Freescale has been pioneering work in the semiconductor industry for more than 50 years now. Once a division of Motorola, Freescale delivered the world's first high-powered germanium transistor used mostly for car radios. That started their streak of innovation for years to come.
Investing more than $780 million a year in research and development, Freescale has components in electronics we use nearly every day and all over the world. Their newest work improves upon their Xtrinsic touch-sensing software, allowing touchscreens to be able to work through drops or films of water, aka "electrical noise."
The TWRPI Plug-In Starter Kit comes with two touch panels for testing of the Xtrinsic 3.0 software algorithms for touch interfaces. Configurable rotary, slider, and keypad decoders, and pre-exiiting application code and HMI functionality, comes free.
The Xtrinsic 3.0 software builds on the highly successful TSS library, a proprietary set of common human-machine interfaces, for their touch-sensing modules. Along with the new water tolerance feature, it also includes noise detection, and an algorithm to help reduce false touches.
In order to accomplish such sensitive touch detection, the software combines extremely high sensitivity with a very low capacitance measurement resolution. In addition, users of the software are offered the choice of defining sensitivity themselves, or letting the auto-sensitivity calibration do it for them based upon noise level analysis.
For some real-world comparison, put a little water on any smartphone screen and try to run an app -- see how random and chaotic the device will act. Xtrinsic has exceeded through software elegance, not simple brute-force coding.
The downside is that this software update is only for Freescale devices and screens.
Since the new software is just an update, it can easily be integrated into currently existing systems without increasing the system's cost. Furthermore, it also works with Freescale's touch-sensing input module, which can be found in many hardware platforms.
The software was designed for medical, industrial, and auto infotainment applications to upgrade interfaces from mechanical to touch activated. The tech is being geared toward the industrial market, where simplicity and resilience to the environment is key.
The second some water or oil lands on a CNC controller screen, accidents will immediately follow. It's about time someone addressed this issue. However, if we can now waterproof the hardware under those touchscreens and devices, can we also get similar software features added to smartphones and touch tablets? Freescale could make a fortune licensing out their "touch-detection algorithm."
Everything is touch screen these days. If the touch applications look toy like, that is because touch interfaces are still an immature area. Although Apple has kept its same look, the way it operates has changed. Android continuously adds features and navigation options. Now, most prior non-desktop navigations buttons are now on screen. Windows Phone 8 brought a radical departure from the icon based HMI. Even more players will come and add new gestures and HMIs, Blackberry and Ubuntu come to mind first.
I remember a story I heard about an engineer commenting on expanded ram. He said, "why would you need more than 640k?" Evolve, embrace, or fall to the wayside.
I once had to replace the keyboard, trackpad and logic board of my Mac just because of a minor water spill! So I speak from experience about this. Obviously, this wasn't a touchscreen issue, but still, perhaps this could help make other types of computer interfaces more waterproof as well. It mystified me at the time that a bit of water could kill a computer so thoroughly! I thought they were sturdier than that. Then again, I had this happen a second time (duh!) and after letting my Mac dry out, it started working OK again (except the trackpad...that is toast).
Good point, Elizabeth. Virtually every computer user has spilled something on a keyboard. Until recently, I always kept a small netbook computer in the kitchen to check morning news stories, but the motherboard is now dead, thanks to an unknown source of moisture.
The moisture problem is one more reason to avoid using a touch screen in missionn critical systems. Of course, that only applies to systems where reliability and availability are far more important than low cost. Of course good pushbuttons cost a bit more, and they are not nearly so flexible, but it is often the case that there is only one chance to get the input command right, and getting the command right is way more critical than saving three cents on a button, or having some "neat" feature that does not add any benefit except for being "cool". Possibly I am being way too serious, but from where I stand most of the touch screen applications look a whole lot like toys. Not childrens toys, for sure, but they look like toys all the same. That is why none of the machine control systems that I have created use touch screens. None of those machines were toys.
I did see an invisible automotive keyless entry touch screen that worked very well even in a simulated heavy rainstorm. It may be that there was some heavy software applied, but I did not think so, and nobody claimed that there was software involved. I think it was in early or mid 2008.
Sounds like a different way to achieve one measure of ruggedization in systems traditionally built with various methods for ruggedizing, i.e., medical and industrial ones. I agree with Cabe, that consumer systems could also benefit from this. In fact, I keep wondering why consumer systems don't take advantage of more ruggedization strategies that already exist for industrial electronics. I know it costs more--but I also know my older computers were a lot hardier and expected to last longer.
It is proof that software elegance can overcome hardware problems. Usually, designs follow a brute-force, whatever works approach. I am glad they took a little time with this one.
Also, I hope they don't charge royalties.
For example, antennas in Cell Phones have something around $30 in royalties. They are some unknown rich people out there...
Cabe, this is an interesting update. I have used the previous versions of Xtrinsic sensors. This seems to be a very important upgrade. Freescale, and many other companies, have been building more intelligence into their sensors, thus making it easier to bring rich functionality to many types of products more quickly.
If this technology were to become more widespread, this would be a super-helpful breakthrough to the use of touchscreens. Who hasn't spilled a bit of beverage on their device and experienced the pain of trying to use it afterwards? Interesting development to keep an eye on.
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