One of the most important pieces of hardware technology that has been developed for mobile phones is the touch screen display. With this, the compromise between display size and input options has been amended by placing the controls directly on the screen –as opposed to having to use have the front of a handset for the keypad.
Of course, physical buttons and keys still play an important role for mobile phones –but for the most part, a handset can go for the rudimentary large touch screen and a couple of context buttons below.
Since the touch screen has been introduced, the last big milestone was when the capacitive touch screen technology came out. This enable users to easily use the display with only the finger and not a stylus –it was both a liberating experience and a big step towards the development of new control functions –such as gestures and multi-touch.
Now, a new development from Hitachi is turning things full circle: the development of a capacitive touch screen that is stylus friendly. This may not sound like much, but the stylus provides users with a control function that the fingers cannot produce; pin point accuracy. This may seem pretty obvious since the stylus has a very narrow tip. But that accuracy also gives rise to another feature: handwriting. While one can scribble with a finger, the control and grip of a stylus allows for a tighter control when it comes to writing or drawing on a touch screen display.
Another major advancement we are seeing now is with the development of bendable touch screens. While the most we see of these are in tech demonstrations, it has been rumored that the Nexus S handset from Samsung will have a slightly curved display. Of course, this is all just speculation –for all we know only the handset casing is curved.
Tags: curved-screens, Hitachi, Samsung-Nexus-S, technology, touch-screens