cctv / epos

Using Arduino Project Guidance
1

hi all

this is my first post. i have absolutely no experience in this field but what draws me here is a market for the text overlay from a point of sale (pos)/ till onto a cctv monitor viewing the pos in question. i am a security engineer and from what i can find there are virtually no products available that can take the text from a POS and overlay it onto a cctv screen? geovision have a product similar to this but it is expensive to the point no customer would be interested in buying it.

is there any way you can take the text from a pos and add it to a cctv screen? where would i start guys?

many thanks

2

There are products use by radio control enthusiasts which overlay text of aircraft speed etc onto a video transmission, some of which are based on the Arduino

see

https://www.google.com.au/search?q=arduino+osd&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&gws_rd=cr&ei=JlXHVL3qIofm8gWqpYLwDA

3

You might not get the resolution needed to display so much text but something like this.
Another option that does not overlay but is easy to see is this.

4

I suspect there will be a linux solution for this as well.

But one key thing is how you get the data out of the POS system.

There are so many different types of POS, a lot of which are running proprietary software on unknown OS"s

I know some used Windows embedded, which is basically XP, you still need to get the data out.

Or does your POS terminal have VGA output? that you could possibly put through some sort of video mixer

If you say that virtually no one makes what you want, it must be a niche market, hence the prices will probably be high.

Either way, I doubt the solution is the Arduino - but my be a Raspberry PI

5

Hi guys thanks for the replies. Getting the data from the till should be done via the till printer but I'm not sure how exactly it's done. As for the many different types of epos makes it even more difficult. I have spoken to many retailers about this system and all have been very receptive to the idea but price is the key.

At present geovision have a system but it's so expensive that it leaves no room for any profit. Not only that but the tech support is abysmal too

6

Getting the data from the till should be done via the till printer but I'm not sure how exactly it's done.

This will depend a lot on what printer you are using, are the printers connected via USB? Or is the POS dedicated hardware with its own printer connection e.g Centronics or perhaps RS232?
Unfortunately I suspect it may be USB, in which case things are going to be difficult.

I doubt there is an easy or cheap solution.

7

We are a Cctv company that specialise in the integration of Epos / cash register if you still need help u can contact me

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