6 Introduction to Kiosk Software
Kiosks have come a long way since their inception. In fact, over the past five to ten years, kiosks have become more flexible, more intuitive, more attractive, and more popular. Historically, a kiosk used to be simply a small wooden garden table open on all four sides, quite common in Persia, India, and in the ancient Ottoman Empire. Today, kiosks are integrated into the overall design of any retail, restaurant, hotel, or other public venue that serves food and beverages.
One of the most popular uses for kiosks today is as an interactive kiosk. Kiosk designs that incorporate touchscreens, interactive displays, and voice interaction make for an extremely popular way to serve customers and visitors. Interactive kiosks are usually found in shopping malls, airports, and other public areas. Kiosk services like check out, ATM, and restaurant reservations can easily be handled via an interactive kiosk. This interactive kiosk service can also be combined with a traditional customer service counter or other types of service counter such as the signature service counter at restaurants. In fact, Kiosk services can take many forms and be adapted to almost any place.
With touch-screen kiosks, customers can easily enter their credit card information through a touch-screen terminal and pay with a swipe or touch-screen pad rather than entering by hand. A typical touch-screen kiosk might also have a self-service mode. With this self-service mode, customers will be asked to select which items they’d like to buy, pay, and then sign a receipt. Self-service kiosks typically have additional features such as a touch-screen bill acceptor, an integrated camera, and other security features.
Another way to implement kiosk technology is to use a combination of an interactive kiosk and a traditional cashier machine. In some cases, a kiosk and a traditional register are installed in the same location. In other cases, an interactive kiosk might be installed alongside a traditional register, so that the customers can simply push a button instead of punching a keypad. Interactive kiosks are especially popular at airports, bus stations, train stations, and other locations where access to a computer is needed but not always available. For example, some hospitals have interactive kiosks where a patient can pay for doctor appointments, buy medication, and download information from a database.
Kiosk software is used to control and monitor the kiosks, to track transactions, and to collect user data. Some kiosks are simply used as an information-gathering device where the user logs in using a password, while others have more complex and useful applications. Kiosk software is typically sold to the merchants who own and manage kiosks and displays.
Kiosk display software is usually incorporated into kiosk hardware. This allows the same information to be presented on multiple devices, so that a business can choose to use interactive kiosks sometimes and not necessarily always. With today’s sophisticated and technologically advanced kiosk display equipment, businesses can display any type of information on their displays. Even though they may be used for different purposes at once, kiosk display equipment is very efficient and inexpensive. It is often used to improve customer service and also as an advertising medium.