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Abstract

Our improved automated disc kiosks are designed with two purposes in mind: to improve the inventory management and agility of current automated media rental services and to simplify and consolidate the storage and distribution of installation media in an IT environment. The kiosks combine the ability to store and dispense optical discs (CDs, DVDs, Blu-Ray Discs, etc.) with the ability to burn newer content pushed out via a network connection from a company’s servers. Designed and built with commonly available components to minimize costs, the prototype consists of a Digilent Zybo FPGA board powered by a Xilinx processor. A tablet is used simply as a touchscreen monitor connected to the Zybo. A CD drive with burning capabilities, a label printer, and an external hard drive are all connected via USB. Finally, the internal mechanisms, including the various servos, are connected directly to the Zybo’s I/O ports. Rental companies can benefit from these kiosks by reducing or even eliminating the number of workers and vehicles needed to restock machines and redistribute existing inventory. Each kiosk can report its current inventory to a management system, through which licenses for new media may be purchased or re-assigned and a disc containing the content can be created by the kiosk. This means an end to running out of a certain movie or game. Demand and predictive algorithms will determine where media is distributed. Finally, older titles can be overwritten to make space for newer content, all without the need for a person to service each kiosk. IT departments throughout various industries still rely on disc media to install major systems and applications; our kiosks provide an easy way to maintain a catalog of software which is easily accessible and compatible with existing technologies. Employees no longer need to keep huge binders full of CDs, with duplicates between many. A central kiosk can store those discs and burn new ones from images, all in a single hassle-free device.

Publication Date

2015

Keywords

electrical and computer engineering, disc kiosks

Disciplines

Electrical and Computer Engineering | Engineering

Faculty Advisor/Mentor

Carl Elks

Faculty Advisor/Mentor

Robert Klenke

VCU Capstone Design Expo Posters

Rights

© The Author(s)

Date of Submission

August 2015

Automated Disc Kiosks

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