The Future of Touchscreens

There's no limit to what touchscreens can do! Everything from self-service check-in kiosks at Walgreens, to do it yourself stations at the post office, there are many applications that take advantage of the easy to use touchscreen. All you have to do is touch the display to quickly finish the transation. But I watched a video today that shows where else touchscreens can be used. The most unique was face recognition on the sink faucet, enabling the stream to be automatically adjusted based on user preference! I also liked the retail check-out stations which gives a suggested upsell item (or two!). And for those of you who grew up in the 80's the touchscreen Rubics cube is interesting, although I think I would get just as frustrated with this one as the mechanical game.

Check out the video below! Then check out Planar's selection of 15, 17, 19 and 22" wide resistive, SAW capacitive and multi-touch touchscreen LCDs at planartouch.com.

Touchscreen LCDs - Support After the Sale

There are many different touchscreen LCD monitors out there - resistive, capacitive, SAW. How do you choose the right one for your application? Check out Planar's website which talks about the differences between the technologies.

So you've chosen the technology that fits your environment. What happens if that monitor fails after installation? The majority of the touchscreen suppliers only offers a three-year warranty. And if it fails you have to ship it back to their repair facility on your dime, wait at least a week or two for them to diagnose the issue, fix your monitor and ship it back. All that time you're without your touchscreen, and the system it's tied to - whether it be your POS system, point-of-information kiosk, or the interface to your machine or dispensing kiosk.

Before you buy, check out Planar's complete line of touchscreen monitors available in 15 to 22 inch sizes and resistive, capacitive and SAW touch technologies. And unlike our competition, we offer a Customer First, 3-year, 48-hour advance replacement warranty. What does this mean? If your touchscreen goes down and Planar can't diagnose the issue through the 24x7 Call Center or online chat, Planar ships you a replacement in 2 days with a return shipping label. You take out the replacement and get your system up and running. Then you put the defective unit in the box, stick on the return shipping label, and send the unit back to Planar - all on Planar's dime. It's that easy! We also offer 4 and 5-year extended warranties for additional cost. Same 48-hour advance replacement. Have more questions? Just email touchscreens@planar.com.

Driverless Touchscreen LCDs

Planar just published an ebook - Going Driverless: How HID Compliant Touchscreen LCDs can help when depoying large scale POS and POI installations. Some people don't realize how long it can take to load a driver onto their computer to run a touchscreen LCD; imagine doing it for 50 or more units! So what if you didn't have to load a driver just for basic touchscreen operation? Think how fast the installation would go! Check out the entire ebook at PlanarTouch.com and also the HID Compliant resistive and capacitive products in the Planar portfolio.

Turn your skin into a touchscreen!

This goes beyond Minority Report! Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University and Microsoft's Redmond research lab are investigating how to turn your body into both a touchscreen "display" and input device using an arm band with a pico projector embedded inside. Blogger Barb Dybwad asks if people are interested in turning their bodies into touchscreens. I think it'd be interesting for demonstration purposes, but I wouldn't be interested in everyday living. What do you think?

HP Wall of Touch!

Imagine a LARGE interactive display that doesn't even have to be touched for it to respond! That's what HP is testing - a touchless "Wall of Touch". It's made up of nine 43" "zero bezel" displays, each 1.5" thick with a resolution of 1080p, being driven by HP Z-800 workstation. Can you imagine walking by being able to find a store, or see different video feeds with a flick of movement? Check out the WSJ blog posting and video demonstration, and see it for yourself.

Optical Touchscreen Investment News

Yet another sign that the touchscreen market is rapidly growing. FlatFrog Laboratories based in Sweden and UK announced they raised the equivalent of $18M US in new equity to develop and productize their cost-effective large multi-touch in-glass displays, mainly targeted at the education, gaming, hospitality and digital signage markets.

This on the heals of the Tyco Electronics acquisition of French touch input technology company Sensitive Object for $62M announced late January, 2010. It'll be interesting to see what Tyco does with the technology - if Tyco plans to go after the small touchscreen markets like Apple iTablet/iPad or GPS markets.

Select Your Touchscreen Guide

Planar has created an interactive tool to choose the right touchscreen display for a specific application or market. There's a short version - about 14 questions and a longer version (still pretty short - 18 questions). What's even better is you can have someone contact you and guide you on how to get a demo or purchase. Check out the touchscreen guide or click on the link at planartouch.com.

Planar Touchscreen Used in Pizza Restaurant

Extreme Pizza, located in Beaverton, Oregon chose Planar's PT1550MX resistive touchscreen LCD with integrated cardswipe (MSR) for their POS system. Owner Al Woodward said they've even dumped drinks on the screen with no problems. See the whole video below.

Multiple Touchscreens In Action!

Interesting consumer application for touchscreens - displaying trippy graphics tied to music on multiple touchscreens, being controlled by one person. I can't tell if these are all-in-one touchscreen computers, similar to Planar's new PA1575R, or if there's one PC supporting multiple larger sized touchscreens (like Planar's new PT2275SW 22" SAW touchscreen). But what a way to show what touchscreens can do! Love the music!

Save The Date!

Jan 10-12th, 2010 Planar will be attending Retail's BIG show. NRF's 99th Annual Convention attracts more than 17,500 retail professionals from 62 countries! Planar has also expanded their successful PT family of touchscreens by adding the all new 15" PA1575R all-in-one touchcomputer, which is ideal for retail applications.

Come check out our new product offerings at NRF Jan 10-12th, 2010 at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, New York, NY, Booth 247.

To set up an appointment please e-mail touchscreens@planar.com

ProSolutions for Chiropractic chooses PT1710MX

ProSolutions for Chiropractic, Inc, a company that provides technologically advanced solutions to the Chiropractic industry, has chosen Planar's PT1710MX 17" resistive touchscreen LCD monitor for its ProAdjuster system. The ProAdjuster is used for spinal analysis and adjustment. The PT1710MX shows the readings from the ProAdjuster instrument. See a full video demonstration on their website.

Planar Touchscreens in Healthcare Bundle!

Vertical Systems Reseller (VSR) Online wrote an article about ScriptRx’s use of Planar’s PT resistive touchscreen monitors in its electronic patient discharge system for use in ERs, retail health clinics and other ambulatory care environments. Read the full article here.

Ingram chooses Planar touchscreen for POS bundle

Ingram's DC/POS just announced that Planar's PT15 resistive touchscreen is the featured LCD in their new security-focused POS solution bundle for small retailers. Other hardware and software partners include HP, MagTek, Uniforce Technology, Cherry Electronics, Citizen and Payment Processing. Read the entire ChannelWeb article here. Or view the SecurePOS SMB Bundle datasheet for more information.

War Games on a Multi-Touch Screen Table

For those of you wanting to know where multi-touch screens are heading, check out the use of a multi-touch table for the new Ubisoft RUSE war game introduced at E3 2009. I'm looking forward to hearing about innovative uses for multi-touch screens in a business environment.

Playing Blackjack with a Planar touchscreen!

Found this post on YouTube. Newmarket Highschool created Jak, a Blackjack dealer robot. Jak uses special software that analyzes a webcam image and outputs its value. A Planar touchscreen is used for input.

Newmarket Highschool won 1st place in the Ontario competition and is now going to the international competition. Good luck, Newmarket Highschool!

New removable touchscreen netbook available May/June 2009

I thought this was an interesting concept, a new ARM-powered netbook running Linux O/S with an optional keyboard! A user could use the keyboard to respond to emails, or remove the touchscreen to watch movies, read an ebook, take notes with a stylus, or play games. The touchscreen can even be mounted to a refrigerator as the back is a magnet. Economically priced as well - $399 for the complete netbook or $299 for the touchscreen portion.

Planar Touchscreen running a Tormach Milling Machine!

Planar touchscreen monitors are indeed everywhere - even with a Tormach milling machine! The user had this to say about the set-up: "I am using the Tormach version of Mach 3 but did make a new screen with the screen editor. Got rid of the stuff I don't use and added the stuff I do. This is really a great setup!"

Emerging Display Technology article from PCMag.com

In Michael Miller's PCMag.com article - Emerging Display Technology: OLEDs, Touch Screens, Flexible Displays and Pico Projectors - Geoff Walker from Elo makes the point that there's no one silver bullet when it comes to choosing the right touchscreen technology for your unique application. Each one has advantages and disadvantages. See the complete article at http://blogs.pcmag.com/miller/2009/03/emerging_display_technology_ol.php.

Multi-Touch Tables for Museums

This interactive multi-touch table for museum exhibits is pretty cool! According to a news release, it has a bright 50-inch diagonal surface with a high-resolution (1280 x 720) display, which is higher than Microsoft’s Surface multi-touch table. Just where will touch technology take us next???

SAW touchscreens in a digital signage application

I was searching on You Tube and found this cool video from EETI showing the use of SAW on a 32" display. Perfect for use in a digital signage application! Thought you all may find it interesting as well!