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Hitachi Demos a Stylus-Friendly Capacitive Touchscreen

Posted by timothy on from the fine-point-you-make-there dept.

dk3nn3dy writes "Hitachi Displays have developed a capacitive touchscreen which converts input from a non-conductive object into electrostatic capacitance. This enables it to be used in a diverse range of ways, such as multi-touch using several fingers, with a plastic pen for finer input, and in cold places while wearing gloves. The display is currently under development for release in the second half of 2011."

8 of 47 comments (clear)

  1. Finally by WrongSizeGlass · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Finally, the Korean Sausage people can eat their sausages and still use their phones in cold weather.

    1. Re:Finally by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      Whoever marked the parent offtopic needs to hand in their geek credentials. The screen described in the article is there to solve /exactly/ the problem that the Koreans were using sausages for - they needed a conductive stylus to use their capacitative screens in cold weather without removing gloves.

  2. Re:Wowzers! by rrossman2 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    and for $15 for one it appears.. where with this screen I can get a pack of 3 to 5 DS "plastic pens" for a few bucks

  3. Re:Wowzers! by hey! · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Golly, your wish is granted. Too bad you didn't wish for a plastic pen that didn't suck.

    I've got one of these, and after five minutes of using it I chucked it in the drawer. It's nowhere near as nice as using a stylus on a resistive screen when you want to do something precise.

    --
    Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
  4. Re:Fail. by MichaelSmith · · Score: 2, Interesting

    How about gloves with little stylus bumps in the ends of the fingers? It just has to be enough to provide a reliable contact patch.

    --
    http://michaelsmith.id.au
  5. Great for disabled people who use mouth sticks too by mykos · · Score: 2, Interesting

    This is going to be great for people who need mouth sticks. I have a friend with cerebral palsy. She plays Nintendo DS games just fine with the resistive touch screen, but using a phone or any other capacitive screen device is nearly impossible.

  6. Re:Fail. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Well no worries then. If it really is that cold, it's probably outside of the operating temperature for ANY touchscreen device and probably even for the LCD itself. Your typical resistive touchscreen probably won't work much below -15 to -20 and the typical capacitive touchscreen will probably give out even sooner.

  7. Re:Pogo is a waste of money by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    The Sony Reader Touch Edition uses a IR based touch sensor. Using fingers, it feels like a capacitive touch screen, using the passive stylus (or your fingernail) I can draw figures just like on my resistive touch screen WinMobile. Plus I get 2 weeks charge on the Sony Reader, so the touch screen technology is not wasting power listening for a touch.