Need suggestions for touch-screen data collection system

[Steve Wiltsie]

I have a customer running filePro 5.x on an SCO OpenServer system that I
have been working with for quite some time.  The company is a manufacturer
of large items and their plant areas are not heated very well and not cooled
at all.  They are using mostly networked PCs to connect to the Unix system
with a few serial terminals still in operation.  All PCs and terminals are
in the office building.

They are wanting me to investigate the possibility of installing
touch-screen data collection stations similar to what you see for waiters in
a restaurant - a touch data input screen with a card reader attached.   The
cards would be used to identify the worker and the item being worked on.
The touch screen program would need to prompt for the department and job.
The cards would have to be barcoded rather than magnetic due to the amount
of welding done in the plants.  This would be used to clock the employees in
and out of the various jobs they work on during the day and as a time clock.

I'm not planning to have filePro produce the touch-screen display but rather
use the PC based software with the collection stations to accumulate the
data and then transfer it to the Unix system as an ASCII file at the end of
the day.

My question to this group is to see if any of you have any experience with a
hardware/software combination that may apply to this need.  The current plan
would be to get one for testing at first and then additional units as
needed.  As you might imagine, the hardware would have to stand up to heat
up to 100 degrees and cold down to around freezing.  If needed, we could put
the equipment in enclosures that could be kept above a minimum temperature
but cooling them would be out of the question.

Oh, following along with the recent discussion - I don't think fingerprint
recognition would be usable here because of the gloves and/or dirty fingers
that would be involved.

Thanks for any suggestions you may have.

Steve Wiltsie
microCONCEPTS Div. multi/user/inc.        Since 1981
(812) 474-0127                             Fax: (812) 474-0147