Pressure-sensitive touchscreens are the next step

As the popularity of full-touch devices continues to grow rapidly, manufacturers are working as hard as they can on delivering better user experience. This latest innovation in the area concerns the screen itself and the way its reacts to out touches.

Resistive and capacitive touchscreens - we all know the difference. The resistive screens are way more accurate, but needs pressure to be applied and are generally less responsive. On the other side the capacitive screens require only slight touch to register a click, allow multi-touch gestures by default, but lack accuracy and cannot be used with gloves, styluses or if you have long nails.

And now we have the next touchscreen technology that will have a go at conquering the mobile world. Pressure-sensitive touchscreens can tell the difference between a slight touch and a really hard poke. That would allow a whole new user experience, with gestures based on the amount of pressure applied, along with ones currently available..

The new technology is based on quantum tunneling and is developed by the Peratech researchers (stationed in UK). It uses an electrically conductive material named a quantum tunneling composite. But we won't go any deeper in the physics side of things.

The important thing to note is that Peratech make pressure sensors from this material, which are incredibly thin and can be slipped under any touchscreens. They don't draw any power when idle so you shouldn't worry about battery life either.

Some of the supposed new gestures will allow you to drag and zoom pictures simultaneously or determine the scroll speed based on your pressure force.

Peratech already signed a license contract with the Japanese display manufacturer Nissha, which makes screens for LG, Nintendo and more. The first tech gadgets to use the new pressure-enabled screens are expected to hit the shelves in April.

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