FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: MARCH 30, 2020
Kandice Sanders
Connected Technology Solutions (CTS)
262-437-8096, [email protected]
Connected Technology Solutions Temporarily Furloughs Staff Due to Coronavirus
Menomonee Falls, WI: Connected Technology Solutions (CTS), the local kiosk manufacturer, closed their facilities and furloughed 95% of their staff starting Monday March 23rd due to concerns of the Coronavirus. With only current crisis-level staffing, the company intends to re-open operations in accordance with state and local directives.
Sandra Nix, President & CEO, stated “For the health and safety of not only our team members but our families and our communities as well, CTS is enacting a temporary furlough of most non-sales related staff. While we aren’t alone in enacting a temporary furlough, we are at the forefront of small to medium-sized manufacturers to do so. We’ve built an amazing team here and we need to look out for each other.
This is an opportunity for us to step up and be leaders while protecting each other, our families and our community.”
Overall, the crisis level staffing will be available to perform basic business functions and technical helpdesk support will continue to be available to CTS customers during the furlough. No production, research, development, 3D printing nor deliveries will be made during this time.
About Connected Technology Solutions:
Connected Technology Solutions (CTS) is the thought leader in branded user experiences including point of purchase kiosks, digital signage, interactive displays and retail fixtures, with an extensive roster of clients in the healthcare, retail, hospitality, transportation industries and more. Recognized for its outstanding creative talent and innovative engineering, the Wisconsin-based company has won numerous prestigious awards for its customized software and hardware design, implementation, and customer service and support since its founding in 2002. CTS is the parent company of CTS Healthcare Services and Mighty Touch. For more information, visit connectedts.com.
Statement by Mike Lee, CEO of ATMIA, issues statement regarding ATMs and recent coronavirus. Marc 13, 2020
New Coronavirus Health Crisis – Separating Fact from Fiction
A Statement by the ATM Industry Association for Immediate Global Release
Panic reactions are happening across the world as the new corona virus, for which there isn’t yet human immunity, spreads. We are seeing emptier supermarket shelves, an extremely volatile stock market, cancelled events and flights and many other signs of fear spreading even faster than the virus itself.
The medical consensus is that this virus is transmitted through respiratory droplets, primarily when infected persons sneeze, or cough, and the viral droplets then hook onto mucous or saliva of another person to gain a foothold in their cells so the virus can reproduce in that new host body.
The best advice is to regularly sanitise hands and disinfect surfaces, which may have been contaminated by viral droplets, while avoiding, as far as possible, touching one’s nose, eyes or mouth. We know that in close contact with an infected person, such as when shaking hands, or when we touch a doorknob, tabletop or surface previously touched by an infected person, we run a risk of catching the virus.
Since people don’t usually sneeze or cough into their banknotes, and since we all touch dozens of surfaces every day, it is disingenuous to single out cash as a medium of transmission of the virus. Handling cards, mobile devices and touching keypads in public places, not to mention countless other surfaces, can carry an equal risk. What is important is frequent hand sanitising to kill off any viral droplets, given that the virus has a fragile envelope surrounding it which can be readily destroyed through disinfectants.
Professor Raina MacIntyre, the head of the biosecurity programme at the Kirby Institute at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Sydney, supporting the idea that airborne respiratory droplets would the most common means of transmission for the new corona virus, highlights the fact that the range of objects which can cause an infection when they have a residue of the viral droplets on them would be so broad that to remove all potential sources of infection is simply impossible.
“Like every other object in the universe, physical money has its surfaces,” said Mike Lee, CEO of ATMIA and President of the ATM Security Association. “The scapegoating of cash by some agencies and media is an irresponsible piece of pseudo-science, or bias, because it can distract citizens from the risks of infection on all other surfaces of their daily lives. Let’s all grow up and not arbitrarily insert into this health crisis the phoney old war on cash. It’s not exactly an edifying spectacle to see an epidemic being exploited in this manner.”
ATMIA urges all members and all companies in the industry to take the necessary precautions, especially in terms of regular hand and surface disinfection, but to continue life and business as normal as far as humanly possible. “This epidemic will surely peak at some time, and then recede, and panic serves no rational purpose,” Lee concluded. “Cash is a vital social service for billions in everyday life, but it’s even more important when there’s a crisis.”
About ATMIA www.atmia.com
ATMIA is a global not-for-profit trade association for the ATM and cash industries, which was founded in 1997 and now has over 11,000 members in about 70 countries. ATMIA runs the ATM Security Association and the Consortium for Next Gen ATMs. Contact Mike Lee at [email protected]
Unprecedented consumer empowerment is redefining food service: delivery, privacy, personalization, alternative payments, artificial intelligence; stir in new ways to streamline the back of the house, and it’s a full-on innovation inferno.
That’s why at MURTEC 2020 we’re giving restaurants an innovation heatmap. The agenda is packed with subject matter experts, and the show floor features 75+ of the hottest technologies. We’re helping restaurants find the solutions they need to feed time-starved, convenience-hungry consumers with a hankering for exceptional experiences.
“The ever-changing landscape of technology and its impact on consumer-facing brands makes MURTEC a must-attend event – a perfect combination of content, networking and learning to enable and drive real solutions back into our organizations.”
–Chief Experience Officer, TGI Fridays
Exhibitors
Star is excited to see you! Star is proud to offer a variety of restaurant solutions for both the front-of-house and the back-of-house, from online ordering solutions to kitchen ticket printing. Stop by booth #21 to learn about it all. To schedule a meeting, please click here.
MURTEC is only one week away! If you’re headed out to Vegas, make sure to swing by the Appetize Restaurant of the Future in booth #51 to see why multi-unit restaurants need an Enterprise Cloud Point of Sale platform to increase revenue and scale the business effectively. Our team will be exhibiting our self-service solutions, quick service terminals, handheld POS devices, multi-unit management tools, and more key features your POS needs to deliver a frictionless guest experience. Schedule a meeting with us here: https://lnkd.in/gKQrJKk
Example of privacy screens. Image courtesy Olea Kiosks. Click to see full size
We update and refresh our Charter Sponsors content and one of our original Charter Sponsors is Olea Kiosks. Their original charter sponsor page was done many years ago and today we updated it (several http links instead of https e.g.).
We’re kicking off the new year with many exciting things ahead! With new product launches on the horizon, and Integrated Systems Europe around the corner we can’t wait to see what 2020 has in store.
Make An Appointment to Stop by Our Booth (#8-E450) At Integrated Systems Europe (ISE)
This year at ISE get hands-on with the last, exclusive preview of our outdoor digital signage, check out our new shelf edge displays, and feel the revolutionary Mimo Vue with TanvasTouch®. We’ll have all this and so much more at the booth, so make an appointment to check it out.
Hear Our CEO, David Anderson, Speak at ISE on “Utilizing Haptics To Cultivate Rich Touch Experiences & Heighten Customer Engagement”
On Wednesday, February 12th in stand 13-N110 at 12:30 PM come hear our President & CEO David Anderson Speak about surface haptics and how you can utilize it in various verticals to reach your business goals. He’ll cover the basics about what surface haptics are, the benefits, and showcase new technology you’ll have to feel to believe.
Introducing Our Shelf Edge Displays, The Ideal Retail Digital Signage Solution
We know shelf edge displays can be an incredibly valuable in-store marketing tool. We’re pleased to launch our 23×2″ shelf edge displays, available with and without Android Media Player. Sleek, flexible, and durable, these displays are fuss-free and seamless to install. Check out this video to learn all about them.
Learn About Our Charitable Giving Program with TechSoup, A Global Non-Profit That Supports Non-Profit Organizations With Mission-Critical Resources
We’re proud to collaborate with TechSoup to provide our products to some of the organizations who need it most. We’ve helped out organizations such as The Boys & Girls Club of Milwaukee, The New York Academy of Sciences, DC Scores, Paws for Life and hundreds more.
If you’re interested in learning about how we’ve benefitted some of our customers, you can check out the new white paper and case studies section of our website for an in-depth look.
Are You Media/Press Interested In Covering Mimo Monitors?
We’ve got a brand new press kit on our website. If you’re a member of the media we invite you to check it out, and contact us if you’re interested in collaborating on a story, or stop by our booth at upcoming trade shows. We’d love to work with you.
Are You Following Mimo Monitors on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook?
We’re posting ongoing and valuable content over on our social media pages regularly. We’re sharing some of our favorite tips, tricks, and information pertaining to company and industry news. You can find and follow us here:
Twitter: @MimoDisplay
Facebook: Mimo Monitors
LinkedIn: Mimo Monitors
Craig is a senior staff writer for Kiosk Industry Group Association. He has 25 years of experience in the industry. He contributed to this article.
Sometimes it seems the last thing we put on a touchscreen is our finger. There are so many ways to customize a touchscreen and over the years they have continued to multiply. Whether its reflections, or vandals or privacy or what…There is always something new. Women with long fingernails are problematic. The only technology I have not seen is smart proximity sensing so people can’t look at the screen over your shoulder.
Introduction
What customers want when they ask for AR coatings is to reduce the ability to see oneself when looking at the display, especially when you are outside. AR coatings make the display easier to see.
In legacy touch products, glare reduction was done using anti-glare (AG) coatings. AG treatments are made by either coating the touch surface with silica “bumps” or lightly etching the glass. The result is that some of the light hitting the touch surface is diffused or scattered, and not reflected back at the user. This was good enough for 25 years of touch technology.
Then came Apple and their beautiful high-resolution display. To preserve that super display image, polished glass was used on the iPhone instead of the traditional AG treatment. It is kind of OK for mobile devices because you can tilt the surface to reduce reflections, but less easy to “fix” on bigger devices such as pads.
So the market is asking for something that reduces reflections but preserves that pretty little picture on the display. This has traditionally been done using anti-reflection treatments. Reflection reduction can be achieved in a number of ways, including moth-eye treatments, circular polarizers, eliminating the reflective surface, or that which I will talk about, multi-layer thin film interference coatings.
AR (Anti-Reflection)
Diagram 1.1 (Courtesy of Wikipedia)
This treatment applies a film or coating of a specific thickness to the surface of a cover lens. The film reduces the reflections on the surface by canceling out a specific wavelength of light as it is reflected back to the consumer. When a specific wavelength of light passes through the AR material, some of it is reflected back to the consumer at the surface of the AR film (R1) and some of it is reflected at the surface of the cover lens (R2). The thickness of the AR film causes the reflected wavelengths (R1, R2) to be reflected exactly out of phase with each other (see diagram 1.1) so that they cancel each other out. Thus the consumer will not see their own reflection. Instead, they will see a brighter and more vivid display.
Problems/Fixes
Fingerprints – The fingerprint problem has been fixed with anti-fingerprint (AF) coatings. Recalling the description above, you know that the thin film coating must be the precise thickness of a light wave (say ¼ of the width) to work. Along comes your dirty, oily fingertip, laden with hand cream, to touch the screen. Boom, the oil you left on the AR coating has changed the thickness of the coating which reduces the ability to trap the light and most often shows up as a fingerprint. AF coatings work by resisting the ability of the oil on your finger to “stick” to the AR coating; these are called hydrophobic (fear of water) coatings. Of course, for the AR coating to work, the AF coating must be built into the precise thickness of the thin-film stack. Touch Guy is not impressed with the aftermarket spray-on AF coatings over AR stacks. Not impressed at all.
Wears Off – fact is you have an angstroms thick material in an abrasive and chemically active environment, and you have limited time before its anti-reflection properties go away, especially on frequently touched areas. There seem to be two solutions…the first is that the AF coating on the AR stack is made of (secret) tough material that will wear-off your fingertip (just kidding) before it gives up. The other is to use thicker, but less effective (2% reflection) organic AR coatings, that seem to have better resistance to finger wear. Another way around the AR wear problem is to eliminate the reflective surfaces in the first place.
Fix: An AG coating and an optically bonded p-cap touch panel eliminates the wear, and anti-fingerprint issues, with only a minor loss in display sharpness.
AG (Anti-Glare)
Diagram 1.2 (Courtesy of Information Displays)
This type of treatment involves creating a rough surface on the cover lens via an etching process. As light reflects off of the rough surface, it is scattered at different angles (see diagram 1.2) which reduces the clarity of the reflected image. Thus, the consumer will not see the bright glare of any reflected light source.
AF/AS (Anti-Finger Print)
This type of treatment reduces the ability of the cover lens retaining oils from your finger. AF/AS treatment is typically applied by vacuum deposition or by a liquid chemistry process, which creates an oleophobic top coating. Since this layer is a chemical modification of the glass surface, it is very durable compared to aftermarket AF/AS spray-on films and it is very thin with little or no impact on the optical quality of the display.
It has to be noted that AF/AS treatments do not perfectly prevent fingerprints. They only cause finger oils to bead on the surface, which makes them less noticeable and also much easier to clean off the screen.
Another benefit of the AF/AS coating is the “feel” or user perception of the treated surface. Because the surface is smooth, the finger will glide more easily compared to a non-treated surface. A non-treated cover lens surface can cause the user’s finger to stick, skip, feel like it’s being dragged, or even make drawing a singular line on the screen difficult so that it becomes a dotted line.
Oleophobic Coating
An oleophobic coating is an oil repellent coating. This means that it does not allow oil to absorb. A common oleophobic substance is water, but this quality can be produced on other materials with the help of treatment processes. The most useful aspect of oleophobic coatings are that they can make materials fingerprint-resistant because they repel the oils that are produced by the skin.
Sunglasses (Yes, sunglasses..)
Some outdoor high NIT touchscreens can come with what’s called “Circular Polarization Filters”. This allows people with sunglasses to see the screen. How Circular Polarizers work.
Protection Treatment
Many outdoor touchmonitors come with Tempered Glass and Anti-Reflective.
Tablets
Many tablets (and mobile phones) come with Gorilla Glass by Corning. Here is the pitch — Tough Corning® Gorilla® Glass is enabling slimmer, more lightweight laptops, notebooks and tablets with exceptional visual quality, while providing damage- and scratch-resistance from everyday handling and use.
AntiBacterial Coating AntiMicrobial Coating
This is a touchy subject for many…We have an entire page devoted to this subject. Our typical recommendation is treat it like your mobile phone, but better. Clean it everyday. There are excellent cleaners like PDI Easy Screen. Use them. It is not rocket science and oily, dirty, unwashed hands are a fact of life. It amazes me when I go to the airport or Costco and see how many men do not wash their hands leaving the lavatory. See AntiBacterial Coating page
UV Treatment
We have some experience here having won an award for developing such a system. These systems though are not to be taken lightly; there are liabilities that come with them. If you want to utilize UVB light treatment we recommend having employees manually do it off-hours when they are cleaning the screens. A high quality (and safe) manual system is less than $500.
ADA and Accessibility Touchscreen Access
One of the considerations for Accessibility is with Prostethics. Some touchscreen technology does not work since there is no path to ground. PCap for example. For those situations we recommend Resistive or Infrared touchscreen technology.
Privacy Screens for HIPAA and Privacy
Here is an example of kiosks with privacy screens on them. Typically 3M is the most popular. There are two-way and four-way screens and they act like windows blinds basically. They orient generally horizontally but they can also do vertical.
Example of privacy screens. Image courtesy Olea Kiosks
Valued at $535 million, autonomous retail startup Standard Cognition has emerged as a soon-to-be tech giant and the best hope for merchants to compete with Amazon Go. Cashierless checkout is poised to transform brick-and-mortar commerce, and shop owners fear having to battle Amazon’s technology alone or partner with it, exposing data it could use against them.
The $86 million-funded Standard Cognition is racing to equip storefronts with an independent alternative using cameras to track what customers grab and charge them. But Amazon’s early start in the space poses a risk that it could patent troll the startup. So today, Standard Cognition announced it has acquired DeepMagic, a pioneer in autonomous retail kiosks.
By integrating Evoke’s digital kiosks with Radius Networks’ customer location technologies, businesses can dramatically improve both the in-store and curbside experiences for customers and employees.
Radius Networks and Evoke Partnership
Washington, DC — Radius Networks, a leading provider for location services, and Evoke, an interactive digital technology provider, announced a partnership to help businesses across Europe provide innovative technology solutions in-store, curbside, and drive-thru. With the simple integration of Radius Networks and Evoke technologies, businesses can simplify and complete the customer journey.
“Our goal is to create a turnkey end-to-end journey for customers, meeting the needs of restaurants and retailers across the globe,” says Chief Strategy Officer Dan Estrada. “With our proprietary technologies, we can calculate the exact location of the customer throughout the entire customer journey, alerting employees at pivotal moments along the way. This automates the entire process for the customer and ensures that the order will be ready upon the customer’s arrival.”
Radius Networks builds a platform that uses machine learning to help businesses conduct location-based transactions with their customers. The platform core services include location-aware table service, curbside and in-store pickup, mobile loyalty and redemption, and mobile payment at the table. By using FlyBuy Pickup, a Radius Networks product designed to enhance the existing in-store pickup, curbside, and drive-thru experiences, restaurants and retailers can ensure they prepare the right order, for the right customer, at the right time. Through a combination of proprietary location technologies, businesses can accurately predict customer arrival time, monitor customers when they arrive on property, and pinpoint their exact location for order delivery. Additionally, restaurants and retailers can gather personalized analytics, including customer wait time, trip origination, activity metrics, and more.
For in-store customer location, customers can place their order via mobile, at the counter, or using Evoke’s self-service digital kiosks. After ordering at the kiosk or counter, the customer is invited to sit anywhere and relax as their food is prepared. When the order is ready, the Radius Networks platform pinpoints the exact location of the customer for order delivery.
Evoke works with innovative companies to design and implement digital solutions to streamline operations and increase sales. From self-ordering kiosks to interactive digital signage experiences, Evoke helps improve efficiencies for both the front and back of the house. “By leveraging the Radius Networks product suite, we can bring additional value to our customers,” says Neil Clark, Founder and CEO Evoke. “By implementing their innovative in-store and curbside solutions, restaurants and retailers will quickly see a dramatic increase in customer satisfaction and staff efficiencies.”
Radius Networks is a software company that uses machine learning to help companies conduct location-based transactions with their customers. The platform core services include customer and asset location, curbside and in-store pickup, mobile loyalty and redemption, and mobile pay-at-table. Our clients include some of the world’s largest brands and span multiple markets such as restaurants, hospitality, gaming, grocery, and retail.
About Evoke
Evoke have been at the forefront of interactive digital technology since 2003 and work with some of the world’s biggest brands designing and manufacturing the latest in self-service solutions. Evoke’s highly trained production engineers work to continuously improve lean manufacturing processes and we deliver large scale rollouts of the highest quality to locations all over the world. With a culture of innovation and the best talent from around the country, Evoke has the experience and capacity needed for your digital transformation.
The outdoor kiosk replaces the regular drive-thru completely. Customers drive up and, if they manage to get close enough, roll down their windows and start pressing buttons. The computer takes them through the entire ordering process and allows them to choose whether they want a sandwich or salad, which bread they want, which veggies they want, whether they want to add chips and a drink and more.
Mastercard and Marie Claire magazine have teamed up to create “The Next Big Thing” concept shop, a pop-up store in SoHo that brings the convenience of online shopping to a physical storefront
“I’m a big believer in the physical store and I think when you look at just pure volume of sales, you still see a majority of that happening in a physical environment,” said Stephane Wyper, senior vice president of Internet of Things partnerships and commercialization at Mastercard.
ORLANDO, Fla., Oct. 1, 2018 /PRNewswire/ — Panasonic System Solutions Company of North America, an industry leader in food services technology, announced today the launch of its new turnkey kiosk solution that provides restaurant customers an immersive, customized, and faster experience. The new solution will premiere at FSTEC 2018 at the Rosen Centre Hotel in Orlando on October 1-3, 2018, in Booth 801.
“Panasonic kiosks have proven that they drive a significantly higher check and that the guests using them experience an overall satisfaction similar to or greater than those placing their orders directly with staff,” said Michael D. Clarke, Owner, Lickety Split Food Services, LLC, a Texas Dairy Queen multi-unit franchisee.
Panasonic’s end-to-end platform is managed at the enterprise level, allowing chain restaurants to deploy large installations easily and efficiently. The enterprise-grade application features full Point-of-Sale and Payment integration, a cloud-based enterprise management portal, flexible screen design, highly responsive user interface, suggestive selling, and order customization throughout the customer ordering journey.
“The highly intuitive, digital user interface promotes customer engagement, increases restaurant sales and profits, and frees up staff to tend to other business needs,” said M. Faisal Pandit, SVP and Chief Digital Officer, Panasonic System Solutions Company of North America. “Customers interact with kiosks in myriad venues and have come to expect that same connectivity in restaurants too. And kiosks can have a significant impact on sales and profits with transaction uplifts of 20%-30% versus the traditional counter.”
Restaurant brands can have one strategic partner for a comprehensive menu of hardware choices, software, and consulting, with full deployment and after-installation services that can help scale self-ordering kiosks across an entire enterprise with speed and agility.
About Panasonic Corporation of North America Newark, NJ-based Panasonic Corporation of North America is a leading technology partner to businesses, government agencies and consumers across the region. The company is the principal North American subsidiary of Osaka, Japan-based Panasonic Corporation and leverages its strengths in Immersive Entertainment, Sustainable Energy, Automated Supply Chains and Connected Solutions to provide secure and resilient integrated solutions for B2B customers. Panasonic was highlighted in Forbes Magazine’s Global 2000 ranking as one of the Top Ten Best Regarded Companies for 2017. The ranking is based on outstanding scores for trustworthiness, honesty with the public and superior performance of products and solutions. Learn more about Panasonic’s ideas and innovations at Panasonic.com.
Mimo Monitors and BrightSign, leading industry digital signage experts, share their best insights and strategies for maximizing digital signage to add value for the customer and cultivate engagement
CHICAGO, IL—April 2019— Mimo Monitors (www.MimoMonitors.com), the experts in small touchscreen displays, joined forces with BrightSign, to share their top five tips and best practices for digital signage. Both industry leaders in the digital signage space, Mimo Monitors and BrightSign believe in the far-reaching impacts and value that effective digital signage can have towards customer engagement, cultivating loyalty, and ultimately, the bottom line.
To watch the video of their top five tips visit here:
“With more noise than ever competing for customer’s attention, we know that utilizing digital signage effectively and in an engaging way is crucial,” said Jeff Hastings, CEO of BrightSign. “That’s why one of our most highly recommended tips is to make digital signage interactive. Interactivity is key to capturing attention and can directly add value both to the customer and the retailer.”
A Philly hacker is raising privacy concerns over the city’s just-approved Link kiosks – which caused quite a storm when they were installed in New York.
Here is the free list of kiosk and self-service resources the Kiosk Industry Group association maintains. 315 companies listed and you can list your own company.
The Automated Breathalyzer Kiosk (AB Kiosk) is a stand alone, autonomous alcohol screening system that can completely automate your sobriety testing programs and free up your jurisdictional staff for other duties. In addition to reducing the costs of your sobriety testing programs, the AB Kiosk system can also automate other judicial and law enforcement programs:
The Automated Breathalyzer Kiosk (AB Kiosk) is a stand alone, autonomous alcohol screening system that can completely automate your sobriety testing programs
Generation Next Franchise Brands, Inc. Acquires Print Mates™, Expanding Company’s Unattended Retail Portfolio
Click photo kiosk image to expand to larger view
SAN DIEGO, CA, April 09, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — via NEWMEDIAWIRE – Generation NEXT Franchise Brands, Inc. (OTCQB: VEND) announced today that it has reached terms to acquire the assets of Print Mates, LLC, a small team of entrepreneurs, software engineers, and photography professionals in San Diego that are on a mission to reinvent the premium-quality photo printing experience by making it fast, fun, and inexpensive to get your photos “out of your phone and into your hand” with the Print Mates™ Kiosk.
Nick Yates, CEO of Generation NEXT Franchise Brands, said that the Print Mates assets will be held by a wholly owned subsidiary of Generation Next which will operate separately with its own facilities, staff, and resources. “It is extremely important to us that Print Mates, or any acquisition, is mature enough and has the right team, product and supply chain to operate independently, as a wholly-owned but separate subsidiary. For us, anything less would have been a non-starter,” Yates said, noting that the nationwide rollout of the company’s flagship unattended franchising concept, Reis & Irvy’s, has both his and Generation Next’s “undivided attention.”
“Print Mates™ is a turn-key subsidiary for us. The team, facilities, manufacturing and product fulfillment; everything is in place. The Print Mates™ Kiosk perfectly complements our product portfolio, and is ready to ship. The timing of the acquisition was designed to allow us to be first to market with a complementary unattended retail concept that is even more autonomous than our flagship Reis & Irvy’s kiosks, requiring only about 30 minutes permonth in human maintenance,” Yates said. “The ultimate goal however is to own and operate thousands of these replicating the Redbox/Coinstar model and the team at Print Mates has already established relationships and tests with the country’s largest retail, convenience and grocery chains.
Generation Next is assuming the liabilities of Print Mates, LLC in exchange for the assets. There is no cash consideration being paid by Generation Next to Print Mates or any of its members. The assets acquired include five patent applications, complete engineering documents for the kiosk, customer contracts, supplier agreements, intellectual property, and proprietary software. A contract with a Canadian licensee with a commitment to purchase $7,000,000 of Print Mates Kiosks over a 5-year term is part of the assets acquired by Generation Next. The liabilities assumed by Generation Next net of kiosk inventory value are approximately $300,000.
An Unfulfilled Demand in a Billion Dollar Industry
Due in large part to consumers’ adoption of the smartphone, at least 1.5 trillion photos are estimated to have been captured in 2018. Predictions to 2022 continue to show a compounded annual growth (CAGR) in that figure of greater than 10 percent, so that by 2022 the number of photos captured annually will grow to over 2.3 trillion. Print Mates™ is an innovative new way to monetize consumers’ craze for the phone camera.
Print Mates™ unattended kiosks are designed to reinvent the premium-quality photo printing experience by making it fast, fun, and inexpensive to get your photos “out of your phone into your hand,” while creating a low-to-no maintenance, extremely high margin business opportunity in unattended retail for entrepreneurs and retailers. Recent consumer research reports show that consumers in every age group – from tweens to Millennials; from Generation X to Baby Boomers – still desire to preserve their most cherished memories in high-quality photo prints. But until now, professional-quality, third party services that turned digital photos into prints were either too inconvenient, too slow, or too expensive for today’s consumer.
Print Mates™ easy-to-use, patented touchscreen kiosks are promising to close the loop on the consumer photo lifecycle, as well as drive much-needed foot traffic to traditional brick-and-mortar businesses ranging from supermarkets, grocery and drug stores to big box retailers, shopping malls, family fun centers, convenience stores, hotels, airports, and more. The Print Mates™ Kiosks put reliable and quality photo printing at customers’ fingertips while allowing independent operators and business owners to earn a very high margin from each sale. Customers love using the Print Mates™ Kiosk because they can instantly, easily and cost-effectively print high-quality photos directly from their smartphones or through their favorite social media (Facebook, Instagram, Google Photos, Dropbox, and Flickr) photo sharing, or cloud storage accounts in six different sizes of prints in just seconds.
Consumers can also conveniently order decor and other photo products, gifts and accessories ranging from frames, picture books, posters, jumbo-sized prints, and fridge magnets to beautiful canvas and wood prints and have them conveniently shipped to their home with just a few taps. A soon-to-be-released software update will also add an option for passport photos, a product many retailers are asked for daily.
“The team at Print Mates is solving another problem with a simple, unattended retail kiosk solution,” Yates said. “We all have hundreds, if not thousands, of photos stuck in our cell phones and stored on social media accounts like Facebook and Instagram. The only reason most of us don’t print them is because we don’t have a convenient way to do so, staring us in the face,” Yates continued. “Print Mates kiosks can be placed in any number of location categories, from grocery chains to hotels and big box retailers, just to name a few. And the kiosks earn extremely high margins on each sale with some products on the kiosks’ menu selling for as much as $125 dollars. The team at Print Mates has secured agreements to test the kiosks in some of the largest grocery, convenience and big box retail chains across the U.S., representing tens of thousands of potential locations, and our plan is to provide Generation Next, our shareholders, and our franchisees the exclusive opportunity to own, operate and share in the revenue provided by this extraordinary product,” Yates concluded.
Print Mates™ location partners will be supported by a unique marketing program that leverages Google Business to drive consumers in real time directly to their machines whenever they need to quickly and conveniently print their photos. If a customer types “photo printing” in to the google search engine, it will point them to the closest Print Mates retailer. The strategy will be paired with a national regional marketing program to create awareness of the Print Mates™ brand.
Item 404 of Regulation S-K requires disclosure of any transaction over $120,000 in which the Company is a participant and any related person has a direct or indirect material interest. “Related persons” include directors, nominees, executive officers, five percent shareholders and their immediate family members. The present acquisition of the assets of Print Mates, LLC is a related party transaction as the sole member of Print Mates, LLC, Franklyn Yates, is an immediate family member (Brother) of Nicholas Yates, the CEO and Chairman of Generation Next Franchise Brands, Inc. The transaction has been duly authorized by the Board of Directors of the Company who have been informed of the related party interest.
Generation NEXT Franchise Brands, Inc., based in San Diego, California, is a publicly traded company on the OTC Markets trading under the symbol OTCBB: VEND. Generation NEXT Franchise Brands, Inc. is parent company to Reis and Irvy’s Inc, 19 Degrees Corporate Service LLC and Print Mates.www.gennextbrands.com
About Print Mates
Print Mates™ was formed by a team of entrepreneurs, engineers, and photography professionals in San Diego that are on a mission to reinvent the premium-quality photo printing experience by making it fast, fun, and inexpensive to get your photos “out of your phone and into your hand” with the Print Mates™ Kiosk – and creating a golden opportunity for retailers in the process.
Print Mates’™ easy-to-use, patented touchscreen kiosks are promising to close the loop on the consumer photo lifecycle, as well as drive much-needed foot traffic to traditional brick-and-mortar businesses ranging from supermarkets, grocery and drug stores to big box retailers, shopping malls, family fun centers, hotels, airports and more.
The company began a nationwide expansion in 2019 by offering retailers, business owners and forward-thinking retailers across the country an opportunity to own a piece of an emerging multi billion-dollar industry.
Print Mates™ Kiosks and ever-expanding product line of photographic decor, gifts, prints and accessories are proudly Made in the USA.www.printmates.com
About Reis & Irvy’s, Inc.
Reis & Irvy’s, Inc. is a subsidiary franchise concept of Generation NEXT Franchise Brands, Inc. (VEND). Launched in early 2016, the revolutionary Reis & Irvy’s Vending Robot serves seven different flavors of frozen yogurt, ice cream, sorbets and gelatos, a choice of up to six custom toppings, and to customers within 60 seconds or less at the point of sale. The unique franchise opportunity has since established itself as a high-demand product and currently showcases a franchise network both domestically as well as internationally. www.reisandirvys.com
Costas, Inc. (OTC:CSSI) wholly owned subsidiary, AuthentaCash, a division of AuthentaTrade Ltd. is now operational selling Cryptocoin Automated Teller Machines, referred to as Crypto Kiosks.
The Nashville Predators’ latest innovation is aimed at speeding up the food ordering process. The Appetize self-service kiosks with the new Wallaby stands from Elotouch.
This post comes courtesy of our content partners at TechNode.Amazon Go, the cashierless store design announced in late 2016, coincided with a flurry of Chinese tech companies to create their own versions of unmanned stores. For them, 2017 been a fruitful year in developing their solutions tailored for Chinese consumers as well as in educating the market.
Soon after renovating his father’s first restaurant, Mateos implemented technology like a mobile app and self-service kiosks, along with more service and product offerings like a bakery and table service. With automation prompting new aspects of the business, there is a greater need for the human element. “Come spend a day with me,” Mateos says to those who think robots might replace jobs.
It seems that all anyone in the restaurant industry can talk about these days is off-premises dining. From mobile-powered delivery to kiosk-driven takeout and all of the other increasingly accessible food occasions outside the four walls, off-premises is revolutionizing how guests interact with food businesses—and how those businesses design their customer experiences.
From Resa Private Limited — Opening Macy’s with 4 in-store locations this week, opening 50 Pop ups by Summer. We are looking for good talented 3D printing Techs.
Nov 12, 2015 – Makers of the R1 +Plus desktop 3D printer, ROBO 3D was apparently looking for an eye-catching way to break the retail barrier, one that would display their product options, introduce consumers to the still-burgeoning technology, and be achievable on a very short timeline. Luckily, they were able to gain
There is endless talk in this business about connecting digital signage to customer experience, but it’s not that often that I see initiatives that get beyond those customers seeing something…
With the passing of the 41st president, it’s worth remembering what may be his signature achievement.
Richard Slawsky is an Educator and freelance writer, specializing in the digital signage and kiosk industries.Louisville, Kentucky Area
The death of former president George H.W. Bush Nov. 30 at age 94 prompted a host of reminiscing in the media. Bush’s passing, many wrote, was the end of an era where politicians acted like ladies and gentlemen, treating friend and foe alike with dignity and respect.
Much of it was revisionism, of course. Bush’s Willie Horton campaign ad in his 1988 battle with Michael Dukakis is still discussed in political science classes because of its racial overtones. Many of the tactics used in his 1992 campaign against Bill Clinton, buoyed by the spread of the Internet, set the stage for the dysfunction currently plaguing both media and government. And one might argue that the effects of Bush’s handling of the invasion of Iraq are still being felt today.
Still, Bush guided the country through perilous waters as the Berlin Wall fell and the Soviet Union collapsed. And if there was something alive during Bush’s time that seems to be gone today, it’s the ability to compromise; for opposing sides to come together and accomplish something for the greater good.
On July 26, 1990, Bush signed what’s been called the most sweeping civil rights legislation enacted since the 1960s: The Americans with Disabilities Act. The signing came just weeks after the bill sailed through Congress with overwhelming bipartisan support.
And while the effectiveness of the ADA remains a subject for debate, there’s no doubt about its impact on the kiosk industry, the country at large and most importantly, the lives of people with disabilities.
Long in the making
Although the ADA was codified into law during Bush’s tenure, it has its roots in the three pieces of major civil rights legislation passed in the 1960s: the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Civil Rights Act of 1968. According to the Mid-Atlantic ADA Center, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 covered employers, those receiving federal funds and places of public accommodation such as restaurants and bus stations, prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race, religion and national origin.
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 protects the voting rights of minorities, while the Civil Rights Act of 1968 prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, religion, national origin and sex in the sale and rental of housing.
None of that legislation, though, covered people with disabilities. It wasn’t until the next decade when the country saw significant movement on disability rights. Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 prohibited discrimination on the basis of disability in federal programs and by recipients of federal financial assistance. In 1975, the Education for All Handicapped Children Act mandated that public schools accepting federal funds provide equal access to education for children with physical and mental disabilities. The act was revised and renamed the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act in 1990.
Although the 70s-era legislation was a start, it was the ADA that addressed discrimination against people with disabilities in many employment situations and public accommodations in the private sector. The bill’s effect wasn’t confined to the United States. According to Patrisha Wright, co-founder of the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund, the ADA served as the inspiration for the U.N. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and has prompted several other countries to pass similar legislation.
An unlikely champion
Although Bush championed the ADA’s passage, his support for disability rights legislation was something that few could have predicted. According to Lex Frieden, executive director of the National Council on the Handicapped, Bush had a major encounter with disability issues in the public sphere when then-President Ronald Reagan appointed him to oversee a task force that was working to weaken the Education for All Handicapped Children Act.
“Parents of kids with disabilities heard about that and began to call and write the White House and express their anger and angst to Vice President Bush,” Frieden told the Pacific Standard. “He was taken aback about that. He addressed his staff and told them back off [from gutting the EHCA].”
In addition, many in government were actively in favor of disability rights legislation, including then-Sen. Robert Dole of Kansas, who suffered wounds in World War II that left his right arm permanently disabled and his left arm minimally functional, and former White House Press Secretary James Brady, who was left partially paralyzed after being shot in March 1980 during John Hinckley’s assassination attempt on President Reagan. Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa, whose brother was deaf, was the chief sponsor of the ADA in the Senate.
“It’s been the work of a true coalition, a strong and inspiring coalition of people who have shared both a dream and a passionate determination to make that dream come true,” Bush said at the signing, according to the. “It’s been a coalition in the finest spirit—a joining of Democrats and Republicans, of the legislative and the executive branches, of federal and state agencies, of public officials and private citizens, of people with disabilities and without.”
Much left to be done
The ADA has remained controversial since its passage, garnering criticism for the barrage of lawsuits it has prompted over the years.
At the same time, much of the technology we use in our daily lives wasn’t even in existence in 1990, so many technology providers are working to accommodate those with disabilities despite vague and often-changing government guidance. In many cases, the kiosk industry is at the forefront of those efforts.
Kiosk manufacturers have long adhered to dimension standards to ensure their devices can be accessed by those in wheelchairs, and have included assistive technologies such as audio headset connections and the ability to adjust text size on displays. Over the past few years, companies such as Storm Interface have developed touchpads, voice recognition capabilities and other tools to make it easier for those with limited hand motion and other disabilities to access kiosks, while companies such as GestureTek have developed video gesture technologies that enable sight-impaired people to interact with touchscreens.
And not long ago, the Kiosk Manufacturers Association created a working group of kiosk manufacturers and other experts to help address usability and compliance issues.
So while every issue with ADA compliance when it comes to kiosks can’t be foreseen, and many are left to the courts to decide, the industry continues to work towards making self-service technology accessible by all.
Nearly 40 years ago, George H.W. Bush laid down a challenge to make the United States a place where people with disabilities wouldn’t be excluded from the conveniences of life we all enjoy. There’s still much to be done, but the kiosk industry is working every day to meet that challenge.
As self-service technology has continued to develop and evolve over the years, so has its demand and the ways in which it’s produced. As this transition has occurred, some manufacturers have opted to forego quality in order to increase their output quantity. What many forget or fail to understand, however, is that the two—quality and quantity—do not have to be mutually exclusive. Similarly, in an environment focused on quantity, having a quality-focused mindset can actually be a key differentiator for those looking to purchase and incorporate self-service solutions. Here are some parameters to consider to ensure that you receive a long-lasting, high-quality solution while in the market for your next self-service solution.
Menomonee Falls, WI: Connected Technology Solutions (CTS), the local kiosk manufacturer, closed their facilities and furloughed 95% of their staff starting Monday March 23rd due to concerns of the Coronavirus. With only current crisis-level staffing, the company intends to re-open operations in accordance with state and local directives.
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