Abstract: A system and method for use in retail stores for selecting, previewing, and purchasing music or other products is provided. The graphical information system provides a user with the ability to locate products through an interface that combines the use of mechanical wheels with a touch screen whereby rotation of the mechanical wheels, or thumbwheels, appears on screen to rotate a series of mechanical type drums. The system provides a user with the functionality and entertainment value of a kiosk coupled with a powerful method of selecting products from a large catalog using thumbwheels in conjunction with a hierarchical graphical user interface tailored for the specific retail environment.

Abstract: A system and method for use in retail stores for selecting, previewing, and purchasing music or other products is provided. The graphical information system provides a user with the ability to locate products through an interface that combines the use of mechanical wheels with a touch screen whereby rotation of the mechanical wheels, or thumbwheels, appears on screen to rotate a series of mechanical type drums. The system provides a user with the functionality and entertainment value of a kiosk coupled with a powerful method of selecting products from a large catalog using thumbwheels in conjunction with a hierarchical graphical user interface tailored for the specific retail environment.

Abstract: A system and method for use in retail stores for selecting, previewing, and purchasing music or other products is provided. The graphical information system provides a user with the ability to locate products through an interface that combines the use of mechanical wheels with a touch screen whereby rotation of the mechanical wheels, or thumbwheels, appears on screen to rotate a series of mechanical type drums. The system provides a user with the functionality and entertainment value of a kiosk coupled with a powerful method of selecting products from a large catalog using thumbwheels in conjunction with a hierarchical graphical user interface tailored for the specific retail environment.

Abstract: A rasterization system is provided to control the formatting and manipulations of font and character information to perform real-time rasterization of images of selected characters to be output to a column-oriented printing or display apparatus. The rasterization system is comprised of a programmable data processor for receiving input data and font data and for generating print data and control signals for outputting the selected characters. The programmable data processor performs the real-time rasterization of the input data (representing the desired characters to be printed) and the font data (representing the outlines of the particular size and font of the selected character set) by creating an intermediate edge list data base before completing the fill or rasterization process required to generate the pixel output data used to print the selected characters on the tape.