You’ve seen them on news show, where metereologists or election reporters slide their fingers across a wall screen and zip images back and forth. You might have seen Microsoft Surface, the table allowing you to manipulate images or avatars with a simple sweep of the fingers along the top. Now Displax Interactive Systems, based out of Lisbon, Portugal, wants to capitalize on touchscreen fever.
Its multitouch tech products have appeared in pilot projects on Spanish television, Ikea stores, train stations and shopping malls. Essentially, people can use their screens to find out information about products or train schedules, all just by sliding their fingers on these special surfaces. In 2011, Displax plans to formally announce these projects once they’ve been confirmed.
How does their technology known as Skin work? A nanowired polymer film can be attached to any non-metallic surface, and if it less than 15 millimetres thick and between 7 and 135 inches wide across the diagonal. Digital Journal found out more about this breakthrough technology by talking to Miguel Fonseca, Chief Business Officer of Displax Interactive Systems.
DigitalJournal.com: How does your technology work in layman terms?
Miguel Fonseca: Our powerful multitouch technology detecting up to 16 touches on a 50-inch screen only comes to life with the other integral part of the solution, the patented controller. Only when the controller processes the multiple input signals it receives from the grid of nanowires embedded in the polymer film the surface actually becomes interactive. Each time a finger is placed on the screen or a user blows on the surface, a small electrical disturbance is caused. The controller then analyses this data and decodes the location of each input on that grid to track the finger and air-flow movements. The controller and its software determine the number of the touches that can be detected.
To give you a one-sentence description: The Displax Multitouch Technology combines a patented innovative controller and software with a transparent, thinner-than-paper nanowired polymer film to create a true multitouch surface when the film is applied to any non-conductive surface with less than 15 millimetres of thickness.
DJ: Cite a few examples of how Displax Multitouch Technology can be used for everyday lifestyles.
Fonseca: People will encounter the technology in their everyday lives when they visit shops, museums, public places like airports and hotels or at their workplace – wherever information needs to be easily accessible and more than one person need to interact with the surface at the same time. On their trip to the museum the entire family can interact with an information screen at the same time. In shops different customers can look through the product offering or configure their product at the same time – no more waiting or fighting who is first. Shop owners could also transform their entire shop window into an interactive surface, allowing several customers at the same time to browse their offering even when the shop is closed. People who work in places with large control panels like in the utilities industry, public transport or aviation might also encounter a multitouch surface.
DigitalJournal.com: How much would Displax Multitouch Technology cost for a buyer?
Fonseca: Initially, there will not be any traditional consumer products a consumer will purchase. At the moment we are only targeting business customers. Prices will vary depending on the size of the surface and the nature of the project.
DigitalJournal.com: Some people might call this technology “cool” or “intriguing” but not necessarily a required product. Much like Microsoft Surface, people are amazed by it but they don’t view it as essential, like a smartphone. How would you respond to this?
Fonseca: There has undoubtedly been a huge surge in the consumer appetite for touch technologies in recent years. It is intuitive and easy to use and consumers increasingly expect the same intuitive interaction they have with their mobile devices in all areas of their lives. It is not essential, but people will be attracted by it and so the use of interactive technologies will become a differentiating factor for many shops, museums and other places consumers visit. Our technology will allow our business customers to live up to these expectations and implement innovative ideas to present information, from interactive windows to large spheres or interactive walls and tables. Touch and gestures will soon become a standard in human computer interaction, and natural user interfaces will become the default way to interact with digital devices.
Also, the technology is not limited to commercial applications. We are confident that eventually there will be consumer applications, e.g. for gaming. And gaming is certainly not an essential part of people’s lives but the gaming experience will be very different and intriguing with new ways of interaction. We are already in touch with major players in the PC market to explore the possibilities.
DigitialJournal.com: Tell us a bit more about other Displax Multitouch Technology products?
Fonseca: The Displax portfolio includes different interactive technologies, from gesture to touch recognition, from single- to multitouch. Displax Moovit, for example, is an interactive floor. Content is projected onto a PVC mat on the floor and reacts to people’s movements when they are walking over it. We have plug-and-play products like Displax Crayon and Displax Oqtopus as well as more complex products that are customized to fit the requirements of our customers. The Displax Overlay or the Displax Multitouch Technology are such products.
