A public internet booth

A long story

But I'm building a public internet booth (kinda)

But I want a 1 button keyboard

Any ideas?

Press this one button and it translates to a button of my choice. So for example press the big red button and it presses the space bar (or a button of my choice) on the keyboard....Or indeed the mouse button

Any ideas where to get such a thing, or build such a thing...

 

lol, make the button scroll through letters and numbers but on a timer, that way they can look for the letter or number and than wait for it to select. Or a scroll button that scrolls through letters and numbers that you press down to select. Bad idea, but that's the only thing I can think of.

 

Im lost.....

 

No you don't understand. The button would perform a action. The only action that is availble and that the booth does....if that makes sense.

So lets say the booth printed something out once "g" was pressed. I want a big red button that presses "g".

No other buttons or options are available.....

 

My idea would only use one button, maybe not one function I guess. At least not the second one, the first one would though you'd have to press it a lot.

 

1.Take apart a mouse and tape the ic board onto a piece of wood and put a big red button on top of it that presses the left click button, then write yourself a little Win32 app that does whatever it is that you need done on a left mouse click.

2. If you look at the right places, I'm sure there are special input devices that would also meet your needs.

3. You could also put a keyboard/ or a external tenkey keypad(cause it's smaller) in a box and make a physical button that pushes just one of the buttons.

4. Go to radio shack, buy a push-on switch and a USB cable, make the h/w and then write a driver for it.

 

Sounds interesting, I'd be curious to see this contraption once it's complete.

 

TFMG, once you get this working be sure to post some pictures of it

 

I dont get why you'd limit it to 1 button? While it seems like a cost saving maneuver, it'd probably cost more in the long run to keep that button functioning since its gonna be overworked all the time. A real keyboard or mouse or something seems a lot more cost effective and easier forr everyone to use.

 

There are industry hardware companies that will build custom keyboards. You can have as many or few keys as you want, with whatever label you want on them.

Check out http://dmoz.org/Computers/Hardware/Peripherals/Keyboards/ for some possibilities.

 

That's awesome, I'll check that out for the hell of it.

I just realized that he isn't joking. Holy crap man! I thought this whole thread was a joke! lol

 

Often they have a locked-down computer in showrooms where you can browse the companies online catalog, but it won't let you close the browser or go to any other site. Usually they just have a trackball where you can click on things, but no keyboard.

 

You could have a pad like they have on PDAs with a stylus attached to the machine they could use to write characters.

 

handwriting recognition would be a ton more expensive than a keyboard though.

 

If you look around, there are probably schematics for building something like this.

 

There's always infomercials on at 3AM advertising machines like these. Basically they show them set up in airports and other public places and charge by the minute like a public telephone.

 

http://www.google.com/search?hs=VoI...illa:en-US:official&q=kiosk+parts&btnG=Search

would be a start perhaps.

Also, if you can touchscreen could be better as you could easily reprogram or just drop a flash interface on there.

Old arcade machine parts could be used too. It cant be too hard to break open a mouse and wire it up to a button. I would contact a nearby uni and ask an engineering/ electronics to make you one for $50

 

i'll be interested to know how it will turn out to be.. keep us posted..

 

Sorry, I've not been forthcoming in the exact details and that's made people confused.

Let me explain a bit more, I didn't really want to go into detail but....

I'm putting a computer and a screen in a secure booth that will be indoors in a nightlife venue.

The one button will action a camera to take a photo.

There will be no internet or other services available.

Basically you press the button, it takes a photo. That's it.

But I'm stuck as to how to make the button work/where to buy one/etc.