Advanced features for User Interface

Published:2011/9/14 2:50:00 Author:Phyllis From:SeekIC

A driving force behind innovations in touchscreen technology is to improve the user experience. Better user experience means providing advanced features that solve known problems and help to make these devices easier and more intuitive to operate for the end consumer. It helps manufacturers differentiate their products in an increasingly crowded and competitive market.

Projected capacitance touchscreen devices have opened up a new world of options and a vastly improved interface for users. Projected capacitive technology provides unlimited multitouch interfaces with gesturing for a smooth and seamless user experience. The benefits to a user interface (UI) powered by capacitive touch have shown in mobile device areas. Even a few years ago, it was unthinkable that most handheld devices could deliver touch performance at such a high level. Present goals are faster response times, better accuracy, and higher signal-to-noise ratios.

Capabilities trending in today’s market can be divided into three types: waterproofing, hover functionality, and resistive stylus replacement. Some of these features have already started to appear in mobile devices, and are providing real world benefits to the end user. By incorporating these features into their handsets, OEMs can deliver a truly advanced UI that goes beyond just touch.

Waterproofing capability addresses a very real need in a user’s daily life. Water on the surface of a touchscreen can significantly impact performance in a variety of ways that range from creating phantom touches to impacting accuracy. In some products, water can irreversibly corrupt the mutual capacitance system, requiring a hard reboot. It can even make the screen freeze or become completely non-responsive when a user tries to wipe it clean of water. The ability to design truly waterproof devices that meet IP-67 standards provides users with an unmatched level of robustness, and allows OEMs to keep up with this market trend.

Hover capability is on the cutting edge of touchscreen technology. The importance of hover is rising quickly among major operating systems, and all current indicators point to this function becoming a major market trend in the next year or two. Performing with heavy gloves and long fingernails are two difficult problems to solve for touchscreen manufacturers. It is hard to detect the position of a finger through layers of fabric or at the greater distances enforced by long fingernails since the capacitance of a finger decreases in proportion to its distance from the sensor. Hover solves this issue by being able to accurately and consistently detect the position of hovering fingers, and other objects, even with 10 mm of glove insulation.

Stylus support is not new to capacitive touchscreens, and the current problem is that the sensor can only read input from a big, bulky device that mimics the size and capacitance of a finger. The controller won’t register input from anything smaller than a touch. The large form factor of these styli make it impossible to clearly see your input on the screen, so completing delicate tasks, manipulating detailed navigation interfaces, or writing in script or Asian character sets becomes very difficult and increases the likelihood of error. Consumers don’t want to be forced to use a thick, clunky stylus like those currently available for use with today’s capacitive touch phones – they want the accuracy and slim form factor of a resistive-style 1 mm tip stylus.

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