TSC (Touch SCreen) terminal
Produced for
TAB
Year
1989
Project details
For this project I was asked to produce a self vending wagering
terminal based on touch screen technology for our telebetting
customers. I was told to use a standard PC running DOS. I evaluated the
different touch screen technologies available and ordered a capacitive
and a SAW (Surface Acoustic Wave) touch screen from two different
companies in the USA. The touch screens were kit sets which I installed
on NEC VGA monitors. I used the DCOM
board for comms to the Jetbet wagering system. As this was the first
time a PC had been used by the TAB to implement a terminal I had to
develop the core wagering code as well as the applications specific
code. This was all done in Modula II. Another member of the TAB
development division was given the job of porting the VOS (Virtual
Operating System) to the MS DOS platform. The VOS provided me with
multitasking and memory management. The interface to the touch screen
was my problem. The program was not small due to all the bet types
being supported. The user cannot select invalid details as the terminal
won't display them. To achieve this the terminal needed to know about
every runner at every race for all the meetings open for sale. It had
to know which races had run and what pools where open on each race. The
terminal went on line for trials in the staff cafe where it was very
popular. It has also been taken to trade (wagering) related shows and
Hong Kong.
Later project
Earlier project
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