Kitchen Touch Screen PC

[Neurorad]

We are looking to remove the Kitchen counters, replace, tile back splash areas, paint next year. The older you get the slower it goes for me. -PeteC

That's almost EXACTLY what we're doing. Except paint now, including the cabinets. Doing our best to keep as much of the cabinets as we can. The only new appliance will be the microwave.

Also, automated lighting, automated shades/curtains over the sink, new pendant lighting to replace a few can lights, futureproof cabling, replacing the island, and replacing a built-in buffet to the sitting area.

I want to cable for touchscreens/displays in 2 locations, wall and undercabinet.

 

[Dumetre]

That looks nice!

 

[ASIHome]

Drilled all the holes and routed the cables.
PC is up and running.
Web server with OSCommerce 3.0 installed and running (Grocery List and Recipes DB).

I will definately be looking into a new PC to run the screen. Between the fan noise and the HDD grinding away, it's rather annoying. Probably something like a fanless mini-itx with a SSD drive that I can mount in a cabinet instead of on top of it. Also, I am working on creating the rest of the backend and the UI. The UI will have options for Groceries, Recipes, Weather, Gas and Automation. I'll post a screenshot when I have some work done on it.

 

[ASIHome]

Guys I need some naming help. I am looking for a good acronym for the kitchen interface. Here is what I cam up with so far but none are really ticling my fancy:

Kitchen
Interface
Touchscreen

Simplified
Kitchen
Interface

Kitchen
Interface
Monitor

Here are all the things you will be able to to do with the interface:

Groceries
Recipes
Gas
Automation
Traffic
Weather
Cameras
Calendar
Email

I am looking for a girls name preferrably 3-6 characters.

TIA

 

[beelzerob]

Kitchen Interface Screen.
Simple Automation Monitor Interface (what can I say, I have a Sami)

or, since you said it yourself:

Touchscreen Interface for Automation

 

[pete_c]

Is there a combo TS / HDMI / digital tuner 10-12 TV which exists out there?

 

[ano]

Is there a combo TS / HDMI / digital tuner 10-12 TV which exists out there?

You can get 12" digital HDTV's with HDMI. I use one in a similar application in my kitchen. I'll post a picture when I get a chance. If you want a touchscreen as well, you can buy overlays on e-Bay that support that, BUT keep in mind they do reduce the brightness quite a bit.

 

[pete_c]

ano,

Thank-you. I would be interested in seeing a picture of your setup.

Kicking around the touchscreen idea in the kitchen so a wide 16:9 12-18" HDMI HDTV screen touch screen would be great.

The current kitchen LCD TV and Laundry room LCD both have VGA inputs. I have a Toshiba HDMI 19" wide screen in another part of the kitchen. The sound is decent on the Toshiba but still not as nice as the Audiovox LCD or the Laundry room LCD.

On another note remember playing with various touch screen technologies (even played with IR touch screen sensors) in the 80's (all CRT) for point of sale machines settleing on a light pen as an easy low cost solution and in the 90's (for touch screen Kiosks - that worked in any kind of weather)....so ideally the kitchen TS would have:

1 - 16:9 display
2 - TS
3 - HDMI
4 - good sound
5 - tuner - not really necessary but would be a nice extra.

 

[Aesculus]

I went a different route. I use an IBM Thinkpad x61 Tablet/Touch PC and a Bracketron tablet stand in the kitchen. I put the system in sleep mode when not being used and startup is instantenous. I connected it to my NAS and HAS via wireless (its 100% because the gateway/router is 10 feet away). If I need to I can take the tablet off the stand anywhere in the house instantenously just by unplugging the power brick. I don't use the stands cooling fan.

 

[ysualum]

My plan, once funds are replenished, is to get one of the 25 inch HP Touchsmart PCs. Can run Sage, CQC, and has built in tuner. I think one of the 15 inch ELOs is going to be too small for our kitchen. The planned location is about 8-10 feet from where we would usually do our food prep and cooking. A DIY solution with a larger screen will likely end up costing not that much less than the HP.

 

[Ira]

I just ordered an ELO 1900L (19" widescree 16:10 touchscreen) that will hopefully do dual service as a DirecTV monitor and CQC interface viewer in the kitchen. Still not sure if it will do what I want, but taking the gamble anyway.

Ira

 

[pete_c]

My wife likes to cook and my current set (TV-VGA) does get a bit of food stuff on it as she really is always watching it while cooking. Its my wifes away from her Tivo Tivo. She does look up receipes on the laptop in the center island / shops / surfs concurrently while cooking, watching Tivo. The 19" LCD in the sitting area is just the right size for the area. I am not sure what the footprint would look like in the corner of the kitchen if I were to put one there although the speakers on the audiovox give it the impression of a 16:9 display so the size might be similar.

 

[sic0048]

My plan, once funds are replenished, is to get one of the 25 inch HP Touchsmart PCs. Can run Sage, CQC, and has built in tuner. I think one of the 15 inch ELOs is going to be too small for our kitchen. The planned location is about 8-10 feet from where we would usually do our food prep and cooking. A DIY solution with a larger screen will likely end up costing not that much less than the HP.

Just make sure you measure were you want to put it. That thing is huge and doesn't fit under a standard height upper cabinet on the counter. My 15" ELO barely fits under the counter. There is less space than you might think.

Of course if it isn't going under a cabinet, then the sky is the limit. But I still might make a cardboard cutout the same size as the screen and put it in the desired location for a few days. See if you can live with something that big.

 

[ASIHome]

sic0048 has a good point. I should have mentioned that I have 8-1/2' ceilings on my first floor.

 

[beelzerob]

We actually designed our kitchen with the idea of having a touchscreen in place. So instead of a full height cabinet, we have one of those short upper ones, which left a perfect sized opening underneath. Made putting in the power outlet and low voltage boxes a lot easier too.

Of all of the HA related things I've ever done, putting in that touchscreen (and of course, getting her to agree to doing that from the beginning) has had the most significant WAF of all. She *loves* that thing.

Watching TV on it isn't an issue though, since you can see our 58" TV easy enough while in the kitchen. But she can always watch online shows on it if she really wanted to.

Forgot I had a picture of it:

That one cord dangling down is for the speakers which are resting on the counter, but my plan is to put little shelves behind the screen where they can sit, so there's nothing getting in the way of piling our normal junk all over the counters.

I was going to put in a keyboard tray below the screen, but instead we just stuff it next to the microwave when we want it out of the way.