DSA and IKE Smart City – Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Digital wayfinding kiosks are an important element of the Downtown Seattle Association (“DSA”) and the City of Seattle’s plans to revitalize and improve public connections within downtown.

We believe digital kiosks will provide a variety of benefits to pedestrians, like wayfinding — including navigation, transit service, and mapping features — as well as weather information, public service announcements, and information about nearby and city-wide attractions. The kiosks also include emergency call buttons and free, public Wi-Fi access. These amenities will be delivered to the City at no cost to the City or DSA, and the program will generate significant revenues for DSA and other BIAs to reinvest back into the community.

This FAQ document answers various questions around the program which have arisen regarding the IKE program envisioned for Seattle.

General Information

What is IKE?

The Interactive Kiosk Experience (IKE) is an interactive wayfinding kiosk platform that provides real-time, local information to visitors and residents seeking to explore and discover the City of Seattle.

What are the benefits of IKE?

IKE is a 1-to-1 communication medium for the City and DSA that promotes real-time public information, including Public Service Announcements (PSAs), community messaging, local events, weather and emergency alerts. IKE also supports local business through location-specific directories, access to social services resources and information, free access to local 9-1-1, free Wi-Fi, free real-time transit and multi-modal trip planning information, among others.

What are the physical dimensions of the interactive wayfinding kiosks?

IKE kiosks are 8.3ft tall, 3.2 feet wide and 1.5ft deep (8.3ft H x 3.2 ft W x 1.5ft D).

Proposed Seattle IKE Program

How many kiosks are being proposed to be installed within the City?

Kiosks are anticipated to be deployed in two phases. Phase I will consist of 30 kiosks throughout downtown. If selected by the City, an additional phase of 50 kiosks will be deployed at a later date; 30 throughout downtown and 20 within the surrounding BIAs.

How will the kiosk locations be selected?

Kiosks will only be sited within commercial areas and in no event will kiosks be sited in purely residential areas. IKE Smart City, the Downtown Seattle Association, and the City will work to identify potential kiosk locations with input from community stakeholders, local businesses, local neighborhood groups and tribes, and tourism entities.

Who pays for the kiosks?

IKE Smart City installs, maintains, and operates the kiosks at no cost to the City or its taxpayers.

How are the kiosks maintained?

IKE Smart City utilizes a local team that routinely inspects the kiosks at least five times per week. The local team ensures kiosks maintain optimal performance and functionality, and that kiosks remain clean of graffiti/markings/scratches/etching. Should a kiosk sustain damage, the location is secured and reportedly immediately, and remedied within 24-48 hours.

How is the program funded?

Initial investment into the program is entirely borne by IKE Smart City. Ongoing operations, maintenance and software improvements are funded by the display of advertising on the IKE kiosks. In addition, a portion of the revenues generated by the advertisements shown on the kiosks are shared with the Downtown Seattle Association and with the City to invest back into the local community.

How much money will be generated for DSA and/or the City by the program?

It is anticipated that over $1 million dollars on average will be generated for DSA over the life of the initial term of the program for Phase I of the program. If the City opts into Phase II of the program, it is anticipated to receive similar revenues—in addition to the revenues generated for DSA.

What will DSA do with the money it receives from the program?

DSA will invest revenue into programs and services to enhance the downtown public realm consistent with the goals and objectives outlined in the ordinance that established the Metropolitan Improvement District. These expenditures could include additional cleaning services, outreach, park activation, events and promotion of downtown. Each June, the 35 member MID advisory board will recommend to the Director of the Office of Economic Development the specific use of the revenues within the MID’s annual budget that is reviewed by the city.

Kiosk Content

How is the kiosk content managed and who manages it?

When each kiosk is not in use, the two interactive touch screens on each kiosk rotate through eight content slides – each slide is 10 seconds long and in equal duration. These slides show a mix of commercial, community and arts content. IKE Smart City manages the advertising that appears on each kiosk in accordance with the content restrictions set out in the contract between IKE Smart City and the Downtown Seattle Association and in the City approval documents for the program. In addition to this paid content, the Downtown Seattle Association and the City shall provide local content for display at no charge, which is used to promote city-wide events, local small business content, and PSA messaging. In addition, IKE Smart City and the Downtown Seattle Association have developed a robust Digital Public Art program that partners with local, regional, and national arts institutions, along with commissioning local artists to provide digital art content on the kiosks.

What types of advertising appear on the kiosk?

Advertising only appears on the slide show content loop that occupies the entire kiosk screen when the kiosks are in “passive mode” or not in use. When in use, the slide show loop resizes to the top 1/3 of the screen area, and the remaining 2/3rds screen area displays the interactive applications of the kiosk—there are no advertisements within the interactive content (e.g., applications, directory listings). The advertising content displayed on the content loop of the kiosks is a mix of national and local advertisers. We do offer a lower rate than national advertisers to local Seattle businesses to make this form of promotion more affordable for small and local businesses. Any local organization interested in advertising on the kiosk can reach out to our sales team at salesinquiry@ikesmartcity.com for more information.

Do local businesses have to pay to be shown on the kiosk directories?

No, local businesses and institutions that show in the directory listings when the kiosks are in use do not pay to be in the kiosk application directories. Listings are complimentary and are organized based on proximity to the kiosk(s).

How much city content will appear on the kiosks when in passive mode?

City content will permanently occupy 1 of every 8 slides in the passive mode loop, which amounts to 12.5% of all programming time. In addition to this guaranteed slide, IKE Smart City will give the City and DSA the opportunity to program any unsold inventory, which on an annual basis will equal a minimum of 25%. All slides in the content loop will run continuously throughout the course of each day, and no content will be relegated to display during off-peak hours (for example, no content slides will run solely at night or other off-peak hours). This flexible approach allows IKE and DSA to monetize the program while also ensuring that City and community are guaranteed a significant portion of programming time. In addition to this time, none of the interactive or “active mode” features will feature paid advertising.

Privacy

Does IKE collect and sell user data?

No. IKE Smart City does not collect or sell personally identifiable information or any other data of any type. IKE’s business model is straightforward, and the only revenue generated from the program is from a limited amount of advertising available on the kiosk itself.

Is any other data collected by IKE?

IKE collects usage analytics data only. We record which applications are opened and for how long, and we keep an anonymous tally of user visits to each kiosk. This information—which is fully anonymized and doesn’t allow us to identify any user specifically—is used solely to help us improve and test kiosk applications and features.

Will the Seattle kiosks include cameras?

The Seattle IKE kiosks may include a selfie camera as part of our “Photo Booth” application only. The Photo Booth feature requires users to manually activate the camera functionality, which captures photos only and is not active unless the functionality is engaged by a user. Once taken, photos are not stored on the kiosk or retained by IKE.

Is the Photo Booth application operated by a third party?

No. The Photo Booth application is powered by IKE’s proprietary software and does not involve a third-party service provider. Once a photo is taken through Photo Booth, users can have these images delivered to their mobile devices via IKE’s mobile hand-off feature, which is further described below.

IKE’s privacy policy mentions security cameras—are those included in the Seattle proposal?

No. The Seattle kiosks will not be equipped with any security cameras. In contrast, certain IKE Smart City partner cities have opted to have IKE kiosks equipped with security cameras, which can be used in partnership with local authorities to resolve incidents adjacent to the kiosk. Our Seattle proposal does not include this functionality—the kiosks proposed in Seattle would not be equipped with these cameras, and we expect that the authorizing legislation would prohibit these cameras from later being installed absent clear direction from the City Council to do so in compliance with local Seattle privacy laws.

Are any third-party applications incorporated into the IKE platform?

All of the IKE applications rely on proprietary software developed in-house. Some user interactions (which are always anonymous) may involve third-party service providers as summarized below:

- Free Wi-Fi: IKE offers free public Wi-Fi to those near each kiosk. If a user chooses to connect to the IKE Wi-Fi network, a device ID is shared with the IKE kiosk for the sole purpose of establishing the connection to the Wi-Fi, which is powered by our carrier T-Mobile. IKE Smart City does not retain or store this device ID data—it’s automatically removed from the kiosk as soon as the user deactivates the connection or exceeds the Wi-Fi range. This data is not shared with T-Mobile, which can only see the IKE router ID and not the IDs of connected devices.

- Mobile Hand-off: Most of IKE’s applications—such as Eat & Drink, Get Around, Photo Booth, and others—allow a user to take information displayed on the kiosk with them on the go, such as mapped out directions or a restaurant listing. Users can have this information delivered to their mobile device by scanning a QR code displayed on the kiosk. In a prior version of mobile hand-off, users could also input their phone numbers into the kiosk and have the information texted to their mobile device. The new version of our software used the QR Code handoff only and this is what will be used in our proposed Seattle deployment. We have never used either of these handoff-to-phone protocols for anything other than sharing the information requested by the user.

Has IKE ever had a data or security breach?

No. We take great care to prevent against such incidents by using best-in-class encryption and security features, and we have never had a security or data incident.

Where can I find more information on IKE’s privacy policy?

More information can be found on IKE’s website, linked here: https://www.ikesmartcity.com/documents/en/privacy-policy.html

Accessibility

Are the kiosks ADA compliant?

IKE kiosks are fully ADA compliant and follow all applicable ADA laws as required. Each kiosk is designed, constructed, and installed to allot for proper space and access for users who may use wheelchairs and features a mobile hand-off accessibility feature for those with low vision or visual impairments. The kiosk also provides visual text contrast and size adjustments for those with low vision or visual impairments.

Are IKE kiosks wheelchair accessible?

Yes. Each kiosk is engineered and constructed to meet accessibility requirements for those users in wheelchairs. All kiosk locations meet ADA slope requirements, turning space requirements, height and reach requirements – including the on-screen capability to lower the screen for application access and access to the 9-1-1 emergency call button.

Can visually impaired users utilize the kiosks?

Yes. All IKE kiosks in Seattle are equipped with a mobile hand-off accessibility feature. In collaboration with the National Federation of the Blind, IKE Smart City developed a proprietary mobile hand-off solution for visually impaired users to have the kiosk features and functionalities accessible in a familiar way on their mobile device via a braille plaque on the kiosk spine with a QR Code that is scannable with a smart phone. The kiosks also offer text size and contrast adjustments.

Is the IKE kiosk content available in multiple languages?

Yes. The kiosk content has multilingual kiosk capability, with kiosk content available in up to 100 languages. IKE uses human interpreters to translate key interface elements to ensure they are correct and contextual to avoid cultural misrepresentations. Each kiosk can be programmed to reflect predominant languages spoken within the City of Seattle.

Lighting & Sound

How bright are the kiosk screens? How will this lighting be controlled?

Each kiosk is equipped with two, double-sided LED screens that are backlit. Maximum brightness during daytime conditions when sunlight is directly on the kiosk screen equals 4,000 nits. At night, kiosks typically operate a brightness level of 200-300 nits, which is akin to the brightness of a typical laptop screen or monitor. Each kiosk is equipped with ambient light sensors that automatically adjust the screen to ensure comfortable brightness levels at all times, and IKE Smart City maintains the ability to manually adjust kiosks on a unit-by-unit basis.

Will the kiosks make noise or sounds?

No. The kiosks do not emit any sounds or noise.