Multitouch Screens

 

Multitouch Screens

Multi touch screen is an emerging technology that is trying to replace keyboards and mouses for our computers by simply using finger touch.

Devices that have a touch screen sense a person's finger and react accordingly, whereas the multi touch technology senses multiple points of contact. It could sense several fingers as well as sensing multiple individuals simultaneously.
What the multi touch screen basically does is sensing the exact location of the finger and then tracks the finger's movements and converts them to the action that should be done on the screen depending on the 

template or application used.

Touchco’s multitouch surface.

Multitouch screens have been a little slower to enter the electronics marketplace than consumers might have hoped. Since Jeff Han, a research scientist at New York University’s Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, first presented his multitouch wall at the TED Conference in 2006, we’ve seen other multitouch technologies trickle into the electronic marketplace. The cellphone has used the technology most, starting with the iPhone, and then moving into other smartphones using Google’s Android platform and Hewlett-Packard TouchSmart countertop computer. But with the exception of a few outliers and device manufacturer research demos, we haven’t really seen multitouch used in other consumer electronics yet.

That might all change soon. Ilya Rosenberg, Ken Perlin and a small team of computer scientists from New York University’s Media Research Lab hope to bring a new kind of multitouch to everything from new e-readers to musical instruments, with their new company, Touchco.

Devices like the iPhone use a technology called capacitive touch and require contact with skin to activate a touch point. These touch technologies also limit the number of simultaneous inputs (the iPhone can track up to five fingers at once). In contrast, Touchco uses a technology called interpolating force-sensitive resistance, or I.F.S.R. This technology uses force-sensitive resistors, which become more conductive as you apply different levels of pressure, and then constantly scan and detect different inputs.

This allows for very low power, unlimited simultaneous touch inputs and the possibility of fully flexible multitouch devices. The technology is also extremely inexpensive; Mr. Rosenberg hopes to sell sheets of I.F.S.R. for as little as $10 a square foot.

So where can you expect to see this technology? Mr. Perlin believes you will see a new range of multitouch e-readers in the coming year, along with new musical instruments and other laptops or notebooks. Touchco has also been working closely with Disney animators to create a true digital sketchbook replacement, utilizing extremely sensitive pressure sensors to determine pencil thickness or even use of an eraser. The software behind the sensors can easily differentiate between the palm of a hand, a brush or a pencil.

There is also the possibility that the right implementation on computer could change the way we interact with interfaces. As an example, Mr. Rosenberg showed me a long sheet of I.F.S.R., about the size of a large flat panel computer monitor, which allowed manipulation of a 3-D computer program. When I lightly dragged my hand across the touch panel I could control the cursor. When I applied more pressure, I could select objects and change their orientation, size and shape within the program. It was incredibly intuitive and simple to navigate.