Kiosks 4 Business

Apr 06

Touch Screen Kiosks and Kiosk Towers

Kiosks are very versatile for getting information over to the public, customers and patients, and gathering information from them.

What makes kiosks really versatile is the format kiosks are available in. Wall mounted kiosks for example save on floor space and so are ideal for those places where space is an issue, whilst 4 sides kiosk towers are great for large busy spaces where you expect that lots of people will want to access the kiosk. However, in the case of outreach work, a fixed kiosk wouldn’t be suitable at all, and a portable kiosk would be ideal to take the kiosk to the user.

When choosing your touch screen kiosk you need to think not only about the space that the kiosk will be occupying, but the style of the kiosk. Will the touch screen kiosk look good in the venue? Will it enhance its surroundings? Does your kiosk need branding with your logo?

You also need to consider if the kiosk that you choose needs a keyboard. Will visitors simply navigate on the touch screen or will they need to type in details or search terms? Some of the kiosks available give the option of with or without keyboard, whilst other kiosk designs do not accommodate this option.

Some kiosks have more sophisticated options such as coin collection and payment facilities, digital signage, or a handset to make phone calls.

If you need help and advice with selecting the right kiosk for your needs, email us or give us a call and we will assist in directing you to the idea kiosk for your specific requirements.

Mar 31

Transaction Payment Kiosk

Transaction Payment KioskThe myPod-t is a touch screen transactional kiosk designed to take payments for products or services retail and other environments.

myPod-t Transaction Kiosk
myPod-t is a stylish free-standing touch screen kiosk with chip & pin payment card and receipt printer. The kiosk features a high resolution widescreen display with capacitive touchscreen.

The unit can be customised to meet your specific needs. An engraving service where your company name or logo is etched into the polycarbonate or aluminium front of the unit is available.

Optional soft LED edge lighting can stylishly highlight the unit if required.

Payment Kiosk Specifications
* Intel Atom Platform N270 1.6GHz CPU
* Intel 945GE chipset with GMA950 graphics, GB LAN, USB
* 1GB DDR2 RAM
* Minimum 80GB Hard Disk
* 22 inch widescreen LCD
* Capactive Touchscreen
* Easy access USB port
* Verifone Secura Chip and Pin
* Star TSP thermal printer

Other Kiosk Options
* 2.5watt stereo speakers
* Portrait orientation for screen
* WiFi wireless connection
* Optional Microphone

Mechanical Specifications
* Height: 1435
* Width: 593
* Depth: 638
* Weight: 30Kg

Mar 30

Home Finder Kiosks

Home Finder kiosks provide information to people who are currently searching for social housing, and it does this through simple to use touchscreen kiosk technology.

The Home Finder kiosk system is based on a package of kiosks4business components, kiosks and other hardware, software and services, and is complete in every regard, even including training and marketing materials to get your information service off to a flying start.

The kiosks are availble with touchscreen, stainless steel keyboard and integrated telephone handsets.

The provision of rented and social housing is changing quickly at the moment, with councils beginning to explore the possibility of transferring control of it’s housing stock to organisations well versed in the promotion and effective utilisation of its assets.

Some councils are taking advantage of the Large Scale Voluntary Transfer government initiative to move its housing stock to not-for-profit housing associations, away from council control. Usually, umbrella organisations are formed which bring together the management of housing stock for many housing associations in a region.

This trend provides council housing departments and Housing Associations with the opportunity to radically change the way it promotes its products to the marketplace. Conventionally, leafleting, newsletters, handbooks and welcome packs are used as the primary means to promote housing. In this environment though any printed matter rapidly ages and so represents poor value for money in terms of print cost, time to produce and distribution.

Whilst a web presence on the internet could address some of the issues above, only a small part of its customer base has access to the internet and in any case a much larger proportion of these prefer to visit housing offices in person. it is also our experience in similar markets that customers in this demography have less well-formed computer skills than others and need access which is simple and intuitive. Hence, it is part of the answer.

Social Housing Touchscreen Kiosks

Homefinder Live is built on the same fundamental principles as our successful Parent Information Point product. It is designed to be inviting and easy to use. There should be no Windows or other baffling computer jargon in it’s navigation. There should be the minimum number of screen touches to reach the information the user wants. You should be able to take information away with you and if you can’t you should be able to call somebody for help if you need it. You should be able to get reports of the information.

We use our mykiosk touchscreen kiosk as the basis for our information point and provide all the connectivity ourselves as a minimum or we can just as easily work through the Council or Housing Association’s IT department. Being wall, desk, floor mounted or completely mobile means that the system is totally flexible. Generally, our systems are wireless - WiFi or 3G; but can be wired into an existing infrastructure just as easily.

Homefinder Live works by providing a council or Housing Association with a web-based Management Console. This allows them to easily keep the housing stock up to date with new properties or those which have been recently filled. It is designed to be easy to use and can be accessed from anywhere on the world wide web. This can be done as often as is see fit, dependent on local market conditions. We work with you to determine the main features of a property you wish to make available but obviously can include a photograph as well as all types of description. WE also provide a colourful attract loop which makes the purpose of the system clear to potential users and together with the look of the system acts to invite the user to start.

Once a user is engaged with the system we provide ultra-clear navigation with one touch for most actions. Text is clear and unambiguous and the high contrast presentation and bright, colourful display combine to assist those with diminished sight.

Within the navigation structure it is possible to build in associated housing help, such as what to do when there is a problem with your home. With each service provider we associate a phone number which can be called from the page you are at with a single screen touch. Calls are free at the point of delivery.

Homefinder Live allows your customers to browse through the currently available housing stock, by themselves, and without pressure. They’ll never get confused with baffling operating system messages and they’ll get the information they want, quickly and easily. If they need further help they can make a call.

Our experience in public access computing shows that many small details add up to provide a very effective and usable system. Built properly a public access system is inviting, straightforward and complimentary to existing services. But it will never be a cure-all. Hence, we regard staff training as an essential part of our offering; staff co-option means that your system will get promoted often and staff can then concentrate on the more complex cases at hand.

Mar 29

Touchscreen Exhibition Kiosks

Exhibiting your products can be an expensive so you need to maximise your selling ability during the time you have. Touch screen kiosks can be a great addition to any exhibition stand for providing sales and product information to your customers.

If you display at the consumer, public, industrial and trade exhibitions in the major venues around the UK, you will know how important it is to make your stand look as good as it possibly can, after all, you only get one chance to create a good first impression. With many of your direct competitors at the same exhibition everything has to be neat and organised and all the correct information and products need to be displayed looking their best. Having a kiosk at a trade show helps you to display all the information you need, as well as giving the visitors to your stand the impression that you are at the cutting edge with all the latest technologies.

A kiosk does look striking at a show, and they do attract visitors to come over for a closer look. When a kiosk is not being used by a user, it can display adverts and information and invite passers-by to interact with it. A touchscreen kiosk acts as an additional sales resource on your exhibition stand. The kiosk can feature video sales presentations or speaking ‘Avatars’ to help sell your products and services. The kiosk can run stand-alone or have a 3g or WIFI connection for internet connectivity.

When you have a Trade show kiosk with a bespoke stand sporting your companies branding, you know that you have always arrived at the event with the correct information. The kiosk is already programmed with all the relevant information that you want available to your customers, product information, datasheets, brochures etc. Which means that the Kiosk will save time on setting up your stand.

Often at shows you don’t have the opportunity to talk to every person who approaches your stand. Having a kiosk at the stand means that they can still find out the information that they require or they can leave you a message to contact them at a later date. The kiosk can show your product brochure as a PDF or flash movie file which allows for interaction.

The kiosk can also be set up with a printer so customers can print off any information that they would like to take away with them. This might be information about your company and contact details or a catalogue of your product lines. Visitors can also scan their visitor badge using a bar code scanner or enter their contact details using a touch screen keyboard.

Having a kiosk at a show means that even if you exhaust your product supplies, your visitors can order on the Kiosk. The kiosk can also have a credit card reader attached so that it can take payment for orders placed. This is great if you have a rush on, because it means that you can keep selling even if you have run out of stock at the venue.

Interactive kiosks can also be combined with digital signage to present your products in a number of ways. There are lots of different types of kiosk which you can consider with a range of screen sizes, choice of mounting methods and options for keyboard, telephone handset, bar code scanners and printers. Kiosks can be free-standing, wall mounted or desk mounted and have a choice of options for how they can be branded.

Mar 24

Police Information Point Kiosks

Police Information Point Kiosks with TouchscreenPolice Crime Reporting Kiosks are application-specific product designed to allow the public to interface with the Police in a friendly and informal way.

The kiosks have integrated features such as our Virtual Receptionist technology permits the reporting of a crime by way of video call, telephone call, videomail, voicemail or text, and also means that users can choose the reporting method which suits them best.

Police Information Point Kiosks are sometimes deployed in the A&E departments of a local General Hospital. Here, the system permits victims or their family and friends to report of serious assaults in a friendly and informative way.

Using our suite of scalable software, kiosks and other hardware technologies, we are offering a unique value proposition to Police forces. With the need to save money but provide a 24/7 police presence and have a public friendly image the Kiosks4business ‘out-of-hours’ Public access kiosk provides Police forces with just such a proposition.

Installed and positioned outside Police stations and other public places the Police Information Point Kiosk provides access to the Police and other information sources at any time. The touch screen kiosks allows users to interact directly with the Police in a variety of ways. Reporting a crime, calling the Police by making a free phone call via the integrated digital handset, or getting information about their location or environment. The entire kiosk system is linked to a wide area network via a broadband internet connection, and the kiosk is constructed such that it is resistant to abuse and the environment. It should provide years of reliable service. The solution contains our central Management Console, allowing central control, and the uploading of new assets such as videos or images for the ‘attract loop’ when the kioks is not being accessed.

If you would like more information about our Police Crime Reporting Kiosks then give us a call on 0845 451 2020.

Interactive Touchscreen Kiosks and Kiosk Software News and Information

Mar 18

Eidos Free Standing DDA Kiosk

The Eidos Free-standing DDA Information kiosk was among the very first information kiosks in the world to utilise an LCD display. A tried and tested robust kiosk design, the Eidos free-standing kiosk can be found in some of the most prestigious locations around the UK including The Science Museum in London, The National Museum of Scotland, Price Waterhouse Cooper, RAF Cosford Museum, shopping centres and many others.

Eidos Free Standing Kiosk

The outstanding design of the Eidos kiosk allows for easy use by children, adults and wheelchair users alike, complying with DDA wheelchair accessibility exceptionally well.

Free Standing Kiosk: Design

The already eye-catching design can be enhanced further with the addition of an LED Illuminated head unit. A truely stylish enhancement. The free standing Eidos kiosk also has speakers fitted if you need sound.

The small footprint helps the Eidos kiosk fit in with any surroundings rather than dominating them.

Free Standing Kiosk - Security

The Eidos kiosk can be bolted to the floor for security. This can be done by our own installation engineers as part of your installation package. The free standing kiosk also features a lockable door behind which the computer board and other components are installed.

Free Standing Kiosk Specifications

Free Standing Eidos Kiosk Options

Free Standing Kiosks - Tell me more..

If you would like more information about the Eidos Free Standing DDA Kiosk then please call us today on 0845 451 2020.

The Eidos kiosk is designed by Derek Hodgeson Associates

(Source: kiosks4business.com)

Mar 17

Patient Feedback Using Touchscreens

Patient Feedback Using TouchscreensTouchscreen technology has reached mass market with the introduction of touchscreens on mobile phones, ticketing machines and self-check outs at supermarkets. Customers have accepted this technology as an efficient and easy to use system for purchases and interacting with other services.

Touchscreen kiosk terminals are becoming more widely used in the NHS and can be seen in Hospitals, Doctors Surgeries and other settings for patients to make initial interaction with the service. The touchscreens are used for many applications including way finding, virtual reception, e-triage, provision of health information, check-in and patient feedback surveys.

Historically, patient feedback has been done as a paper based process where a survey is created, printed and then users are asked to fill-out the survey while interacting with the service provider. The survey data, often only partially completed, is then entered manually on a computer such that a report can be produced. This process is time consuming and costly to the trust or other organisation seeking to gain patient feedback. Touchscreen surveys have many advantages of the paper based approach with the main ones being: Lower overall cost of producing, managing, analysing and creating reports from the data; Faster time to produce, publish and get survey responses (almost in real-time) such that new surveys can be tried weekly.

The surveys can also be targeted to specific areas within the hospital or to specific service users e.g. the elderly, carers, staff or young people. The survey touchscreens are available in numerous physical formats with desk-mounted, free-standing, wall-mounted and portable ‘tablet’ style of product. Desk mount survey touchscreens can be installed on reception desks and in waiting rooms. Small wall mounted touchscreen survey terminals can be fitted on walls in wards, waiting rooms and other areas.

Touchscreens may also be manufactured with branding so that patients can see that the terminal is for them to use rather than being an item relating to the IT structure of the hospital. Portable touchscreens are a great way to work on a one-to-one basis with patients while they are in a waiting room or other environment. The portable touchscreens are small devices which have a charging station when not in use. Staff can quickly pick up a Surveypoint portable device and run through some questions with patients.

When not being used for a survey the touchscreen survey terminals can enter a digital signage mode where it will display useful video and other images e.g. showing how to clean your hands. The messages can be updated as required and each touchscreen can show the same or different content. Usage reports are available from each individual touchscreen survey point so you can see how they are being used and the relative use between touchscreens located at each area.

The patient surveys can be designed with skip-logic which means that patients only have to see and answer questions relevant to them. Patients can also enter their contact details at the end of the survey so that the organisation can email updates and keep them informed of how processes have changed as a result of their feedback.

Survey touchscreens are an investment as once installed to run patient surveys, they can in the future, be used for numerous other applications.

Interactive Touchscreen Kiosks and Kiosk Software News and Information

Mar 16

Touch Screen Kiosks and Displays for Police Stations

In the ever changing world of technology there has never been a better time for the adoption of touchscreen devices for interfacing to Police services. Young people and old alike have become accustomed to using touchscreen based interfaces when interacting with council services, buying tickets and using self-service checkouts at supermarkets. In each case, a touch screen solution has been created as a means of reducing costs, increasing the range of services offered or making a service available 24/7 or to specific groups of people.

Touchscreens are a simple technology which is positioned over the front of a display. Users are familiar with using PDA and mobile phones with touchscreen interfaces and a touchscreen monitor or touchscreen kiosk works in a similar way. Within the field of touchscreens there exist different technology options, the two main ones being resistive and capacitive touchscreens. Capacitive toushcreens enable more visible light to get through the touchscreen element but rely on a user physically touching the screen with their body - a gloved hand does not work with a capacitive touchscreen. Resistive touchscreens will work being touched by finger, nails or any other pointing object. Alternatively projected capacitance can be used where it is necessary to provide a protective vandal resistant glass screen between the display and the user.


How can the Police service benefit from touch screen kiosks?
In the busy reception area and waiting room of modern police stations often there is a limitation on space combined with an influx of people requiring support, advice and assistance. Touchscreen interfaces can be implemented in many areas of the police station to help with processing of the public and other users.


Police Station Virtual Reception Kiosks
Police staff may sometimes have to spend time answering trivial and commonly asked questions. These tasks can be a distraction from more important work and service users which require more detailed attention. The virtual reception kiosk is installed in the reception area of the police station and provides access to a wide range of website based information to support, and advice service users on various issues. A telephone handset can be included (ruggedized) to enable users to make free phone calls to supporting organisations, solicitors and other help. The kiosk would be branded to fit with each location and include pictures of the local community so that it is seen as a community support kiosk. Options including the ability to report a crime using the kiosk, or download useful factsheets can all be including. Additionally, kiosks can be used to help show people directions.


In-Community Police Touch Screen Kiosks
Police point-of-presence touchscreen kiosks can be installed at shopping centres, supermarkets, hospital A&E departments and many other locations with high footfall. Just like the Police virtual reception kiosks they can be used for a growing number of applications including: crime reporting, advertising vacancies and important local messages, providing access to police websites, video and other content. By adding a rugged telephone handset users can also speak to victim support and other agencies.


Police Survey Kiosks
Touchscreen-based surveys can also be implemented to get feedback from service users. This can be done on touch screen kiosks located in the reception area but also in other areas of the station including custody areas.


Interactive Digital Signs
Similar technically to the touch screen kiosks but with larger screens, an interactive digital sign is another platform that the Police service can employ to provide an interactive service to users. Screens sizes from 22in to 50in or more can be implemented running individual or synchronised messages. Smaller touchscreen monitors (from 7in to 19in) can also be used for on-desk signage ro where space is tight. The digital signs can also be linked to RSS/Twitter feeds to provide simple messaging feature for users.


Rugged Design for a Tough Environment
Standard off-the-shelf Personal Computers (PCs) are great for home and office use but when it comes to needing something rugged and built to last it is important to use more industrial designs. Industrial computing boards are designed for long life operation (over 5 years) with continuous availability and stability of design. This ensures maximum uptime for the touch screen system and the ability to easily swap out replacements for many years. The touchscreen kiosks can be supplied with vandal resistant keyboards with steel keys and trackball, these are also resistant to water and other fluids and can be wiped clean (ideal for healthcare and police). Screens can be protected by vandal resistant glass.

Mar 15

Switching and Routing HDMI for Training and Demo Rooms

There are many instances where one requires a system with the following specification. Drive a number of displays with touch screens on a one-to-one basis where each screen is connected via DVI or HDMI to a Mac or PC. Then, allow an instructor or demonstrator to be able to select a master mode such that their master PC then provides the display content which is routed to all of the displays. Examples of this are common for Training and demo rooms, visitor centres and museums, schools and universities.

It is often best to locate the students PCs (when I mention PC please understand that this equally applies to Mac and other computing platforms) away from the actual display device. The PCs can be installed in a cabinet or rack away from the main area. This has the advantage that the students cannot interfere with the switches on the PC and also it makes the demo room or training environment more of a clean and tidy space.

This solution means routing the audio, video (and in case of touchscreen or mouse) and pointing mechanism between the output display device and the source PC. One solution is to use longer cables but most VGA/DVI and HDMI cables have stringent restrictions on the overall length available. Longer cables (typically over 5m) will result in a lower resolution being available on the display. To overcome this Fibre optic HDMI extension cables, DVI fibre extender cables can be used to supply the video content and USB can be transmitted also over USB Fibre extenders.

Extending DVI , HDMI and other video signals using a fibre optic cable has several advantages particularly where installed in a hospital or security minded environment (police, security services, courts, local government, MoD etc). The fibre emits no electrical radiation and is also immune to electrical noise which ensures reliability of transmission. The fibre also provides total electrical isolation between source and display. The fibre extenders employ multi-mode fibres to transmit the DVI and/or HDMI signals and some devices are also capable of transmitting audio, RS232 and other signals.

For a HDMI input monitor the audio is transmitted synchronised with the video steam whereas DVI is a video only signal and audio will need to be multiplexed onto another signal for transmission. A DVI+Audio fibre extension box is available which will take DVI and audio and provide transmission of this combined signal up to 2Km.

So far we have a system where students’ displays are connected on a one-to-one basis back to a computer. The next feature to add is to enable an instructor to take over the student displays and for a master computer to provide the display content. HDMI and DVI switch boxes and matrix routers exist for switching HDMI and DVI signals from one or more input to one or more output. Distribution boxes provide a digital copy of a HDMI or DVI signal for distributing to multiple monitors, all in sync. The instructors’ master computer can be connected to a DVI or HDMI distribution box to provide the same number of outputs are there are screens. A HDMI or DVI switch box then provides switching between the two source inputs such that the students display either shows output from their PC or from the instructors PC. The touchscreen inputs from the students monitors are not connected back to the master PC so only the instructor can use a point device.

By using a HDMI based system, the audio is dealt with at the same time as the video signals. The HDMI switch box or matrix switch routes the audio along with the HDMI video signal. PCs and Macs don’t all have a HDMI output available so for this reason a DVI + audio to HDMI converter box. In conclusion, the ability to drive full HD resolutions in training and demo facilities is now with us and can be combined with the latest HDMI and DVI switching products to create some very attractive solutions. The use of fibre extenders as an alternative to long cables or Cat5 based systems is starting to find traction especially in areas where security or safety are an issue.

Mar 14

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