How your customers touch your product is key to your success. Use a sensor that works for bare fingers & gloves and in dry & wet conditions, and prevents false touches!
Below is a preview of our eBook which focuses on how to find the right touch sensor solution for your application. You can also click the button below to download the full eBook.
A key aspect to that great experience is the performance of the capacitive touch sensor responding only when touched. From a touch sensor standpoint, this means that the sensitivity to a touch needs to be just right, just like Goldilocks would have it. If the sensitivity is too high or too low, your customer will likely get frustrated. And if your customer is frustrated with their touch/user experience, they will be frustrated with your product overall – regardless of how well the rest of your device works.
If:
• people were identical
• the environment never changed
• manufacturing could produce absolutely identical units
Then:
a poor user experience would never happen as the system could be tuned to function perfectly with unchanging conditions.
Unfortunately, people are not the same, conditions do vary, and assembly requires some tolerance. Combined, it is very difficult to tune the device to function in all conditions.
Example:
A person with calloused, dry fingers will look electrically very different to the touch screen than a person with sweaty hands. The dry hands are less sensitive, and the touch screen should be tuned with increased sensitivity to properly work for that person. However, if the touch screen is too sensitive, the person with sweaty hands could trigger a false touch when a touch was not intended (when a sweaty finger gets close to the touch screen but doesn’t actually touch it.) A compromise must be made so that the touch interface works with both types of users. Another great example is a touch panel that might be used outdoors. In the summer, users will have bare fingers to touch the panel, however in the winter they don’t want to take off their gloves. Will your touch interface panel work in both situations?
Here are some commonly reported problems when an application suffers from sensor sensitivity issues:
❒ Product returns for inconsistent touch screen performance
❒ Product returns state that the touch screen does not work, but it tests OK when analyzed
❒ Product appears to work for some people and not for others
❒ Product suffers from false touches when moisture is present or when unit is splashed
❒ Product to product comparison shows variation in touch response
❒ Product returned for false touches
❒ Product returned for touch surfaces that are too sensitive and others that are not sensitive enough
❒ Product returned because it does not work well with gloves
❒ Product returned for not working well with cleaning sprays, bodily fluids (medical applications), or dirty environments
An application specific touch system including a custom capacitive sensor will maximize the user experience and overall customer product satisfaction.