>  Does anyone have any thoughts on the relative merits of joysticks and
>  touchscreens for interactive computer exhibits?  We are facing the
>  options of spending more money on superior software, with
>  joysticks for user input, or compromising on the software in
>  order to afford touchscreens. We're interested in your
>  experiences with visitor response, initial cost, maintenance, and
>  any advice or horror stories you might have.
>             Gerry Prokopowicz
>             Historian, The Lincoln Museum
>             Fort Wayne, Indiana
>             (219) 455-4517
>             [log in to unmask]
 
Well, I'm still just a student, but...
Touchscreens, IMO, get a monitor very dirty, and that, performance
aside, makes you look bad. The dirt, if uncared for, eventually
degrades the sensitivity of the touchscreen. Also, touchscreens tend
to give people what is called "gorilla finger" in hacker
parlance-humans weren't built to poke at screens. Also, from my
small experience, the touchscreen requires a lot more "punching" at
the icon to get anything to happen.
 
Since joysticks would probably break frequently in a museum
environment, how about trying a trackball mouse? The first example
of the trackball mouse was in the old video game "Missile Command"
by Atari <I think>, and those games took lots of punishment. Some,
after easily over a decade, are still around in video arcades.
 
Just my $0.02...
 
--
Craig Levin
Ohio University History Department
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