A touch screen PC for kitchen, shown in the images below, was built by a New Zealand modder in order to keep an inventory of the food as well as using it as a normal PC, watching TV, accessing the web, and printing out shopping lists. The heart of the device would be formed by a cheap screen monitor which is often used in vending machines and public places in Japan. They are perfect for the kitchen environment since they are water-proof and vandal-proof.

A PC built from scratch was one aspect of the project. It would be best to custom build the PC for performance although any old machine left lying around could be used. Some of the specifications enough to build this PC include 800GB hard drive, 3.20GHz processor, and 4GB RAM. For maintenance purposes, the components will be all stored in a small cabinet near the location of the screen where it would be mounted. From the cabinet, the wires will run through the drywall and to the touch screen. The image below shows a Dell brand of PC used.

A better interface than the standard Windows desktop is needed once everything is running. A program called Active Desktop was used in which the iPhone menu style can be replicated. A quality program called Comfort On-Screen Keyboard, as seen in the image below, was used for the touch screen keyboard. When compared with the standard on-screen windows keyboard, this program vastly improved the typing experience. A bar code scanner for groceries and a TV tuner were added on top of the features.

The touch screen monitor is shown below which uses a 4:3 aspect monitor in order to display photos without the need for stretching or black bars to show images in full screen.

The open frame touch screen monitor on the next image was used since it comes without plastic case but just the bare touch screen and exposed metal case. This would ensure the smallest possible unit which can be built easily and a wooden frame can be fitted to this. The connections include DVI & VGA sockets for connecting to a video feed, a USB for driving the touch screen, and a 12VDC power feed.

A dual 3-pin power point under the screen was replaced with a couple of switches to switch the power for both the monitor and wired to the ON/OFF switch of the computer. This provides a quick, physical way of turning things ON and OFF very quickly.