When customer traffic in my favorite grocery store is unusually light, I treat myself to the personalized attention of its full-service checkout line, even though it adds significant time to the checkout process. But when the store is busy, I’m glad there are ample self-service checkout kiosks to make quick work of what would otherwise be a major bottleneck in the shopping experience. I’m also glad touch-screen panel PCs make self-service checkout a breeze.
Advantages of Touch Panel PCs
All-in-one touch-screen industrial panel PCs, such as Advantech’s PPC-179T-BARE-TE, offer a number of advantages over traditional PC/monitor/keyboard/mouse configurations, including:
- Enhanced mounting options;
- Inherent efficiency;
- Durability;
- Cost effectiveness; and
- Accommodation of touch input.
Mounting Options
Because they are all-in-one units, panel PCs can deliver maximum performance and utility within minimal footprints, plus all critical component connections are internal, lending panel PCs to the greatest range of mounting options. They can be mounted “open frame,” or flush mounted using an integrated bezel. Advantech’s 17-inch PPC-179T panel PC features a removable front bezel, making it appropriate for either mounting format. Although we normally think of panel PCs in the context of vertical applications, their mounting options are not limited to that single orientation.
Efficiency
Not only are panel PCs intrinsically efficient in form, they can also represent your most efficient options in operation as well. Just as you wouldn’t enlist a body builder to run a marathon, you wouldn’t deploy maximum CPU muscle to all applications. Advantech recognized this when designing the PPC-179T, offering numerous processor options, including Intel’s Celeron E1500 2.2 GHz and Core TM 2 Duo E8400 3.00 GHz processors. When it comes to processors, overkill can quickly equate to wasted initial investment, as well as inflated future costs of operation.
Durability
In typical installations, the enclosures of panel PCs are isolated from the excess of human activity, and their all-in-one enclosed design is extremely robust. Advantech’s PPC-179T is encased in a rugged die-cast aluminum enclosure designed to withstand even the harshest environments of the outdoors and factory floors.
Accommodating Touch Input
Simply put, touch is one of the most intuitive input-interface options. Watch a child using a touch screen to interact with Google Earth, and you’ll get a great sense of just how intuitive and enjoyable a touch interface can be. Indeed, my self-checkout grocery experience would not be nearly as simple and efficient if it weren’t for the touch-input panel PC.
As your customer base becomes increasingly global, touch screens facilitate communication via dynamic universal icons rather than static alpha-numeric keys. Symbols are also easier to see than text for those with limited eyesight, and those with limited dexterity, such as arthritis sufferers, find it much easier to touch a screen than to hold and manipulate a mouse or hit keys on a standard keyboard. And now that touch-centric Windows 8 has been released, the argument for touch-screen interfaces is even stronger.
Not every application is appropriate for touch input, and Advantech’s Model PPC-179T-BAREE is configured for control solely by traditional inputs for just such instances, but when a touch interface is needed, its PPC-179T-BARE-TE satisfies that requirement with a 17-inch analog-resistive color-TFT LCD.
If you would like to learn more about panel PCs or want a custom-configured panel PC, please contact me at jeremy.miller@L-Tron.com or call me at (800) 830-9523.