Zytronic, the supplier of rugged projected capacitive touch sensor technology, has added force sensing to its sensor range which will allow systems to differentiate between a soft and hard touch.
Force or pressure sensing is becoming available on smartphones and UK-based Zytronic is bringing it to retail and industrial applications.
Its approach is based on a measurement of the surface area of an applied touch, which changes the measured capacitive signal levels at the relative touch location on the sensor.
This eliminates the need for a piezo-electric or other layers on the glass to measure applied force or pressure.
The Zytronic force sensing feature is offered in a custom firmware release for its ZXY150, ZXY200 and ZXY300 controllers.
The capability can be added without hardware modification.
