HTC Brings Stylus Accuracy to Capacitive Touchscreen in New Patent

HTC's new patent for implementing a magnetic stylus for capacitive touchscreen may mean that the screen technology will gain a boost from being finger-friendly, yet still maintain a high level of accuracy.

Capacitive touchscreens are primarily used with the fingers, with the tips conducting an electrical current that the screen responds to. Thus, an ordinary stylus would not work and finger touches are not as accurate for handwriting and ink technology, especially in Asian languages. HTC's solution is to use a magnet in the tip of the stylus and replicate the electrical reaction caused by the finger "from the movement relative to the capacitive screen," according to WMPU.

Moving forward, HTC's patent will mean that the company's Windows Mobile and Android smartphone will have the accuracy of stylus input for pen and ink technologies while retaining the finger friendly pinch and zoom and other gestures introduced by the iPhone and on Microsoft's Surface Computing platform.

(via: WMPowerUser)