A couple of months ago, the entire tech industry was abuzz with developments for portable displays that made use of 3D effects. While interesting, the development is hardly anything that can be considered as ground breaking or more importantly, useful. Besides, when browsing the screen on the go, being able to appreciate 3D effects is the last thing that users would care about. Not to mention all that potential to cause distraction or even mild headaches and nausea.
But now, it seems that display makers are finally back on track when it comes to making innovations for touch screens. Hitachi has recently shown off a small capacitive touch screen display that is pretty much everything that we would see in a modern smart phone. What is so special is not the capacitive display, but the fact that a stylus was used.
Indeed, a stylus compatible capacitive touch screen has already been invented. For those of you enjoying the glory of touch, gestures and even multi touch, it is easy to forget that the transition from stylus to fingers was not a pure upgrade. While capacitive devices can certainly do more, there are some unique control aspects that only the stylus can deliver: precise controls. This is particularly helpful when accessing menus designed for mouse controls (web sites with small buttons, etc), but more importantly, it emulates pen strokes.
The narrow tip of the stylus far matches a pen than the surface of a finger ever would. So far, there is no official data as to when Hitachi will be releasing the new technology. But when it does come out, expect demand for this handset to be strong particularly for business users.
In other display screen related news, the Nexus S might be using a curved touch screen display. Samsung is already confirmed to be working on bendable touch screen technology, and it would not be surprising to see it used in an actual device.
Tags: 3D-phones, Hitachi, samsung, Samsung-Nexus-S, Touch-Screens