Project Background

Kodak has deployed in excess of 70,000 printing kiosks worldwide. These kiosks are designed to accept digital images in a variety of forms from thumbdrives to Bluetooth phonecams and product prints, CD’s DVD, and other digital products. The kiosks are generally sold to retailers like drug stores (CVS, Walgreens, Rite-Aid), or large merchandising stores (Walmart, Costco, Best Buy).

People who don’t frequent these stores are often unaware of the existence of the picture kiosks located nearby. Plus when people are on vacations, they often could benefit from knowing where the closest kiosk is for printing and archiving their images.

[Source: Kiosk Locator Project Proposal, 9/05]

Project Description

The purpose of this project is to develop a kiosk locator that could be used to help consumers find Kodak kiosks. It will consist of two parts:

  • A server, which will serve up information about the kiosk including the location of the closest kiosks and directions, which will guide the consumer to the kiosk. The server will use GPS coordinates to create directions. The current database of kiosk locations would need to be bolstered with GPS coordinates.
  • A client that will be used by the customer to inquire against the location server. The client will supply GPS coordinates and will include an easy-to-use workflow that will allow the customer to select from a selection of nearby kiosks before requesting directions.

Stretch goals: Ideally the client will run on a handheld device using cellular internet capabilities but it may be necessary to develop this on a laptop using Wi-Fi to scope the project accordingly.

[Source: Kiosk Locator Project Proposal, 9/05]