Kiosk Question - Lock User In

[Sarah Reichelt]

On 9/16/07, Sivakatirswami <katir at hindu.org> wrote:
> Looks like we have some fun-interesting dev ahead of us
> as there is a request to create a Kiosk style app here for
> all our visitor traffic to interface with... Rev is obviously
> the best tool.
>
> I have some basic questions
>
> This will run on a little white 13 Powerbook - Mac OSX
>
> How do you lock up the machine such that once you boot
> the Rev app, which will be set to take over the whole screen,
> no one can do anything else but interact with your app.
> i.e. a savvy use could hit cmd-tab, call up all running apps
> and choose the finder, hide your app and there she is, face
> to face with the finder-entire-machine and not your app.
>
> Then of course we need a way for admin to click on something
> and then be granted access to the whole box again.

My solution is to put the computer in a box with a window and fix it
so that the keyboard is inaccessible. Plug in a trackball as the only
control, make your app fill the screen and hide the menubar. For admin
access, use Timbuktu, Apple Remote Desktop or have a virtual keyboard
for entering a password to show the menubar.

People on this list from Australian universities or research
institutes may be familiar with the Genesearch efreezer which I
programmed and helped to build, and which has used this technique
successfully for many years.

Cheers,
Sarah