This is increasingly important for handheld gaming controllers where, because the touchscreen occupies a large area, it is more likely the user will unintentionally brush the screen while holding the device or resting their palms on it. This ability to detect differences in pressures lets designers create new interfaces and games with new levels of sophistication and control.įinally, modern controllers can also detect the difference between an intentional and unintentional touch to the screen. Today’s capacitive multitouch sensors can also detect how hard the user presses on the screen by detecting the larger surface area being touched as the user presses harder. Eliminating the need for separate input devices can also reduce the cost of gaming units. Making the touch-sensitive pad part of the device itself (rather than requiring separate buttons or switches) allows manufacturers to make their hardware smaller and more elegant, a key design consideration that the past few years has proven to drive user adoption and market share. Multitouch sensors can be made part of the screen itself, or part of a separate touch surface that keeps the user’s fingers away from the screen for easier viewing. All this helps make the game more exciting and realistic, especially for fast-paced action such as shooting an opponent, playing a musical instrument or navigating an imaginary aircraft between mountain peaks. They also provide much faster response than earlier touch-sensitive sensors, allowing for more rapid and accurate play. And since capacitive sensors can detect a finger through solid glass rather than soft plastic, device makers can give their products the smooth, sleek finish that is popular with consumers. This results in a clearer, sharper image with more vibrant colors than earlier technology, which is key to the emotional impact and excitement of a game. Brighter, Faster, SmarterĬompared to earlier resistive touch-screen systems, today’s capacitive multitouch technology requires fewer layers between the display and the device casing. ![]() To identify how best to implement multi-touch capabilities in gaming devices, one must first understand the unique attributes of today’s multitouch screen technology. ![]() Just as multitouch unleashed the creativity of developers worldwide in the smartphone and tablet space, multitouch will do the same for gaming developers as soon as the hardware supports multitouch’s rich capability set. The new capabilities and “feel” that multitouch brought to smartphones and tablets is poised to bring the same competitive advantage to the gaming world. This allows the consumer to use two fingers at a time to expand or shrink an image or even allow multiple users to use several fingers at once on the same screen. The user interface that makes these products “must-have” items relies not just on touch, but on multitouch. ![]() Along with a robust market for third-party applications and elegant hardware design, the sheer ease-of-use of the interface has made these devices an exploding, and profitable, product category despite the recent economic downturn. Over the last few years, a new generation of capacitive touch-screen enabled smartphones and tablet computers have emerged to dominate their industries.
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