3D Touchscreen Re-Defines Context Menus

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By: Chuong Nguyen | Date: 11-Mar-09 | - Comments

Windows Mobile is infamous for its context menus, which provides advanced functionalities--just tap and hold. Mitsubishi is showing off some new touchscreen technology that will make it easier to just hover over a screen and bring up some of those contextual menus. A 5.7-inch VGA display has a proximity sensor to judge where your finger is when its hovering and determine its speed moving across the display. The display was put on "display" at the Interaction 2009 show.

According to Electronista, "The finger can be detected from a distance thanks to the use of ITO transparent electrodes, which have a lower sensitivity than copper electrodes but are not transparent and therefore cannot be laid over a display. To overcome this challenge, Mitsubishi switches detection methods. When the finger is away from the screen, the proximity state is enabled; when the finger is very close or in contact with the screen, it is switched to contact state which prioritizes resolution."

Mitsubishi doesn't expect the new screen technology will cost much more than a traditional display. This would be a huge boost to the Windows Mobile platform to make things more useable. The current technology is suitable for smaller screens, particularly mobile devices, but Mitsubishi is working on expanding this technology to larger displays.

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