I hope some of you are as excited as I am about this recent discovery.
This is spray on liquid glass on a microfibre. They caused this fissure to demonstrate the properties.
One of the biggest drawbacks to a public mounted touch screen is the transfer of germs from bystander to bystander. This is not as much as real as it is a psychological boundary we have encountered. In exit interviews from User Experience tests we consistently get feedback about the cleanliness of the surface and the other participants hands. We had to put antiseptic baby wipes near the Surface units to help alleviate this problem.
Cleaning touch screens is an odd process. Depending on the material used, be it a rough or smooth material, it usually had special instructions about cleaning. The typical monitor has a special non-glare coating and recommends using soap and a damp cloth. Using non-glare finishes on touch screens have similar recommendations. Do not use cleaners or antiseptic solutions because they will damage the finish and possibly remove the protective coating.
What this amazing discovery gives us is something that will innovate the market in the eyes of the public.
Here is the main article about the glass.
Spray-on liquid glass is transparent, non-toxic, and can protect virtually any surface against almost any damage from hazards such as water, UV radiation, dirt, heat, and bacterial infections. The coating is also flexible and breathable, which makes it suitable for use on an enormous array of products. (via physorg)
This is amazing. This gives us the ability to spray a coating on a touch screen and then the ability to clean it with antiseptic germ killing chemicals without the harmful side effects of destroying the surface or the experience. It is also so thin it allows the transference of touch to the unit.
Long live physics!
validate it … or go home!
Awesome indeed.
Just as a design point on this blog, could you possibly move (or copy) the “X comments” link to the bottom of your posts? After reading the post, it’s annoying to have to scroll back up and find the link at the top.
Thank you VERY much for the feedback. I will do this later today. Excellent suggestion.
If more people offered feedback so directly, the world would be a better place… or at least a little bit more palatable. 😉
A resistive touchscreen panel comprises several layers, the most important of which are two thin, transparent electrically-resistive layers separated by a thin space. These layers face each other with a thin gap between. The top screen (the screen that is touched) has a coating on the underside surface of the screen. Just beneath it is a similar resistive layer on top of its substrate. One layer has conductive connections along its sides, the other along top and bottom. A voltage is applied to one layer, and sensed by the other. When an object, such as a fingertip or stylus tip, presses down on the outer surface, the two layers touch to become connected at that point: The panel then behaves as a pair of voltage dividers , one axis at a time. By rapidly switching between each layer, the position of a pressure on the screen can be read.