A touch screen you don’t need to take your gloves off for

(Touch International)

Touch screen manufacturer Touch International has created a screen that is so sensitive it can register finger touches through gloves and can sense water spray.

The MulTI-Touch screen is a Windows 7-compatible component that supports up to 10 inputs. Users can interact with the surface with their bare fingers, gloved fingers, a stylus and even water spray.

As touch screens become synonymous with gadgets, electronics manufacturers are rushing to develop intelligent multitouch screens capable of providing enhanced feedback to the user.

In June, the US Patent and Trademark Office made public a patent application from Apple which could provide insight into the future design of touch screens. The "Multi Touch with Multi Haptics" patent describes a screen that could both detect and respond to multitouch gestures.

For the moment, however, the MulTI-Touch screen is the "most advanced multi-touch projected capacitive technology" currently available in the market.

"MulTI-Touch is a very exciting technology because it resolves all of the limitations that users experience with traditional projected capacitive touch technologies," explained Robert Spencer, vice president of sales for Touch International in a June 29 press release.

"MulTI-Touch is the only projected capacitive technology that works with gloved finger, pen input and water spray, allowing users to integrate it into applications that were previously unable to use touch screens."

Future applications for the screen include military equipment, aerospace systems, medical instruments, industrial automation and retail signature capture.

MulTI-Touch technology is available to manufacturers in 10.1" screen sizes with additional formats expected by Q3 2010.

http://www.touchinternational.com/

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/10/06/24/apple_investigating_multi_haptic_feedback_for_multi_touch_devices.html