back to the future: the touch guys missed something

Back to the Future: The Touch Guys Missed Something

Gary L. BarrettChief Technology Officer

TouchInternational

© Copyright 2012 Touch International, Inc

What We Will Cover

The Touch Guys Are Clueless

Introducing the Theremin

Examining Where We Are Today

More Ways the Touch Guys Failed

The Future of Interactivity

© Copyright 2012 Touch International, Inc

The Touch Guys Missed Something

The Touch Guys are Clueless

Most Interactive Breakthroughs Came from Someone Other than Touch Guys

Examples

George Hurst, founder of Elographics, was trying to make a digitizer.

Bill Pepper, developer of original analog S-Cap touch screen, was trying to make a fretless, stringless guitar.

John Fenn and Daryl Stoddard, inventors of the first matrix touch panel, were making an electronic chess board.

© Copyright 2012 Touch International, Inc

The Touch Guys Missed Something

© Copyright 2012 Touch International, Inc

Examining the Theremin

1920

Léon Theremin invents the thereminfor Russian Government as a

proximity sensing security device.

Is recognized as the world’s first electronic instrument.

The Touch Guys Missed Something

© Copyright 2012 Touch International, Inc

The Touch Guys Missed Something

The Theremin

1951

Featured in American Film The Day the Earth Stood Still

© Copyright 2012 Touch International, Inc

The Touch Guys Missed Something

© Copyright 2012 Touch International, Inc

The Touch Guys Missed Something

How Does the Theremin Relate to Touch and Interactivity?

Operates on an invisible electromagnetic field

Relies on the body’s natural capacitance

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Where Are We Now?

© Copyright 2012 Touch International, Inc

12 Reasons for Projected Capacitive

1. Lasts Forever

2. Does Multi-touch

3. Great Optics

4. Unbreakable/All Plastic

5. Contoured and formed

6. Lots of electronics options

7. Low cost

8. Low power

9. Proximity Sensing (Z-axis)

10. No Coordinate Drift

11. High Resolution

12. Pen Input

© Copyright 2012 Touch International, Inc

Reflecting on the Past and Looking to the Future

Questions to Ask

We had interactivity at our fingertips in 1920. Why did it take so long to get to where we are today?

How do we apply what we know today, with what we missed in the past, to get to where we want to be in the future?

© Copyright 2012 Touch International, Inc

Why the Touch Guys Missed the Boat

First Miss: Durability

In the early 80's there were three touch technologies

IR

Resistive

Zone capacitive

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Why the Touch Guys Missed the Boat

Second Miss: Multi-Touch

Multi-touch was rejected for about 25 years due to ghosting.

© Copyright 2012 Touch International, Inc

Why the Touch Guys Missed the Boat

Third Miss: Near-Field Imaging

© Copyright 2012 Touch International, Inc

Why the Touch Guys Missed the Boat

2 million Projected Capacitive Verifone units were shipped pre-iPhone, but no one realized the display’s potential until Apple.

© Copyright 2012 Touch International, Inc

Fast Forward to the Future

© Copyright 2012 Touch International, Inc

Putting the Past, Present & Future Together

How do you combine thecapabilities of the Theremin &

PCAP with our dreams of interactivity?

© Copyright 2012 Touch International, Inc

Putting the Past, Present & Future Together

Disney Research has Figured out the Solution

PCAP + Gestures + Motion = Touché

Touché = Swept Frequency Capacitive Sensing

© Copyright 2012 Touch International, Inc

Past, Present and Future Finally Meet

Touché: Enhancing Touch Interaction

© Copyright 2012 Touch International, Inc

Putting it All Together

Bottom Line

Interactivity should not be confined to just touch.

Think Bigger.

Next Steps

Touch guys need to go back to the drawing board and look at the technology at our fingertips since 1920 and look to combine with the PCAP of today.

Non-touch guys should channel their inner Disney.