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77-632: The Motorola Envoy Personal Wireless Communicator was a personal digital assistant initially slated for release by Motorola in summer 1994 but delayed and then available for public sale in February 1995. It was built to run General Magic's Magic CAP operating system , and it combined wireless, telephone, and infrared modems in a single PDA package. Andy Rubin led development of the Motorola Envoy. Personal digital assistants (i.e. PDA's) were electronic handheld organizers that were used in

154-419: A CompactFlash slot or a combination of the two. Although designed for memory, Secure Digital Input/Output (SDIO) and CompactFlash cards were made available that provided peripheral accessories like Wi-Fi or digital cameras to devices with software support. Some PDAs also have a USB port, mainly for USB flash drives . Some PDAs use microSD cards, which are electronically compatible with SD cards, but have

231-535: A calculator , and some sort of memo (or "note") program. PDAs with wireless data connections also typically include an email client and a Web browser, and may or may not include telephony functionality. Many of the original PDAs, such as the Apple Newton and Palm Pilot , featured a touchscreen for user interaction, having only a few buttons—usually reserved for shortcuts to often-used programs. Some touchscreen PDAs, including Windows Mobile devices, had

308-493: A fax and data modem , and an infrared transceiver capable of 38.4 kbit/s of data transfer. The Envoy also included a PCMCIA interface to expands its communications or other capabilities. The housing had dimensions of 3.5 cm (height) x 17.3 cm (width) x 14.4 cm (depth) and weighed about 0.77 kg. The Motorola Envoy was one of the first PDAs to operate the Magic CAP software, which made extensive use of

385-418: A monochrome CRT touchscreen that functioned both as display and sole method of input. The ECC replaced the traditional mechanical stereo , fan, heater and air conditioner controls and displays, and was capable of providing very detailed and specific information about the vehicle's cumulative and current operating status in real time . The ECC was standard equipment on the 1985–1989 Buick Riviera and later

462-599: A portable media player , and also enabling many of them to be used as telephones. By the early 2000s, nearly all PDA models had the ability to access the Internet, intranets or extranets via Wi-Fi or Wireless WANs , and since then generally included a web browser . Sometimes, instead of buttons, later PDAs employ touchscreen technology. The first PDA, the Organiser , was released in 1984 by Psion , followed by Psion's Series 3 , in 1991. The latter began to resemble

539-485: A 20 MB hard drive. In order to keep up-to-date information during the event, the database of visitor information was updated and remotely transferred to the computer terminals each night. Using the touch screens, visitors were able to find information about the exposition’s rides, attractions, performances, facilities, and the surrounding areas. Visitors could also select between information displayed in English and Japanese;

616-508: A PDA with digital cellphone functionality, the 9000 Communicator . Another early entrant in this market was Palm , with a line of PDA products which began in March 1996. Palm would eventually be the dominant vendor of PDAs until the rising popularity of Pocket PC devices in the early 2000s. By the mid-2000s most PDAs had morphed into smartphones as classic PDAs without cellular radios were increasingly becoming uncommon. A typical PDA has

693-517: A PDA, reducing the number of textbooks students were required to carry. Brighton and SUSSEX Medical School in the UK was the first medical school to provide wide scale use of PDAs to its undergraduate students. The learning opportunities provided by having PDAs complete with a suite of key medical texts were studied with results showing that learning occurred in context with timely access to key facts and through consolidation of knowledge via repetition. The PDA

770-446: A bad reputation of being imprecise until 1988. Most user-interface books would state that touchscreen selections were limited to targets larger than the average finger. At the time, selections were done in such a way that a target was selected as soon as the finger came over it, and the corresponding action was performed immediately. Errors were common, due to parallax or calibration problems, leading to user frustration. "Lift-off strategy"

847-486: A bill for one month of usage of about $ 400 from the ARDIS network for data communication. Motorola reused the name for at least one previous product. It is also a UHF tone and vibrate paging receiver produced in the mid-1980s that responded to two-tone sequential encoding, including GE type 99, Quick Call II & 1+1, REACH* and 5-Tone Sequential. Personal digital assistant A personal digital assistant ( PDA )

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924-490: A detachable stylus to facilitate making selections. The user interacts with the device by tapping the screen to select buttons or issue commands, or by dragging a finger (or the stylus) on the screen to make selections or scroll. Typical methods of entering text on touchscreen PDAs include: Despite research and development projects, end-users experienced mixed results with handwriting recognition systems. Some found it frustrating and inaccurate, while others were satisfied with

1001-423: A keyboard. An effective integration of this technology was aimed at helping flight crews maintain a high level of situational awareness of all major aspects of the vehicle operations including the flight path, the functioning of various aircraft systems, and moment-to-moment human interactions. EARLY 80s EVALUATATION FOR CARS - also, in the early 1980s, General Motors tasked its Delco Electronics division with

1078-416: A matrix of collimated lights shining orthogonally across the touch surface. When a beam is interrupted by a stylus, the photodetectors which no longer are receiving a signal can be used to determine where the interruption is. Later iterations of matrix based touchscreens built upon this by adding more emitters and detectors to improve resolution, pulsing emitters to improve optical signal to noise ratio , and

1155-418: A much smaller physical size. While early PDAs connected to a user's personal computer via serial ports and other proprietary connections , later models connect via a USB cable. Older PDAs were unable to connect to each other via USB , as their implementations of USB did not support acting as the "host". Some early PDAs were able to connect to the Internet indirectly by means of an external modem connected via

1232-461: A nonorthogonal matrix to remove shadow readings when using multi-touch. 1963 INDIRECT LIGHT PEN - Later inventions built upon this system to free telewriting styli from their mechanical bindings. By transcribing what a user draws onto a computer, it could be saved for future use. See US 3089918A , Graham, Robert E, "Telewriting apparatus", issued 1963-05-14   . 1965 CAPACITANCE AND RESISTANCE - The first finger driven touchscreen

1309-486: A plastic pen and a plastic board with a transparent window where pen presses are detected. It was used primarily with a drawing software application. 1985 MULTI-TOUCH CAPACITANCE - The University of Toronto group, including Bill Buxton, developed a multi-touch tablet that used capacitance rather than bulky camera-based optical sensing systems (see History of multi-touch ). 1985 USED FOR POINT OF SALE - The first commercially available graphical point-of-sale (POS) software

1386-476: A predecessor of the modern day smartphone. The hardware of the Motorola Envoy included a Motorola Dragon I/68349 microprocessor, 4 MB of read only memory (ROM), 1 MB of random access memory (RAM), and an LCD display. Of particular interest were the wireless communications capabilities of the Envoy. Its built-in communication components included a radio modem capable of 4,800 bits per second communication,

1463-500: A project aimed at replacing an automobile's non-essential functions (i.e. other than throttle , transmission , braking , and steering ) from mechanical or electro-mechanical systems with solid state alternatives wherever possible. The finished device was dubbed the ECC for "Electronic Control Center", a digital computer and software control system hardwired to various peripheral sensors , servomechanisms , solenoids , antenna and

1540-426: A prominent role in the design of digital appliances such as personal digital assistants (PDAs) and some e-readers . Touchscreens are important in educational settings such as classrooms or on college campuses. The popularity of smartphones, tablets, and many types of information appliances has driven the demand and acceptance of common touchscreens for portable and functional electronics. Touchscreens are found in

1617-492: A reflection of Australia’s overseas tourist market in the 1980s. It is worth noting that Telecom’s Expo Info system was based on an earlier system employed at Expo 86 in Vancouver , Canada . 1990 SINGLE AND MULTI-TOUCH GESTURES - Sears et al. (1990) gave a review of academic research on single and multi-touch human–computer interaction of the time, describing gestures such as rotating knobs, adjusting sliders, and swiping

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1694-421: A rugged multi-touch capacitive touchscreen, that could sense through a rigid, protective overlay - the sort later required for a mobile phone, was ever developed or patented by Boie. Many of these citations rely on anecdotal evidence from Bill Buxton of Bell Labs. However, Bill Buxton did not have much luck getting his hands on this technology. As he states in the citation: "Our assumption (false, as it turned out)

1771-506: A simple mouse or keypad that capacitively sensed just one finger through a thin insulator. Although not claimed or even mentioned in the patent, this technology could potentially have been used as a capacitance touchscreen. 1993 FIRST RESISTIVE TOUCHSCREEN PHONE - IBM released the IBM Simon , which is the first touchscreen phone. EARLY 90s ABANDONED GAME CONTROLLER - An early attempt at a handheld game console with touchscreen controls

1848-580: A simple x/y pen plotter, eliminating the need for expensive and complicated sputter coating, laser ablation, screen printing or etching. The resulting, incredibly flexible, touchscreen film, less than 100 microns thick, could be attached by static or non-setting weak adhesive to one side of a sheet of glass, for sensing through that glass. Early versions of this device were controlled by the PIC16C54 microchip. 1994 FIRST PUB GAME WITH TOUCHSCREEN - Appearing in pubs in 1994, JPM's Monopoly SWP (skill with prizes)

1925-770: A special stylus or pen. The user can use the touchscreen to react to what is displayed and, if the software allows, to control how it is displayed; for example, zooming to increase the text size. A touchscreen enables the user to interact directly with what is displayed, instead of using a mouse , touchpad , or other such devices (other than a stylus, which is optional for most modern touchscreens). Touchscreens are common in devices such as smartphones , handheld game consoles , and personal computers . They are common in point-of-sale (POS) systems, automated teller machines (ATMs), electronic voting machines , and automobile infotainment systems and controls. They can also be attached to computers or, as terminals, to networks. They play

2002-503: A team around Rainer Mallebrein  [ de ] at Telefunken Konstanz for an air traffic control system. In 1970, this evolved into a device named "Touchinput- Einrichtung " ("touch input facility") for the SIG ;50 terminal utilizing a conductively coated glass screen in front of the display. This was patented in 1971 and the patent was granted a couple of years later. The same team had already invented and marketed

2079-620: A television factory in the early 1960s. Then manufactured by CERN, and shortly after by industry partners, it was put to use in 1973. 1972 OPTICAL - A group at the University of Illinois filed for a patent on an optical touchscreen that became a standard part of the Magnavox Plato IV Student Terminal and thousands were built for this purpose. These touchscreens had a crossed array of 16×16 infrared position sensors, each composed of an LED on one edge of

2156-572: A time, and few have had the capability to sense how hard one is touching. This has changed with the commercialization of multi-touch technology, and the Apple Watch being released with a force-sensitive display in April 2015. 2015 BISTATE PROJECTED CAPACITANCE - When used as a Projected Capacitance touchscreen, in mutual capacitance mode, diagonal wiring requires each I/O line to be capable of switching between two states (bistate), an output some of

2233-402: A touchscreen for navigation, a memory card slot for data storage, and IrDA , Bluetooth and/or Wi-Fi . However, some PDAs may not have a touchscreen , using soft keys , a directional pad, and a numeric keypad or a thumb keyboard for input. To have the functions expected of a PDA, a device's software typically includes an appointment calendar , a to-do list , an address book for contacts,

2310-473: A touchscreen or small-scale keyboard was slower than a full-size keyboard. Transferring data to a PDA via the computer was, therefore, a lot quicker than having to manually input all data on the handheld device. Most PDAs come with the ability to synchronize to a computer. This is done through synchronization software provided with the handheld, or sometimes with the computer's operating system. Examples of synchronization software include: These programs allow

2387-464: A touchscreen slider, which was later cited as prior art in the lock screen patent litigation between Apple and other touchscreen mobile phone vendors (in relation to U.S. patent 7,657,849 ). 1991 INERTIAL CONTROL - From 1991 to 1992, the Sun Star7 prototype PDA implemented a touchscreen with inertial scrolling . 1993 CAPACITANCE MOUSE / KEYPAD - Bob Boie of AT&T Bell Labs, patented

Motorola Envoy - Misplaced Pages Continue

2464-493: A transparent implementation of an existing opaque touchpad technology, U.S. patent No.  3,911,215, October 7, 1975, which had been developed by Elographics' founder George Samuel Hurst . The resulting resistive technology touch screen was first shown on the World's Fair at Knoxville in 1982. 1982 MULTI-TOUCH CAMERA - Multi-touch technology began in 1982, when the University of Toronto 's Input Research Group developed

2541-424: Is a multi-purpose mobile device which functions as a personal information manager. Following a boom in the 1990s and 2000s, PDA's were mostly displaced by the widespread adoption of more highly capable smartphones , in particular those based on iOS and Android in the late 2000's, and thus saw a rapid decline. A PDA has an electronic visual display . Most models also have audio capabilities, allowing usage as

2618-459: The Rollkugel mouse RKS 100-86 for the SIG 100-86 a couple of years earlier. 1968 CAPACITANCE - The application of touch technology for air traffic control was described in an article published in 1968. Frank Beck and Bent Stumpe , engineers from CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research), developed a transparent touchscreen in the early 1970s, based on Stumpe's work at

2695-653: The 1988–1989 Buick Reatta , but was unpopular with consumers—partly due to the technophobia of some traditional Buick customers, but mostly because of costly technical problems suffered by the ECC's touchscreen which would render climate control or stereo operation impossible. 1985 GRAPHIC TABLET - Sega released the Terebi Oekaki, also known as the Sega Graphic Board, for the SG-1000 video game console and SC-3000 home computer . It consisted of

2772-414: The 1990's to 2006, typically had an IrDA ( infrared ) port allowing short-range, line-of-sight wireless communication. Few later models used this technology, as it had been supplanted by Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. IrDA allows communication between two PDAs, or between a PDA and any device with an IrDA port or adapter. Some contemporary printers have IrDA receivers, allowing IrDA-equipped PDAs to print to them, if

2849-537: The 1990s to communicate via email, manage calendars, store contact information, and manage files. Examples of PDAs include the Newton MessagePad released by Apple Inc. in 1993 and the Palm Pilot released by Palm Inc. in 1996. The Motorola Envoy was a particularly notable PDA in view of its built-in wireless communication capability and its well-received user interface , thus referenced by some to be

2926-740: The PDA and Google's servers. RIM sells BlackBerry Enterprise Server to corporations so that corporate BlackBerry users can wirelessly synchronize their PDAs with the company's Microsoft Exchange Server , IBM Lotus Domino , or Novell GroupWise servers. Email, calendar entries, contacts, tasks, and memos kept on the company's server are automatically synchronized with the BlackBerry. The most common operating systems pre-installed on PDAs are: Other, rarely used operating systems: Some PDAs include Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers. Other PDAs are compatible with external GPS-receiver add-ons that use

3003-715: The PDA directly, using a cable, or may use wireless technology such as infrared or Bluetooth to connect to the PDA. Newer PDAs, such as the HTC HD2 , Palm Pre , Pre Plus , Pixi , and Pixi Plus , as well as devices running the Android operating system, include more advanced forms of touchscreen that can register multiple touches simultaneously. These " multi-touch " displays allow for more sophisticated interfaces using various gestures entered with one or more fingers. Although many early PDAs did not have memory card slots, later models had either some form of Secure Digital (SD) slot,

3080-458: The PDA manufacturers (for example, GoldMine and IBM Lotus Notes ). Some PDAs can synchronize some or all of their data using their wireless networking capabilities, rather than having to be directly connected to a personal computer via a cable. Devices running Palm's webOS or Google's Android operating system primarily sync with the cloud . For example, if Gmail is used, information in contacts, email, and calendars can be synchronized between

3157-528: The PDA to be synchronized with a personal information manager, which may be part of the computer's operating system, provided with the PDA, or sold separately by a third party. For example, the RIM BlackBerry came with RIM's Desktop Manager program, which can synchronize to both Microsoft Outlook and ACT!. Other PDAs come only with their own proprietary software. For example, some early Palm OS PDAs came only with Palm Desktop, while later Palm PDAs—such as

Motorola Envoy - Misplaced Pages Continue

3234-432: The PDA's operating system supports it. Universal PDA keyboards designed for these older PDAs use infrared technology, due to cost and a lack of wireless interference. Most PDAs can synchronize their data with applications on a user's computer, allowing the user to update contact, schedule, or other information on their computer, using software such as Microsoft Outlook or ACT! , and have that same data transferred to

3311-486: The PDA's GPS functions can be used for navigation. Underwater divers can use PDAs to plan breathing gas mixtures and decompression schedules using software such as "V-Planner". Touchscreen A user can give input or control the information processing system through simple or multi-touch gestures by touching the screen with a special stylus or one or more fingers. Some touchscreens use ordinary or specially coated gloves to work, while others may only work using

3388-927: The PDA's processor and screen to display location information. PDAs with GPS functionality can be used for automotive navigation. Integrated PDA's were fitted as standard on new cars throughout the 2000's. PDA-based GPS can also display traffic conditions, perform dynamic routing, and show known locations of roadside mobile radar guns. TomTom , Garmin , and iGO offered GPS navigation software for PDAs. Some businesses and government organizations rely upon rugged PDAs, sometimes known as enterprise digital assistants (EDAs) or mobile computers , for mobile data applications. These PDAs have features that make them more robust and able to handle inclement weather, jolts, and moisture. EDAs often have extra features for data capture, such as barcode readers , radio-frequency identification (RFID) readers, magnetic stripe card readers, or smart card readers. These features are designed to facilitate

3465-615: The PDA's serial port or "sync" connector, or directly by using an expansion card that provided an Ethernet port. Most PDAs use Bluetooth, a popular wireless protocol for mobile devices. Bluetooth can be used to connect keyboards, headsets, GPS receivers , and other nearby accessories. It is also possible to transfer files between PDAs that have Bluetooth. Many PDAs have Wi-Fi wireless network connectivity and can connect to Wi-Fi hotspots. All smartphones, and some other PDAs, can connect to Wireless Wide Area Networks, such as those provided by cellular telecommunications companies. Older PDAs, from

3542-513: The PDA—or transfer updated information from the PDA back to the computer, eliminating the need for the user to update their data in two places. Synchronization also prevents the loss of information stored on the device if it is lost, stolen, or destroyed. When the PDA is repaired or replaced, it can be "re-synced" with the computer, restoring the user's data. Some users found that data input was quicker on their computer than on their PDA since text input via

3619-499: The Treo 650—have the ability to sync to Palm Desktop or Microsoft Outlook. Microsoft's ActiveSync and Windows Mobile Device Center only synchronized with Microsoft Outlook or a Microsoft Exchange server. Third-party synchronization software was also available for some PDAs from companies like CommonTime and CompanionLink . Third-party software can be used to synchronize PDAs to other personal information managers that are not supported by

3696-433: The built-in wireless communications components of the device. The main screen of Magic CAP displayed a desktop having a phone icon, Rolodex icon , Postcard/writing instrument icon, notebook icon, and calendar book icon, thus simulating real-world productivity tools used by many people. Similarly, a clock, an inbox, an outbox, and a filing cabinet were shown behind the desk, and a control bar provided access to other features of

3773-420: The city of Brisbane , Australia hosted Expo 88 , whose theme was “leisure in the age of technology”. To support the event and provide information to expo visitors, Telecom Australia (now Telstra ) erected 8 kiosks around the expo site with a total of 56 touch screen information consoles, being specially modified Sony Videotex Workstations. Each system was also equipped with a videodisc player, speakers, and

3850-432: The device. Several of these tools provided simple access to communication features, such as text messaging and addresses, which are widely used by modern smartphones. The Motorola Envoy provided a convenient way to utilize communication data without a wired connection but, ultimately, the Envoy was held back by its high cost of ownership. The Envoy device had a price tag of about $ 1500 at launch, and an early-adopter reported

3927-543: The first human-input multi-touch system, using a frosted-glass panel with a camera placed behind the glass. 1983 OPTICAL - An optical touchscreen was used on the HP-150 starting in 1983. The HP 150 was one of the world's earliest commercial touchscreen computers. HP mounted their infrared transmitters and receivers around the bezel of a 9-inch Sony cathode ray tube (CRT). 1983 MULTI-TOUCH FORCE SENSING TOUCHSCREEN - Bob Boie of AT&T Bell Labs, used capacitance to track

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4004-559: The front of the screen. Stumpe and Beck developed a self-capacitance touchscreen in 1972, and a mutual capacitance touchscreen in 1977. Both these devices could only sense the finger by direct touch or through a thin insulating film. This was 11 microns thick according to Stumpe's 1977 report. 1984 TOUCHPAD - Fujitsu released a touch pad for the Micro 16 to accommodate the complexity of kanji characters, which were stored as tiled graphics. 1986 GRAPHIC TABLET - A graphic touch tablet

4081-429: The invention of a wire based touchscreen in 1994, where one 25 micron diameter, insulation coated wire replaced about 30 of these 80 micron wide tracks, and could also accurately sense fingers through thick glass. Screen masking, caused by the copper, was reduced from 50% to less than 0.5%. The use of fine wire meant that very large touchscreens, several meters wide, could be plotted onto a thin polyester support film with

4158-475: The length of the horizontal sensing elements increases as the width of the touchscreen increases. Eventually, a limit is hit where the resistance gets so great that the touchscreen can no longer function properly. The patent describes how the use of diagonal elements ensures that the length of any element never exceeds 1.414 times the height ⌈ H 2 ⌋ {\textstyle \left\lceil H{\sqrt {2}}\right\rfloor } of

4235-446: The mechanical changes in thickness of a soft, deformable overlay membrane when one or more physical objects interact with it; the flexible surface being easily replaced, if damaged by these objects. The patent states "the tactile sensor arrangements may be utilized as a touch screen". Many derivative sources retrospectively describe Boie as making a major advancement with his touchscreen technology; but no evidence has been found that

4312-560: The medical field, heavy industry , automated teller machines (ATMs), and kiosks such as museum displays or room automation , where keyboard and mouse systems do not allow a suitably intuitive, rapid, or accurate interaction by the user with the display's content. Historically, the touchscreen sensor and its accompanying controller-based firmware have been made available by a wide array of after-market system integrators , and not by display, chip, or motherboard manufacturers. Display manufacturers and chip manufacturers have acknowledged

4389-403: The monitor line scans. About 600 of these were sold for this purpose, retailing at £50 apiece, which was very cheap for the time. Working through very thick glass made it ideal for operation in a "hostile" environment, such as a pub. Although reflected light from the copper wires was noticeable under certain lighting conditions, this problem was eliminated by using tinted glass. The reflection issue

4466-554: The more familiar PDA style, including a full keyboard. The term PDA was first used on 7 January 1992 by Apple Inc. CEO John Sculley at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas , Nevada , referring to the Apple Newton . In 1994, IBM introduced the first PDA with analog cellular phone functionality, the IBM Simon , which can also be considered the first smartphone. Then in 1996, Nokia introduced

4543-592: The original signal. Effectively, this was used for temporarily drawing arrows or circles onto a live television broadcast, as described in US 2487641A , Denk, William E, "Electronic pointer for television images", issued 1949-11-08   . 1962 OPTICAL - The first version of a touchscreen which operated independently of the light produced from the screen was patented by AT&T Corporation US 3016421A , Harmon, Leon D, "Electrographic transmitter", issued 1962-01-09   . This touchscreen utilized

4620-541: The quality of the recognition. Touchscreen PDAs intended for business use, such as the BlackBerry and Palm Treo , usually also offer full keyboards and scroll wheels or thumbwheels to facilitate data entry and navigation. Many touchscreen PDAs support some form of external keyboard as well. Specialized folding keyboards, which offer a full-sized keyboard but collapse into a compact size for transport, were made available for many models. External keyboards may attach to

4697-967: The release of the Nintendo DS in 2004. 2007 MOBILE PHONE WITH CAPACITANCE - The first mobile phone with a capacitive touchscreen was LG Prada , released in May 2007 (which was before the first iPhone released). By 2009, touchscreen-enabled mobile phones were becoming trendy and quickly gaining popularity in both basic and advanced devices. In Quarter-4 2009 for the first time, a majority of smartphones (i.e. not all mobile phones) shipped with touchscreens over non-touch. 2013 RESISTIVE VERSUS PROJECTED CAPACITANCE SALES - In 2007, 93% of touchscreens shipped were resistive and only 4% were projected capacitance. In 2013, 3% of touchscreens shipped were resistive and 96% were projected capacitance (see page 5). 2015 FORCE SENSING TOUCHSCREENS - Until recently, most consumer touchscreens could only sense one point of contact at

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4774-411: The screen and a matched phototransistor on the other edge, all mounted in front of a monochrome plasma display panel. This arrangement could sense any fingertip-sized opaque object in close proximity to the screen. 1973 MULTI-TOUCH CAPACITANCE - In 1973, Beck and Stumpe published another article describing their capacitive touchscreen. This indicated that it was capable of multi-touch but this feature

4851-538: The screen to activate a switch (or a U-shaped gesture for a toggle switch). The HCIL team developed and studied small touchscreen keyboards (including a study that showed users could type at 25 wpm on a touchscreen keyboard), aiding their introduction on mobile devices. They also designed and implemented multi-touch gestures such as selecting a range of a line, connecting objects, and a "tap-click" gesture to select while maintaining location with another finger. 1990 TOUCHSCREEN SLIDER AND TOGGLE SWITCHES - HCIL demonstrated

4928-521: The time and an input at other times. I/Os are inputs most of the time, but, once every scan, one of the I/Os has to take its turn at being an output, the remaining input I/Os sensing any signals it generates. The I/O lines, therefore, may have to change from input to output, and vice versa, many times a second. This new design won an Electronics Weekly Elektra Award in 2017. 2021 FIRST "INFINITELY WIDE" TOUCHSCREEN PATENT - With standard x/y array touchscreens,

5005-538: The touchscreen, no matter how wide it is. This could be reduced to 1.15 times the height, if opposing diagonal elements intersect at 60 degrees instead of 90 degrees. The elongated touchscreen could be controlled by a single processor, or the distant ends could be controlled totally independently by different processors, linked by a synchronizing processor in the overlapping middle section. The number of unique intersections could be increased by allowing individual sensing elements to run in two opposing directions - as shown in

5082-449: The trend toward acceptance of touchscreens as a user interface component and have begun to integrate touchscreens into the fundamental design of their products. One predecessor of the modern touchscreen includes stylus based systems. 1946 DIRECT LIGHT PEN - A patent was filed by Philco Company for a stylus designed for sports telecasting which, when placed against an intermediate cathode-ray tube (CRT) display would amplify and add to

5159-432: The use of these devices to scan product or item codes. Typical applications include: PDAs and handheld devices were allowed in many classrooms for digital note-taking. Students could spell-check, modify, and amend their class notes on a PDA. Some educators distributed course material through the Internet or infrared file-sharing functions of the PDA. Textbook publishers released e-books , which can be uploaded directly to

5236-641: Was Sega 's intended successor to the Game Gear , though the device was ultimately shelved and never released due to the expensive cost of touchscreen technology in the early 1990s. 1994 FIRST WIRE BASED PROJECTED CAPACITANCE - Stumpe and Beck's touchscreens (1972/1977 - already cited), used opaque conductive copper tracks that obscured about 50% of the screen (80 micron track / 80 micron space). The advent of projected capacitance in 1984, however, with its improved sensing capability, indicated that most of these tracks could be eliminated. This proved to be so, and led to

5313-559: Was an important addition to the learning ecology rather than a replacement. Software companies also developed PDA programs to meet the instructional needs of educational institutions, such as dictionaries, thesauri , word processing software, encyclopedias, webinars and digital lesson planners. PDAs were used by music enthusiasts to play a variety of music file formats. Many PDAs include the functionality of an MP3 player. Road rally enthusiasts can use PDAs to calculate distance, speed, and time. This information may be used for navigation, or

5390-694: Was demonstrated on the 16-bit Atari 520ST color computer. It featured a color touchscreen widget-driven interface. The ViewTouch POS software was first shown by its developer, Gene Mosher, at the Atari Computer demonstration area of the Fall COMDEX expo in 1986. 1987 CAPACITANCE TOUCH KEYS - Casio launched the Casio PB-1000 pocket computer with a touchscreen consisting of a 4×4 matrix, resulting in 16 touch areas in its small LCD graphic screen. 1988 SELECT ON "LIFT-OFF" - Touchscreens had

5467-566: Was developed by Eric Johnson, of the Royal Radar Establishment located in Malvern , England, who described his work on capacitive touchscreens in a short article published in 1965 and then more fully—with photographs and diagrams—in an article published in 1967. MID-60s ULTRASONIC CURTAIN - Another precursor of touchscreens, an ultrasonic-curtain-based pointing device in front of a terminal display, had been developed by

5544-488: Was introduced by researchers at the University of Maryland Human–Computer Interaction Lab (HCIL). As users touch the screen, feedback is provided as to what will be selected: users can adjust the position of the finger, and the action takes place only when the finger is lifted off the screen. This allowed the selection of small targets, down to a single pixel on a 640×480 Video Graphics Array (VGA) screen (a standard of that time). 1988 WORLD EXPO - From April to October 1988,

5621-639: Was later resolved by using finer (10 micron diameter), dark coated wires. Throughout the following decade JPM continued to use touchscreens for many other games such as "Cluedo" and "Who wants to be a Millionaire". 1998 PROJECTED CAPACITANCE LICENSES - This technology was licensed four years later to Romag Glass Products - later to become Zytronic Displays, and Visual Planet in 2003 (see page 4). 2004 MOBILE MULTI-TOUCH PROJECTED CAPACITANCE PATENT - Apple patents its multi-touch capacitive touchscreen for mobile devices. 2004 VIDEO GAMES WITH TOUCHSCREENS - Touchscreens were not be popularly used for video games until

5698-590: Was purposely inhibited, presumably as this was not considered useful at the time ("A...variable...called BUT changes value from zero to five when a button is touched. The touching of other buttons would give other non-zero values of BUT but this is protected against by software" (Page 6, section 2.6). "Actual contact between a finger and the capacitor is prevented by a thin sheet of plastic" (Page 3, section 2.3). At that time Projected capacitance had not yet been invented. 1977 RESISTIVE - An American company, Elographics – in partnership with Siemens – began work on developing

5775-483: Was released for the Sega AI Computer . EARLY 80s EVALUATION FOR AIRCRAFT - Touch-sensitive control-display units (CDUs) were evaluated for commercial aircraft flight decks in the early 1980s. Initial research showed that a touch interface would reduce pilot workload as the crew could then select waypoints, functions and actions, rather than be "head down" typing latitudes, longitudes, and waypoint codes on

5852-533: Was that the Boie technology would become available to us in the near future. Around 1990 I took a group from Xerox to see this technology it [sic] since I felt that it would be appropriate for the user interface of our large document processors. This did not work out". UP TO 1984 CAPACITANCE - Although, as cited earlier, Johnson is credited with developing the first finger operated capacitive and resistive touchscreens in 1965, these worked by directly touching wires across

5929-412: Was the first machine to use touch screen technology instead of buttons (see Quiz machine / History). It used a 14 inch version of this newly invented wire based projected capacitance touchscreen and had 64 sensing areas - the wiring pattern being similar to that shown in the lower diagram. The zig-zag pattern was introduced to minimize visual reflections and prevent Moire interference between the wires and

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