Zytronic touch sensors enhance visual displays

By embedding 11 32in Zybrid sensors in a glass-topped media table over 5m long, exhibition designers have created an interactive presentation that can be updated quickly to include new content in the future.

The project team chose Zybrid to meet key requirements including ease of use, operation through a protective medium, fast-touch response and low-power consumption.

The Silent Heroes Memorial Centre highlights the actions of the German Resistance, which protected persecuted people during the Nazi dictatorship.

The media table is used to display many presentations including 187 short biographies, which visitors can call up by touching the screen directly.

There are also over 100 texts explaining the subjects and historical context, as well as 38 glossaries.

'We needed touch screens so that visitors could navigate the full extent of the content on offer, but the majority of sensors were unable to meet all our performance requirements,' said Clemens Heddier of system integrator Heddier Electronic.

'Zybrid was clearly superior and we received outstanding support from Zytronic to deliver the media table as a fully-functioning system.' The media table was conceived by digital media design specialists Lehmann and Werder Museumsmedien and designed and realised by Heddier Electronic.

Among the challenges facing the design team, heat generation was a major obstacle.

With 11 large LCDs operating in close proximity, under the same touch-enabled glass table top, engineers calculated total power consumption using conventional displays to be as high as 2kW.

The resulting heat dissipation would make the media table uncomfortable for visitors to use.

As an inherently low-power technology, Zybrid allowed Lehmann and Werder and Heddier Electronic to improve overall dissipation without sacrificing the performance or usability of the display.

Zybrid uses Projected Capacitive Technology (PCT) to achieve touch-screen functionality even when placed beneath a glass or plastic protective front panel.

The sensors have no surface-active components such as coatings, transducers or optics.

With a pure, smooth glass surface the sensors are also easy to clean.

The Zybrid PCT touch sensor is based upon an array of micro-fine sensing elements embedded behind the glass front panel, capable of detecting the approach and touch of a finger on the front surface of the glass.

PCT also incorporates palm rejection technology, which is critical for table-top applications such as the Silent Heroes Memorial Centre presentations.

In the memorial centre media table, Zytronic has combined the Zybrid sensor with its recently developed 64-channel touch-screen controller to combine large form factor sensors with high resolution and touch sensitivity.