Reader Q&A

Vendors that offer low reflectivity touchscreen solutions? (2011)

Hello Geoff,

I read several of your articles online that explain sunlight readability with respect to touchscreen displays and was very impressed with the content. My favorite article is the "The Ultimate Outdoor Readable Touchscreen Display". The ECR calculation is very useful and something I plan on using in the future.

I was wondering if you could recommend any resistive touchscreen vendors that currently offer low reflectivity touchscreen solutions? Are there any selling touchscreens that use the Dynavue modified circular polarizer method?

Thank you,

Dave C.

Contributing Technology Editor Geoff Walker answers:

Dave,

Thanks for the compliment!

Dynavue is specific to GD-Itronix. Since it requires modifying the LCD, it can realistically only be implemented by a device OEM.

Here are a few sources of sunlight-readable touch-screens:

http://www.gunzeusa.com/ -- US division of large Japanese company; one of the strongest materials-oriented touchscreen manufacturers; best-known source of sunlight-readable resistive

http://www.panjittouchscreens.com/ -- Division of a larger Taiwanese company (Mildex Optical); tends to copy what other companies are doing; aggressive pricing

http://www.smk.co.jp/products/subindex/Resistance_Sensitive_Touch_Panels/ -- Big Japanese company; one of the primary sources of automotive touch screens

http://www.amtouch.com.tw/ -- An unusual Taiwanese company that does custom touch-screens, as well as digital resistive (a hot new topic).

There are relatively few visible suppliers of standard sunlight-readable touch-screens. I think one reason is that most of the sunlight-readable touch screens that are used by integrators and device OEMs are made on a custom basis, and most suppliers don't want to make their custom work visible. Sunlight readability is still a very small niche, so there is an intimate relationship between suppliers and buyers, which makes access to the technology difficult for outsiders.

Regards,

Geoff Walker
geoff at walkermobile dot com