Anyone familiar with these vintage touchscreens?

[Nigel Johnson]

You are absolutely right about the economics! The only one I ever saw in 
operation was in the Eaton Centre in Toronto, just around the corner 
from the Bell Simcoe office where I worked on the server!

cheers,

Nigel



On 20/10/2019 15:20, Wayne S via cctalk wrote:
> As an FYI, the YouTube comments description of the system is:
> "Published on Oct 19, 2019
> 10/9/1985: Farm Fresh grocery stores unveil new cutting-edge technology: store kiosks that help shoppers map out where to find items in their stores. The kiosks appear to be running Apple II software."
>
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> On Oct 20, 2019, at 12:10, Brent Hilpert via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org<mailto:cctalk at classiccmp.org>> wrote:
>
> On 2019-Oct-20, at 9:14 AM, Nigel Johnson via cctalk wrote:
> On 20/10/2019 06:43, Peter Corlett via cctalk wrote:
> On Sat, Oct 19, 2019 at 02:23:46PM -0400, Nigel Johnson via cctalk wrote:
> Judging by the year, it was probably a teletext terminal. [...]
> It's not Teletext, unless that word means something different on the other side
> of the Pond. Teletext was basically a text system (the hint's in the name) with
> graphics (and indeed colour) being a weird hack that gave it a particular
> appearance, especially in typical implementations which used the SAA5050
> character generator chip.
>
> The palette and colour fringing suggest Apple II to me.
>
> It was called teletext despite the implications, at least here in Canada.  People just couldn't get their tongue around NAPLPS!
>
> It looks just like the teletext systems I worked on, maybe ours was better than yours?
>
>
> For elucidation, here's an example of a Canadian Telidon terminal with display examples:
>     http://madrona.ca/e/telidon/index.html
>
> (The processor is indeed a 6809, as Diane was mentioning.)
>
> Graphics was very much a part of the Telidon/NAPLPS protocol.
> (Note: Colour capabilities may differ between terminals, the protocol was such as to permit a range of compatible implementations.)
>
> While the store directory terminal of the OP 'could' have been a Telidon/NAPLPS terminal, I'd be placing my bets more on the Apple-II (or similar) as others mentioned. Strikes me more as a standalone unit. I think using a videotex/teletext/Telidon/NAPLPS terminal would have been awkward and the economics poor, there'd either have to be a rented comm line to a remote server, an additional local server, or storage hacked onto the terminal.
>
> The touch-screen is another issue, while it could have been supported in a proprietary manner I'm not aware of explicit support for touch-screens in the protocol.
>
> I believe the NAPLPS designation (designation as an industry standard) came rather late in the game, an attempt to gain some recognition for a dying project. As "Telidon", it had begun years earlier.
>
  

-- 
Nigel Johnson
MSc., MIEEE
VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU

Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!


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