Peter,
The two primary vendors of touch screen are Microtouch and
Elographics.  Microtouch is located out your way in MA where as
Elographics is located in TX.  We worked for years with Microtouch
equipment but switched over to Elographics last year after experiences
a number of engineering failures and poor to nonexistent technical
support from Mircrotouch.   You would think with an installed base of
over a dozen screens that they would give the MIA the time of day.  So
much for customer service.

Elographics touchscreens also have the added feature of tracking of
tracking the z axis as well as the x and y.  This allows for some
really creative gui designs.

When purchasing touchsceens you have two major choices:1) purchase an
entire monitor including the screen or 2) purchase just the
touchscreen components (the glass overlay screen, controller, powers
supply and software) and install it yourself.  The second choice is by
far the cheapest and allows you to choose the brand of monitor.  It
usually saves us between $500 to $1000 purchasing the components
separately and installing them overselves.  It's not too hard although
you do risk the possibililty of breaking the glass overlay screen if
you are too rough.  If taking the second route, you should shop for
the monitor first (I highly recommend Trinitrons) and then contact the
touchscreen vendor to see if they make a screen to fit that model.

Here are our current numbers for each of the vendors:

MicroTouch
(800) 642-7686

Elo Graphics
(423) 220-4299

Please feel free to contact me if you need any further information.
-Scott


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Scott Sayre                            Email: [log in to unmask]
Director of Print and Electronic Media   Voice: (612) 870-3211
The Minneapolis Institute of Arts      Fax:  (612) 870-3004
Interactive Media Group
2400 Third Avenue South
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55404
MIA URL:  http://www.artsMIA.org