Software

Zytronic introduces contactless sensing option

Image courtesy of Zytronic.

October 7, 2020

Zytronic, a touch technology provider, has introduced a contactless sensing option that can detect user interactions up to 30-milimeters away from the surface of the glass, according to a press release.

The company's ZyBrid works in conjunction with Zytronic's ZXY500 projected capacitive controller, which uses proprietary firmware to boost sensitivity levels beyond what is normally possible. Together with a touch sensor, this enables a deeper touch field to be generated. Furthermore, the multi-touch sensor can recognize basic gestures such as zooms, pinches and swipes even when the user is wearing gloves. It can also be set to work in standard touch mode with direct user contact to the surface of the touchscreen.

The technology does not rely on infrared or camera-based touch detection hardware mounted around the front edges of the screen. Such arrangements can make the screen difficult to clean effectively and are also susceptible to "false" or accidental touches since they will react to any object breaking the IR light beams or coming into view of the camera — such as a sleeve, drop of rain or a falling leaf.

Furthermore, direct sunlight and dust/debris accumulating on the surface can impede performance.

Projected capacitive or PCAP touch technologies will only respond to a finger (sometimes gloved) or a conductive stylus, making them less prone to such performance issues.

Zytronic will advise developers of graphical user interfaces to adapt software to ensure an optimal user experience. including tips such as increasing the size of icons to be touched and introducing wider "guard bands" around each active button area.

"Current PCAP-based contactless technologies typically only support maximum distances of about 10mm from the surface of the screen, and generally cannot detect a touch from a gloved hand," Dr. Andrew Morrison, technical director at Zytronic, said in the press release. "This is because they rely on either ITO or a metal mesh to create the projected capacitive matrix on the rear of the sensor — and both have a relatively low conductivity. In contrast, for ZyBrid, we deposit a proprietary copper matrix pattern on the rear of our touch sensors, and together with our latest ZXY500 controller and custom firmware, allows us to detect changes in the transferred energy from further than ever before. This means that touch events can be registered at least 30mm away from the surface of the screen, even from a gloved hand."