of Technology Kiosk for Do-it-Yourself Express Business Machine

information, such as product availability and comparative
descriptions. Some can be designed to receive nightly
updates from merchants and advertisers.
Costs can range from $1 0,000 for a single-site kiosk on
standard equipment to over $1,000,000 for a networked,
multiple-unit system. Prices vary with the degree of quality,
rime, media and content complexity, hardware components,
number of stations,
and maintenance required. A mid-range
kiosk might showcase a company's products and capabilities
using extensive full-color animations and video,
while a
simpler kiosk might be based on an interactive HyperCard
stack using text, graphics,
and a few simple animations.
Special hardware or the use of video many increase the
cost dramatically.
2.2.3 Hardware
A common hardware component in most kiosks is a touch
screen interface,
an alternative to a keyboard and mouse.
It allows people to easily interact with a kiosk by physically
touching selections on the screen. Rarely do public kiosks
feature keyboards because of the difficulty and time involved
in keying in requests. Another component may be a
videodisc player to show video segments. These analog
players are more prone to breakdowns and more expensive
to update than using digital video compression boards, but
they are still a common choice for many developers. Other
components may include credit card readers, bar scanners,
printers,
or other types of input and output devices. The
booth that houses the equipment also needs to be tailored
to the environment. It should look good, have appropriate
lighting, signs,
and instructions and be durable and secure
enough to protect the equipment housed in the booth.
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