14 DAY TRIAL // Lately, Hitachi seems to make great strides when it comes down to touch screens and FPD International 2010 seems to be just the right place to display all of its latest prototypes, right after we had the chance of reporting on its stylus and glove compatible capacitive touchscreen panel, the Japanese company is set to make a splash yet again, this time thanks to a IPS LCD that enables much thinner touchscreen displays.
This new advancement in touchscreen technology is made possible by adding a on-cell touchscreen right to the IPS LCD panel, this allowing Hitachi to build displays that are about 0.5mm thinner compared to their regular touch enabled counterparts.
Although it doesn't sound like that much, this new technology also simplifies the manufacturing process involved in building touchscreen enabled devices since companies can just order these LCD panels from Hitachi, as they come ready to be deployed.
According to a Koichi Ogawa, Technical Support and Marketing division Manager at Hitachi Displays, previous touchscreens have been using “a separate glass substrate on top of a TFT liquid crystal display,” but in Hitachi's solution “the touchscreen layer is formed directly on the glass surface,” allowing for the display to be made thinner.
Taking a look at the video demonstration, embedded right after this article, reveals a responsive and precise touchscreen that can be used with more than one finger at once (so it comes with multi-touch capabilities) colors being really vivid and life like, a treat that we have come to expect from IPS panels.
According to the Japanese company, they are currently developing the system, aiming to begin mass production in fall of 2011, quite possible if I were to judge by the video demo.
Hitachi hasn't announced any companies that are interested in this technology, although I am sure that cell phone manufacturers will recognize the potential posed by Hitachi's latest touchscreen technology. (via diginfo.tv)