Controllers for Touchscreens
Printer-friendly version3M EXII Controllers offer good accuracy and touch response.
By Francesco Fasoglio, European Business Manager, 3M Touch System
Touch screen electronics hardware and software are key components for developing touch products that offer fast, reliable and accurate performance in a variety of applications including self-service kiosk, retail, gaming, ATM, retail point-of-sale and point-of-information. The MicroTouch EXII Controller Series and MicroTouch MT 7 Software Suite from 3M Touch Systems, a division of diversified technology company 3M, are leading the industry for their enhanced product functionality, ease of use, deployment and ‘upgradability.’
EXII Controllers are optimised for use with MicroTouch ClearTek II, ToughTouch II and legacy ClearTek capacitive touch screens from 3M. Based on the innovative MicroTouch EXII ASIC, the controllers offer excellent accuracy and touch response, standard-setting ESD and EMI protection, wide operating temperatures, a high touch coordinate resolution of 16k x 16k, and USB, HID and RS232-compliant interface support.
3M EXII Controllers offer exellent accuracy and touch response.
The EX II 7730HC and 7760UC USB controllers are the latest additions to the series. The 7730HC controller features fully-compliant USB HID electronics and firmware, which allows the touch system to be used without installing a touch driver. It is ideal for applications that do not require sophisticated touch mode selections and multi-monitor features, allowing easy system integration and maintenance. The 7760UC controller provides integrators already using MicroTouch EX II electronics with new robust features and is backward compatible to support existing product lines and programmes.
These new robust features include enhanced levels of CRFI (Conducted Radio Frequency Immunity), Wake-on-touch functionality, and increased MTBF (Mean Time Between Failure) specifications to greater than 700 kilowatt hours.
Enhanced CRFI levels help reduce the chance that other system electronics, communication or power lines will impact the touch system’s performance, and can help product developers shorten their design cycles and create more robust products.
Wake-on-touch, the ability to restore the entire system from suspend mode to full power mode and operation when activated by a touch, allows developers to power manage their systems to help customers reduce energy consumption, as well as extend the life of critical system components, such as the LCD backlights.
In addition to the electronics, the driver software is another major element in the design of a successful touch product. MT 7 Software provides support to most operating systems including Windows 2000, XP and Vista. Additional software support is available for Windows CE, .NET, Linux and Windows 2003 Server, commonly used to manage large terminal networks.
A notable feature for game developers in particular is MT 7.12’s ‘multiple player/simultaneous touch’ support. Developers will find this feature important when creating multi-player applications such as roulette and horse race betting games, where bets are placed simultaneously on multiple touch displays. This new capability should allow manufacturers to enhance application design while substantially reducing hardware expenditures. since multiple touch screens can effectively operate from a single computer. This will also minimise support and shipping costs.
MT 7.12 software also features ‘edge acceleration’, which improves the functionality and accuracy of the touch sensor, especially at the screen edge or along the bezel. This enhancement makes it possible to touch the entire surface of the touch sensor accurately, which effectively expands the active area for game designers to place interactive graphics.
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