tuesday830-informationkiosk.ppt
DESCRIPTION
TRANSCRIPT
Andrew Connell and Chuck Steel
Creating a Home Grown Information Kiosk and Display
System on the Cheap
SIGUCCS ConferencePortland, Oregon
October 21st, 2008
Outline
1. History of Info Panel Project at Dickinson College2. Hardware Design and Evolution3. Software Design and Evolution4. Future Directions5. What you need to duplicate our setup 6. How else could you do it?7. Q&A
History
• Library looking at installing information display system in building
• Andrew and Chuck modifying laptops for fun• First proof of concept device• Prototype display• Installation of first Info Panel in Library• Installation of Touch Panel in Library
Hardware Design and Evolution
• Proof of Concept Device• Prototype Device• Production Displays• Touch Panel Display
Hardware Design and Evolution
• Proof of Concept Device• Laptop with display removed,
flipped around and re-attached
• Wireless Connection
Hardware Design and Evolution
• Prototype Device• Used an external monitor to
increase flexibility of display size
Innards of Prototype
Chuck for Scale
Hardware Design and Evolution
• Production Display• Large LCD Display • Sharp Aquos 52" HDTV -
$2500• Re-purposed laptop• Custom wood working -
$1400
First Info Panel - Lower Level Info Commons
Info Panel - Side Access
Second Info Panel - Library Main Entrance
Second Info Panel - Library Main Entrance
Hardware Design and Evolution
• Touch Panel Display• 19" Planar touch screen -
$900• Re-purposed laptop• Custom wood working -
$1675
Touch Panel - Library Main Entrance
Touch In Operation
Software Design and Evolution
• Version 1o Web pages with meta-refresh tags
• Version 2o Used two frames, one to refresh the othero Helped with brief outages, but still displayed 404 errors
• Version 3o Consists of two pieces - the local controller running on the
info panel system and the Coldfusion pages on the web server.
Local Controller
• The local controller consists of:o a compiled C# applicationo a configuration file ando several locally stored web pages (error pages)
• C# application runs at startup• Checks for network connection, webserver and database
availability• Sends ID for that particular info panel to a Coldfusion page
which queries database for the URL and duration of the next page to display
• Controls Internet Explorer to display the returned URL for the specified duration
• Displays the custom error page in the event of a problem
Example of a custom error page
Error Codes
Administration Interface
• Allows users to add pages to systemo Titleo URLo Display Durationo Begin Date and Timeo End Date and Timeo Page Statuso Page Priority
• Supports multiple displays• Now supports logging
Future Directions
• Recurring slides• Slide Count Statistics• Sliding Priorities• Logging - already implemented in current version
What you need to duplicate our setup
• ColdFusion Server to run administration site• Access Database available on server • Computer to act as client
o Runs InfoPanelController.exeo Internet Explorer 7o Display attached to computer
How else could you do it?
• Linux Clients?• Javascript and AJAX based controller?• Different server technology (PHP?)
