Touchscreen hardware thoughts.... outdoor/waterprotected version/hack Re: OpenMoko/Neo1973 is pure (r)evolution :))) - do you recognized the power of "multi-touch gesture recognition"

Robert Michel openmoko at robertmichel.de
Sat Nov 25 13:46:31 CET 2006


Salve!

I have no internals of the Neo1973 developing project
so I'm just *speculating* what technic the touch screen
with the multi-touch power would have...

Robert Michel schrieb am Samstag, den 25. November 2006 um 04:22h:
> A grafic, that explain the design of a "multi-touch" screen sensor:
> http://cs.nyu.edu/~jhan/ftirsense/index.html

When something like this would be the hardware design (in the
grafic the sensor is missing - I think that Jeff. Y. Han use
just a camera...) than some thoughts:

- PalmPilots (as I know) do have glass touch screen elements,
  a touchscreen of my older PalmPilot had to displace the brocken
  touchsceen of my PalmPilot IIIx (I fall on the device and craced
  the touchscreen in the first week I switchted to the IIIx)
  Because of a minimal better screen, I solderd the screen of the
  IIIx and the touchscreen of the (older) PalmPilot into my new 
  device....
  Owning a populare device that use the same parts and connections
  (in newer modells higher quality but still compatible) is fine
  to repair things your self... :)

  But better would be to avoid materials that can be brake. A
  Display full of plastic/acryl would be better then one with
  glass :)

plastic is not so hard - so it could become scratches...
I think such a "multitouchscreen" could be protected with a
plastic film like the most user of PDAs use - I guess the sensor
would need a small calibration because of a different refections...

But external pockets with a transparent slide could become a
problem to use with such a system. So a devices protection system
should be no "add on" it should be part of the device design like
a water resistend watch.

Surfaces, even the display, could become a anti-scratch coating
(next generation of technique would be to do this with help
of plasma... hard glas, diamond on plastik)
The case of the device shold be strong (Carbon-faser strengthened),
but soft shock absorbability for the ciruit inside,
and a phone that would be waterprotected like a Aesu VX-7R
would be fine to - don't wory when it is raining...

One analog multiplexer could deactivate the electricaly I/O
USB audio-out (and I hope audio-in) to avoid electricaly 
shortcuts...
Ahhh and the same multiplexer (SPI controlled) could be used to
use the USB internaly (USB, Wifi, more memory).

But such a water protection would cut a little bit the audio
quality... (and only Bluetooth headsed would give you best
audio quality)


With the navigation and computing power of the Neo1973, I would
like to use it Outdoor, on the bike (Interface to tacho sensor
could become needless - maybe a sensor of your body function
or a sensor of your cycle rate),  in wind and rain without
the fear that just one single raindrop could kill my device....



Finaly, to have the Neo1973 strong enough that the device would 
survive falls from 1.5 to beton/stone ground would be great, too.

A outdoor case could be an accessory or selfmade hardware hack...
or just a second construction/model Neo1973-outdoor

Greetings,
rob











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