Military Touchscreen Challenges

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Military Touch screen Challenges
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Military Touchscreens

• When it comes to military environments, one issue
  arises repeatedly view ability.
• The need to have the maximum clarity and purest
  blacks is often a key demand. So how does this
  impact touchscreens? Well, most touchscreen
  technologies, aside from IR, require some sort of
  coating on the surface of the touch interface, or
  glass that can affect the degree of light
  transmission.
• Ah yes, you say, but military displays almost
  always need some sort of coating anyway, dont
  they?  Well yes, this is indeed often the case.
• However, the layers needed to make the
  touchscreen operate are typically thicker and
  less optically pure than the specialized filter
  lays used by the military.
• For example, the ITO layers used in PCAP touch
  components can reduce optical transmissibility by
  up to 30. Touchscreens that use pure glass are
  the option to be considered when clarity is a
  high priority. These are typically traditional
  IR, and they present their own challenges.

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• Apart from optical considerations, there are
  other parameters that become key in military
  equipment.
• Depending on the operational environment, there
  can be EMI interference, ambient light issues and
  mechanical noise/vibration to be concerned about.
  
• Overall reliability is a big concern, of course.
• NVIS compatibility is often a factor too and can
  be very challenging when it comes to the newest
  versions of NVIS devices.

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Capacitive and Projected Capacitive (PCAP)
Touchscreens

• Capacitive and Projected Capacitive (PCAP)
  touchscreens can address many of the reliability
  concerns, of course, and they are highly accurate
  and responsive to touch, requiring zero touch
  force.
• They are not susceptible to ambient light
  overload, and they are entirely solid-state and
  therefore less likely to suffer from mechanical
  shock and vibration issues.
• However, they rely heavily on electromechanical
  coatings, and so are subject to concerns relating
  to screen image clarity.
• A typical PCAP touchscreen, for example, is made
  up of a large array of indium tin oxide (ITO)
  conductors on multiple layers of glass or
  polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic.

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• In this example, at least five layers have been
  added between the display and the viewer.
• Whilst the ITO layers have reasonable optical
  clarity, they do affect display quality, and may
  even affect viewing angle.
• Each of the fine ITO layers is made up of
  semiconductor material and has the effect of
  blocking out some degree of light.
• Think of them as the bug screen on your window,
  you can see out with the screen in place, but it
  is blocking 30 50 of the light.
•  Additionally, layers of insulation may be needed
  to attempt to mitigate electrical noise, adding
  more complexity and giving rise to distortion of
  the image on the display

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Resistive Touchscreen Technology

• Resistive technology is often used in various
  touchscreen technologies.
• Resistive can be less expensive and is
  reasonably accurate and responsive.
• Whilst this type of technology has improved over
  the years and has been used in various military
  applications, it shares many of the disadvantages
  of PCAP, and adds a few of its own, however.

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• For example, resistive screens require a certain
  amount of activation force, typically 60 80
  grams.
• Whilst this may not sound like much, if being
  operated by a gloved finger, considerably more
  force is required to compensate for the
  compression of the glove material.
• This need to be sure to press hard enough raises
  response times and makes room for errors.
• Resistive technology uses layers in a matrix in
  much the same way that PCAP does.
• However, even the best quality resistive
  touchscreens need more layers than their
  capacitive counterpart, meaning even more light
  is blocked as it passes through the device.

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InfraRed Touchscreen Technology

• Infra Red sensing has been around for decades.
• Beam-break touchscreens (traditional IR) are very
  effective and do not require anything more than a
  sheet of glass as a touch surface.
• IR touchscreens can be very responsive, and they
  are also less expensive to manufacture. 
• At its simplest level, it is one IR light
  source, and one IR sensor or receiver.
• This setup creates a beam that, if broken by
  something passing through it, triggers a circuit.

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What is Shadow Sense?

• Baanto Shadow Sense touch technology is an
  innovative and patented optical position sensing
  technology. 
• Shadow Sense designs use high-performance sensors
  operating in the analog domain to provide
  unprecedented performance, stability, and
  accuracy.
• Shadow Sense requires only plain glass as a touch
  surface, thus allowing clearer optical paths for
  the display which, in turn, allows for the
  display to be operated at lower settings and
  reduce stress on the device.
• Whilst Shadow Sense is based upon IR light
  technologies, its patented features eliminate all
  of the issues identified with traditional IR, and
  yet provide the performance of PCAP without the
  need for the various ITO layers.

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• Because ShadowSense operates in the analog
  domain, versus digital for other technologies, it
  is possible to use special electronic techniques
  to filter out unwanted IR signals, making
  ShadowSense 100 immune to ambient light
  interference.
• Furthermore, its proprietary design means that
  the limitations traditional of resolution are
  removed and, by virtue of its architecture,
  ShadowSense is inherently highly reliable.
• Interested in learning more about how Baanto
  ShadowSense can help you? Get in touch with us
  today!

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Thank you!
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-challenges/