Self-service kiosks are well known for viewing personal photos, e-mailing personal photos, photo printing, photo editing, and the like. Perhaps most popular are self-service imaging kiosks which allow users to obtain photographic prints from digital media, to edit and customize their prints. Digital media readers in the kiosks allow users to download pictures from virtually any digital camera or flash media card. Such a kiosk typically includes a housing constructed of a durable material that will be able to withstand extended use and a variety of environmental conditions in which the reader and other digital imaging equipment is located. Typically, the readers are able to read digital media of multiple formats and include a plurality of standard slots for receiving such digital media, such as Type III PC cards, CompactFlash, SmartMedia, MultiMedia Card, Secure Digital and Memory Stick.
For many of these media, particularly CompactFlash, the reader's internal connector is frequently damaged due to the very frequent insertion and unplugging of the user's digital media or due to misuse, such as inserting the wrong digital media in a reader slot. The maintenance of such readers is expensive and time consuming because it requires the intervention of trained technicians that have to repair and reinstall the reader in the enclosure.
The problem of damaged digital media slots in kiosk-based readers has become a serious and expensive problem for operators and owners of self-service imaging kiosks and a simple, inexpensive and rapidly implemented solution is sorely needed.