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Braving the Great Outdoors: Using already made components to protect your outdoor kiosks

December 27, 2011 by Michael Ionescu — President, Ionescu Technologies

As much as I love putting out new kiosks, I always feel a slight bit of trepidation when the project requires outdoor kiosks. To date my company has had several outdoor kiosk projects, and we are in the process of another one. Some of my blogs will cover some of my past and present experiences. Any comments or suggestions you might have are welcome.

Our new outdoor kiosk project is going to be our first project that employs large screen touch displays that stay connected to the Internet 24/7. And also, let me clarify that I'm talking about outdoor kiosks that can survive both cold and hot extremes as well as humid and arid climates.

So what have a I learned so far? In many cases it's a philosophy that I've seen many times as my company has matured and that is: don't try to reinvent the wheel by developing all kinds of bleeding edge technology if there is more mature technology already in place.

Case in point: My university tried to deploy outdoor interactive kiosks about eight or nine years ago. They spent about $1 million to build a special silicone coating that went over industrial grade computer parts, so the kiosks could sit outside and survive moisture and heat. There were no coverings placed over the kiosks; in rainstorms they would be drenched; during snowstorms they were encased in ice; during the brutal summers, they were hot to touch. They lasted about eight months/ The screens started to crack, and the speaker became water logged and stopped working.

Therefore, when we were tasked with building our first outdoor kiosks, we worked with a company that kept it simple. Our outdoor units were equipped with a heating and air unit to keep all of the internals at a constant and comfortable temperature. Because of this option it has saved us the need of having to buy a very expensive industrial grade outdoor ready CPU, not to mention monitors and printers that can withstand heat and humidity. We buy the normal, commercial ready computers that we use in all of our other kiosks. While the kiosk may not be as sleek and slim as something that has special industrial coatings on it, we have also had our units up and running for more than eight months. To date, our oldest outdoor units have been in the field for about three years, requiring little maintenance.

Honestly, it amazed me that the solution to a problem my alma mater spent $1 million to address and failed was as simple as a heating and air unit for a couple hundred dollars. What other common kiosk shortcomings can we solve through this method of using more conventional solutions?

About Michael Ionescu

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