Zytronic touch/virtual button all-in-one design creates an infinitely configurable interface

Touch technology specialist Zytronic has expanded its capabilities and can now work closely with customers to design and manufacture custom capacitive user interfaces that combine ‘traditional’ dynamic touch areas with surrounding capacitive buttons.

Based on Zytronic's multi-touch enabled projected capacitive technology (MPCT™), the ZyBrid® VK product offers new opportunities to improve and enhance the design of human interface devices (HIDs), proving challenging conventional approaches for a wide range of applications.

While touchscreens offer an intuitive and flexible interface, integrating large displays into control panels adds cost and weight compared to traditional mechanical controls, while also increasing the power consumption of the device, neither of which is desirable. Zytronic’s ZyBrid® VK solution allows for the pairing of smaller touch displays with non-mechanical printed and fixed keys on the same glass surface. An added benefit of this approach is the creation of a seamless, fully sealable user interface without any holes or gaps to trap dust or allow liquids to enter.

Zytronic's patented projected capacitive touch technology can detect multiple fingers, conductive pens, gloves or dirty hands simultaneously through glass thickness of 10mm or more. In all cases, it can ignore raindrops, leaves, dirt, ice and other debris that usually "confuse" other touch solutions and cause false operation or inaction. Therefore, ZyBrid® VK is extremely suitable for indoor and outdoor use.

The ZyBrid® VK solution includes a custom glass ZyBrid® touch sensor and a Zytronic ZXY500™ multi-touch controller that supports up to 100 independent touch points and fast touch detection. Zytronic owns the touchscreen manufacturing, touch controller design and algorithm development, and can also develop special firmware for the controller, so dynamic touch sensing areas can be defined at fixed button locations or even on the four sides of the "touch panel".

Working closely with customers to design the touch interface, the glass is cut, printed and heat-hardened in-house, while Zytronic's electronic engineers customize the firmware, define key functions and output protocols according to customer requirements. The design of ZyBrid® VK user interfaces is almost unlimited, and the technology is able to combine touch screens of any aspect ratio with full keyboards, keypads and other commonly used buttons (such as shortcuts to calculators, internet browsers, maps or anything else) according to different customer needs.

“The ZyBrid® VK keyboard functionality operates before the native Windows desktop is loaded,” explains Dr. Andrew Morrison, Technical Director at Zytronic. Once the system is powered on, the ZyBrid® VK can function as a local HID keyboard, HID touchpad and HID touchscreen. This allows keyboard functionality to be enabled via the sensor during the boot process, and once the operating system desktop is fully loaded, all three functional areas are available. A significant benefit for integrators is that no drivers are required as it is used directly as a native HID device within the multi-touch version of Windows or Linux, so it is immediately operational.

The Zytronic ZyBrid® VK solution has a very wide range of applications, even those that may be affected by vibration, shock and dirt from the operator's hand. Benefit from the sealing properties of the seamless glass-to-glass edge design, in other fields such as food processing and the medical industry, where hygienic design is crucial. Cleaning can be done quickly and effectively on flat surfaces without embedded mechanical switches or gaps, while the glass surface of the touch screen is also less affected by harsh chemicals.

With extensive experience in glass design, Zytronic can manufacture ZyBrid® VK touch sensors in virtually any size and specification. Depending on the application, glass enhancements such as anti-reflection, anti-glare and privacy filters can be added to the touchscreen. Customers can also specify flat or curved touchscreen designs, and other custom designs can be added, such as special edge profiles, cutouts and holes. To help guide the user's fingertips around the sensor as the user's eyes turn from the screen to the sensor, surface features such as dimples, grooves and raised markings can be added. In addition, Zytronic can print screen-printed logos and borders in nearly any color to enhance customer branding.