Gold Award- 1st Place
Tourist Kiosk

From left to right: Bart Liang, David Goldman, Dave Cervantes, and Teddy Lu

Project Description:

A kiosk like no other that empowers the tourist, and all alike to see the city and become urban explorers, discovering new places to eat, see and experience, and to power it-- refurbished, and salvaged “electronic-waste.” Most of the kiosk is made of recycled and recyclable materials. The panels are made of old steel computer cases, the monitor is a salvaged CRT monitor, the motherboard, and hard drives are also salvaged from old computers. The navigation buttons are from old mice and keyboard components. Since the computers are a relatively new, the interface we have designed and the local information can be stored in a low volume hard drive, and the processing is light enough so that older processors can handle the information with ease. The kiosks would be placed in common tourist destinations and peppered through the city, on common intersections, powered by the city’s utility grid, most likely near a lamp post. The user would have 5 main icons to choose from, “Food,” so they can be directed to local restaurant, “Lodging,” where they may find a place to sleep, “Shopping,” because a trip to Chicago wouldn’t be complete without a stroll down the Magnificent Mile, “Attractions” would direct them to local tourist attractions, as well as local events, and “Night Life,” where anyone can find an place to live the night away. There will also be a “Search” icon that can allow anyone to type in keywords, and refine their search with ease. For example, if someone types in “pizza,” a list of the nearest local pizzerias will be displayed. After making a decision from the selection list, a user-friendly map appears with step-by-step directions on how to reach your destination. These are just the primary features: imagine after pulling up directions, that the information can be sent to your phone via text, or that it can take your photograph and instantly send it to your friends half-way around the world.