During Monday’s Seminar,
“Issues, Insights, and Interactions on Touch HMI,” by Geoff Walker and Gary Barrett), the
speakers asked the audience the questions listed below. The audience responded
by raising their hands. Because of the size of the audience (134 people), exact
answer counts weren’t possible, so estimates were made. (Before the questions
started, the speakers made everyone in the audience raise their hand as a
warm-up exercise, which helps increase audience participation in the polls.)
1. Question:
Which would you rather do: (a) Hover your finger above the screen to
view choices and then touch to select, or (b) Press lightly to view choices and
then press harder to select?
Answer: Hover = 1/3; Pressure = 2/3
All
the p-cap touch controller suppliers are implementing (or have already
implemented) hover as the industry’s preferred solution to the need for
mouseover emulation, since nobody has successfully developed absolute pressure-sensing
for p-cap yet. This audience response shows a definite preference for pressure
sensing, which is not where the industry is headed.
2. Question:
For those of you that write Kanji characters on a smartphone screen, how
many of you are comfortable using your fingers, and how many would prefer to
use a stylus?
Answer:
Fingers = two people; Stylus = the great majority
This
answer was quite surprising, since the speakers were under the impression that
Asian users are generally happy using their fingers to write Kanji characters
on a smartphone, particularly since the software suggests characters based on
partial input (the same way that English words are suggested based on partial
input using an onscreen keyboard). This answer strongly supports the idea that
use of a stylus (probably a passive stylus) is likely to move into the
mainstream.
3. Question:
Are you more likely to want a stylus on a smartphone or a tablet?
Answer:
Smartphone = almost nobody; Tablet = almost everybody
Taking
notes, making sketches and drawings, using a stylus as a high-precision
pointing device – all of these activities make more sense on a tablet than a
smartphone, so the audience’s preference is easily understandable.
4. Question:
Do you see a need for simultaneous stylus and touch?
Answer:
Yes = 25%; No = 75%
Microsoft
is working hard on enabling simultaneous stylus and touch (which is not a
native capability of Windows 8), but most people don’t see a need for it (yet),
probably because of the lack of an obvious consumer application.
5. Question:
How many of you are completely satisfied with the way touch works today
on your smartphone and tablet?
Answer:
Zero people held up their hand.
This
audience response was stunning. The fact that nobody is completely
satisfied with touch today really brings into question the common OEM/ODM
practice of supplying touch that’s “good enough.” Clearly “good enough” isn’t.
6. Question:
Who has more impact on touch, Windows/Microsoft or Android/Google?
Answer:
Windows/Microsoft = 6 people; Android/Google = everybody else
While
this is not a very surprising audience response, the speakers pointed out that
Microsoft has had quite a large influence on the touch industry over time due
to the fact that it has set a lot of technical specifications on touch.
7. Question:
Has anyone seen a demo of a flexible touchscreen on top of a flexible
OLED display?
Answer:
Zero people held up their hand.
Everyone
has seen demos of flexible OLED displays, and everyone has seen demos of
flexible touchscreens (for example, built on Corning’s 100-µm Willow
glass). But nobody in the audience (or the speakers) has seen the two combined
yet. It’s not clear if the reason is a
technical impediment, or simply the lack of a real-world application.
8. Question:
How many of you have seen a tablet that has a passive stylus with a 1.5
mm tip instead of today’s big, ugly, uncomfortable 7 mm rubber tip?
Answer:
Eight people held up their hand
All
of the p-cap touch-controller suppliers have increased their signal-to-noise
ratio (SNR) to the point where you can now touch with a very fine-tipped
passive stylus. In fact, on the show
floor Sharp was demonstrating a 22-inch touch p-cap touchscreen that worked
perfectly with a #2 pencil. The problem is that very few OEMs have rolled out
products that offer this capability so far. By the end of this year, that
situation should have changed significantly. The photo below shows a section of
Sharp’s 22-inch touchscreen with two #2 pencils. – Geoff Walker
Sharp’s
22-inch touchscreen (using one of Sharp’s new series of p-cap touch controllers)
works with a #2 pencil as the touch-object. Interestingly, one of the two
pencils shown on the display even worked with the eraser (not just the pencil
tip), probably because it was worn down more than the other one. Photo by author.
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