Hitachi Demos a Stylus-Friendly Capacitive Touchscreen 47
dk3nn3dy writes "Hitachi Displays have developed a capacitive touchscreen which converts input from a non-conductive object into electrostatic capacitance. This enables it to be used in a diverse range of ways, such as multi-touch using several fingers, with a plastic pen for finer input, and in cold places while wearing gloves. The display is currently under development for release in the second half of 2011."
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Can you not see why being able to use any old stylus and pen is not better than having to use specific ones?
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and for $15 for one it appears.. where with this screen I can get a pack of 3 to 5 DS "plastic pens" for a few bucks
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Golly, your wish is granted. Too bad you didn't wish for a plastic pen that didn't suck.
I've got one of these, and after five minutes of using it I chucked it in the drawer. It's nowhere near as nice as using a stylus on a resistive screen when you want to do something precise.
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I use gummy bears for all my stylus needs...
Pogo is a waste of money (Score:2, Informative)
I've tried them, and those pen accessories for the iPad/iPhone absolutely suck. You get more precision using a sausage. Don't waste your money.
Hopefully some manufacturer will come out with a decent screen that does both pen input and capacitive touch screen input. The current capacitive touch screen only devices are useless for drawing, sketching, or writing.
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The Sony Reader Touch Edition uses a IR based touch sensor. Using fingers, it feels like a capacitive touch screen, using the passive stylus (or your fingernail) I can draw figures just like on my resistive touch screen WinMobile. Plus I get 2 weeks charge on the Sony Reader, so the touch screen technology is not wasting power listening for a touch.
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Finally (Score:3, Interesting)
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Whoever marked the parent offtopic needs to hand in their geek credentials. The screen described in the article is there to solve /exactly/ the problem that the Koreans were using sausages for - they needed a conductive stylus to use their capacitative screens in cold weather without removing gloves.
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Capacitance Touch Screen? (Score:2)
Anything like this [yameenmusic.com] (btw, I do have an RCA player and about 30-40 movies; player just needs a new needle otherwise it's awesome good).
Capacitive stylus input with... (Score:3, Insightful)
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Pressure sensitivity would be nice, but even without it, it is a very welcome improvement over touch-only interfaces.
Stylus based input is a critical feature for many uses of a tablet. Without it, and the innovative features it enables, they hold no advantage over a notebook.
Battery life is where help is needed (Score:2)
When it comes to capacitive screens and associated gadgets, battery life is where help is needed. Whoever comes up with technology to extend battery life will reap big. Who wants to recharge a gadget every night? Who has that time to even remember? Should we all carry extra battery packs just because we own a smart phone?
multitouch... (Score:3, Funny)
...with chopsticks?
Um... (Score:2, Informative)
I still like my wacom (Score:1)
Fail. (Score:2, Insightful)
I live in Minnesota. Pity me. That said... You can't use your phone with the gloves we wear up here. You can't even smoke a cigarette in proper winter gloves. The rest of the time take the gloves off! Maybe if they build a phone with a 17" touch screen then I'll consider using it with gloves... but by that point, it won't fit in my pocket, my purse, etc. These people need to think about the human interface a little bit more. Capacitance screens that require finger contact is a good thing... it keeps butt-di
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How about gloves with little stylus bumps in the ends of the fingers? It just has to be enough to provide a reliable contact patch.
Re:Fail. (Score:4, Funny)
It just has to be enough to provide a reliable contact patch.
Okay, you're not from around here so let me explain Minnesota winter to you:
Imagine drinking battery acid. That is what every breath feels like in January. Now add to that about 6 layers of clothing, so thick that if separated from your person could fill roughly the same space as you. You look like the Stay Puft Marshmellow Man from Ghostbusters. And you know what? It still feels like someone is pouring crushed ice down your back. If you have a dick, it is shriveled up and clinging to the inside of your pants leg and looks like a stack of dimes. Tits, if you have them, are so painfully sharpened they could cut glass.
Now, do you really thing a reliable contact patch is what an all-weather phone needs? Please! In January, my car's happy little voice that greets me in the morning sounds like it got fed the wrong way through a tape player. The GPS speaks in tongues for the first 20 minutes of the trip.
Touch-sensitive phones have limits. Specifically, anywhere north of southern Illinois.
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May I suggest a one way trip to Mars? [slashdot.org] It could be an improvement. Either that or you keep your phone where the sun doesn't shine and get the benefit of a smaller surface area to keep warm.
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Look, if I want something cold and unforgiving shoved in my nethers, I'll go see my gyno.
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Oh My God, Oh My God! (Score:1)
I can't believe it, but it seems like there's actually a girl here on Slashdot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That's nothing! (Score:2)
That's nothing! Wait until I tell you about winters I had lived through in Soviet Russia. Compared to that, Minnesota is a beach resort.
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Well no worries then. If it really is that cold, it's probably outside of the operating temperature for ANY touchscreen device and probably even for the LCD itself. Your typical resistive touchscreen probably won't work much below -15 to -20 and the typical capacitive touchscreen will probably give out even sooner.
Great for disabled people who use mouth sticks too (Score:3, Interesting)
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Er. Why not use a mouth stick fitted with a capacitive tip? Given how those capacitive styluses are just a buck or two a piece, surely attaching one of those tips on her existing mouth stick would work.
Can't wait for this on the iPhone (Score:1)
I no longer fat finger things (Score:1)
I'll be the first to concede that it was hell at first, but I've learned over the past year or two how to make remarkably precise selections with my stubby sausage fingers on a capacitive touchscreen. It's all a matter of personal preference, but for me it would be more of a hassle to fumble around with a stylus these days than it would be just to poke at the thing until I get it right.
Does it work... (Score:3, Funny)
when it's covered in blood [schlockmercenary.com]?
Thank goodness! (Score:2)
Maybe now my next phone can have the actual no-BS usefulness of resistive touch with the Appletastic feelgood shiny warm-n'-fuzziness of being called capacitive touch! No need to compromise!
Droid? (Score:1)