Choosing the Right Touch Technology
Executive Summary
Touch has become the preferred user interface for a broad range of business applications, including industrial process control, retail point-of-sale (POS), medical equipment and instrumentation, factory automation, inventory management, self-service bill pay and financial transactions, and gaming machines. Increasingly, touch has made its way into consumer products, notably personal digital assistants (PDAs), tablet PCs, video games and various hand-held systems.
Although there are more than 100 patented touch-sensing technologies, ranging from AT&T's water bottle to Executek's ultrasonic acoustic , only five have been shown to be commercially viable :
1. Analog Resistive
2. Analog Capacitive
3. Infrared
4. Matrix
5. Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW)
Although any of these touch technologies will work in most applications, some are better suited than others to specific environments. For each design or product challenge, the list can be refined to one or two technologies with the optimum combination of attributes to ensure success.
Designers, engineers and systems integrators must consider a range of variables, including sensitivity to touch, reliability, durability, power consumption, size, environment, and image quality, in order to select the appropriate touch technology for each application.
One touch technology, analog resistive, has demonstrated the widest applicability and broad market acceptance. In fact, one day's production of analog resistive touch systems exceeds the annual production of all other technologies combined. Arguably, analog resistive touch is the standard against which designers must compare the requirements of each new product.
This paper will present an overview of the five major touch technologies, addressing the issues designers most often evaluate when determining which best meets the needs of specific products. A chart is provided which details the applicability of the various technologies to specific vertical market applications.
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