Need a touch screen but can't afford the $600+ entry fee?
Enter the Magic Touch add-on touch screen overlay. We purchased ours from touchwindow.com
For about $150 you can get a 14" USB driven touch screen overlay or up it to 15" for $165 or $190 for 17"
Do they work? Yup. We have two 14" units we use with our food pantry laptops. Just install the software, plug in the screen to the USB port, and follow the simple calibration screen...then you're rockin'.
If you need to setup a kiosk system w/ touch screen on the cheap this is certainly worth checking out. The only drawback I can find is the screens are not totally transparent ... the micro-dots on the screen make the screen a little cloudy looking. You can still easily see through the screen, but it's certainly not transparant. Otherwise it's the perfect touch screen solution on the cheap.
PS ... make sure you order the screen with the long velcro straps or you'll have to adhere velcro patches to the monitor/laptop.
YOU HAVE DONE IT AGAIN! I AM TRULY AMAZED ON HOW MUCH YOU THINK OUTSIDE OF THE BOX!! Thank you for your hard work and dedication to keep us informed on the what is new in IT world.
Posted by: Bill Whitmore | August 17, 2005 at 07:40 AM
Jason,
Would you recommend the Magic Touch screens for an allout rollout of F1? We are in the early stages of buying the hardware for our F1 implementation and I am a little skeptical about going cheap on this aspect of it. We are buying lower end Dells, but have planned on getting good touch screens. We are going to start with 6 check in stations.
I understand the screens looking a little cloudy, but are these screens a high enough caliber to roll out system wide? Cost is always a factor but it's not a necessity to skimp in this area.
That's where I'm at.....what would you advise?
Posted by: Jim Walton | August 17, 2005 at 11:46 AM
Hi Jim,
I'd recommend get one of them and give it a workout...play with it...let others use it.
They have a 30 day return policy I believe.
The only thing I've noticed that I prefer on the Elo touchscreen monitors vs. this "on the cheap" solution is the fact that the Elo monitors tilt back further than any other our other flatscreens.
Thus an Elo can sit lower and be at a good viewing angle when standing ... whereas normal monitors aren't meant to be viewed when standing and thus don't tilt back as far and thus (man, what's with all the thus'es) they need to be higher to be at a good viewing angle. Hope that makes sense. Of course you could always mount a normal flatscreen's base on a small wedge to help it tilt back far enough.
That's why I'd say get one overlay and try it out first. If you like it then you can save yourself a LOAD of cash by getting normal flatscreens and the overlays.
I wouldn't be afraid to use these overlays in your implementation.
Posted by: Jason Powell | August 17, 2005 at 05:15 PM
Cool. Thanks for the tip, Jason. Good info!
Posted by: Jim Walton | August 18, 2005 at 04:46 PM
Very nice tips.Realy i like that,
thanks for post
Posted by: lcdglobal | January 10, 2007 at 03:10 PM