Companies commercialising e-readers are working with a switch sensor technology, supplied by UK firm Peratech, to bring touchscreen advances to the e-reading market.
Peratech's Quantum Tunnelling Composite (QTC) is an electrically conductive material developed to enhance switching and sensing systems, such as touchscreens being commercialised in many consumer electronics and mobile devices.
The technology has several attributes that make it suitable for e-reader applications, explains Philip Taysom, Peratech's joint CEO.
'E-readers are power critical devices. They have a battery life that lasts for days as opposed to hours due to the e-paper displays they use. Capacitive technology for touchscreens draw power. QTC doesn't because it is a resistive technology.'
Interfaces using QTC can be designed with no start resistance so that without pressure the switch draws no power and passes no current and when pressure is applied, the resistance drops in proportion to the amount of pressure.
He reveals some companies Peratech is working with are developing e-readers, though one is running late with a launch because of delays in e-paper display supply.
Incorporating touchscreen technology into e-readers is an important step in making these devices more intuitive for users and improving their functionality.
According to recent online reports Amazon, which dominates the e-reader market with its Kindle, just acquired a developer of flexible touch-sensitive material in a bid to develop a new touchscreen e-reader in response to Apple's iPad launch, which has a large touchscreen display and an e-book application.
The New York-based venture, called Touchco, lays claim to a cost-effective multitouch technology for colour displays. The Touchco team will join Amazon's e-reader subsidiary Lab 126 in Cupertino, California.
Like Peratech, Touchco's technology, known as interpolating force-sensitive resistance (IFSR), can be used to make displays that are transparent. Both companies claim their technologies are cost-effective to produce. Peratech's switches and matrices can be screen printed down to a thickness of 75 microns and no air gap is required between contacts. Touchco claims its technology could cost as little as $10 a sq ft.
Documents and links
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E-readers and e-paper: technology and applications
+Plastic Electronics and IntertechPira webinar taking place 18 February 2010, 11:00 EST/8:00PST
External Link
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The Electronic Displacement of Print
A Pira market report with forecasts to 2018 of e-paper, e-readers and other innovations and technologies displacing and impacting print
External Link