Interactive kiosk for displaying a code that is imaged by a portable electronic to cause the portable electronic device to perform an operation and method thereof

A method of communicating with a portable electronic device, the method comprising:

• receiving, with an interface of a kiosk that is supported by a base installed in a public setting, user input corresponding to content requested by a user;
• accessing, with at least one computer processor, information stored by a non-transitory computer-readable medium, wherein accessing the information comprises locally retrieving a portion of the information from the non-transitory computer-readable medium that is locally installed in the kiosk and is supported by the base at the public setting;
• generating, with the at least one computer processor, an output comprising a computer-readable code encoding the content requested by the user;
• and
• displaying, with a computer display device operatively connected to the at least one computer processor, the output including the computer-readable code in a manner to be captured by an optical imaging device provided to the portable electronic device, wherein the computer-readable code encodes data conveyed to the portable electronic device optically in an anonymous manner, and wherein the computer-readable code included in the displayed output is interpretable by the portable electronic device as a result of being captured to cause the portable electronic device to execute computer-executable instructions stored by the portable electronic device to perform an operation corresponding to the computer-readable code, wherein the computer-readable code causes the portable electronic device to perform the operation based on capturing of the computer-readable code without requiring communicating to the kiosk contact information of the portable electronic device and without requiring communicating to the kiosk personal information of the user such that the portable electronic device interacts with the kiosk anonymously.

A kiosk that communicates with a portable electronic device, the kiosk comprising:

• a base constructed for installation in a public setting;
• an interface that is supportable by the base, and receives user input corresponding to content requested by a user;
• a control system comprising at least one computer processor that, as a result of executing computer-accessible instructions, causes the control system to access information stored by a non-transitory computer memory and generate an output comprising a computer-readable code related to the content requested by the user, wherein the non-transitory computer memory locally stores at least a portion of the information accessed by the at least one computer processor, at the kiosk, to generate the output comprising the computer-readable code;
• and
• a display device operatively connected to the control system to graphically display the computer-readable code in a manner to be captured by an optical imaging device provided to the portable electronic device, wherein the computer-readable code encodes data conveyed to the portable electronic device optically in an anonymous manner, and wherein the computer-readable code is interpreted by the portable electronic device as a result of being captured by the optical imaging device, causing the portable electronic device to execute computer-executable instructions stored by the portable electronic device to perform an operation corresponding to the computer-readable code, wherein the computer-readable code causes the portable electronic device to perform the operation without requiring the portable electronic device to transmit data to the kiosk, and without requiring communicating to the kiosk contact information of the portable electronic device and without requiring communicating to the kiosk personal information of the user such that the portable electronic device interacts with the kiosk anonymously.