Article

Touch that means so much

What the microchip was to the development of desktop computers, touch is to kiosks. Touch technology as a primary user interface eliminates the need for potentially intimidating keyboards and mouse set-ups.

August 20, 2003

Editor's note: This feature contains excerpts from one chapter of the newly available guide, "How to Select the Right Display for Your Kiosk Project." The comprehensive guide, sponsored by Planar Systems, is available for downloading at no cost from KIOSKmarketplace.

What the microchip was to the development of desktop computers, touch technology is to kiosks. Touch technology is the primary user interface, eliminating the need for potentially intimidating keyboards and mouse set-ups in many kiosk deployments.

"Touch gets the customer to interact more," said Tony Rueda, sales manager at Mass Multimedia Inc. "Whether they are buying lotto tickets or filling in a questionnaire."

Joe Barboza, president and chief executive officer of Cyphermint Inc., an electronic-payment firm, said the advancement of touch technology is one of the most positive developments in the kiosk industry.

Cyphermint manufacturers Vcom (Virtual Commerce) kiosks found in 7-Eleven stores in selected markets. The kiosks allow 7-Eleven customers to shop via the Internet, and conduct financial services such as cashing checks and getting money orders via a touchscreen.

"While the shopper is conducting financial business, he or she can also order some flowers for a loved one, or buy concert tickets. It's point and shoot," said Barboza.

Touch applications are virtually limited only by the imagination of deployers. A shopper in a mall could approach a directory of stores, and use a touchscreen to ask questions such as "where is the nearest ATM?"

Customer expectations

Kelly Meriman, channel sales manager at Touch Systems, a manufacturer of touchscreens, said the first thing potential deployers want to talk about is price.

"We back them up on that question so we can dig into the details of the project," he said. He said he needs details like where the kiosk will be located (and whether it will be supervised or not), what type of environment (such as outdoors or in harsh conditions), what type of usage and typical users.

Regarding usage, questions include whether the kiosk will be a point-of-sale device, used for data collection or transactions, or will it simply dispense information.

"Customers will start out saying, `what does that 15-inch touchscreen go for?' But as you talk about the project, they realize vendors need a lot of information before quoting prices," said Meriman.

Market overview

Frost & Sullivan predicts that by 2005, revenues for touchscreen systems will hit $406.8 million with about 339,000 units sold. That's compared with revenues in 2000 of $105.8 million. The compound annual growth rate for the kiosk touchscreen market is supposed to be 34 percent. Dominant manufacturers in the market are Elo TouchSystems, Touch Systems and 3M MicroTouch.

"There are fewer players," said Merriman, "but they are more specialized."

Frost & Sullivan's U.S. Interactive Kiosk Component Markets report said touchscreens have proven to be the most natural way of interacting with machines that provide information on demand. By simply touching an icon, even people who are not familiar with computers can complete a transaction. Touch allows for faster and more accurate transactions. And businesses that use kiosks to let customers place orders can use the technology to up-sell those customers.

A touchscreen includes four basic elements that make up the overall system: the touchscreen itself, a computer monitor that is either a CRT or flat-panel LCD-type display, a controller card that directs the touchscreen functions, and a software driver program that interfaces with the operating system and the controller card.

Touchscreen from Elo TouchSystems

Viewing the options

Customers have four choices in kiosk touchscreen technology: surface acoustic wave (SAW), resistive, capacitive and infrared.

With SAW, a clear glass overlay is formed to fit over the computer monitor. The overlay has transmitting and receiving transducers that emit an electrical signal to the computer. The technology works best in clean corporate environments like museums and company headquarters. It is tough and supplies good image quality, but it is sensitive to moisture.

Resistive touchscreens consist of a glass or plastic substrate and a plastic cover sheet both coated with a conductive layer, and separated by non-conductive spacers. Touch pressure causes the plastic layer to deflect, and an electrical contact between the layers is made.

This is tough technology that can handle industrial applications and placement in hospitals and restaurants. There are actually three different versions of resistive products four- , five- and eight-wire. The four- and eight-wire versions are lower in cost and more likely to be found in commercial applications. The benefit of this technology is that it is easily sealed and will accept a touch from various styli, including gloved fingers. But they are the easiest screen to damage.

Capacitive touchscreens feature a glass overcoat applied to a conductive coating fused to the surface of an all-glass screen. When a fingertip touches the screen, the contact changes the local capacitance. This change is monitored by the circuit. This technology is durable and works well in public-access environments like retail stores. The biggest market for capacitive products has been legalized gaming. They can be tuned to accept gloved touch but then they won't accept a finger input. This is the same technology used in touch-pads of laptop computers.

Infrared touchscreens use infrared detectors and emitters mounted in a frame that's added to the monitor. The path between the detectors and emitters is broken when a user touches the screen. Since these screens can be activated with a gloved hand, they are often used in industrial settings like steel mills and factories. Infrared touch has problems when positioned in direct sunlight exposure. The sun washes out images.

Which technology to use

Joe Selberg, project manager in the industrial business unit at Planar Systems, said infrared technology is the best optically, but the drawbacks are that it's expensive and debris can give a false touch. Manufacturers have reduced the cost issue over the last couple of years.

The false touch issue has also been drastically reduced with low-profile optics. He said capacitive and SAW are better for transmission. Resistive display technology is typically used in the point-of-sale market. This industry requires the acceptance of multiple styli, including fingers, credit cards, gloved hands and fingernails. It is also less expensive.

But "less expensive" is a relative term in display projects.Micro Industries sells touchscreen kiosks at prices ranging from $1,200 to $6,000. In its latest product, a wall-mounted, 30-inch HDTV touchscreen, the SAW touchscreen component from EloTouchSystems, adds $1,000 to the price tag.

"You tell people the price and they say, `you're kidding.' Then they see the quality of the product and price gets pushed aside. They understand that you get what you pay for," said Michael Curran, president of Micro Industries. "Visuals have a very strong impact."

Soft side

Adding touch capabilities impacts the overall design of a kiosk. Vendors must think about software development as well as human factors, such as whether consumers will have to remove their gloves to use an outdoor touchscreen on a cold day.

Paul Wiener, market manager at Elo TouchSystems, said the success of a touchscreen often lies in the software that drives it. Clear instructions and easy-to-follow commands, he said, will limit user frustration and perhaps even vandalism. He offered these points about developing a good system:

Barboza added, "If it's not easy to use and appealing to look at, people won't use it. Period."