DaWei

Here's an idea that probably won't pan out, but would cost only a couple of emails in effort to find out. In 1998 I worked for a company (Farpoint Consulting) that did a prototype of such a system for Chevron, who was planning to build a high-end gourmet-type deli adjacent to some of their service stations. I don't believe it went anywhere, but they might still have the front-end hardware units stuck in a dusty closet and be willing to contribute them to an educational effort. The underlying OS, front end and back, was NT. You can find a contact button on their home page at www.farpoint.com. The owner at that time was Rob Meredith.

__________________
Abstraction doesn't make it impossible to write bad code; it makes it possible to write superior code.
Contributor's Corner: Grumpy on C++ Exceptions DaWei on Pointers

bigguy

Thank you MBirchmeier, I didn't think abut that. Thats a good idea.

Also Thank you Dawei, I'll get on it and try to contact them soon.

Infinite thanks for the offer for your help, but im supposed to do it by myself.
At the Convention there is supposed to be people from all the big compnaies all over the world, so maybe they will be interested in someting like this, and i could get it to take off, as they sometimes buy things fomr the students who have done projects that can speed producton time.

Thanks for the ideas and help yall.

__________________
Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the heal that has crushed it. - Mark Twain

Destruction leads to a very rough road, but it also breeds creation.

bigguy

Also, dawei would it be a good idea to mention you, like would it increase the possibilty of them giving it out for Educational purposes? And if so could you PM your name or something? Thanks

__________________
Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the heal that has crushed it. - Mark Twain

Destruction leads to a very rough road, but it also breeds creation.

DaWei

Done.

__________________
Abstraction doesn't make it impossible to write bad code; it makes it possible to write superior code.
Contributor's Corner: Grumpy on C++ Exceptions DaWei on Pointers

bigguy

Thank you much

__________________
Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the heal that has crushed it. - Mark Twain

Destruction leads to a very rough road, but it also breeds creation.

lectricpharaoh

I haven't been around much lately, and it's already Feb 28th, but for what it's worth, here's my answers to your questions.I'm not even going to try to answer hardware cost questions, as it will vary so much depending on a) the sort of hardware you need (which again varies depending on implementation), and b) the costs of given pieces of hardware (which will vary by vendor, quantity ordered, and even geographic location, with shipping and everything).

That said, to implement the system we did, you'd need a few things for each table:

• computer and essentials (HD, NIC, etc, though we'd likely skip CD-ROM and floppy drives in a real-world implementation, to hinder people putting 'questionable' stuff on the machines, and maybe even skip USB ports for the same reason)
• touch-screen monitor (many cheap POS systems have such monitors, which with the appropriate drivers just simulate a mouse click at the touched coordinates, making it easy to use them with legacy software)
• TV-tuner card for each computer
• TV-tuner software (typically provided by the vendor of the card)
• some utility software, such as an alternate Windows shell (again for security reasons) and games
• the software we (well, mainly I) wrote

You'd also need a network and a database server, and the software would need to be altered to access the database through the server (in our project, it just used a local database file)
We were planning to, but it proved to be beyond the scope of a hassle to do for a school project (especially for cash- imagine having a cash-scanning machine at each table), so we ended up just having the customer tick a payment choice via radio buttons, and when they placed their order, a staff person would come out and handle the actual transaction.
Hmm, hard to say, since a) it was several terms back, and b) we didn't work continuously on it (other classes and such, you know). Still, I'd say if I was starting from scratch now, it probably wouldn't take more than a week or two, but I should also point out that it wasn't a fully functional system. It was a class project, not a real-world one, so it was more of a model or demonstration of a system rather than the system itself.
I dunno, but I'd guess there are similar things. There are certainly many POS systems that use a networked backend database (I'd expect this to cover the vast majority of POS systems), and aside from a few bells and whistles, that's basically what this thing was.

__________________
And once again, Probability proves itself willing to sneak into a back alley and service Drama as would a copper-piece harlot.
- Vaarsuvius, Order of the Stick

Dameon

Have you considered thin clients? Reduced cost per table and easier to maintain.

Expect to pay at least $250 for a basic thin client, not including the cost of the touchscreen. At that point you would need the various doodads for a wired (more reliable, better security) network. The server wouldn't have to be anything powerful;most clients would be inactive at any given time, and the program running for each client would doubtfully be very intensive.

Might want to check out http://www.disklessworkstations.com/ and http://www.ltsp.org/

__________________
MD5(sig) = bcef75433db02e9ad9bf81d6f7c5c270

Indigno

You don't need state of the art pc's for each table. I suggest just running to a PC store and buying some old pieces of crap and slapping a half decent monitor and some sort of touch screen system (There are many, get creative).

Honestly, though, I suggest doing a database system.

(I know this topic is dead, just giving suggestions)

bigguy

Thanks insigno. Thanks Dameon, and Thanks lectricpharaoh

I didnt have enought time to get it doen for the competition this year. So I'm gonan work on it and get everything little thign I can worked out and use it next year.

__________________
Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the heal that has crushed it. - Mark Twain

Destruction leads to a very rough road, but it also breeds creation.

ReubenK

I have a suggestion..Instead of paying it through visa there and then..You could just use the system to send a message to the cooks and make a bill?
So say you have 15 screens..The orders get sent to a computer inside the kitchen and then the bill is sent to one of the places you pay your food.
Just a suggestion.
Reuben Keeney