InfiniTouch™ Force Panel Technology™

Abstract

Directly measuring the force of a touch on a touch screen eliminates many of the limitations of traditional touch technologies. Force sensing touch devices heretofore have proven impractical. We explore the challenges of force-based touch sensing, how these are overcome, and the capabilities thus offered to the design engineer.

Contents

1. Introduction

A short look at the nature of interaction between computers and human users via "Touch Screens".

2. Touch Screens

An overview of current touch screen technologies including infrared, virtual keypads, resistive, capacitive and acoustic.

3. Sensing Touch by Sensing Force

An examination of the possibility of detecting force to determine X, Y and z-axis force and the inherit challenges and benefits of such a system.

4. The Invention

A look at how QSI's patent-pending beam structure and signal processing effectively sense touch on all three axes as well as the new capabilities the technology provides to the design engineer.