Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

New Touchscreen Technology Like Writing On Paper

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the harder-better-faster dept.

An anonymous reader writes "A company claims it has the technology to make writing on touchscreens more like writing with pencil and paper, when the harder you press the thicker the line you produce. The technology uses a material called Quantum Tunneling Composite (QTC), the resistance of which is extremely sensitive to pressure, unlike today's touchscreen phones, which might be fine for basic finger-pointing, but they are poor at gauging the pressure of the touch. The hope is that this will be useful in Asia for handwriting recognition, because Asian scripts use a lot of variation in line thickness. Interestingly, screens with a standard 2D touch matrix can get the extra measure of control using a narrow strip of QTC down the side."

4 of 123 comments (clear)

  1. Wacom tablet, anyone? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    I seem to remember Wacom tablets having this kind of feature for a long long time... granted, the texture wasn't paper-like, but you could replace the 'nibs' or the ends to change the drag-feel of the stylus on the tablet. Best of all, no batteries for any of the devices - the tablet drove them with power provided as long as they were within a quarter of an inch of the surface. How is this revolutionary?

    1. Re:Wacom tablet, anyone? by mikael_j · · Score: 3, Informative

      The main selling point of Wacom tablets is exactly this, the reason they can so much for the Cintiq is because it's about as close to drawing on real paper/canvas as you can get with a computer. And as you stated, you can replace the nibs to get a different feel.

      IMO (as someone who's used Wacom tablets for ages and prefers them to regular mice) the only real downside to Wacom tablets is that they take up a bit of space and are expensive but once you get used to using the stylus or the tablet mice (up with those is "up" on the tablet, not "forward" on the mouse) you'll have serious issues with regular mice.

      /Mikael

      --
      Greylisting is to SMTP as NAT is to IPv4
    2. Re:Wacom tablet, anyone? by Brandee07 · · Score: 4, Informative

      http://www.wacom.com/bamboo/bamboo_pen_touch.php

      You can get 1024 levels of pressure sensitivity for $99. The next product line up offers MORE pressure sensitivity and can detect pen tilt as well.

      So, yeah, I'm not seeing the innovation here.

  2. Re:Or by Bragador · · Score: 3, Informative

    All right. Fair comment. A phonetic system is definitely much quicker and brings a higher level of literacy sooner than an ideogrammatic system.

    However, the Chinese speak three mutually unintelligible languages--Cantonese, Mandarin, and Manchu--but they all use the same characters. In addition, there are numerous minority languages in China that have adopted the characters. Enabling everyone to be able to communicate with each other through the written language is no small feat.

    With a phonetic system, they would have a lot of difficulties communicating between themselves. Maybe once mandarin is used unequivocally by all of their people, they'll be able to adopt hanyu pinyin.

    For now, they are a challenge to learn and a beauty to behold.