Need suggestions for touch-screen data collection system

[Scott Nelson]

Steve Wiltsie wrote:

>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
>
>
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>
>  
>

One solution is using web technology to do touch screen, using  fPweb,
Apache server, some html and
javascript on top of filePro.  I have used this to creat a portable
Touch Screen filePro order entry process,
and it has provided my customer substantial growth.

Feel free to contact me if you want to see the app or some code.

Scott Nelson
Logic Data Systems