Hanvon Cut Dual-Touch Pen/Finger Tablet Costs With ERT Tech

When we reviewed HTC's Flyer earlier this week, we described the pen-and-touch slate as an expensive risk for the company to take. Fitting an active digitizer obviously increases bulk and, more importantly, cost – a tricky proposition if some people may never actually bother buying the pen. All that could change with the advent of Hanvon's Dual-Touch ERT Technology, however,

The "dual-touch" system uses electromagnetic resonance technology (ERT) to work with both a stylus and a finger. Proximity of the pen shuts down touch response, avoiding phantom-presses, and offers more accurate input: o.1mm, in fact.

It's also supposedly 30-50 percent less expensive than capacitive touchscreens, easier to implement as it requires a simple antenna array over the sensor board that still provides 100-percent transmittance, and has a data report rate of 200 dots per second. The typical thickness of the control is less than 0.8mm and less than 2mm for the board, making for slimline slates too.

Hanvon is shipping the technology now, and expects it to show up in both ereaders and tablets.

Press Release:

HANVON UNVEILS INDUSTRY'S FIRST DUAL-TOUCH SOLUTION BY PURE ERT TECHNOLOGY AT SID DISPLAY WEEK 2011

Hanvon Dual-Touch ERT Technology Improves Touch Screen Flexibility, Accuracy and Manufacturing Costs

Los Angeles—May 16, 2011—Hanvon, a leading global eReader and touch technology manufacturer, today unveiled the Hanvon Dual-Touch ERT Technology, a revolutionary new method of enabling touch-based interfaces, at the Society for Information Display (SID)'s 49th International Symposium, Seminar and Exhibition (Display Week 2011). The Hanvon Dual-Touch ERT Technology is a flexible, highly accurate, lower-cost touch technology that outperforms comparable capacitive, resistive and acoustic pulse recognition technologies in precision, data report rate and ease of use. For the first time, Hanvon allows manufacturers to enable both electromagnetic resonance technology (ERT) and touch technology on a display. The new technology is currently commercially available to manufacturers in the U.S. and globally.

"With the increasing adoption of mobile, eReader and tablet products, touch screens have become the primary user interface," said Liu Yingjian, president of Hanvon. "Consumers should be able to interact with their devices quickly and accurately and manufacturers should be able to meet those demands at a reasonable cost. Hanvon's Dual-Touch ERT Technology is the first finger touch plus ERT in the market to deliver this experience to both consumers and manufacturers."

The Hanvon Dual-Touch ERT Technology combines the functionality of touch with the accuracy and convenience of an ERT stylus, which shuts down "false" touches when in use. Hanvon brings the two technologies together, while allowing dual-touch input. Hanvon's new technology meets consumer demand for finger touch displays while also lowering the cost to eReader manufacturers by adding a series of antenna sensors to the sensor board.

Hanvon's Dual-Touch ERT Technology has a number of key benefits compared to other alternatives:

· Dual-touch interface—Touch displays integrating the technology will work with both ERT styli as well as traditional touch interfaces;

· Increased precision—Using an ERT input pen, accuracy is as great as 0.1mm;

· Lower cost—Compared to capacitive touch, Hanvon's technology is 30-50 percent less expensive;

· Easier manufacturing—Hanvon's Dual-Touch ERT Technology works by adding an antenna network just above the sensor board. This can easily be added to any existing manufacturing process.

"The eReader market has had rapid growth in recent years. DisplaySearch forecast the worldwide eReader display market will reach 98 million units in 2018," said Dr. Jennifer Colegrove, vice president, Emerging Display Technologies at DisplaySearch. "Touch screen technologies with high transmissivity, low cost and capable of sensing both finger touch and pen writing will be widely adopted on eReader devices and tablet PCs."

The Hanvon Dual-Touch ERT Technology uses less power than comparable technologies but offers superior precision and a more natural handwriting experience. It also offers a transmittance rate of 100 percent and a data report rate of 200 dots per second. The typical thickness of the control is less than 0.8mm and less than 2mm for the board.

The technology will be on display and available for demonstration at Display Week 2011 booth #1455.