for phone customers to pay their bills. Verizon and Sprint have also introduced similar units over time.
Early interactive kiosks sometimes resembled telephone booths, but have been embraced by retail, food service, and hospitality to improve customer service and streamline operations. Interactive kiosks are typically placed in the high foot traffic settings such as shops, hotel lobbies, or airports.
The integration of technology allows kiosks to perform a wide range of functions, evolving into self-service kiosks. For example, kiosks may enable users to order from a shop's catalog when items are not in stock, check out a library book, look up information about products, issue a hotel key card, enter a public utility bill account number to perform an online transaction, or collect cash in exchange for merchandise. Customized components such as coin hoppers, bill acceptors, card readers, and thermal printers enable kiosks to meet the owner's specialized needs.

History

The first self-service, interactive kiosk was developed in 1977 at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign by a pre-med student, Murray Lappe. The content was created on the PLATO computer system and accessible by the plasma touch-screen interface. The plasma display panel was invented at the University of Illinois by Donald L. Bitzer. Lappe's kiosk, called The Plato Hotline allowed students and visitors to find movies, maps, directories, bus schedules, extracurricular activities, and courses.
The first successful network of interactive kiosks used for commercial purposes was a project developed by the shoe retailer Florsheim Shoe Co., led by their executive VP, Harry Bock, installed circa 1985. The interactive kiosk was created, manufactured, and customized by ByVideo Inc. of Sunnyvale, California. The network of over 600 kiosks provided images and video promotion for customers who wished to purchase shoes that were not available in the retail location. Style, size, and color could be selected, and the product paid for on the kiosk itself. The transaction was sent to the Florsheim mainframe in St, Louis, MO, via dialup lines, for next-day home or store delivery via Federal Express. The hardware was designed and built by ByVideo, while other components were sourced from other vendors. The videodisc material was created quarterly by ByVideo at Florsheim's direction, in ByVideo's state-of-the-art video production facility in California. This kiosk network operated for over 6 years in Florsheim retail locations.
In 1991, the first commercial kiosk with an Internet connection was displayed at Comdex. The application was for locating missing children. The first true documentation of a kiosk was the 1995 report by Los Alamos National Laboratory which detailed what the interactive kiosk consisted of. This was first announced on comp.infosystems.kiosks by Arthur, the original Usenet moderator.
In 1997, was launched to provide a tradeshow for organizations looking to deploy interactive self-service kiosks. These trade shows used to occur twice a year, and offer companies education and demonstrations for successful self-service deployments.
The first company to launch a statewide interactive kiosk program was Imperial Multimedia in 2007. Imperial Multimedia installed interactive kiosks in 31 of Virginia's State Parks and these electronic kiosks included park overviews, printable maps, waypoints, points of interest, video tours of trails, and emergency information.
Today's kiosks are usually found in the airport at departure and also baggage, QSR, and fast casual self-order deployments have greatly expanded. There are now restaurants that orders only come in via mobile or kiosks. With the COVID-19 outbreak, new kiosk iterations such as the temperature screening kiosk have seen exponential growth in a very short time. Bill payment kiosks for AT&T and Verizon are expanding as well.

Design and construction

The aesthetic and functional design of interactive kiosks is a key element that drives user adoption, overall up-time, and affordability. There are many factors to consider when designing an interactive kiosk including:
  • Aesthetic design: The design of the enclosure is often the driving factor in user adoption and brand recognition.
  • Manufacturing volume: This will determine which manufacturing processes are appropriate to use.
  • Kiosk software: The interactive function of the kiosk hardware is largely determined by the software program and kiosk software configuration.
  • Graphic messaging: Plays a key role in communicating with potential users.
  • Maintenance and thermal design: Critical to maximizing up-time.
  • Component specification: Typical components include touchscreen, P.C., pointing device, keyboard, bill acceptor, mag-stripe and/ or bar-code scanner, surge protector, UPS, etc.
  • Ergonomic: Is important to ensure comfortable and easy user accessibility.
  • Regulatory compliance: In the US it is important to design to the Americans with Disabilities Act. Electrical standards include UL in the U.S. and CE in Europe. In the retail space, Payment Card Industry certification exists in the U.S. which is a descendant of VISA PED.
  • Interface design: Designing for interactive kiosks typically requires larger buttons and simpler decision trees than designing for a web or computer-based interactive. Catchy attractive animations and short dwell times are important.
  • Durability: The intended location of the kiosk will largely influence the construction as materials and electronic requirements are significantly different for indoor vs. outdoor kiosks.

    Interactive kiosks around the world

Government usage

Several countries historically implemented the nationwide installation of kiosks for various purposes. One example of such large scale installations can be found in the United Kingdom, where thousands of special-purpose kiosks are now available to aid job-seekers in finding employment.
The United States Department of Homeland Security has created immigration kiosks where visitors register when they enter the United States. There are also exit kiosks where visitors register when they leave the U.S.
The postal service has automated kiosks in many of the postal offices for self-service.
The Veterans Administration has over 5,000 patient kiosks deployed. In 2020 the next generation kiosks along with mobile check-in for veterans began.
In India, digital kiosks are used for various purposes, such as payment of bills.

Industry usage

It is estimated that over 1,200,000 kiosk terminals exist in the U.S. and Canada alone.
Groups who use kiosks in their business environment include: Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, JetBlue Airways, GTAA, Future Shop, The Home Depot, Target Corporation, and Wal-Mart.

Types of kiosks

Telekiosk

The telekiosk can be considered the technical successor to the telephone booth, a publicly accessible set of devices that are used for communication. These can include email, fax, SMS, as well as standard telephone service. The telekiosk is rarely seen any more.
Telekiosks gradually appeared around the United Kingdom in the first years of the 21st century. Some are situated in shopping centers and transport terminals, to provide detailed local information. Others are in public places, including motorway service areas and airports.
The International Telecommunication Union is promoting the use of the telekiosk in Africa and parts of Asia where local people do not have access to communications technology. In part, this work addresses the "digital divide" between rich and poor nations. There are, however, great practical benefits. The scheme in Bhutan aims to provide an E-Post system, whereby messages are relayed by telephone, then delivered by hand to rural areas, easing the problems of transporting letters across the countryside. Health, agricultural and educational information is also available.

Financial services kiosk

The financial services kiosk can provide the ability for customers to perform transactions that may normally require a bank teller and maybe more complex and longer to perform than desired at an ATM. These are sometimes referred to as "bank-in-a-box" and the first prime example would be the Vcom units deployed at 7-Eleven in the U.S.
These units are generally referred to as 'multi-function financial service kiosks' and the first iteration was back in the late 1990s with the VCOM product deployed in Southland convenience stores. Check-cashing, bill-payment and even dispensing cash cards. New multi-function machines have been deployed in "c-store" markets supported by Speedway and others.

Photo kiosk

An interactive kiosk allows users to print pictures from their digital images. The marquee example began with Kodak who had at one point had over 100,000 units up and running in the U.S. Many of these units were customized PCs with an LCD which would then print to the central printer in Customer service. Two major classes of photo kiosks exist:
Digital Order Stations -- This type of photo kiosk exists within retail locations and allows users to place orders for prints and photographic products. Products typically get produced in-store by a digital minilab, or at another location to be shipped directly to the consumer, or back to the store to be picked up at a later time. Digital Order Stations may or may not support instant printing, and typically do not handle payments.
Instant Print Stations - This type of photo kiosk uses internal printers to instantly create photographic prints for a self serve paying customer. Often located in public locations, Instant Print Stations handle payments. Often such systems will only print 4x6 inch prints, although popular dye-sublimation photo printers as of 2008 allow for 4x6, 5x7, 8x10, 8x12. It is more a matter of resupply labor economics and chassis size.