What are these airport opinion kiosks all about?

You might have seen some automated opinion solicitation stands at the airport recently and wondered what they’re all about. I’ve seen the kiosk devices at Los Angeles International Airport in California and Dulles International Airport in Northern Virginia and possibly elsewhere.
They are white plastic stands with big buttons featuring emojis to register your satisfaction with certain aspects of using the airport. For instance, one had a sign reading “How was your boarding experience today?”
Below the sign is a pad with four buttons with smiley and frowny faces – signifying very satisfied, satisfied, unsatisfied and very unsatisfied.
I can’t imagine the data gathered from these devices would be very useful. Boarding a United flight out of LAX on Friday, there were children in front of me who pounded the colored buttons like it was a game. Also, I think people would be much more motivated to hit the “very unsatisfied” button, possibly repeatedly, than satisfied people, who would likely just ignore the device.
It’s possible that the device acts as a placebo for unhappy customers. They hit the device when they’re unhappy, feel like their opinion has been heard and are less likely to follow up with an angry Twitter rant or email to the airline.
The devices are trademarked as HappyOrNot Smiley Terminals. The company behind them, HappyOrNot of Tampere, Finland, says it has over 4,000 clients in 117 countries and has recorded over half a billion responses to date.

Photos: HappyOrNot Smiley Terminals at LAX. (Patrick Seitz)