In this informative and entertaining technical article at LinuxDevices.com, embedded developer Patrick Glennon relates his experiences in creating a small Linux-based system for a client that required robust, easy-to-use, low-cost kiosks for conducting surveys at hotels. Glennon makes use of Intrinsyc's CerfPod as the kiosk's base platform, and equips it with open source software such as the Familiar… project's Linux distribution for the iPAQ and the Dillo browser. Glennon writes . . .

“A client of mine, Unifocus, provides software and services to the hotel and medical industries. In the course of some other work there, we got into a discussion on embedded systems. Unifocus, as one of it's offerings, provides survey data gathering and statistical analysis, and was interested in creating a kiosk platform for hotel surveys with a very small footprint for countertops. It would need to be very user friendly, virtually tamper proof, and require no local support whatsoever — not to mention low cost and easy to deploy.”

“They had researched several Windows CE based devices, but had not found anything that came close to meeting all their requirements. Some of the Handheld PC products that had a large enough screen were not even supported any more. I suggested a couple of possibilities off the top of my head, and was surprised on my next visit to find a shiny Intrinsyc CerfPod sitting in my client's office! . . .”

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This article was originally published on LinuxDevices.com and has been donated to the open source community by QuinStreet Inc. Please visit LinuxToday.com for up-to-date news and articles about Linux and open source.