At Mobile World Congress 2011, touchscreen manufacturer and researcher Synaptics have been showing off their new Series 4 ClearPad touchscreen, which not only shaves off a precious millimeter of thickness by being built right into the LCD display (as opposed to being a separate layer on top of it, like usual), it can also work perfectly well through usually non-conductive material, like a stylus or glove. The ClearPad Series 4 is even sensitive enough to detect the stylus through a stack of business cards. Those old-school mobile users who loved the precision of a stylus on a resistive touchscreen will be eager to see this in a phone, not to mention those of us who live in the freezing nether-regions of the world and just can’t keep our phone away in a blizzard.
There’s one other benefit to Synaptics’ latest product that was equally impressive. For one, there will be some new display driver integration, which means touch sensitive elements will be cached where they’re quickly accessible, and thus more responsive to the touch. This works out to a response time of 20 milliseconds, versus the 70 milliseconds that are typical for touch responses. Though the difference may be minuscule if you compared the two times with a stopwatch, when we’re working with user interfaces that we expect to respond organically like real-world objects, that improved reaction time can be readily noticed.
It’s hard to find a smartphone these days without a touchscreen, but everyday circumstances like requiring precision and wearing gloves can get in the way of navigating menus. With the ClearPad Series 4 and technological advances like it, our smartphones are only becoming slicker and easier to use.
So when can we see this snazzy new touchscreen in a real phone? Synaptics says it’ll be going into production by the summer – we’ll keep our eyes peeled. Hit up their website for more info on the ClearPad family.