I need to use the most dependable touch screen for our new product, which one? – Gerry, Mooselookmequintic, ME

Hey Gerry,

(BTW, is that really your town?), I like questions where I don’t have to give a wishy-washy answer. First, for the neophytes amongst you, there are five commercially viable touch technologies, from a list longer than the number of letters in your city….they are, Resistive (four types), Surface Capacitive (two types), Infrared, Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW), and Projective Capacitive or, as we affectionately call it, P-Cap, and you know as iPhone-type. (Those of you with corner-cameras, fibers on the edge, and in-cell systems, come back when you have real sales.)

Before I give you the answer, as the cognoscenti amongst you know, any touch technology will work for 80% of the applications, so those of you with the projects that need a specific type, dependability may not be the best question to ask. But the answer to which touch screen is most likely to be running in the morning, is, TA DA, P-Cap.

Why is it that Touch International has built millions of P-Cap touch screens over the last four years and not one has come back for non operation? The reason is that projective technology has nothing to wear out, the place you touch is just glass, which has a 9H scratch resistance (yeah, sapphire glass is better, but you can’t afford it), and the electronics are simple. With p-cap, the sensors are typically made the same way the safety glass windows in your car were made, so it is tough to break, which gives this technology the edge on the runner-up in the dependability category, which is SAW. The electronics are simple and minimal, which gives p-Cap a bigger edge over the third place (dependable touch) technology, which is infrared and its dozens of expensive emitters and phototransistors.

Touch International makes p-cap sensors from 1.8 inch to 22 inch, so, if the most dependable touch technology is your first priority, Gerry, my man, you know how to answer your cranky boss…just tell him P-Cap.

Until next time,
Touch Guy