Is your kiosk following regulations?

Kiosk Related Regulations

This article was originally written for and published at KioskMarketPlace.com.

http://www.kioskmarketplace.com/blog/7313/Is-your-kiosk-following-regulations

Because kiosks are products available at public facilities, they are subject to various types of regulations and must meet federal standards. Not all of these regulations are mandatory, and many depend on the configuration and application of the kiosk. It’s certainly recommended, however, to comply with all regulations to avoid additional hassles in the deployment process (not to mention legal considerations).

Here is a list of regulations that should be considered for compliance:

Hardware Safety & Communications

·         UL (Underwriters Laboratories) http://www.ul.com

·         RoHS (Restriction of Hazardous Substances) http://www.rohs.eu/english/index.html

·         FCC (Federal Communications Commission) http://www.fcc.gov/

Accessibility

·         ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) http://www.ada.gov/

Credit Card Payment

·         PCI (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/

Healthcare

·         HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/

The Challenges

Cost and Time: Complying with federal regulations requires extra budget checks and time management. For example, if you order custom kiosks, the UL certificate process could take several weeks to several months depending on the configuration and the availability of the various lab facilities for testing. It is recommended to develop and deploy pilot units and then begin the development, production and the UL process for production models intended for large-scale rollouts. Don’t wait for the pilot program to be completed before starting this, kick start the process early on while the prototype units are still being evaluated in the test market so you aren’t wasting precious time and resources.

Working with a kiosk manufacturer that has experience and knowledge about the process definitely helps to determine exact cost and time estimates before you undergo any premature deployments. The costs of testing fees and overhead may be included or added to the price of the hardware depending on the agreements stated at the beginning of the process.

Accessibility for everyone: Additional steps need to be taken as a kiosk provider in order to be in compliance with various regulations. For example, the ADA ensures accessibility to users with disabilities, and there are processes to be implemented and standards that need to be met to fulfill ADA requirements.

The 2010 ADA Standards for Accessible Design take effect on March 15, 2012. This new set of specifications establishes a user’s “unobstructed high reach to be set at 48 inches” which means that any operable parts of your unit have to be located within 48 inches from the ground, making kiosks more difficult for users standing at 6 feet tall.

Organizations have a choice to deploy multiple kiosks at one location – one unit that complies with ADA and others that do not to accommodate everybody’s needs.

Multiple stakeholders: While hardware and communication regulations such as UL, RoHS and FCC are more or less satisfied with the purchase of compliant products, some regulations require ongoing commitment in product development as well as in operations.

For example, purchasing PCI-compliant card readers is not enough to fully comply with PCI regulations. Kiosk owners must maintain a secure network, secure software, and need to implement and manage strong access control measures as well.

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NFC Kiosks in Japan

Kiosks Helped NFC Adoption in Japan

This article was originally written for and published at KioskMarketPlace.com.

http://www.kioskmarketplace.com/blog/7263/NFC-kiosks-in-Japan-have-helped-mobile-payment-adoption

I recently read several articles about the slow adoption of mobile and NFC payment in the U.S. including the following - Hold onto your wallets: Mobile payments seeing slow adoption.

In Japan, NFC (more precisely NFC-F which is different from NFC-A and -B used in the U.S.) has been enthusiastically adopted nationwide over the last 10 years. Virtually all commuters in the major metropolitan areas of Japan use NFC to pay their fares. Consumers can make payments using their NFC enabled phones or NFC cards at many locations including convenience stores, newsstands, restaurants, various retailers and vending machines. Almost 60 percent of cell phones – more than 70 million units[*] in the market including recent Android smartphones - are NFC-enabled.

While functionalities of NFC are not limited to payment, NFC point-of-sale (POS) devices usually handle merchant transactions only by reading the balance, deducting the price of items purchased, and then writing the new balance onto the NFC chip. The demand for kiosks that can offer more NFC capabilities is high. In the last couple of years, we have deployed more than 10,000 kiosks equipped with NFC readers or writers in many different applications throughout Japan.

The following are examples of the capabilities NFC-enabled kiosks can provide:

e-Money Replenishment

·         In Japan, there are six major prepaid e-Money currencies used nationwide and in the greater metropolitan areas.

·          NFC Kiosks allow consumers to add money values to their cards with cash or credit cards.

·         The kiosk accepts the payment and writes the new balance to the NFC chip in the cards or cell phones.

Royalty point management

·         A number of retailers and restaurants use NFC for their royalty programs. For example, All Nippon Airways (ANA) mileage points can be exchanged to Edy – the most-used prepaid rechargeable contactless smart card or e-Money.

·         Kiosks allow users to manage their royalty points; they can check the current point balance and exchange them into e-Money.

·         Kiosks communicate with servers to retrieve the point information, handle the exchange transactions and write the new value to NFC chips.

Visitor points

·         Some retailers encourage customers to visit their stores by offering customer reward points even without any purchases.

·          Customers can simply walk in the store and use a kiosk to receive points.

Airport Check-in

·         The two major Japanese Airlines – ANA and Japan AirLines (JAL) use NFC for their mileage membership cards. Flyers can use kiosks in the airports or hotels to check-in with their cell phones or membership NFC cards.

·         After checking in, they can use the same cell phones or cards to go through custom and boarding gates, which makes the entire process efficient and paperless.

Source: Felica Networks --- http://www.felicanetworks.co.jp/news/news/20120227.html

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