Researchers hack nearly every kind of voting kiosk available

Simply attempting to accomplish the goal stated in the title suggests that the researchers in question were hoping for a bit of free press. But given how important the transactions carried out by e-voting kiosks are, I hope they get a lot of it. According to this article from the San Francisco Chronicle, "state-sanctioned teams of computer hackers were able to break through the security of virtually every model of California's voting machines and change results or take control of some of the systems' electronic functions."

Now to be fair, the researchers were given the source code to the devices, as well as instruction manuals and physical access to the hardware itself, which isn't too likely to happen out in the real world. But given that two of the three items in question are a mere Internet leak away, it's reasonable to be a little bit worried about deploying these devices to hundreds of polling locations with minimal physical security come November.

Tags: electronic voting, kiosks

Can burn on demand DVD kiosks save Blockbuster?

That's exactly the question that this article at Seeking Alpha asks about the movie rental giant. After all, we know that the DVD rental kiosk market has picked up considerably from the days when early pioneers like RedBox were testing out the business model. Yet, while some estimates indicate that we'll have over 10,000 of these devices in the US market by the end of 2007, the country's largest video rental retailer has been notably absent from participation. But rather than missing out on an "obvious opportunity," Seeking Alpha suggests that they may instead be passing up this wave of self-service devices in favor of the next generation terminal: a kiosk that would allow patrons to burn limited-time-use DVDs from a catalog of thousands of titles. The article speculates:

To a certain extent, Blockbuster will be interested in using the burn on demand kiosks in order to minimize real estate and cut down on employee costs, but the real benefit of the kiosks will be the new franchising opportunities that will open up to them. As the video store industry has gone into consolidation mode, Blockbuster’s franchisees have had a very difficult time adjusting to the new rental environment. Disagreements over the online program and the end of late fees has even caused one of their first franchise owners to sue Blockbuster for breach of contract. As the market has collapsed, attracting new capital has been difficult and Blockbuster has struggled in replacing this lost revenue.

Hardware and maintenance costs and licensing/security issues loom large as potential sticking points, but I really liked Seeking Alpha's notion that eventually Blockbuster's stores will look more like a Kinkos, with rows of terminals that can quickly produce any movie from a new blockbuster release to older, more obscure titles that don't often see the light of day (thank goodness for Netflix).

I'll say this: DVD rental kiosks make money. That industry as a whole has bucked the trend and once again proved that consumers really put convenience above all else. Fundamentally, burn-on-demand kiosks should play in the same space. However, CD burn-on-demand kiosks haven't fared as well, since it's fast and easy to download music right to a home PC. That's not the case (yet) for movies, but will it be enough to get consumers to embrace them? With a larger catalog of available titles, it would seem like a burn-on-demand kiosk would have more potential opportunities to reach out to increasingly fickle consumer audiences. But at the same time, the added cost and complexity of the devices could drive up rental prices or drive down overall profitability. (If you're new to the kiosk world you might want to take a look at WireSpring's series of pages and articles about kiosks).

Tags: Blockbuster, burn-on-demand, DVD kiosk

New York says e-voting software must be escrowed

In a blow to Microsoft and all electronic voting systems based on their Windows platform, the New York State Assembly recently upheld a bid that will require all voting software -- including the operating system upon which it runs -- be placed in a secured escrow so that it may be examined by experts in the event of a questionable outcome. While makers of the voting software itself (notable Diebold) were vocal about having the clause weakened or removed, Microsoft was even more argumentative, as the source code to the Windows OS is one of its most closely guarded secrets. As Bo Lipari, executive director of New Yorkers for Verified Voting, noted in this ComputerWorld article,

"concerned citizens created a groundswell of support in the legislature to ensure the law remained untouched...

"We won for a change," he said on Friday. He estimated that about 3,000 constituent calls had been placed with the legislature about the issue. "There was a huge outpouring of support and the legislature noticed this. It was a forceful way to remind them to re-affirm their commitment to these strong laws."

New York State Assemblywoman Barbara Lifton, a Democrat from the 125th Assembly District, echoed that sentiment. "The voting machine vendors have known for two years what our laws said," Lifton said Thursday. "Now they're saying that those parts of their systems using Microsoft software have to be proprietary? It's just wrong. We're holding firm on our current state law which calls for open source code.

"This is one extremely clear-cut example (to me, at least) of where opening up the source code is absolutely vital. While we can all hem and haw about the relative security and technological merits of opened versus proprietary source code, when it comes to the politics and the law, which both seem to attract trouble and corruption, the right to review every last subroutine and function of a voting machine is something that I'd like to see more states with electronic voting initiatives require.

Given incredibly short and poor history of electronic voting technologies in the US, my gut feeling right now is that relying on the vendors of these products to be open and honest (and knowledgeable about their products) is just asking for trouble.

Tags: electronic voting, voting kiosks, e-voting

Improving self-service kiosks: taking a lesson from our IVR brethren

MyCustomer.com is running a story about self-service of a different kind: interactive voice response (IVR) systems for call centers, those often-dreaded "press 0 from a touch-tone phone) automatons designed to improve efficiency by forcing the user down one of a number of predetermined paths to handle the most common call reasons.

While there are certainly numerous differences between this sort of self-service and the kiosk variety, the article raises some points that are equally applicable to both. Let's have a look at their list:

• Creating meaningful self-service solutions
"Self-service solutions improve satisfaction ratings by providing customers with instant access to information and services." While the article focuses on the combined use of live voice and IVR, we can certainly see how this would extend to in-store self-service solutions. Self-service solution providers can create meaningful transactions by providing a simple, good experience that delivers real value to the customer.

• Speak in a common language
"Your customers don’t always understand your jargon, including the names of products or services created by well-meaning marketing folks. Save the abbreviations, acronyms and nicknames for company memos and speak plainly to your customers." Again, the same is true for retail self-service. Just because your marketing department knows what your buzzwords and acronyms mean, that doesn't mean that your customers will. Given that many still approach interactive kiosks with some degree of intimidation, solution providers should work hard to ensure that the application being provided is intuitive and easy to understand.

• Make it fast and easy
"Don’t bombard your novice customers with too many options – you’ll just confuse them. Also, consider both novice and experienced users. This means you should enable 'barge-in' capabilities and give your 'power users' options for bypassing directions and prompts they don’t need." Again we can see a direct correlation with IVR and kiosk systems here. A good kiosk application should be optimized for the one or two key functions that will get used by the most people. The method to complete the function should be fast and easy, with as few touch screen or button-clicks as possible.

• Make it easy for callers to reach an agent
I'd re-write this one as "make it easy to get help." Whether this means using a live audio/video/chat button to get help directly from the device, or placing the kiosks in an area where sales staff can provide assistance if needed, depends on both the application and the environment.

• Treat callers with respect
Treat users with respect. Don't assume that the average user is a moron, but by the same token don't assume they're a computer genius either. Make your interface fast and simple, but not patronizing. Likewise, ensure that your support system -- whether electronic, human, or some combination of both -- understands that using a self-service terminal is a means to an end, and that they should be prepared to respectfully instruct patrons.

• Take errors seriously
"Do not insult callers with 'invalid input' responses. That might make sense to your IT department, but it won’t to your customers." Instead, make error messages clear, concise and easy to understand. Or better yet, make your application so simple that there's virtually no way to get an error message in the first place.

• Extend your branding when choosing your solution’s 'persona'
"A fabulous experience with your ... self-service solution will re-enforce your brand and build customer loyalty. Select [a solution] that will project the image and style of your organization." An unbranded or custom-branded kiosk application sticks out like a sore thumb. Take the extra time to integrate the system with the look-and-feel found elsewhere in the environment, taking cues from the brick-and-mortar location and the customer's web site.

• Personalize the experience wherever possible
Loyalty programs feed off of customers' love for being identified as "special." These programs do this by keeping a history of customer activity, and trying to provide helpful tips based on past purchases and habits. Self-service systems can certainly take advantage of this technique as well, though in general my preference is to opt for simple over customized. Per-customer customizations can potentially raise conversion rates and usage of the system, but they can also complicate the offering quite a bit, so that definitely needs to be taken into consideration during the planning phase.

Tags: self-service, kiosks

Channel M targets kiddie gyms for Hasbro/Playskool kiosks

There's something both alluring and decidedly sneaky about marketing to children out-of-home. Of course, the same could be said for marketing to them in home as well, as anybody who has ever watched even just a half hour of Saturday morning TV will tell you. But outside of the home environment, there other factors that come into play - including the powerful but unpredictable mom-will-do-anything-to-get-the-kid-to-stop-crying - that makes out-of-home marketing to kids quite interesting.

Apparently I'm not the only one who thinks so, too. According to this article at MediaPost, Channel M is installing interactive kiosks into 350 My Gym children's play centers with the goal of pushing Playskool and Hasbro products like Play-Doh:

Channel M has branded the cubbies and installed kiosks that display Hasbro's Play-Doh and Playskool products.

The agency bills the arrangement as an integrated partnership whose goal is to increase children's hand-eye coordination, dexterity, balance, and agility by joining Play-Doh products with select My Gym classes.

My Gym instructors include product samples for children ages 2 to 5, advancing kids' fine and gross motor, cognitive and sensory development, while playing with Play-Doh. And here you thought it was a toy.

In addition, children ages 3 and up who attend a birthday party at a My Gym Children's Fitness Center receive a booklet showing them how to make My Gym's mascot, Mymo the Monkey, out of Play-Doh. Parents can find a coupon in the booklet good toward Play-Doh's "Make 'n' Display" line of products.

Noting a correlation between Play-Doh use and manual dexterity is interesting, but I'd like to know how much that actually factored into the product/venue selection. I do think that the take-home booklet (undoubtedly filled with more soft marketing) is a great idea, though, since kids typically love those things, and any way of moving more brand messaging into the home (especially when the consumer takes it for themselves) must be viewed in a positive light by the manufacturers.

Tags: Channel M, interactive kiosks, retail marketing

Microsoft's Surface takes a new twist on touchscreen tech

Sorry for the awful alliteration - hadn't noticed it until it was too late :) While Elo and others have offered infra-red (IR) and camera-based touch screens like the CarrolTouch for a while, and IBM has used them in products like the Anyplace Kiosk for a few years now, it took Microsoft to make them exciting and sexy for the mass market. Their new Surface technology combines multiple cameras together on top of a projection screen to create a multi-touch capable surface that takes the computer "desktop" metaphor to a whole new level.

While Microsoft has been pitching the thing as an interactive coffee-table type thing designed for in-home use, the $5-10K price tag ensures that the first few adopters will be a bunch of technophiles with too much spending money, and, more importantly, businesses trying to use the device to advance their own goals.

While most of today's crop of self-service applications are optimized for quick, streamlined user interactions that don't require the use of a multi-touch device (heck, the applications we deploy usually don't even allow for mouse dragging), as users become more tech savvy and applications become more complex, I think there could be applications that could make good use of such a novel interface.

Tags: interactive kiosks, self-service, Surface

MedCafe kiosks trades drinks for eyeballs

Yes, Eyeballs... but not in the "eww, gross" way, in the advertising way (which I suppose is "eww, gross" for some people). As MediaSoon notes,

Japanese vending machine operator Apex and ad agency WillB are introducing vending machines that will give users a free or discounted drink if they are prepared to watch an advertisement that plays on the touch screen that’s also used to order the drinks. Apex is the country’s second largest vending machine operator and the ad funded freebies will include coffee and soft drinks. Ads will appear on the cups, too, with advertisers paying 70 to 80 yen (roughly 30p, 40 Euro cents or 60 US cents) per cup distributed.

Since it takes about 30 seconds to fill a cup with a coffee, espresso, cappuccino or juices, customers simply stand by and watch advertising on the screen instead of thinking about the quasi-convincing head of milk foam generated from a mysterious white powdery substance emitted from the machine, so it seems like a real win-win for advertiser and consumer alike.

MediaSoon notes, though, that too much success can be a good thing: "the drinks cost... 100 Yen. No surprise that the idea went down great. But WillB got a little more success than they bargained for - no less than 30,800 cups were drunk within a week." Of course, if the cost of the drink is subsidized -- and at between 70-80 yen for on-cup advertising and whatever they get per view of the digital media it looks like it should be -- this concept could take off in lots of high traffic areas where eyeballs might be even more valuable than hard currency.

Florida to ditch electronic voting kiosks

Just three months after Florida Governor Charlie Crist suggested that maybe these newfangled e-voting kiosks weren't such a great idea, 15 counties, including the voting-challenged Broward and Miami-Dade, will get rid of their marginally useful electronic voting machines instead of widely tested optical voting machines that are used by most of the rest of the state, as noted by this article in the New York Times. The move will not only silence critics (like myself) who thought that the kiosks were error prone and easy to sabotage, but will also introduce a much-needed paper trail while making the overall voting process much more simple. The article notes:

The move is the nation’s biggest repudiation of touch-screen voting, which was embraced after the 2000 recount as a way to restore confidence that every vote would count. But the reliability of touch-screen machines has increasingly come under scrutiny, as has the difficulty of doing recounts without a paper trail.

“This legislation will preserve the integrity of Florida’s elections and protect every Floridian’s right to have his or her vote counted,” Gov. Charlie Crist said in a statement. “Florida voters will be able to have more confidence in the voting process and the reliability of Florida’s elections.”

With optical scanning, voters mark paper ballots that are counted by scanning machines, leaving a paper trail that remains available for recounts.

The 15 counties that will move to the optical scanning, which is in place in the state’s other 52 counties, account for about 51 percent of the state’s 10.4 million registered voters. They include Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and Hillsborough Counties.

The plan, part of a bill that moves the state’s presidential primary to Jan. 29, was announced by Governor Crist in February. The Florida Senate voted for it last week, and the House of Representatives approved it unanimously on Thursday.

Honestly, people down here had a hard time punching a hole in a piece of paper, and the government's solution was to make them use a computer. I never understood how they came to that conclusion in the first place, but I'm certainly glad that they've decided to revert to a much more straightforward and highly-tested methodology.

e-voting, voting kiosks, electronic voting machines, florida

French parties call voting machines a 'catastrophe'

Zut alors! Looks like the US isn't the only country having a trouble with its electronic voting equipment, as after spending several years out of the spotlight of the e-voting misadventure, three unlikely allies in the French political party system (namely the Socialists, the Communists and the Greens) united to call the kiosks a "catastrophe." These quotes from PhysOrg (an unlikely source I'll admit, but it's more of a tech issue than a political one I suppose), say it all:

Amid big queues in general to vote, people using the electronic machines were forced to wait up to two hours to cast ballots... Daniel Guerin, a member of the Paris regional council, made an official complaint to the Constitutionl Council because of "disfunctioning" machines in his constituency in Villeneuve-le-Roi, in the Paris suburbs.

The elderly had particular problems with the machines. Many said they did not believe the computerised system would keep their vote secret.

"I have come here twice and twice I have had to walk away without voting. It takes too long," said Pierre Bascoulergue, a pensioner in Issy-les-Moulineaux, near Paris. "I just don't trust these machines."

The Issy town hall said the long queues were because of the huge turnout in the election.

In the champagne capital of Reims in eastern France a breakdown delayed the start of computer voting. The complicated machines further held up voting in the city during the day.

"It is total chaos, we don't understand anything," said 70-year-old Suzanne Antoine.

"You put your card in and it says 'continue'. Then nothing lights up. I managed to finish but I prefer the way it was before."

Researchers at Paul Verlaine University in Metz said that trials on two of the three machines used in France showed that four people out of every seven aged over 65 could not get their votes recorded.

Researcher Gabriel Michel, a psychologist, said the machines posed "enormous problems".

The computer has several buttons that allow electors to choose the candidate they want to back. There is also an "abstention" button for protest votes.

While the machines have caused a bit of an uproar during their first outing in a French presidential election, they were only used for about 1.5 million of France's 44.5 voters, so things clearly could have been much worse. Oh well, at least they weren't using Diebold machines...

Tags: electronic voting, e-voting, self-service, kiosks

NCR to step up their self-service presence

A few months ago Self-Service World did an article about NCR's position in the kiosk industry, and whether they were expected to improve or decline in the market under the command of CEO Bill Nuti. While those who proffered opinions on the matter (myself included) were on the fence as to how and when NCR would make their move at the time, BusinessWeek picked up a story from the company last week indicating that they're definitely starting to focus more tightly on the self-service industry. The article notes:

Nuti hopes self-service terminals will be used by consumers to pay bills, renew driver's licenses, and buy bus and lottery tickets, gift and phone cards and even casino chips.

"There are legs for that business for the future," Nuti said.

He sees retailers expanding from self-service checkout scanners to self-service kiosks that offer multiple transactions. Retailers see it as a way to bring more customers into their stores, cash in on impulse purchases and create customer loyalty, he said.

Whether Nuti's workaholic style and attitude will allow him to drive NCR as a leader and innovator in the self-service field remains to be seen, but judging by his words (and some small actions so far), he certainly considers it to be a strategically important area for the company. Makes sense, given NCR's foothold in many of the world's top retail locations, as well as their expertise in tangential technologies like ATMs and POS systems.

Tags: NCR, kiosks, self-service

Airports try gaming kiosks

Another good post from the Kiosk and Self-Service Blog points out that "Denver International Airport can now play one of roughly 19 computer games at individual stations located throughout the concourses" thanks to new self-contained Internet cafe-style kiosks courtesy of Zoox Stations and RMES Communications. For $0.25/minute, users can surf the Internet or play any one of a number of games while waiting for their Nor'easter-delayed flight to arrive.

Zoox and RMES have apparently noticed that anybody with a laptop capable of connecting to the airport's free WiFi connection suddenly doesn't need a cybercafe very much, and those lacking such hardware probably aren't the best market to go after anyway.

However, unless you have a really big, really expensive laptop, the gaming experience isn't up to par with the latest generation of high-def blockbuster games. That's why this kiosk makes sense. With more space and no need for portability, the devices feature huge 23" screens, enhanced graphics and sound, and plenty of room for whatever computer/console equipment is needed to run today's games.

Tags: Zoox, RMES, interactive kiosks, gaming kiosks

Making the case for music download burning kiosks

The Kiosks and Self-Service Blog caught this blog article/rant on the music downloading kiosk industry, or rather, the lack of such an industry right now. Despite projects of varying success levels by Starbucks, Wal-Mart and TWE (via their holding in Mix-and-Burn), music kiosks still seem to be a hard sell. Maybe it's because anybody with an Internet connection can download music -- legally or illegally -- with ease directly to a CD-R or MP3 player. Maybe it's because the world's most popular MP3 player, the iPod, uses a proprietary DRM system. Or maybe it's just because people aren't primed to buy music when they happen to encounter these kiosks out in the real world. Enter Mediaport Entertainment, a Salt Lake City-based kiosk provider whose machines can be used to transfer audiobooks, music, games, ringtones, etc. to compatible devices. The company has just entered an agreement with Power Music (they supply of workout soundtracks and compilations), to help push the Mediaport kiosks into gyms and fitness centers.

While I know that I arrive at the gym with an iPod pre-loaded with tunes that I hope are going to give me some help during the next hour of aerobic hell, I love the idea of using the kiosk to push a value-added content product instead of individual tracks that could be downloaded anywhere, and I'd be much more likely to try out somebody's "ultimate 30 minute weightlifting mix" or "60 minute power walking tracks" compilation than use a kiosk to buy a random assortment of tunes that I could just have easily taken off of the net or downloaded from iTunes.

Whether this business model will work remains to be seen. But at least MediaPort has recognized the struggles of much larger competitors, and is working to address those challenges in a unique way.

Tags: MediaPort, interactive kiosks, music download

Coke to deploy contactless vending machines

With all of the noise about contactless payment, biometric payment, RFID and even cellphone payment systems, it's not surprising to see that vending machines are being prepped to cash in on the contactless wave. As StorefrontBacktalk notes in a very brief clip, Coke is planning a line of vending machines that will support contactless payment methods. Noting that, "The United States is rapidly becoming a ‘plastic nation’ with fast food restaurants and convenience stores accepting credit and debit cards," Coca-Cola Marketing VP Thacher Worthen indiciated that Coke "feel[s] the time is right to begin providing these same payment options to our customers."

By handling less cash, the vending machines will have less wear and tear on their moving parts (though they'll still be capable of taking cash, of course), will theoretically require fewer service calls, and will be less of a target for thieves and vandals, since there ought to be less cash sitting in the machines at any given time.

Of course, for all of this to work, somebody will actually have to implement a contactless payment system that gets used in the US. Sure, I know they're all the rage in Japan and Korea. I've even seen a few people use them in Europe. But back here in the good ol' US of A, we're a few generations behind on portable technology, and despite the success of some contactless payment programs like Mobil's SpeedPass system, the concept hasn't really caught on yet. Perhaps with the plethora of new payment options available that will begin to change, but if Coke is planning a major deployment of the systems before a de-facto standard is established, they may be jumping the gun a bit.

Tags: vending, kiosks, self-service, contactless payment

MobilLime to merge with Cuesol

According to this press release, Cuesol, a company that for me is synonymous with the shopping-cart mounted Shopping Buddy kiosks (now apparently renamed the Cart Companion) is planning to merge with mobile marketing firm MobilLime. The merger apparently comes with the goal of combining MobileLime's mobile loyalty and payment platform with Cuesol's kiosk and shopping cart solutions. Obligatory press release quote:

The merger with Cuesol offers the opportunity to measurably improve the shopping experience by bringing together cell phone-based rewards and promotions with interactive, self-service shopping," said Robert Wesley, president and CEO, MobileLime. "In combining the passion, creativity and technology of these two companies, we will continue to help retailers develop one-to-one relationships with their customers by transforming the retail shopping experience."

I personally like this one. While not the most obvious combination on first glance, Cuesol has demonstrated a willingness to try out unique ideas in order to improve the in-store experience, and I think that -- if done correctly -- mobile will be a natural part of that.

Tags: MobilLime, Cuesol, interactive kiosks

TNR Entertainment introduces 'Win Movies for a Year' promotion at DVD kiosks

TNR Entertainment, providers of $1 DVD rental kiosks to a growing number of US grocery stores, has introduced what it calls an industry first: a new promotion that promises a year of free DVD rentals from the kiosks to a lucky group of winners. As this press release notes:

Every day of the promotion, one lucky shopper's name will be randomly chosen to receive free movies for a year. Shoppers can rent up to three movies per day. The winners will receive a New Release-branded Visa check card with $365, plus tax pre-loaded. No purchase is necessary to enter and both new and existing New Release renters are welcomed to participate. There are two ways to enter, either online at http://www.thenewrelease.com or with the mail-in entry form on flyers at TNR's rental kiosks.

Considering that the total cost of the prize is only $365 x the 45 winners they plan to have, this a great yet very inexpensive way for TNR to generate buzz, and possibly bump us usage of their kiosks at the same time. And usage they need: in order to keep up with their deployment schedule, the firm had to raise about $45M last year.

Tags: interactive kiosks, dvd rental kiosks, promotions