Tablets, Web Panels or Smart displays as orbiters

[archived]

I'm looking at a device for an orbiter, does anyone have experience of Viewsonic airpanel smart displays?  They use MS Windows CE for smart displays.

The ones you recommend from DTResearch are hard to come by in the UK.  I'd consider a tablet pc but many don't have "finger" touch screen only stylus input. Does anyone have recommendations for finger touch screen tablet pc's/displays?

My other option is a touch screen TFT monitor linked to a media director (I want to mount the screen in the wall so portability isn't an issue).  Example here http://www.allcam.biz/products/lcd_touch_screen.html

Any thought please?

Many thanks

[archived]

Hi,

I'm also considering touch screen possibilities. For static Orbiters I think that LCD monitors with touch screen feature would be best option. But the problem is that one Pc could easily run one MD output to TV and one Orbiter (not MDs) X session on different video output, but currently Pluto won't allow that...

If you move around a lot, than option you already mentioned apply. (tablet pcs, PDAs or Mobiles )...

Regards,

Rob.

[archived]

It's a problem...  Most tablet pc's require a stylus.  The smart display's, like ViewSonic's, unfortunately are closed systems--you can't add software to them unless you somehow hacked the firmware.

The DT should be available in the UK--they have a German distributor.  We were with them at CeBit.  Advantech also makes one--but it's kind of industrial looking.

For a non-portable installation, a regular touch-screen pc running either the Windows or Linux versions would be good.

[archived]

Is there any work going on getting Orbiter to work on an I-opener, or an Audrey.

The I-opener can already run Linux so it should be easier, and the Audrey runs Qunix (I think).

The Audrey is available fairly cheap, and has a relatively appealing form factor.

[archived]

I know some users have talked about supporting Audrey, but I don't think anybody has actually started writing any code yet for it.  However adding a new orbiter is a pretty trivial task programming lies, because all the logic is in a shared base class src/Orbiter/Orbiter.cpp, which calls virtual methods to render text and render graphics.  So when you want to support a new platform, which you need is an ANSI C++ compiler, and then to create a derived class that has that particular platform specific functions to render graphics and text.  99% of the code is untouched

[archived]

Has anyone considered the LTSP project (Linux Terminal Server Project) http://ltsp.sourceforge.net for the ability to use the ViewSonic airpanels?

Regards,
Cordel

[archived]

That sounds like a great solution.  Does anybody have contact from the LTSP core?

[archived]

I haven't personally had any experiance with it yet but is on my to-do list to play with. Unfortunatly the play list is a ways back from other required to-do's. If I get to before anyone else does, I report back here. I'll need someone with an airpanel though to login and test it out. The one I got off e-bay to try this has some problems and is going to be returned. I should be able to get on this within 40 days.
Regards,
Cordel