Dear Mr. Curve-A-Lot. Needless to say, you have Touch Guy’s curiosity aroused as to what you would do with this curvy-bendy-multi-touch touch-screen. Also, he wants to make sure you need this to be transparent because that drives the touch sensing technology and ultimately the cost…..and do you need proximity sensing as well? In the antediluvian … Continue reading »
Feb
23
I am in need of an oddly-shaped, custom projected capacitive multi-touch display that is waterproof, able to work with varying pressure, and provides maximum velocity for input acquisition and transmission to controller. The dimensions of the sensor need to be 460mm long and the widths need to be 42mm and 58mm respectively; the boarder must be narrow at 1-2mm (maybe made of plastic or aluminum). It is also important that the electronics work with Linux.
Ask Touch Guy! I have made mention of how we propeller-heads love the challenges you crazy design engineers give us. But, as exotic requests go, you have thrown us a soft ball. In the old days of resistive and surface capacitive, we have made Cartesian touch sensors that were circular, triangular, spherical, and even a hexagon … Continue reading »
Sep
30
When evaluating a touch screen for a hardened handheld product (the system must survive a 3-5 foot drop onto cement, and cleaning with alcohol and water), how does resistive multi-touch compare with projected capacitive, particularly for gloved hand (1-2 layers of latex or nitrile), multi-touch and gesturing GUI’s?
Scott, you get one question and one bonus question all rolled into one Touch Guy answer. With more than 50,000 iPhone touch screens being replaced per month with cracks, broken touch screens have become a big business so we kinda like the breakage. But I guess a broken screen keeping you from your Facebook page … Continue reading »
Sep
30
I’m curious about flexible touch screens – why are there not more in the market and what are the challenges and limitations associated with them? What design considerations do I need to be aware of when integrating them?
Dear Mike: Ancient history, my man. Curved and flexible, I guess is the new “flat” which is what everybody has wanted in touch screens for that last ten years. If bell bottom pants can come back (they are called “flairs” now), then why not curved touch screens? In the days of CRTs, all touch screens … Continue reading »
Sep
30
My engineers claim gestures on multi-touch resistive do not work nearly as well as they do on projected capacitive (PCT) used in a variety of consumer devices, like the iPhone – why is this? Have there been any recent breakthroughs with resistive multi-touch? I would appreciate any new input on this subject.
Hi Alex: When you are comparing iPhone/iPad projected capacitive (also called PCT or P-Cap) to any other (even identical) projected capacitive sensors, you may not find the performance to be as good as Apple ’s product. How can this be? It is because Apple has had a really big head-start (as in years). You and … Continue reading »
Sep
30
I’m kind of new to the touch screen world and am trying to figure out why it is so difficult to get large (over 22”) multi-touch resistive and projected capacitive touch screens. Also, what are the big advantages and performance differences between the competing multi-touch technologies?
Hi Jim: So you want to know about big ‘uns? Projected capacitive, our favorite multi-touch technology, has pretty much topped out at 32 inch diagonal sizes. There are bigger ones available, but they have those annoying little wires that nobody likes to see. In the realm of large format multi-touch, we find that infrared, camera … Continue reading »
May
25
Can you please explain what sputtering and micro-etching are and how are they used in touch screen manufacturing to impact touch performance?
Sputtering and micro-etching are complimentary processes that are often used to reduce touch screen borders and package sizes and ultimately improve touch performance. “Sputtering” (aka known as suck-and-spit by the inventor) is a process by which an opaque material, usually indium tin oxide (ITO) is put onto glass or plastic, in a vacuum, resulting in … Continue reading »
Apr
13
I’m working on an open source 17″ tablet for the DIY 3D printing community and am in desperate need of a 17″ – 17.1″ USB multi-touch screen overlay with a 16:9 or 16:10 aspect ratio. So far, I am only coming across single touch resistive and IR multi touch panels. We only really need dual touch panels with as good light transparency as possible, as these are graphics editing machines we are making. Projective capacitive panels would be the ideal technology I assume. How can I find such a beast?
So you want a 17 inch projected capacitive touch screen and are having a tough time finding one? You have chosen wisely, because for the printing business, you will want the super sharp image that you get using this optically clear technology. Even though Touch International makes projected capacitive sensors up to 22 inches, I … Continue reading »
Mar
16
I’m mounting a projected capacitive touch screen to a 17” monitor and am trying to find out how much of a gap I need to leave between the touch screen and LCD glass. Is the gap dependent upon the type of touch screen used? Also, do you have any suggestions for how to mount it to the LCD or bezel?
Dear Victor: As they say on the London Underground, “Mind the Gap”. The separation between the back of the touch sensor and the front of the LCD is important for two reasons—optical and electrical. In general, one wants the touch sensor to be as close to the display as practical, so that there is no … Continue reading »
Feb
18
I’m trying to figure out how multi-touch controllers work and have a few questions: Why are certain multi-touch controllers unable to sense more than 2 touches? What are the device limitations? How does a 10-point sensing controller overcome this?
Hi Raji So, on this Valentine’s Day you want a date with Multi-Touch? Or are you looking to make that special commitment? Either way, I can help you out … As Touch Guy says, the best predictor of tomorrow is what happened yesterday. In the long 25 year reign of resistive touch, the electronics went from … Continue reading »
