[ Cape Town, 20 August 2008 ] - IT solutions and services provider, Datacentrix, won the tender to supply almost 900 Engen Petroleum Limited service stations across the country with new point of sale (POS) hardware.

Engen is currently rolling out approximately 1 800, HP PC desktops with Elo touch screens. This implementation is in line with Engen’s five-year hardware replacement plan.

Says Japie Muller, Engen’s IT marketing manager: “The HP equipment has proven to have an extremely low failure rate. We went out to tender with a strong set of criteria for these devices, as the hardware needed to be robust enough to be able to withstand extreme heat, dust and fatty kitchen conditions and be guarded against negligent bumps. These units were put through extreme testing for a length of time, after which our decision was made.

“Essentially, we were looking for a solution that could reduce our maintenance costs,” he explains.

The touch monitor is designed, developed and built to provide resilience, reduce clutter and for ease of configuration.

Datacentrix is proud of the relationship with Engen, and the extended five-year warranty fits in well with Engen’s replacement plan programme. This will provide Engen with a robust product that will drastically reduce maintenance costs.

Says Dale Hesketh-Mare, account manager at Datacentrix: “Our status as an HP partner speaks for itself. Datacentrix is the largest value partner and is a Preferred HP Partner, with a direct contract with HP across its entire range of hardware products. In addition, the company garnered several awards at last year’s HP Channel Awards, including the title for ‘Enterprise Reseller with the Highest Revenue across All Business Units’, and top position as the reseller holding the most certifications.

“These awards reflect Datacentrix’s strong positioning within the local market and are a significant endorsement of the value the company brings to its partnership with HP. Our HP-focused approach to market and heavy skills investment over the past few years has enabled us to enjoy continued success in growing our local customer base, with companies like Engen enjoying great accomplishments with HP solutions.”

The Elo TouchSystems 1900L and 2200L LCD touch monitor features a zero-bezel design, which removes the frame found on traditional computer screens. The company said the seamless glass surface will help enhance the high-definition experience for its users.

“One of our principal goals was to make our new touchscreens look less like computer monitors and more like a design element in the customer environment,” James Witkowski, product manager on the Elo TouchSystems monitor, said.

The monitors are geared toward use in high-traffic retail, hospitality and other public environments. Integrated VGA and DVI video-input ports, touch-interface USB, AC-DC power and audio headphone jacks are mounted on the bottom of the monitor and are invisible to the user.

Touch-screen monitors have become more and more commonplace as their price has steadily dropped over the past decade. There are three basic systems that are used to recognize a person’s touch:

• Resistive
• Capacitive
• Surface acoustic wave

The resistive system consists of a normal glass panel that is covered with a conductive and a resistive metallic layer. These two layers are held apart by spacers, and a scratch-resistant layer is placed on top of the whole setup. An electrical current runs through the two layers while the monitor is operational. When a user touches the screen, the two layers make contact in that exact spot. The change in the electrical field is noted and the coordinates of the point of contact are calculated by the computer. Once the coordinates are known, a special driver translates the touch into something that the operating system can understand, much as a computer mouse driver translates a mouse’s movements into a click or a drag.

In the capacitive system, a layer that stores electrical charge is placed on the glass panel of the monitor. When a user touches the monitor with his or her finger, some of the charge is transferred to the user, so the charge on the capacitive layer decreases. This decrease is measured in circuits located at each corner of the monitor. The computer calculates, from the relative differences in charge at each corner, exactly where the touch event took place and then relays that information to the touch-screen driver software. One advantage that the capacitive system has over the resistive system is that it transmits almost 90 percent of the light from the monitor, whereas the resistive system only transmits about 75 percent. This gives the capacitive system a much clearer picture than the resistive system.

On the monitor of a surface acoustic wave system, two transducers (one receiving and one sending) are placed along the x and y axes of the monitor’s glass plate. Also placed on the glass are reflectors — they reflect an electrical signal sent from one transducer to the other. The receiving transducer is able to tell if the wave has been disturbed by a touch event at any instant, and can locate it accordingly. The wave setup has no metallic layers on the screen, allowing for 100-percent light throughput and perfect image clarity. This makes the surface acoustic wave system best for displaying detailed graphics (both other systems have significant degradation in clarity).

Another area in which the systems differ is in which stimuli will register as a touch event. A resistive system registers a touch as long as the two layers make contact, which means that it doesn’t matter if you touch it with your finger or a rubber ball. A capacitive system, on the other hand, must have a conductive input, usually your finger, in order to register a touch. The surface acoustic wave system works much like the resistive system, allowing a touch with almost any object — except hard and small objects like a pen tip.

As far as price, the resistive system is the cheapest; its clarity is the lowest of the three, and its layers can be damaged by sharp objects. The surface acoustic wave setup is usually the most expensive.

The market for touch screens has grown quietly for years, both in commercial applications like restaurant point-of-sale systems, credit card signature readers or automated teller machines, and in consumer devices like global positioning systems and game platforms. But touch screens haven’t created much excitement as the main way for people to use things like phones or computers or other consumer electronics — until now.

“Apple changed everybody’s mind about touch,” says Geoff Walker, global director of product management at Tyco Electronics’ Elo TouchSystems unit, a big seller of touch screens. That iPhone users can so easily resize photos with just a pinch or a flick of their fingertips is “supercool,” he says.

In particular, Apple changed minds about what is called multitouch technology. A multitouch screen is exactly what it sounds like: a screen that can accept input from multiple touches at once. If you haven’t seen an iPhone in action, you might have seen CNN commentators zipping around the “Magic Wall” during election coverage; the wall uses technology developed by Perceptive Pixel, a start-up in New York.

Apple uses multitouch screens in which a slight electrical charge reacts to the human body’s own electrical field, rather than pressure. There are other kinds of multitouch technology, but all are among the more expensive types of touch technology, industry observers say. High prices had caused multitouch to languish before the iPhone’s introduction.

But the success of the iPhone has encouraged other companies to explore multitouch screens. It might follow that if people like using their fingers on the screen of a cellphone, they would like it even better on the bigger displays of computers. That’s the hope of N-trig (pronounced “intrigue”), an eight-year-old Israeli company that makes a multitouch screen that can be used with a pen as well a finger.

The ability to work with both convinced Dell to put the N-trig screen into the Latitude XT, a hybrid computer that’s smaller than a laptop but bigger than a tablet model. N-trig’s ability to respond to multitouch made it possible to use a finger as a mouse and a pen to write messages.

“We don’t use finger paint on our desks to write notes,” says Roy Stedman, a technology strategist at Dell. Mr. Stedman envisions things like using one finger to “hold” a folder and another to flick e-mail messages into it, or adjusting the volume on a PC by “twisting” a knob instead of mousing over it.

N-trig is feeling invigorated by the iPhone. “During the latter part of 2006, I had this success with Dell, but other manufacturers said ‘Touch, we don’t know,’ ” says Amihai Ben-David, the chief executive of N-trig. Then came the January 2007 announcement of the iPhone, and those same companies started calling him.

He says the company’s screens will appear next year on a notebook computer, a PC and a new type of phone. Just Wednesday, Intel showed off an N-trig screen in a concept computer it calls the UrbanMax.

Mr. Ben-David says that as costs of multitouch screens fall over the next five years, most mobile devices will shift to the screens.

But Joseph W. Deal, the president and C.E.O. of Wacom Technology, which makes touch screens and electronic input tools and recently announced its own multitouch technology, issues a caution. He has been in the industry for 15 years, long enough to have seen other touch technologies fail to make it into the mainstream. For multitouch to succeed, he said, “the cost is going to have to come down substantially.”

INDUSTRY analysts also say it might take years for multitouch technology to take hold. Even in the cellphone market, it’s likely that touch screens of all types will be on only 30 percent of phones by 2013, according to iSuppli, the market researcher.

Roger L. Kay, president of the technology researcher Endpoint Technologies Associates, says he thinks that perhaps 10 percent of mobile computing devices will have touch screens by then, about one-third multitouch. He says that touch as a general-purpose technology “is still in its infancy.”

The problem isn’t doubts about the hardware, once costs drop. Instead, says John Jacobs, director of notebook market research at DisplaySearch, it’s a lack of software designed to work well with touch. For instance, few applications are written to support multitouch, he says.

That could change if Microsoft delivers on multitouch technology that it has demonstrated and says will be in Windows 7, the next version of Windows, due in 2010. Such a move could galvanize software developers. Microsoft might also be able to spearhead a software standard that makes it easier for touch-enabled applications to work on the myriad kinds of touch technology.

In the meantime, some specialized consumer applications are likely to adopt multitouch technology, like casino gambling and other games. Imagine moving checkers or Scrabble tiles on a screen with your fingers.

Such applications may help touch technology overcome a classic chicken-and-egg problem. “A lot of people don’t realize they want it until they use it,” Mr. Stedman says.

Vertical Systems Reseller Magazine

VARs looking to hit the ground running within the hospitality vertical – and reap the benefit of increased profits – would be well-served to use touch-screen sales as ammunition. The category is experiencing many new innovations on the technology front, and new applications for both restaurants and hotels are also on the horizon.

 ”The touch-screen market is exploding,” states Bryan Griffin, vice president of operations at Advanced Business Products, an Orlando, Fla.-based VAR. Griffin says more and more of his company’s customers, even small restaurant operators that traditionally have gravitated toward “standard $800 cash registers,” are expressing interest in migrating to a touch-screen platform.

The VAR attributes this trend to several factors, most significantly lower hardware prices and increased ease of use. “A two-terminal system that once cost $10,000 to $12,000 can now be purchased for less than $10,000, including a few remote printers; a terminal that previously had a price of $5,000 is currently about $3,499,” Griffin observes. “At the same time, the software is more menu-driven and simpler to maintain. Just as important, it requires less cross-training of employees. Someone who comes from a national restaurant chain to work at an independent restaurant can be up and running on a program within minutes, versus hours or more in the past.”

A Steady Pulse
Among the most recent developments in touch screens and touch-screen operation is the introduction of proprietary acoustic pulse recognition (APR) technology by Elo TouchSystems, a unit of Tyco Electronics. APR assembly comprises a glass display overlay or other rigid substrate, with four piezoelectric transducers mounted on two diagonally opposite corners of the back surface, out of the visible area and connected via a flexible cable to a controller card. Impact that occurs when the screen is touched, or friction caused when a user drags a finger or stylus across the glass, creates an acoustic wave. These signals are amplified in the controller card and converted into a digital stream of data. The touch location is determined by comparing the data to a stored sound profile, and the cursor position is instantly updated to that location. Ambient and extraneous sounds that do not match this profile are rejected.

 ”The advantage of APR is that it combines the best of other touch-screen technologies,” asserts John Dittig, Elo TouchSystems’ national sales manager for North America. This includes the high optical quality, durability and stability of surface acoustic wave (SAW) and infrared technologies; the ability to accommodate finger-dragging found in capacitive technology and the stylus, glove and fingernail activation and low cost of resistive technology. APR is resistant to water and other contaminants on the screen and can be scaled from PDA to 42-inch displays.

APR also utilizes a simple table lookup method, rather than powerful, expensive signal processing hardware, to calculate touch location without any references, and no re-calibration is necessary. Consequently, Dittig notes, the technology is not economically limited to large displays, and VARs can offer their customers the value-added option of migrating to it at the same price they would pay for touch screens that utilize resistive technology. Elo TouchSystems makes APR available in all-in-one and desktop displays, as well as in panel-mounted touch screens for kiosk applications.

Despite its advantages, APR has yet to garner widespread acceptance.  However, the tides are rapidly starting to turn as more potential end users begin to understand its nuances, notes Joe Bushey, president and CEO of POS World, an Atlanta-based VAR.            

“We’re starting to recommend it for most applications, due to its versatility and the high degree of brightness and clarity,” Bushey says. He believes a portion of APR implementation has been hindered by the fact that the technology works only with Windows XP and USB drivers. Once other drivers are released, a surge of growth is likely to occur, Bushey predicts.

Like Bushey, Jeff Yelton, who is president of ScanSource North America’s POS and Barcoding unit, sees APR technology implementation on the upswing, but also counsels VARs to ensure that restaurant operators, hoteliers and other end users have adequate training programs in place before installation is under way. “It’s easy to see the advantage of APR, but employees who have memorized the sequences of older touch screens will need to be conditioned to the way the technology works” based on sound profiles, he explains.

Catching the Wave
Also making news within the touch-screen category is the advent of a wider range of models in different sizes to suit the needs of specific verticals, as well as to meld with varying activation preferences. This product selection includes SAW touch screens, which can be activated only with a finger, feature glass overlays and work via the conversion of electrical signals into surface waves, and resistive touch screens, which have thin mylar rather than glass overlays and may be activated using a finger or any object.

For example, Planar Systems, recently expanded its PT line – the company’s PT LCD touch-screen display units now include three SAW models – the 15-inch PT1505MU, the 17-inch PT1705MU and 19-inch PT1915MU. The company’s 19-inch PT1910MX rounds out its current suite of resistive touch monitors. Planar has also started to offer a card swipe reader as an accessory to all PT displays or as an integrated feature with the 15-inch PT1550MX and PT155MU, available as resistive or SAW products, respectively.

Matt Walsh, Planar’s sales manager, North America for touch monitors and thin-client network displays, says these offerings also incorporate specific enhancements designed to improve end user interface, such as the ability to adjust the monitor position from -5 degrees to 90 degrees (to accommodate user preferences), a rugged desk-stand to minimize accidental tipping, placement of the on-screen display buttons on the side, and an on-screen display locking mechanism to prevent unauthorized setting changes.

Walsh predicts the 15-inch models with integrated magnetic stripe readers will comprise the “sweet spot” of many hospitality applications. “Space constraints are a big concern among (players) in this vertical, and both the smaller size and the integrated peripheral” play into it, he states.

Pioneer POS is also focusing on flexible touch-screen options. Among  the company’s newest introductions are the StealthTouch-M5 15-inch all-in-one touch computer and also the TOM-M5 15-inch touch monitor, both of which are recommended for hospitality applications. The StealthTouch-M5 can run in thin-client mode, utilizing solid-state disk or compact flash with embedded Windows. It can also be configured to run Windows XP or Vista. The unit supports resistive, SAW and infrared touch-screen technologies. Additional features include Wi-Fi wireless network, credit card reader, biometric fingerprint reader and an integrated customer display.

Similarly, the TOM-M5 has an integrated magnetic stripe reader, biometric reader and customer display, as well as a built-in USB hub that yields four additional USB ports for connections to keyboards, barcode scanners and printers. Mountable on a wall or VESA pole, and available as an all-in-one touch monitor, it, too, supports resistive, SAW as well as infrared touch-screen
technologies.

 ”We have seen a lot of interest in infrared because anything will activate it, the cost sits between resistive and SAW,” says Michael Flores, director of business development for Pioneer POS. “Additionally, with SAW, there can be a problem of a finger shorting out the signal. This is not an issue with infrared.”

Still, other vendors are working to develop resistive touch-screen panels that do not scratch as easily as their earlier counterparts, are sealable and stand up to tough input conditions – including heavy usage at the point of sale. Fujitsu Components America currently utilizes a flexible, transparent touch conductor to provide a more durable, yet cost-efficient touch surface, according to Bruce DeVisser, the company’s product marketing manager, input devices. This has been made possible by the release of an organic, conductive polymer film DeVisser deems sufficiently flexible and durable to extend touch panel life by five times. “The manufacturing process is also improved: Instead of being sputtered on, a very thin layer of liquid polymer solution, combined with a water-based solvent, is roll-coated onto the touch panel’s polyethylene terephthalate (PET) film.”

Self-Serve Information
Although touch screens continue as a major component of POS systems implemented in the hospitality vertical and are also being used for self-ordering and nutrition information dissemination in quick-service restaurants, the roster of applications for the hardware in this segment has begun to expand even further. “Self-service touch-screen kiosk applications are a good example,” says Alan Sweet, general manager of Lynbrook, N.Y.-based distributor Metropolitan Sales. He says smaller hotels are starting to seriously consider emulating their larger counterparts in installing touch-screen kiosks for guest check-in and check-out.

“They know consumers are coming to expect it, given the way it has taken off in the airline industry,” Sweet observes.

Sweet predicts that in the near future, restaurants will want to implement tabletop touch-screen ordering systems consumers can use to transmit their own orders to the kitchen. Besides time and labor savings, the appeal here will be the possibility of garnering new revenue streams from co-op advertising agreements with local businesses that may be willing to showcase their products and services on touch-screens when they are not in use.

Similarly, Fujitsu’s DeVisser notes, some developers are working on applications that meld touch-screen technology with handheld devices used to alert restaurant patrons when their tables are ready. With the technology in place, customers will be able to browse through menus, learn about specials and possibly view co-op advertising.

Penn Center Systems West, a provider of integrated solutions headquartered in Mechanicsburg, Penn., is experiencing success with a touch-screen application that lets bar patrons obtain information about 60 on-tap beers before ordering them, notes Mark Dodson, the company’s sales manager. Another touch-screen application that gives kitchen staff menu-driven access to recipes and images of how individual items should be arranged on plates is equally popular. Both applications are built with POSitouch technology.

There’s also been an increase in the use of touch-enabled digital signage and large format directional screens for restaurant employees, specifically as it relates to human resources applications. “Restaurant employees will be able to access (via touch screen) their own information and make scheduling requests via touch screen,” says Bushey of POS World. “Touchscreens are a great category for the channel, and we’re only at the beginning of the application development spectrum.” 

Vertical Systems Reseller Magazine

The point of sale is getting smaller. All-in-one terminals, embraced early in hospitality, are growing in popularity among retailers for their small footprint, clean, cable-free aesthetics and easy installation – they can even be mounted on a wall. Sacrifices once made in serviceability and performance have largely been eliminated through improved design, and more software now offers the required touch-screen interface.

All-in-ones are now a foregone conclusion,” says Larry Sampey, general manager of Casio’s Electronic Cash Register Division.

All-in-ones — defined for our purposes as integrated touch screen and processor (see sidebar article on page 28) – still aren’t right for every application. Heavy data entry demands a keyboard – though some use keyboards with their all-in-ones. And modular pieces and parts solutions are the best bet for picking your own components or being open to run several different applications and peripherals.

Here are some trends in all-in-ones that are causing some VARs to reconsider their earlier perceptions of the form factor:

1. Serviceability. With all of that technology jammed into a small space, all-in-ones have been perceived as difficult to service. That’s changed with modular designs that put more commonly replaced parts such as hard drives and motherboards behind secure thumbscrews. On NCR’s RealPOS 70, “the display opens up like a car hood to provide easy access to internal components,” says Bob Doles, RealPOS product line director for NCR.

“In the past you had to do depot service because they were complicated to service,” says Craig Paritz, president of Touch Dynamic. “Now, the focus of all systems is service.”

 ”Servicing and supporting all-in-ones simplifies the task of the support organization since there are not the variety of hardware versions that you may find among PC manufacturers,” says Joel Snyder, North American director of sales for Posiflex. “The all-in-ones are designed to be serviced quickly and efficiently.”

2. Better cooling, faster processors. Cramped quarters used to mean no fans, and that greatly limited the use of hotter, faster processors. That’s changed with designs for higher-end units that enable fan use and use of dual core processors that run cooler. NCR, for example, incorporates a cooling duct that directs air across the processor while protecting the motherboard from contaminants. Kitchens are still a no-fan zone, to avoid pulling in kitchen debris.

Lower-end all-in-ones often still lack fans and require a trade-off in processing power as a result, though this may be fine for the scope of the applications they run. But fanless is entering higher-level machines as well.

3. New touch-screen technology. Resistive and infrared still dominate, but they’ve been joined by more options that offer different strengths and vulnerabilities, giving more options for fitting screen to environment. Elo TouchSystems has introduced acoustic pulse recognition (APR) technology, which offers a durable and responsive glass screen, comparable cost and can be used with any stylus; so far it’s only offered in monitors, not all-in-ones.

4. Lower costs. The $999 price point has been the magic threshold that VARs wanted to see all-in-ones cross over. Touch Dynamic says it’s about to introduce one; it’s called the “Breeze”. The price differential between modular and all-in-ones has dropped to the point that it can be less of a factor for all but the most price-sensitive buyers – often about $150 for comparable systems. “Price is less of an objection than it has been,” says Tim Lindsay, vice president sales and marketing for Dalcom Consulting, an NCR VAR in Greensboro, N.C.

5. Increased reliability. Three-year warranties are basically standard for all-in-ones, and their integrated designs are intended to reduce cable use and points of failure. “Hard drives are a great deal more reliable than they were, and advancements in using compact flash, so there are no moving parts, is coming,” says Roy Barker, vice president sales, Xpient Solutions, a Logic Controls partner in Charlotte, N.C.

6. Bigger screens. Fifteen- and even 17-inch screen sizes are becoming more common in all-in-ones, without significantly increasing the overall size of the machine. The larger screens reduce the need for new windows in applications, boosting productivity and line speed. “In a quick-service environment, the more information you can get on a single screen, the fewer key strokes, the better,” says Andrew King, president of Southern Retail Systems, a Toshiba/TEC VAR in London, Ky., who is also a BlueStar partner.

7. More integrated peripherals. Some manufacturers are boosting the number of peripherals that can be integrated into their units. Biometric readers, wireless radios, speakers and powered USB ports are among the newer options. Elo has even had requests to integrate a cash drawer, although there are no plans to do so right now.

8. Eco-friendly. All-in-ones sporting dual-core processors offer reduced clock speeds, “so you can entertain fanless processors and lower power consumption,” says Alan Outlaw, business line executive, SurePOS portfolio, for IBM Retail Store Solutions. “That saves on the utility bill and reduces the carbon footprint.” Remote system management and utilities that enable remote power off also make a positive energy-saving impact.

9. ECR replacement. Falling price points and compact form factors mean all-in-ones are now winning buyers away from electronic cash registers. “We’re at an inflection point where PC-based POS shipments will exceed ECR shipments,” says IBM’s Outlaw. “We’re trying to capture the transition by providing something similar in feel but more into the Windows-based world.”

10. March into retail. All-in-ones have grown to take 40 percent of the convenience store market and 12 percent of specialty hard goods, according to IHL Consulting. “People like the high-tech look of all-in-ones, even if they don’t offer a significant advantage” in performance, says Jackson Lum, president of Logic Controls.

Elo is seeing use not only at retail POS, but as a thin-client computer serving digital signage functions, says Lorna Wood, worldwide marketing manager for Tyco Electronics’ Elo TouchSystems. Other emerging markets include health care, for administrative and patient check-in, and banking, for training programs, Wood says.

Customers hesitant to embrace the form factor have quickly learned to “get over it, once they see the benefits and ROI. “Once we explain how the hard drive is mounted, the fan, the mean time between failure rates, concerns go away pretty quickly,  and they love the bigger touch screens available,” says Dalcom’s Lindsay.

Perhaps the most important decision point is balancing the benefits of the hardware with future, as-yet-unknown needs. A key step in selecting an all-in-one is to test the application on various models to ensure it meets speed and performance requirements, advises Lum of Logic Controls.

A customer may be fine with an all-in-one with an Intel Celeron 2.5 GHz processor with 2 MB RAM, for example, but five years later decide to move to a new operating system to get some software benefit, such as real-time couponing or labor management, and face whole-terminal, rather than PC-only replacement, says Xpient’s Barker. While he sees a real benefit in all-in-ones, “We’re being challenged by large accounts to operate on existing 8-year-old hardware,” Barker says. “They can’t afford to spend the majority of money on hardware when they want to upgrade software.” Software companies are thus required to write extremely tight, efficient software to meet customer needs while accommodating the limitations and varied vintages of their POS units.

Because of differing priorities, all-in-ones increasingly run the gamut in price, performance and features, giving VARs a wide variety
of choice.

“Our challenge as manufacturers is to build the high-end stuff to deliver the best quality, but buyers don’t always want to pay for it, which is why we offer a family of product,” says Elo’s Wood. Buyers “want it all.”

To the untrained eye touch screens are a marvel. You touch a part of the screen and it recognizes that you touched it and then performs an action. In our case, it rings up an item.

What you might not know is that there are different types of touch screen technologies and each has a purpose. 

The Basics

In their simplest form a touch screen is just like a regular monitor except that it has an overlay over the screen or a special bezel surrounding the screen. Touch screens start off as a regular computer monitor and are modified to send a signal to the computer when they are touched.

The signal comes from different sensors in the overlay or bezel and transmits this via a cable to the computer. The connection is serial or USB and uses the standard connections on the computer.

From here the signal is interpreted by a touch driver that then translates the signal into a mouse signal. That’s right. When you touch the screen the computer thinks that you are using a desktop style mouse.

With a touch screen you can run any Windows program where a left mouse or double click would be used with a desktop mouse. Games and other software will not know the difference between your touch and a left mouse click.

About the only thing you cannot do is a right mouse click. So functions that are accessed by clicking the right mouse button are excluded with a touch driver.

The Technology

There are different technologies used for touch screens. Each has its purpose, reason for use and specialty.

Capacitive Touch

Capacitive touch works off the static electricity in your body. Therefore, you must be alive to use it.

Capacitive touch works best when your hands are dry, not wet. The screen also needs to be relatively clean and free from debris or dirt.

Capacitive touch requires a thin overlay and new bezel on the monitor. However, the overlay is very thin and easy to see through.

With capacitive touch you may not use gloves, pencils, pens or other devices to use the touch terminal. Also, people with long fingernails may have problems with a capacitive touch screen.

Resistive Touch

Resistive touch works when 2 overlays are placed onto the monitor and contact is made by depressing the overlays together. You truly are making contact between the 2 overlays and a signal is then sent with the location of the touch.

The overlays are very thin but can be seen if you look closely.

This technology works well in environments where people have wet hands and does work with gloves, pencils and pens. However, sharp objects can and will cut the overlays and cause the touch screen not to work.

Infrared Touch

This technology is a little more expensive than Capacitive or Resistive but is far more reliable than either of those technologies.

Infrared touch requires that a special bezel be placed onto the monitor. A series of thin infrared beams are then crisscrossed over the screen. Touching the screen then breaks these beams letting the touch driver know the exact location of the touch.

Infrared touch works in almost any environment and with gloved hands, pencils, pens and even keys. Since you are touching the glass of the monitor you stand less chance of scratching the monitor.

Acoustic Pulse Recognition

Acoustic Pulse Recognition (APR) is the latest in technology and was released in 2007 by Elo Touch. Designed specifically for the point of sale industry it works off the sound vibration made when the screen is touched.

APR will work with wet hands, gloves, pencils, pens and keys. Almost anything that can touch the screen can activate the touch.

Administrator

www.MyPosTerminal.com
www.MyPosPrinter.com

Cash registers and point of sale equipment has an expected life of 3 to 5 years.  That is one of the reasons why you don’t see manufacturer warranties longer than 3 years.  By the end of the warranty period it is time to replace the equipment with newer, more reliable hardware.

Another reason that used point of sale equipment is not a long-term solution is the obsolescence factor.  We all know that the replacement for the computer you just bought is already being built.  What makes this even more important is that the software being developed is also keeping pace with the hardware technology.  The hardware bought 3 to 5 years ago will have a difficult time running today’s operating systems and the point of sale software that goes with it.

Not running the most current version of software means that your restaurant will not have the latest features available to you and what your competition is using to stay ahead of you.  If you do try to run software that is not compatible with your outdated hardware you will find it slow to respond if it runs at all.  This slow response will certainly affect your customer through slower service.  Is that something you are willing to accept?

Used point of sale hardware simply is not a long-term solution to a start-up restaurant.  The only exception to this would be if you could find a repossessed system that is less than a year old.  In that case, you might could get 2 to 4 years of life out of the system.  However, if someone is attempting to sell you hardware that is already 3 years old you need to go somewhere else and find a better solution.

Administrator

The idea is a good one.  Since restaurants are notorious for having grease floating in the air it only stands to reason that a computer with a fan bringing in cooler air to cool down the computer would also bring in this dirty air.  The grease settles onto the computer boards, coating them with grease.  Dust and dirt are also brought into the computer and also settle onto the boards.  It doesn’t take long before this cycle of grease and dirt creates a coating across the entire insides of the computer.  This blanket of grease and dirt raises the temperature of the computer chips and either burns them out or shortens their lifespan.

Fanless terminals eliminate the circulating of dirty air and should lengthen the life of the computer or at least reduce the problems with the unit.  It is a little early to see if the results are what is expected.

What we do know for now is that there is less buildup inside the units.  The real test will come in the 2nd and 3rd year after installation.

MyPOS
www.MyPosPrinter.com
www.MyPosTerminal.com

HARRISBURG, Pa – Jan. 14, 2008 — Continuing its history of innovative engineering, Elo TouchSystems has turned its recently announced 1729L 17″ integrated multifunction touchmonitor into a fully-functioning, fan-less, all-in-one touchcomputer. The new 17A2 not only retains both the compact footprint of the 1729L and its comprehensive range of options, but also adds a host of new features to help customers gain an even firmer foothold in the point-of-service marketplace. Many diverse applications take advantage of the capabilities of the new 17A2 all-in-one touchcomputer including loyalty systems, kiosk information systems, home control, casino management, POS systems and Internet access points such as those for web surfing and hotel reservations.

Expanded versatility, bigger screen, and improved serviceability all in a compact design

The 17A2 touchcomputer with dual video display capability includes a choice of the industry-leading Elo TouchSystems touch technologies: AccuTouch Five-Wire Resistive, IntelliTouch Surface Wave, CarrollTouch Infrared and the company’s innovative Acoustic Pulse Recognition (APR) that blends the benefits of all three. Elo’s touch technologies provide stable, durable touch options that are resistant to scratches and liquids and can be activated in a variety of ways. Also, the 17A2 comes with 1280 x 1024 SXGA resolution and 5 x 4 aspect ratio to display clear, precise graphics for improved readability.

The space-saving, compact design of the17A2 touchcomputer offers increased flexibility for easy integration of a variety of optional field-replaceable peripherals including: three-track magnetic stripe reader (MSR) for credit, ID and loyalty card transactions; customer-facing display to verify those transactions; biometric fingerprint recognition for increased security; 3-watt speaker bar with optional single-line or omni-directional barcode scanner; and DVD drive. Elo’s unique cable management design conceals cables from view providing additional security from tampering and robust tie-downs for strain relief. The multi-adjustable stand offers flexibility to accommodate a variety of installation configurations and the base is easily removed for secure mounting to countertops and walls. Serviceability is enhanced with easy access to the hard drive and compact flash through a slide-out drawer.

Enhanced System Performance

In order to provide the higher computing power necessary for today’s point-of-service applications, Elo placed a 1 GHz Intel Celeron M processor with 400 MHz front-side-bus (FSB) at the heart of the new 17A2 all-in-one touchcomputer. DDR2 system memory capacity can be expanded to 1.5GB and an integrated mini-PCI slot enables optional high-speed wireless LAN connectivity via 802.11g standards. Two serial, four USB 2.0 and one Ethernet port provide expansion capability to accommodate both legacy and future peripheral add-ons. Elo has also added cash drawer, powered USB, and VGA-out ports and support for Windows Embedded for Point-of-Service (WEPOS). In addition, the new 17A2 all-in-one touchcomputer is compatible with all of Microsoft’s major operating systems such as Windows XP Professional, Windows XP Embedded and Windows Vista Business.

Ready for Public Access

“The 17A2 is designed for touch from the ground up and includes all of the functionality expected from an Elo public-access product, with features such as reliable, silent, fan-less operation and cables hidden from the user’s view” comments Elo TouchSystems product manager, Frank Lung. Lung confirms that the optional peripherals are seamlessly integrated into the 17A2’s compact design and the all-in-one touchcomputer offers a new adjustable base that can function as a tall or short stand. “The controls, placed on the side and not on the front, include a lockout function and multilingual on-screen display (OSD). We not only manufacture the 17A2 touchcomputer but also provide a single point of contact for service and support. After all,” Lung adds, “Elo invented touch technology over 35 years ago and we’ve been consistently innovating and improving our designs ever since.”

About Tyco Electronics

Tyco Electronics Ltd. is a leading global provider of engineered electronic components, network solutions, wireless systems and undersea telecommunication systems, with fiscal 2007 sales of US$13.5 billion to customers in more than 150 countries. We design, manufacture and market products for customers in industries from automotive, appliance and aerospace and defense to telecommunications, computers and consumer electronics. With approximately 8,000 engineers and worldwide manufacturing, sales and customer service capabilities, Tyco Electronics’ commitment is our customers’ advantage. More information on Tyco Electronics can be found at www.tycoelectronics.com.

About Elo TouchSystems

Tyco Electronics’ Elo TouchSystems’ broad portfolio comprises the largest selection of touchscreen technologies, touchmonitors and touchcomputers specifically designed for the demanding requirements of diverse applications, such as industrial, medical, POS, kiosks, retail, hospitality, transportation and gaming. Over 35 years ago, Elo founders invented the touchscreen and since then, Elo has been recognized as the global leader in touch technology. For more information on Elo products and services, please contact 800-ELO-TOUCH (800-356-8682), visit www.elotouch.com or direct email inquiries to eloinfo@elotouch.com.

AccuTouch, CarrollTouch, Elo TouchSystems, IntelliTouch, TE logo, and Tyco Electronics are trademarks. All other products and company names referred to herein may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies or mark holders.

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Contacts

Marketing Communications
Lorna Wood
(650) 361-4948
lorna.wood@elotouch.com

Product Communications
Frank Lung
(650) 361-4817
frank.lung@elotouch.com