Article

Reaching new capacity

A group of manufacturers have recently entered the capacitive touchscreen market, emphasizing the market's potential despite the potential fates that befall touchscreens in outdoor kiosk enclosures.

February 20, 2002

Outdoor kiosk monitors are pelted by rain and snow, broil in the summer and freeze in the winter, and take a pounding from juveniles and other vandals who view the devices as toys destined for demolition.

Such high levels of abuse are a lot for a touchscreen to resist. But that is not hindering growth in the area of capacitive touchscreen manufacturing. With an expansion in the number of applications that call for capacitive touchscreens, companies are lining up to compete for market share.

"We delayed getting into the touchscreen market because it wasn't a big enough market," said Rick McCaskill, vice president of marketing and business development for Synaptics Corp. "The market is growing because new opportunities are coming up."

San Jose, Calif.-based Synaptics is one of three companies recently announcing new capacitive touchscreen products. The others are TouchSystems Corp., of Round Rock, Texas, and Zytronic Displays Ltd., of Blaydon, England, which is also working in partnership with Synaptics.

They join a field that in recent years had two main players, 3M Touch Systems Inc. and Elo TouchSystems Inc.

Lots of reasons, one conclusion

Among the potential applications cited are gaming kiosks, ATMs incorporating touchscreens to eliminate button failures, and the expanding market for Web phones around the world. The phones are expected to use larger, touch-activated displays. Other potential uses cited include banking kiosks, where customers can access account and lending information, and airline ticketing and museum information kiosks.

"Touchscreens are going up in places that have a lot of public use," said David Huntley, Zytronics commercial director. "You need to have something that does the job but is hard wearing."

In the case of TouchSystems, which sold its capacitive and resistive business to MicroTouch (now 3M Touch Systems) in 1995, the lifting of competitive restrictions and the all-encompassing nature of the industry made its entrée into the market possible.

"With the expiration of patents, it makes it logical and ripe for us to enter the market," said Michael Woolstrum, TouchSystems chief executive officer.

Woolstrum and Factura Kiosks Inc. president Greg Swistak did an analysis of the public-access kiosk market and determined that 85 percent to 90 percent of those kiosks use all-glass touchscreens - either capacitive or surface acoustic wave. That was enough to convince Wolstrum, who came to TouchSystems from MicroTouch in July 2000.

Models on the runway

Unlike resistive touchscreens (which measure the break in a circuit when a soft outer coating is pressed toward the glass) and acoustic wave touchscreens (where ultrasonic waves pass through a glass coating), capacitive touchscreens rely on the fact that the human body carries an electric charge.

When a capacitive touchscreen is touched, the circuitry measures the change in capacitance to calculate where the screen was activated. Capacitive screens can sense through thick glass, making them ideal for rugged, outdoor applications.

Two TouchSystems models, XGT and RGT, debuted Nov. 12 at the Comdex Fall 2001 show in Las Vegas. Woolstrum said that he has already received orders from kiosk makers, though he did not reveal sales figures. XGT is a standard glass touchscreen, while RGT uses an extra-strong glass.

Synaptics does not have any products in general distribution yet, but are preparing to enter the market.

"We are just starting to sample ship the large touchscreen. It will be in volume production in January," McCaskill said, adding that eight-, 12-, 15-, 19-, and 21-inch displays will be available.

Synaptics's touchscreens will feature capacitive sensors embedded in glass made by Zytronic. The company believes this will enhance the capability of capacitive screens.

"It will be a tighter integration," McCaskill said. "The electronics are right on the glass. There's no need for a glass sensor and cable going to the board (as with other products)."

In April, Zytronic launched a capacitive touchscreen system called Zytouch, which is designed to resist damage by physical attacks and weather. Zytouch is being marketed for the ATM and information kiosks sectors, according to information on the company's Web site.

Capacitive touchscreens are susceptible to American With Disabilities Act (ADA) problems, as some people rely on devices other than their appendages to trigger devices. Woolstrum said kiosk deployers must be tuned in to potential ADA problems.

"Our product is a peripheral product to a total solution," he said. "Where the product is susceptible to the Americans With Disabilities Act, the kiosk provider would provide other alternatives to input."

The necessity of touchscreens

More competition in any field usually means lower price points for consumers. Woolstrum, while not outlining TouchSystems's prices, said the capacitive touchscreen market would not be an exception.

"Price is one of the areas in which we will compete," he said.

While lower prices will help, it may not make a significant dent on the bottom line. Touchscreens add hundreds of dollars to the price of a kiosk, which can range from $5,000 to more than $20,000.

In fact, one strategy for reducing costs in this shaky economic climate, according to Francie Mendelsohn, president of kiosk-consulting company Summit Research Inc., is to forego touchscreens altogether.

"I sometimes tell people to forget about the added cost of a touchscreen because in certain applications they are totally unnecessary," Mendelsohn said.

Keyboards and trackballs are the typical keyboard substitutes, but touchscreen manufacturers argue that their product is the better fit for outdoor applications, no matter the cost.

"Keyboards are more expensive in the long run," said McCaskill, who did concede that applications such as Internet kiosks require keyboards. "It's a maintenance issue and it makes the (enclosure) bigger."

Added Woolstrum: "I accept that a possible cost-reduced method is to put in an inferior technology. The challenge with trackballs and keyboards is that they are prone to failures."

Woolstrum also believes that keyboards will never be as easy to use as touch-based applications.

"The most intuitie input is for somebody to touch on an object that they want and navigate without having to deal with hand-eye coordination that is not intuitive," he said.