A networked multimedia retrieval management system for distributed kiosk applications

Over the last years we have observed two trends in information technology applications: (1) Kiosk systems have become very popular in their roles as point of information and point of sale systems. (2) Multimedia products have become mature enough to allow for user-friendly user interfaces and for digital storage and retrieval in networked environments. Hence, multimedia kiosk applications range from single-user stand-alone, CD-based systems to multi-user networked approaches that provide cost-effective solutions in larger set-ups and allow in-time content provision to a huge set of users. This paper discusses the notion of kiosk systems, classifies different types of kiosks, and describes a general-purpose architecture for distributed multimedia kiosk systems using similar building blocks as other already available distributed multimedia applications