From small screen to big screen, when touch controls rule the world

At the two-day International Portable Technology Series, I heard speakers mention concepts such as "multi-touch" and "capacitive touch" more than once. The iPhone series launched by Apple has driven the entire capacitive touch screen market. From small screens to large screens, multi-touch solutions are needed. At the same time, as customers require gesture recognition accuracy, precision, and breadth, as well as various gesture changes, resistive touch technology is going downhill, and capacitive touch technology is rising. It is reported that nearly 70% to 80% of world-class mobile phone companies are using capacitive touch screens, and the market is also 70% to 80%. Let's share with you the latest touch technology market status and development trends presented at the 2010 Mobile Handheld Display Technology Conference.

How to design touch screen products?

iPhone has driven the entire capacitive touch screen market. From small screens to large screens, multi-touch solutions are needed. So how to commercialize large and small capacitive multi-touch technology? Wu Jianhong, senior manager of Cypress Business Development Department, discussed the above issues with the audience at the 2010 Mobile Display Technology Conference held recently.

How to turn a concept into a real product? The most important thing is to look at the R&D cycle and demand. You also need to find a touch screen supplier and integrate the touch screen into the product. At the same time, you must spend more time on debugging. The next step is the manufacturing stage, and it seems that the technology of capacitive touch screens has become more and more mature.

Next, we need to consider the size of the screen. If it is a mobile phone, it may be a 3.5-inch or 2.8-inch screen, which is relatively simple. If we want to make a product like the iPhone, the screen may be 6 inches, or a notebook may be 11 inches. The requirements for different screen sizes may be different. At the same time, we also need to consider accuracy, that is, how accurate the point should be when the phone is pressed. There is also resolution, how fast the hand moves. What is the OS part like? Is it multi-touch? We must understand this issue very clearly when developing the product. The most important thing is the UI, how to design a very beautiful UI, which may be Windows here, and the mobile phone screen, is it glass, or what material. All multi-touch must be determined at the beginning.

How do we determine the system from the beginning to when we make this product? How do we determine the system parameters, or what materials are used for the touch screen? OLED? TFT? These all have an impact on the product. There is also the interaction part, how to design the entire phone, how much space should be left on the side for the screen to route the wires, like a phone like this, there should be a touch screen in one position, and another in another position. When you press the top, the bottom should also run at the same time, and all the design parts may need to be considered. All of these must be determined when deciding on the product. And how to coordinate the IC and software parts.

The present and future of touch technology

The revolutionary user interface of the iPhone has promoted the substantial growth of small-size capacitive touch screens. Some people say that the market for large-size touch screens will be very good in the second half of the year, but we should still be more conservative because the yield rate is a huge challenge for large-size capacitive touch screens.

At the same time, Android has also entered this field. The openness of Android has made it easier for some designers to launch more creative multi-touch handheld products. This brings up another question: how to make a product that can compete with Apple's iPhone?

The company leaders asked why we worked so hard to make a product but it is not as good as the iPhone? Is there any way for suppliers to continuously optimize the customer's user experience? How to enhance the company's brand image? Customers also asked how to reduce costs, because the cost of capacitive touch is relatively high, and how to make some standardized designs? Finally, there is the issue of patents. If there is a patent dispute, will Apple sue? These are all customer needs, but as a product, it is impossible to meet all requirements.

The choice of solution is like an iceberg. Generally, customers only see the price. They need a variety of supply chains, and they also need good functionality. It should be thin, preferably not more than 10mm. However, they cannot see the noise of these LCDs, the impact of temperature and humidity, and the optimization of the entire performance. Therefore, the solution must be considered comprehensively.

Obviously, multi-touch is a technology trend. In addition to the standard, some other application gestures will be developed and used one after another. In addition, there is the demand trend for medium and large-sized screens.

Another key point is "KISS". What is "KISS"? In English, it means "Keep it simple, stupid!" In Chinese, it means "Don't be stupid, the simpler the better!" The whole thing is very simple, which is a humanized demand, not all kinds of fancy things we come up with at home. We have learned how to input computers in school, which is something we need to learn. But when you go home and see your grandma holding a computer and asking her to input, she can't do it, so she has to buy a touch screen. Therefore, the development direction of the entire touch screen must be to move in the simplest direction, and definitely not to complicate things.