Part V
V.Special Configurations
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Chapter 15 15
Building a Kiosk
15.1 What Is a Kiosk, and Why Do I Want One?
A kiosk is a publicly accessible computer display dedicated to a specific task or group
of tasks. Here are some examples:
??? An electronic catalog station in a library
??? An automated teller machine
??? A ticket-vending machine
??? A video wall
??? A browsing and word-processing system in an Internet caf?©
Many of these applications??”including the library card catalog and ticket-vending
machine??”are most easily developed and deployed using a restricted, browser-based
interface.
Kiosks differ from normal user-interface configurations in the way that they are managed.
Many kiosks do not offer normal windows, and instead run a single application
that takes up the entire display; others offer a limited selection of applications in
a normal window environment. The user-interface hardware may also be more limited
than in a desktop configuration??”for example, there may be no keyboard??”and
it may be more rugged: a trackball or touchscreen to control the pointer instead of a
mouse.
In all cases, a kiosk configuration will strictly limit what the user can do and be
robust enough that it will handle most error situations without intervention.
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