Touch Screen Kiosks

Touch screen kiosks represent a unique interactive medium. Today, interactive kiosks can be found in a multitude of places and perform many functions including: self-checkout lanes, e-ticketing, ATM transactions, information and directions, and vending.

Kiosks enable organizations to make controlled computer and Internet applications available in highly visible public forums using a touch screen. Kiosk users simply touch the monitor screen to make selections and interact with selected content.

For example, SLS designed a system of kiosks for the Newseum, a museum of news gathering history located on the Mall in Washington, DC. Each kiosk was dedicated to a major donor. Newseum visitors could use the kiosks to access information about the donors and the programs they had funded.

Kiosks must function reliably in a highly vulnerable public environment with effective security features limiting access to selected functions. Kiosk software provided by SLS performs a number of critical functions:

• Allows for remote updates of the kiosk's content
• Prevents misuse of the provided features
• Deters users from maliciously attacking or hacking into the kiosk
• Provides remote monitoring to manage multiple kiosks from another location
• Email or text alerts may be automatically sent from the kiosk for daily activity reports or generated in response to problems
• Provides capability to upload data such as kiosk usage statistics

The public use of kiosks requires extra precautions to ensure that the kiosk application will always run properly. SLS can recommend the best option for maintaining access to the database and maintaining secure operations.

SLS also provides content management systems that provide the capability for clients to add or modify the content of kiosk applications.