[Tutor] Touch Screen

[Walter Prins]

Hi,

On 2 January 2012 18:07, Alan Gauld <alan.gauld at btinternet.com> wrote:
> There may be a few cash registers rthat implemenmt their own embedded
> hardware monitor but the cost of developing such a thing is so high
> (especially compared to Linux!) that most devices like that use a regular OS
> and just disguise it with a single app as the "desktop".

Just to add to what Alan's said, and with apologies if appropriate as
its arguably only tangentially relevant to your question, but you may
be interested to keep an eye on the "Raspberry Pi", a 25$ computer
(yes, $25) that's due for release in Jan 2012.  It will primarily use
Python as programming language although others will be supported. (Not
entirely suprising given that the OS is GNU/Linux.)  For more see
here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raspberry_Pi
http://articles.businessinsider.com/2011-12-28/tech/30564049_1_computer-broadcom-foundation
http://www.raspberrypi.org/faqs

It seems that for anyone who wants to build his own device on the
cheap from commodity hardware, something like this with a suitably
configured Linux distro and custom Python code makes such a project a
relative doddl.  One can easily imagine building this size of device
into a cash register sized shell, perhaps with a suitably sized
touchscreen and drawer hardware interface, to build your own cash
register.  (Re touchscreen's I'm thinking of something from ELO
perhaps, see: http://www.elotouch.com/Products/Touchscreens/default.asp
-- I have a friend who is working on a kiosk using a normal ITX PC
mobo and that uses an ELO screen with a GNU/Linux software stack
behind it, so that's definitely possible...)

Cheers,

Walter