Multimedia Kiosks



Opening screen

Multimedia Kiosks


The designing of a kiosk depends on its use and the environmental conditions of the place where they have to be deployed. In sync with the MIE experiment at CRCS, it was required that the multimedia kiosks for the same be robust enough for use in rural, outdoor, tropical environment. To fulfil the requirement, CRCS developed Cognitive Internet/Information Kiosk that can be put under hostile environmental conditions of tropical regions and also supports use by children without tutor for learning or entertainment.

Computer kiosks have played an important role in popularising multimedia. CRCS believes that multimedia kiosks are the simplest and the cheapest mechanisms of bringing technology to the masses. Therefore, it created the first multimedia kiosk in India in 1993. In 1997-98 CRCS tested and implemented the first voice activated kiosk in India, where the navigation was done by means of a voice recognition software. With the advent of the Internet, the kiosks have taken shape of Internet Kiosks. All the kiosks deployed by NIIT have been designed at CRCS according to the tropical conditions and use they are put to.

The tropical conditions are determined by the site that is finalised for the kiosk after a survey of the site accessibility, conditions, and problems that may occur. The use of the kiosk is determined by its application. A permanent kiosk is used for information dissemination at airports, railways stations and lobby of hotels, hospital, museums etc. The hardware & housing of kiosk is generally purchased and owned by the client and the database has to be updated periodically. An event-based kiosk is used at exhibitions, seminars, summits etc. It is for a specific event with some information about the city and the venue. The hardware here is on rental basis for the duration of the event and the housing of kiosk is temporary in nature

Our research work in the area of kiosk designs has given us a fair amount of expertise for laying down the following guidelines.
  • Housing:
    • The kiosk should be well constructed so that it can be prevented from any natural calamity, theft or sabotage.
    • It should be made from locally available material so as to nullify the impact of weather on the equipment.
    • The lock-system should be strong and unbreakable. It is recommended that a hooter can be placed some where inside the kiosk so that any theft or robbery can be prevented. Also, the best way to secure a kiosk is to provide the ownership of kiosk to the community.
    • Kiosks in semi-circular shape are more convenient for the users, especially for the children.
    • It should be spacious from inside so that the machines installed inside it can be maintained conveniently
    • The cables for the electricity, Phone & ISDN line and network should be placed in arranged way and if possible, it could be underground cabling.
    • The power plugs and switches should be of good quality and it should be fixed in such a way that the display of monitor couldn't get harm out of it.
    • The temperature inside the kiosk needs to be maintained and must not exceed more than 25-30 C. For maintaining the temperature inside the kiosk, fall ceiling and an exhaust fan is recommended.
    • Positive pressure should be maintained inside the kiosk to stop the dust and other particle from entering inside the housing. To maintain the positive pressure we should blow-in the air through an exhaust fan using an appropriate filter e.g. dust filter for dusty environment, lime stone filter for humid environment. The power of the exhaust depends on the type of filter we are using.


  • Computer:
    • The computer for the kiosk should be a standard machine whose architecture is compatible with third party interface cards and equipment like video camera, sound cards, keyboard & pointing devise.
    • It should not use any proprietary BIOS or any other component preventing from third party maintenance.


  • Network :
    • The equipment for LAN/WAN should be minimum and fit in the entire requirement.
    • The equipment should also be easy to configure and allow remote configuration.


  • Power Conditioning Equipment:
    • The selection of power conditioning equipment should be done on the basis of local electricity supply.
    • The UPS should have at least 4-hr backup in case of long duration of power failure.
    • The batteries of the UPS play an important role and they should be high quality-maintenance free.


  • Pointing Device:
    • As a pointing device is a very ruggedly used component of the entire system, it should not only take inputs from the users but also tolerate their anxiety & frustration. This increases the failure rate of this device and hence it needs to be replaced/repaired frequently.
    • At present pointing device designed by CRCS (designed like Joystick) is the only interface The present design of pointing device is an outcome of several changes and research. Lots of efforts are still being put to reduce the failure rate.


  • Value Added Devices:
    • An environment sensor is being designed and tested at CRCS to monitor the temperature, pressure and other parameters at the kiosk. It will also be used to control devices like fan etc.
CRCS has applied for a patent for the Cognitive Internet/Information Kiosk for use in rural, outdoor, tropical environment. This can be put under hostile environmental conditions of tropical regions. The kiosk design incorporates the structures made with hollow bricks and suitable rooftop so as to withstand outdoor tropical conditions. It also supports use by children without tutor for learning or entertainment. It has a number of practical applications in rural and tropical areas and can be oriented to be application specific.

The Cognitive Internet kiosk incorporates embedded controllers that may or may not be connected to the kiosk PC and give details of ambient environmental conditions such as, but not restricted to, temperature, light intensity and humidity, by using a camera, microphone and related applications. It also senses and records the status of the UPS and the state of UPS batteries and then sends these records to the Central Control Web-site, where the central observer can take actions according to the requirement.

NIIT has been the chosen kiosk developers for several associations. Some of the pioneering applications include:
  • Information kiosk for Government of Karnataka at Global Investors Meet 2000. (2000)
  • Kiosk at Heath Care and Hospital: Escorts Heart care and Research Institute (1993, 1995,1998)
  • Interactive TV at Hotel: Kwality Inn at Bangalore and Noida (1995, 1997)
  • IT Asia (1995)
  • Kiosk at Point-of-Sale: Hero Motors(1994)
  • CII Quality Summit (1994)
  • Kiosk for Tourism: India Illustrated (1993)
  • CII Quality Summit (1993)
  • CII Health Summit (1993)
  • AutoExpo (1993)

For more details contact: Ravi Bisht