Elo TouchSystems New MonitorMice Software Serves Multiple Monitors from Single PC

Advanced Software Delivers Multiuser Windows Capability

For Release

November 13, 1995

Fremont, Calif.

Elo TouchSystems, Inc. today demonstrated new software technology that enables a single PC to support multiple users in a Windows environment. When outfitted with an Elo touchscreen, multiple monitors connected to a single PC through a multiport video card can run separate applications. Additionally, when connected through a video splitter, monitors can run with identical images. The multiuser MonitorMice™ software, an extension to Elo’s MonitorMouse® drivers, allows a touchscreen to work like a mouse on each monitor.

“To date, each touchscreen has required its own PC,” says Michael Sigona, software engineering manager for Elo TouchSystems. “The new multiuser MonitorMice software will significantly reduce total systems costs for specialized applications such as point-of-sale, process control, financial, training, and data retrieval. It also makes touchscreen technology available to smaller businesses and schools, where cost per user has previously been a prohibitive factor. This technology also brings multiuser capabilities out of the UNIX environment and into the Windows environment.”

Multiple-User Mode

The multiuser mode of operation targets point-of-sale (POS) and transaction processing applications. For example, a fast-food restaurant might install a single computer, MonitorMice, and four LCD displays equipped with Elo touchscreens for order taking. In another environment, an employment office can allow several applications to search simultaneously for job openings on kiosks connected to a single computer.

MonitorMice-driven touchscreens throughout a factory can operate from a single computer to control various parts of the manufacturing process. Other applications might include education, training, and testing—taking a driver’s license test, for example.

In the multiuser mode, the touchscreen responds to a simple touch just as it would to a single mouse click. Simultaneous touches on multiple monitors are recognized and processed without noticeable delay.

Single-User Mode

The MonitorMice software offers new opportunities for single-user applications, allowing drag-and-drop, double-clicking, and pull-down menus to be activated by touch. For example, financial traders often work with three or four monitors. With MonitorMice in single-user mode, the trader can touch an item on one monitor, and then touch a second monitor where the item should be moved. When the finger is lifted from the first monitor, the object automatically appears on the second.

The single-user mode is also useful in situations where a single application is required in several locations. In a doctor’s office, for example, a single computer can drive monitors located in different patient rooms. The doctor can pull up patient records, billing, and medical histories from any of these locations. Previously, a computer with a network connection would have been required in each room.

A patent is pending for the new MonitorMice technology.

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