10 Finger Capactive Touchscreens? Synaptics Gives Two Thumbs Up
http://vms.slashgear.tv/sgtv/sgtv_player.swf
Two-fingered multi-touch? That’s so 2007. Before the end of 2009, Synaptics plans to deliver capacitive panels capable of using input from 10 fingers. SlashGear got a fingers-on demonstration of the new Synaptics ClearPad panels and they look most impressive. The panels range in size from under 4.3-inches for phones or handhelds to 8-inch units for other mobile devices.
We’ve had some healthy debate on if capacitive displays are more or less accurate than resistive, but these new panels might end the argument. The larger-sized ClearPad 3000 panel reportedly offers touch accuracy to within a millimeter. Although 10 fingers might be more than we need today, the video demo shows some nice user interface examples with several fingers — crumpling up an application to close it looks like fun, but I’m happy with tossing a card on my Palm Pre for now.
Since these are touch panels and not displays, Synaptics could easily work with an OEM to enhance multi-touch trackpads for use with 10 fingers. Once they move to adding support for toes though, I’m passing on the technology. I’m envisioning an ergonomic nightmare, or organ-like foot pedals for a PC, if that happens.
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I’m afraid you don’t get away that easily Kevin :)
Accuracy to the millimetre is pretty good but resistive screens still offer greater accuracy down to the display pixel. The other important point is that you lose accuracy when using a big fat finger as opposed to a stylus. That’s why Microsoft are still prevaricating over whether to support capactive screens with WinMo (for instance, Pocket Excel would be a lot harder to use in its current state) and why Apple have chosen to use such large UI elements on the iPhone.
Also, what did you mean about these only being touch panels and not displays? The demo video includes a touchscreen on a phone-like device.
Anyway, this technology is certainly improving. It’s interesting to note that in addition to accepting input from 10 fingers it can also detect the amount of pressure being applied by each finger. That’s pretty cool and could open up a number of possibilities. I’m not sure how useful 10 finger support would be on a phone but it would definitely be increasingly useful as the size of the screen increases.
Anyway, keep on trying capacitive screens. One day you might end up a accurate as a resistive screen :)
How do you fit 10 fingers on a cell phone sized screen anyway?