14 DAY TRIAL // One might not expect a camera and film expert to come up with a breakthrough useful to touchscreens, but this is precisely what Fujifilm has pulled off, according to Bloomberg.
In collaboration with Atmel Corp. (ATML) and Uni-Pixel Inc. (UNXL), Fujifilm is working on a new, cheaper approach to building touch panels.
By relying on different metals and, thus, reducing the industry's reliance on ITO (indium tin oxide), they are overcoming one of the largest obstacles to adding touch to PC screens.
ITO is rater rare, not to mention brittle. That translates into costs of procurement and costs drawn from wasting material during the manufacturing process of the sensors.
Using a metal instead of ITO for the sensors can solve those problems, without impacting the quality of the finished products.
Fujifilm has become something of an expert on silver, so it believes it can use that substance to make bigger and cheaper touch panels.
“The entire industry has been looking for a replacement for ITO for years,” said Cody Acree, an analyst at Williams Financial Group Inc. in Dallas.
Microsoft may become one of Fujifilm's prime clients if its technology turns out to be everything it is supposed to.
In the meantime, Fujifilm itself is performing a good marketing maneuver and expanding its horizons, just like it did a decade ago (when it moved from photographic film to digital cameras) and in recent years (when it started providing cameras for smartphones and other gadgets).
HP, Dell and other PC makers are likely to adopt the silver-based touch panels as well.
In theory, Fujifilm's touch panels could even allow for flexible displays. We've seen flexible OLED and the like before, but cost is a major problem, which means that anyone interested in them, inventors and customers alike, will jump at the chance to make them cheaper.