Neonode Incorporated, which we used to know for their super-small touchscreen phones, announced the world’s first ultra-low power single-chip optical touch controller – NN1001.
Here’s what’s it all about (from the press release):
Developed in close cooperation between Neonode and Texas Instruments (TI), the NN1001 is specifically designed to reduce the bill of materials (BOM) cost, increase performance and add functionality for optical touch controller customers in a variety of end markets including smartphones, tablets, e-books and automotive…
The NN1001 controller has a high scanning speed of 1000 Hz (latency down to 1 ms) and consumes less than 1mW at 100Hz, which has the potential to outperform most touch solutions on the current market… NN1001 connects to any microcontroller or application processor with a high-speed SPI interface. The controller works in single or multiple configurations to support screen sizes up to 20 inches.
So what this means for you? Well if Neonode and TI manage to find some interested OEMs, this could translate into cheaper gadgets. Already tablets are getting more affordable and with solutions like the NN1001, the price could further go down. We’ll see…