Stop & Shop scans its way into future

According to The Hour, Stop and Shop's Main Avenue location in Norwalk, CT is one of the first to demonstrate new self-scanning technology that allows shoppers to (at their option) use a hand-held scanner while they shop. When they're finished shopping, customers simply go to a kiosk to complete their transaction. The system is touted as a time-saver for shoppers (who don't need to wait on line to pay), and could have some interesting implications for customer satisfaction (since checkout aisles typically score the lowest on these surveys, unsurprisingly).

In addition to getting customers to use the devices and handling the in-store technical support issues that might arise, combatting shoplifting is another tough area that Stop & Shop has to address during this test.  As the article notes,  "In addition to other security measures, the system will select random orders for review. 'That's one of the most common questions we get: How do you know (customers are being honest),' [Steve Young, senior project manager for self-service technology at Stop and Shop] said. 'There's security built into the system and we do random checks. You always have a balance of convenience of security. It's something we consider when we develop these technologies.'"

Tags: kiosks, self-service, self check-out

Best Buy kiosks coming to airports

Talk about brand extension.... This interesting article on Yahoo! Tech notes that bricks-and-mortar consumer electronics retailer Best Buy will be rolling out several self-service kiosks (vending machines would be a better description, actually) to major airports. So far, Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Houston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Minneapolis and San Francisco all have the devices, and supposedly more are on the way.

The giant gadgets dispense much smaller gadgets (think PSPs, digital cameras, MP3 players and assorted cables), which consumers can select using a touchscreen system that provides product information and pricing. The swipe of a credit card can reunite business traveler with long-lost power cords, for example, or perhaps give little Sally an iPod to play with on the long flight home.

Tags: kiosks, self-service, vending machines

60 Kaiser Permanente clinics to deploy self-service kiosks for check-in and payment

As this press release notes, "Kaiser Permanente deployed its first KP Self-Service Kiosk to optimize the patient check-in and payment experience in an innovative project that will include over 60 medical clinics in Southern California. This is one of the largest pilot kiosk projects undertaken by any U.S. healthcare organization, and it is another example of Kaiser Permanente's market-leading efforts in electronic integration."

If you haven't run into them before, Kaiser Permanente is one of the nation's biggest integrated health plans, and it's a non-profit organization to boot. Consequently, they've tried all sorts of things over the years to help keep their overhead down and run efficiently as possible. Given the success of check-in kiosks in airlines, company executives no doubt realized both the cost savings and gains in efficiency possible by adopting a similar approach in-house. Using the devices to handle payments might be a bit more tricky, and will likely have a slower adoption. After all, people are used to getting money out of kiosks (in the form of ATMs, of course), but they might be more uncertain when it comes to putting money in.

Tags: kiosks, self-service

Giant's easySHOP gives self-checkout a new meaning

In what might be described as an evolution of the price-check kiosk, Giant Super Food Stores is testing out a new system called easySHOP which allows customers to bypass checkout lines altogether by scanning and bagging items as they pick them up in the aisles. As this article on Shopper Culture notes, the system

"lets people scan and bag items as they shop throughout the store, then pay at a self-service check-out kiosk and leave. In other words, groceries go into your cart from the shelves and don’t leave until you get to your car.

"easySHOP requires Giant’s BONUSCARD loyalty card. The system aims to empower customers by putting more control in their hands. Further, the perception is that scanning one’s own groceries is faster than having them scanned in a check-out line. Finally, the scanner lets people keep a rolling tally of their bill, helping them stay within their budget."

As self-checkout lanes have gotten only a mixed review so far, this program could potentially offer time savings that make early glitches and an unnatural-seeming change to shopping behavior worthwhile.

Tags: self-checkout, self-service, easySHOP

Eat your words. Digitally, that is.

How far should self-service electronic checkout go? Most people I talk to complain about self check registers at the supermarket. I’m often in agreement. My first suggestion: give these machines a better voice! IBM, NCR, other self checkout manufacturers, why not have George Clooney asking me how many mangoes are in the bag? Another suggestion: often, when the conveyor belt fills up slightly the faceless voice instructs you to stop scanning items and fill your bags. In these cases, give us more than two seconds to actually get it done before asking "If you are done scanning items, please pay!" The machine may be super-human, but it takes me a little while to get my items bagged.

Now, I know what you’re saying: Annie, it's a computer voice. You can ignore it. But the technology itself is not at fault here. It's being rushed and herded needlessly that ruins the retail experience, at the command of its manufacturers, probably at the request of their customers. These companies might do well to remember the difference between efficiency for consumers’ convenience and efficiency for their profit, though.

Because I’m a social scientist at heart, I turn my supermarket trips into research opportunities. Every time I’ve observed the self-checkouts, I see at least two flashing help lights out of five open registers, with customers waiting for the floor manager to key in a missed product code. At the same time, I also see workers hovering, often at the end of the conveyor belt, waiting to help bag or get carts. What does this tells us? Supermarket executives have yet to figure out how real and digital workers fit together.

Here’s an example: It’s a quiet Tuesday morning in my local supermarket: just me and the senior citizen crowd (my favorite informal market research group -- understudied and gregarious, what more could you ask for?) There were a lot of supermarket workers standing around. I hate having to continually explain my bag preference (reusable supermarket bags and as few store bags as possible), so I choose the self -service checkout. So what happens? I’ve got two items scanned, haven’t even been pestered by the digital voice yet, and a supermarket worker arrives and begins bagging my groceries in what I have now come to call “Pittsburgh Style” – one item per plastic bag, no matter how small. So much for my reduced carbon footprint.

Most people adapt to and accept self-service kiosks. ATMs are a prime example. The only time I need a bank teller is when I have a transaction that’s too complex for the ATM. And amazingly, bank tellers are often some of the nicest and most helpful service employees in the pantheon of service economy personnel. When I go into the bank, I truly want their help. But most of the time, self-service banking is a minimally involved task. (You put in the card, you get money, you check your balance, or, if you’re lucky, you make a deposit.)

Checking out at the grocery is an entirely different story. As in many retail contexts, people have more complex needs. I am amazed at the array of vegetable and fruit choices displayed on the monitor – even so, this is, indeed, where most people get waylaid on the road to self service self sufficiency. We know what we’re buying – but does the machine categorize it in any way remotely similar to our lexicon of edible greens? Are those JUMBO navel oranges or MEDIUM ones? Are green beans under G for green or B for beans?

A new market survey shows that consumers are so accustomed to banking through ATMs that they’re frustrated when not available. Now, take this survey with a grain of self-serving self-service salt (because the survey’s sponsor was NCS, who makes the systems.) Another research note: keep in mind that the survey was done on-line, which means the sample is already skewed in the direction of technology-capable individuals. None of my informal 70 – 80 year old market research group friends are comfortable with ATMs. Indeed, some of them were quite adept at online banking, but they limited their use of ATMs, citing concerns about safety and ability to follow directions. With a large portion of the American population heading into the AARP demographic, digital technology companies should design self-service interfaces in secure environments that give older people more time, offers better readability, and provides service options with greater clarity.

Having read this, I wonder when (or if) people will come to regard self checkout systems as a supermarket necessity, as ATMs have become to banks. I know we're not there yet. The grocers, it seems, are having a hard time determining when consumers want flesh and blood help as a side dish or a main course.

Tags: self-service, kiosks, self checkout

DVDPlay introduces loyalty program

So you've probably realized by now that I'm pretty bullish on Redbox and their competition, who have stumbled upon a new and different way to let people rent movies. While Redbox makes the bulk of the news (and consequently gets most of the coverage over here), competitor DVDPlay has introduced some news-worthy functionality that Evan at StorefrontBacktalk picked up yesterday. Specifically, the kiosk introduces a rent-10-get-one-free loyalty program that simply uses a renter's email address to keep track of the number of movies rented.

Rental movies are an affordable luxury, what with today's high prices keeping more people at home more often than before, so fostering loyalty to a particular mechanism makes a lot of sense. These kiosks face intense competition from Blockbuster and their kin (however lame they may currently appear), Netflix, cable and satellite VOD, video over the Internet from services like Apple's iTV and Amazon's Unbox, and, of course, the bevy of other DVD rental kiosks out there. Encouraging loyal might prove to be a boon for DVDPlay while providing genuine value to customers. And, of course, if they're harvesting user rental histories, it probably won't be long until we see further personalization features like Netflix's suggested rental lists.

Tags: self-service, kiosks

Touch screen voting is stupidly expensive

It's not often that I would call The Inquirer -- the tech industry's closest thing to a tabloid newspaper -- a source of insightful and well-balanced opinion, but their article today about the costs of touchscreen voting just hit too close to my own heart to ignore. Citing a study (pdf) conducted by the Maryland voting integrity group Save Our Votes, they note that:

• The voting machines themselves cost about $3,000 apiece.
• Maryland's counties took out $67 million in loans to buy those machines and will be paying them through 2014, despite the fact the kiosks will be out of use by 2010.
• By the end of this election year Maryland will have spent over $97.5 million on the voting machines it's planning to scrap.
• Beyond the cost of the machines, the state will have paid Diebold at least $44 million for operating, maintaining and storing the actual machines as well as programming, testing, and transportation services to and from precincts, as well as training poll workers and performing "voter outreach" to promote their use among the electorate.
  

In all, "SaveOur Votes analysed the cost of touch screen electronic voting machines in those counties. In most of the counties their average costs per voter increased 179 per cent. At least one county saw its costs per voter increase 866 per cent, from a total cost of about $22,000 in 2001 to $266,000 in 2007."

Now I know that governments have a habit of making bad decisions and paying too much for them, but an 866% increase for worse performance is pretty stunning even for them. Throw in the fact that every known e-voting platform has (or can be) hacked, and I'd say this is perhaps the most ill-fated electronic governance project ever. Period.

Tags: electronic voting, kiosks, self-service

Point of Sale, with an emphasis on point

I read an article in RetailWire that took me back to my first job out of college. A very optimistic man hired me as an assistant business manager for a million dollar sports and day camp. I quickly mastered and streamlined almost every feature of the job, except for one thing that caused my customers and myself endless grief: our invoice forms. Neither our paper supplier nor the Harvard MBA above me could create a single, adaptable template for all of our transactions, and on the day I left, I piled my desk with boxes full of the ten different invoice formats that we used.

While every service worker on the front lines has their horror story, customers also have their own version: checkout purgatory. I’m working on some ethnographic research (translate: hanging out and watching at the local grocery) about how workers and customers fair with newly automated supermarket registers. Here’s what I’ve learned so far: anyone who buys non-iceberg lettuce eventually has to hit the Help button. Checkout clerks develop informal systems of either perpetually hovering over or completely ignoring those flummoxed by the self-service lanes. I’m waiting for the day that road rage morphs over into the checkout line – and with the advent of self-checkout, I believe the moment is nigh.

Efficiency is a complicated goal. Stores like it because it increases sales and decreases waste. Consumers like it because they believe it leaves them more time for other pursuits. But technology can’t function efficiently unless both servers and customers are getting what they need. I’m originally from New York, so I’m from a tribe of people who historically rank among the most impatient ever patented. I want my stuff yesterday. But even I would rather have a knowledgeable person waiting on me than one who rushes me into buying things I don’t need. The only thing worse than a New Yorker in a hurry is a New Yorker who has to make a return.

Returns, exchanges, and special orders are often their own brand of nightmare. I alternate between pity for the poor retail manager who has to sort these out and rage at the stupidity of systems that funnel problems through the same line as people with a single pair of socks. Stores that carry a wide range of merchandise seem to struggle with this much more than, say, your friendly neighborhood mega bookstore that smartly has its Help kiosk in the dead center of the store, visible from the front door, and can link to their online ordering in seconds.

Some analysts would have you believe that reducing the need for smart staff is a laudable goal –- especially since worker efficiency is and always will be a complicated variable. I’m impressed that companies might trust me enough to return my own incorrectly sized shoes to the rack with a PIN device set up to monitor inventory. But I’m still going to wait for the sales associate who knows where the right size shoes might be or what alternatives the store might have or whether they even look good on me. Bottom line: digital technology and a good retail sales force should also be synchronized rather than pitted against each other. No matter how customer-centric a POS system is, the service person who knows your needs will always be more than peripheral.

Tags: self-service, customer experience, POS

Reactrix to add transaction capabilities

As cool as a Reactrix setup looks while walking through a mall concourse or (increasingly) in movie theaters, I have to wonder whether their latest announcement -- namely, that they'd be adding the ability to conduct sales transactions via applications running on their network -- really made any sense. According to MediaPost,

Once a user is engaged with the experience, opportunities will naturally arise to offer promotions and actual sales of products from the brand advertiser, [CEO Mike Ribero] adds.

Ribero said commercial transactions could be handled one of two ways: through a credit-card swipe (or a wallet sensor for cards with Blink-style capability) or with new technology that ties mobile devices to credit cards, in which the consumer enters a confirmation code from the display.

It's one thing to say that people who interact with your virtual Honda salesroom (or whatever) will be able to remember the brand later. However, like those virtual shop windows that have been getting some buzz lately, this medium definitely seems more of an experiential experiment to me, and certainly not part of any "normal" purchase process that I'd be familiar with. That means Reactrix will have to convince a whole bunch of people that using their system is just another acceptable way of completing a transaction. They could be banking on the fact that younger generations are already (slowly!) getting used to the idea of using contactless systems and even their mobile phones as payment devices, and counting on this generation to look for more unique and gratifying ways to actually complete a purchase. For most people though, I don't see the demand or the advantage.

Tags: self-service, kiosks, reactrix

Japanese restaurant menus go high-tech

The Japanese have invented some pretty remarkable gadgets in the last couple of decades, but this one is just plain over-the-top. As reported at The Raw Feed, "Japan's TEC has created a restaurant table with a built-in 3-D LCD screen. The table, called the Tobidasu Menu, lets you browse food choices. The piece de resistance is that you can select each item on the touch-screen table for full-size, 3-D view. The table shows what your food will look like sitting in front of you."

According to one of the comments on that post, the Japanese are used to ordering food by appearance, and restaurants (even classy ones) frequently have pictures or even models of the food as well as a text description. Still, I have to believe that this kind of device is designed to be a novelty more than an actual ordering accessory, but I could be wrong.

Tags: self-service, kiosks

Largest Hardee's franchisee tests self-service kiosks

According to QSR Magazine, Boddie-Noell Enterprises, the largest Hardee's franchise operator in the US, has begun testing self-service kiosks from provider EMN8 in three pilot locations. The pilot is intended to, "test the level of guest adoption of the technology, improvement in speed of customer service, and lift in average check the franchisee can achieve."

Hardees and others continue to test the devices for a number of purported reasons, including lifting the average ticket size (by using the kiosk to recognize and push up-sell and cross-sell opportunities), reduce average wait times during peak periods, and generally improve customer satisfaction. It's interesting, then, that none of the big guys have ever moved beyond the pilot phase, despite years of new initiatives. Maybe the cost of the implementation is too high. Maybe it requires too much ongoing maintenance. Or maybe it's too hard to educate the typical QSR patron about a new way of conducting a familiar transaction. But whatever the problem(s), it seems to be big enough to keep ordering kiosks from really taking off.

That having been said, these QSR chains keep trying new technologies and business partners, so it's clear that some of them really do want to see a viable ordering kiosk solution become available. Given the successes the airline industry have had with self-service, QSR does seem like the kind of environment that could really benefit from it. When and where that "eureka!" moment will finally happen, though, is still anyone's guess.

Tags: kiosks, self-service, QSR

"Leap Day" causes problems for United check-in kiosks

And here I thought date/time calculations were pretty much a solved problem in the computer programming world. Apparently that's not the case.... at least, not if you have crappy programmers. This according to Chicago Business News, via the AP:

Passengers using United Airlines' "Easy Check-In" found it anything but that on Leap Day when the automated system failed, resulting in longer lines at its U.S. airport counters.

The Chicago-based carrier blamed the service interruption on software issues related to the leap year.

Spokeswoman Megan McCarthy says customers couldn't get Easy Check-In kiosks to confirm they had been checked in or print out their boarding passes for several hours.

McCarthy says no flights were delayed because of the problem. The airline apologized to customers for any inconvenience.

I'm sure that apology made the thousands of passengers waiting in line (after having been spoiled by the always prompt and courteous service of self check-in devices these past few years) feel much better. Makes you wonder how we did without the things just a few years ago :)

Tags: kiosks, self-service, check-in kiosks

When to trade form for function

Ask any kiosk application designer to name his biggest challenges, and you'll see interface design high up on the list. It's not that it's technically difficult to build graphical applications, or that computers are too slow to show lots of visual bells and whistles. Instead, the true challenge lies with making an interface that is easiest enough for a novice to use, but powerful enough to get the job done, handle special cases, and deal with exceptions and errors gracefully.

Normally you don't hear too much about how an application performs after the fact, though these days we can use web analytics tools to figure out when people are exiting the process too soon, where they seem to get stuck, and which buttons they really like to press.

Sadly, the folks who deployed the self-service informational kiosks at Ballantyne Village in Charlotte, N.C. don't appear to have done this. In what might be the best kiosk user interface critiques I've seen on the web, user experience expert Lynn Marentette dissects an application and lets us come along for the ride thanks to the liberal use of a video camera and YouTube. Her ultimate conclusion:

The large interactive touch screen displays I found at Ballantyne Village didn't live up to potential, nor did they help me achieve my goals as a first-time visitor who happened to have some time and money for an after-work shopping session.

They displays were attractive, but they weren't very useful. They were difficult to use, and during the time I spent exploring the displays, I was the only person who interacted with the screens or noticed the other forms of digital signage in the area.

As I approached the first screen, I noticed that in order to activate the display, I had to chase a red ball around the screen. The migrating red ball attracted me to the screen, but it wasn't always functional. On the first display, as soon as I managed to touch the ball, the screen faded to red, and did not reactivate. I chased a ball on another screen, but it did not activate at all.

I was able activate another screen which allowed me to navigate and find more information. Unfortunately, the content wasn't well-organized or as interactive as I'd expected.

The display performed as if it wanted to be both a video infomercial AND an interactive website at the same time. Web-like navigation conventions, such as a back arrow and navigation bars did not always activate when touched. This might have been related to a screen calibration problem.

There were many on-screen items that were puzzling. There was a rotating map of a large view of the Ballantyne Village area that didn't seem to provide information when touched. There was another image of the main building, with small billboards displayed that looked like they were navigation tools, but did nothing when clicked. Some menu items activated when clicked, but the sub-menus that displayed did not link to anything. I never found out about the sales!

Just goes to show you (again) that what looks good on screen doesn't necessarily translate to a good user experience with your application.

Tags: kiosks, self-service, application design

Wal-Mart to install Coinstar's '4th Wall' program

Progressive Grocer tells us that Wal-Mart will be installing Coinstar Centers, integrated self-service units that combine a number of interesting services, as part of their 4th wall optimization plan. The article notes:

The retailer will install Coinstar Centers, including the vendor's Redbox DVD rental kiosks, chain-wide over the next 12 to 18 months.In addition, as part of its 4 th Wall optimization plan, Coinstar will be removing or relocating certain entertainment products in Wal-Mart stores.

Redbox is currently installed in over 800 Wal-Mart stores, and Coinstar Centers (the vendor's coin-counting machines) are installed in over 400 Wal-Mart stores in the United States.

Coinstar's 4th Wall solutions include self-service coin counting, electronic payment solutions, entertainment services, money transfer, and self-service DVD rental, in addition to 4th Wall optimization consulting.

We had heard that some kiosk vendors were being asked to take out their devices, and others were being asked to update them. Rather than ditching self-service entirely as some had speculated (and seemed completely counter-intuitive to me), this 4th wall thing makes a lot more sense. Now customers will learn that all of the self-service devices are located in a single place in every Wal-Mart, and can modify their shopping behavior accordingly.

Tags: kiosks, self-service, Coinstar, Wal-Mart

Cyphermint to provide in-store shipping tech for Walgreens

I don't know if the systems are going to be customer-facing (and self-service) or just used by store personnel, but one thing I do know is that in-store shipping is becoming the new replacement for in-store photo development. Office supply companies like OfficeMax have offered in-store shipping service for a while now (and of course, the bigges like the UPS Store and FedEx/Kinkos have been making it the focal point for even longer), but DHL is definitely ratcheting up their presence by putting shipping points in 6,500 Walgreens locations across the US. From this press release:

Cyphermint designed a Windows based software solution which is the operating system for the DHL Shipping Spots. At Walgreens and OfficeMax retail locations, The DHL Shipping Spots are staffed by fully trained associates to weigh, label and ship customer packages to US and international destinations.

The user-friendly interface within the DHL Shipping Spots feature intuitive screen prompts which help retail associates quickly prepare a customer shipment. After the associate selects the destination, weighs the package, attaches the label and collects payment, the package is secured and available for DHL pick up. Associates working with customers that already have a DHL account can also enter the customer account number and have the remaining information auto-filled for their convenience. Cyphermint utilized the strengths and experience gained from the transactional and financial application of 7-Eleven's Vcom project and the customer service usability of the recent AAA kiosk to implement the functionality that was essential for the DHL Shipping Spot.

From the "user-friendly interface" comment, I had assumed that this might evolve into a customer-facing application, but after a second reading it's clearly geared towards being staff-assisted. Still, shipping packages seems like one of those things where a self-service solution could probably address 95% of customer needs. If these Shipping Spots prove to be popular, I wouldn't be surprised to see a self-service enabled version 2.0 roll out in the future.

Tags: interactive kiosks, self-service, cyphermint

Pay By Touch's "non-core" units on the block

I sort of wondered about whether Pay By Touch -- the biometric payment company that encourages shoppers to pay via fingerprint reader instead of swiping a credit card -- was making any money, and according to this article, apparently they're not (or at least not enough):

Biometric-authentication and loyalty-services technology provider Pay By Touch is in bankruptcy, has cut costs drastically, and is shopping some of its subsidiaries, but the company’s former chief executive--who is now a member of the firm’s newly constituted board of directors--says Pay By Touch is solid at its core.

Part of the problem is that the relatively young company tried to do too much too quickly, expanding into international markets and adjacent verticals like loyalty systems without first building its core US biometrics operations into a profitable entity. While the company is keeping some of its better performing subsidiaries like Capture Resource and S&H Greenpoints, everything else must go:

On the block are several so-called non-core subsidiaries operating under bankruptcy protection, including Paycheck Secure, ATM Direct, and Payment Solutions, the merchant processor that formerly operated as CardSystems Solutions Inc. Some observers were surprised that Paycheck Secure, which provides biometric-based paycheck-cashing services and came to Pay By Touch when the company bought rival BioPay LLC, is on the block. But Morris says Paycheck Secure serves convenience stores and other small businesses while Pay By Touch is focusing on larger retailers such as Shell Oil outlets and SuperValu Inc.’s Jewel/Osco supermarket-pharmacies. “We have not done that integration work” with Paycheck Secure, he says. “The core is viewed as being more around big, multilane retailers.”

I'd have to agree. If biometric payment is going to work anywhere, it'll be in those places where lines can be long and anything that will speed up the checkout process will be seen as a benefit to both retailer and consumer. However, given how quick and easy it is to swipe a card, and considering that cellphones and PDAs are increasingly being used as identification devices to allow access to personal (and personalized) services, I still have to wonder whether biometric payment systems will ever catch on.

Tags: biometrics, kiosks, self-service

Ez-Pic paperless coupon pilot raises some product sales by 71%

Not sure if this thing technically qualifies as a kiosk, but it's a pretty neat idea nonetheless (whether or not its time has come is a matter for further discussion, of course). According to this press release/blurb thingy from Progressive Grocer:

Big Y here grew sales of merchandise on promotion an average of 71 percent during a yearlong pilot of a new paperless in-store coupon system.

The solution, called Ez-Pic from Chicago-based Unicous Marketing Inc., is a paperless coupon advertised on retail store shelves and redeemed electronically at checkout. According to the vendor, data supplied for the study was made available by progressive Grocer parent The Nielson Co. and select manufacturers which used the Ez-Pic system in the pilot.

"Ez-Pic is a seamless value, with no aggravation for our customers," said Phil Schneider, v.p. of center store for Big Y. "Plus, there are no additional cost to us."

Unicous said Big Y benefitted through a higher volume of promotional sales and cost efficiencies related to reduced coupon handling time at checkout and on the back-end using traditional coupon clearing house processes.

I've been trying to find out more about the Ez-Pic system, but their homepage is a bit spammy and lacking information. I'm not too sure how it differs from simply having a sale price for the advertised product, as it's unclear whether the customer has to do anything (or not) to redeem the "electronic coupon" at checkout.

Tags: kiosks, self-service, electronic coupons

Self service check-in for international passengers at Mumbai airport news

If you've ever traveled through Mumbai airport, you probably know that just about any change is bound to be an improvement. And given the past successes of self-service in airports, I have high hopes for this project:

International passengers would soon avail themselves of boarding passes, be able to select seats and also check-in their luggage, with the help of 30 Common Use Self Service (CUSS) kiosks to be provided at the Chatrapati Shivaji International Airport by Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL).

Passengers at New Delhi will, however, have to wait till March this year to be able to avail of the facility, according to a Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) spokesperson.

MIAL also plans to install 20 more CUSS kiosks in hotels close to the airport. "We are finalising the hotels where the service would be available," said an MIAL spokesperson.

The kiosks, to be installed by MIAL's GVK-led private consortia, will provide the option of paperless boarding, where a code will be sent to the flier's cell phone.

If well-implemented, that would actually be a step above any international check-in kiosks that I've come across yet, though I must admit I feel a certain amount of security in being able to clutch my paper ticket while moving through the throngs of people towards my gate.

Florida tests out print-on-demand paper ballots

Well, we're about to enter a major election year, so why not roll out some brand-spanking-new voting technology to test on residents of the most notoriously voting-inept state in the whole union? At least, that must have been what Florida legislators were thinking when 27 counties decided to implement a new print-on-demand ballot system to create the optical scan ballots right as voters need them.

While the optical scan system is quite tried-and-true, the new machines will create ballots customized for a voter's particular party (useful in primaries where, in FL you're only allowed to vote for the party you're registered in). This is supposed to further decrease confusion and ballot clutter, which is good. Of course, as anybody who's ever worked on a big kiosk project knows, putting printers out in the real world = all sorts of problems including paper jams, misfeeds and the like. What happens to a paper ballot that has been slightly mis-printed when you run it through the optical scanner? What happens when a machine jams up? Will all polling stations have backup equipment? Will pollworker training be better than it was for e-voting initiatives in 2000 and 2004 (God I hope so)?

Aside from simplifying each voter's ballot, the major reason for implementing the print on demand system is actually cost reduction, according to this article in the St Petersberg Times. Apparently the heavy paper stock that the optical ballots require is rather expensive, so reducing waste ballots by only printing the exact number and type required will allow counties using the system to be more efficient (one legislator expected that they would have saved $45,000 and 600 staff hours had the system been in place for the 2006 elections).

Admittedly, anything that doesn't rely on Windows-based touch screen computers and lacking any kind of verifiable paper trail is going to be a big improvement over the 2004 Florida systems. Still, introducing complexity in a state where people couldn't tell the difference between "Left Side" and "Right Side" in 2000 isn't necessarily a good idea.

We'll get our first peek at the new tech in late January when Florida holds its presidential primaries.

Tags: e-voting, self-service, kiosks

Ecast launches BarPulse song popularity metric

Ecast, a company that claims to operate the largest digital jukebox network in the US (with over 10,000 locations on record), has announced that they will be releasing monthly data on the popularity of the songs users choose to play. From their press release:

Ecast provides digital music to over 10,000 bars and nightclubs across the country. Each week, Ecast adds more than 1,000 tracks to its nationwide network. The new survey, to be released on or about the 15th of every month, shows the most popular song plays, nationwide, from that month's newly added content to the network.

So far, R&B and hip hop have dominated the results, so while "BarPulse is designed to provide a snapshot of what Americans are listening to while they are out in bars and lounges" according to Lisa Tiver, the firm's Senior Vice President of Business Affairs, more likely they're capturing a bigger slice of the urban pie. No word on whether they'll be releasing the data on a region-by-region or city-by-city basis, which would be much more useful to marketers.

As for me, I'm just feeling old since I don't think I could pick out a single one of the songs on their November 2007 "most popular" list. :/

Tags: kiosks, self-service, ecast