Hardware
Supports LocalTalk, Magnetic Stripe Reader, LonTalk connectivity and VME caller ID telephone
Origins
The View Touch $4999 system included a Mega 2 with color monitor glass touch screen network hardware, 40-column receipt printer, software and cash drawer. The system offered dozens of menu pages drawn with NEOchrome. To order a hamburger customers simply touched a hamburger icon. The Mega added up the items figures the tax and prints out a receipt.
According to View Touch president Gene Mosher the beauty of their system compared to other computenzed cash registers was the elimination of the keyboard. The systems didn't use Atari's GEM, either. View Touch created an entirely new and revolutional user interface for the product which we all take granted today.
So next time you order a burger from your favourite fast food chain, you know the technology behind it was invented using the Atari ST and NEOchrome.
The systems were distributed primarily through cash register companies instead of computer dealers, and were also sold with a 25-inch Sony monitor. The Mega ST based system was also capable in being used for business or classroom presentation graphics.
Source: STart Vol. 2 No 6.
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