Vandal-proof Touchscreens

Does your display application require a touchscreen that can withstand the challenges of vandal abuse? When your touchscreen is subjected to unattended public access interactivity, vandal proofing can be a constant battle. Unfortunately, there is no simple answer when seeking a vandal proof solution.

However, there are means of increasing resistance to vandal abuse which can generally be addressed in three broad areas: impact protection, scratch/abrasion protection and liquid ingress protection.

Impact and scratch/abrasion damage are minimized by use of added glass top surfaces. Polymers, such as polycarbonate which are highly impact resistant, provide additional protection against impact, scratch and abrasion destruction. Optical bonding, provided by Planar Systems, fills the gap between the protective glass and LCD, keeping out dust and moisture and providing liquid ingress protection.

In addition, glass lamination and glass heat tempering will improve resistance to breakage. This approah can be applied to SAW, surface capacitive, projected capacitive, camera IR and matrix IR touch screens. Newer touch technologies such as force activated technologies can use a variety of tranparent media.

Touch Technology and Visual Performance

When utilizing touch technology in your display project, do you struggle with achieving optimum visual performance? Regardless of which touch sensor you use with your transparent window of either glass or plastic mounted above the display face, unwanted light reflections are introduced and can impact the visual performance of your content.

For indoor use, Infrared (IR) matrix and IR camera based systems do not require a transparent window and don't degrade the display luminance and contrast. This solution is acceptable for indoor environments for single users, but not public venues where high use and potential vandalism can occur or for outdoor environments.

Methods of optically coupling the touch window to the display or special films and coatings can be effective solutions when sunlight readable viewing is required. Typically optical bonding is reserved for those applications where high value hardware can absorbe any additional cost.

Visit Planar to learn more about touch display technology in our eBook, Touch Display Sensors and visit us for a quote for your touchscreen application. Look for information about touchscreen drivers in an upcoming post.

What is the Best Touch Technology for Rugged or Outdoor Environments?

Are you engaged in a touch display to be used in a rugged or outdoor environment? Have you been wondering which touch technology is the best for your display?


Planar's Director of Engineering believes any of the all glass sensors, such as Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW), projected and surface capacitive can work in rugged, outdoor applications, but no single touch can do it all. High ambient sunlight conditions pose interference problems with IR matrix and IR camera scan systems.


SAW and surface capacitive have varying resistance to rain, dust, snow and flying insects. Glass-on-glass resistive has good immunity to the outdoor environment, but requires additional optical enhancements to compensate for unwanted ambient, outdoor, light reflections, which detract from the display's contrast.


Regardless of your project, the option to choose from multiple touch technologies will make the touch decision much easier. Visit Planar's how-to-buy website for information about purchsaing a customized touch display and look for how touch technology impacts the visual performance of a display in an upcoming post.

Get The Right Display Touch

With all of the different options of touch technology available on the market today, it's sometimes challenging to determine what type of touch sensor will work best for your display application. Fortunately, Planar has just released an easy-to-read eBook, Touch Display Sensors, that outlines five different touch sensors and explains how their specifications work for different applications.

Choosing the appropriate touch sensor can make the user experience for kiosks, outdoor digital signage and point of sale applications a breeze. The eBook will guide you through information about resistive, surface capacitive, projective capacitive, infrared and surface acoustic wave touch sensors. You'll discover that many enhancements, including optical bonding, can be added to the display surface to improve the view. Check out Planar's other eBooks to help with additional display questions.

A Touch Technology For Every Application

The popularity of touchscreen technology is growing immensely. You can find touchscreens available in grocery store self checkouts, movie rental kiosks and at airport check-in kiosks around the world. So, how do you decide which touch technology will work best for your specific application?

Just like displays, there are a variety of technologies that are best suited for the specific application, use and environment. Life cycle costs play a major role in choosing a touchscreen.

Resistive touch still dominates the marketplace, capturing approximately one-half of the touch market. Its low cost, stylus independence and technology maturity make for a difficult combination for other touch technologies to compete against.

In the small screen size (less than 4"), the projective capacitive touch sensor has made a strong entry into the market, resulting from Apple's iPhone introduction. It has spurred additional development with glass on glass resistive touch screens.

Large screen sizes (larger than 32") are being supplied with IR camera systems, which are relatively inexpensive and easily scalable.

Traditional surface capacitive, matrix IR and surface acoustic wave touch technologies dominate the mid-size (6" to 26"). Again, use, environment and cost play important roles in choosing the optimum technology.

With the myriad of choices in touch technology available for today's applications, which one suits your display function needs best? Look for the best touch technology for a rugged or outdoor environment in an upcomming post.

Large Format Signage on Display at Digital Signage Expo

The Digital Signage Expo just ended at the Las Vegas Convention Center and Planar exhibited some amazing large format digital signage displays in our booth #1254.

If your display requirements call for deployment in retail environments, Planar's 42" digital signage might be the ticket. And, we offer displays ranging from 37" to 65" to meet other size requirements. Touchscreen integration makes it easy for your customers to interact with your digital content. The 46" outdoor digital signage includes an optically bonded IR/AR filter for superior sunlight-readability, along with a wide viewing angle and custom cooling design which requires no A/C. This display is perfect for extreme environments where outdoor conditions can impact viewing.

Also on display in Planar's booth was the Clarity Matrix LCD Video Wall. If you're in need of a seamless video wall and uninterupted operation for your control room operations, the Clarity Matrix LCD Video Wall, with its ultra-thin bezel, provides outstanding tiled visual performance.

Planar's customization display experience has been applied to numerous projects that need a tailored solution. Let us know what your large format digital display needs are.

Windows 7, Gestures, Embedded Touch screens, and You

Windows 7 hits the streets for real on Thursday. This will be a huge release for consumers and business IT users. I’ve been using the RC version for a few months now and really like it for my home PC. I’m sure I will like even more for my work PC’s when that time comes. But what about those embedded applications, kiosks, and displays that currently use Windows XP-Pro? We’ve heard or seen demo’s of Windows 7’s new features for multi-touch and gestures? Can we start using those features right away? Can we experiment with them?

I’ve had a chance to do some experimenting with Windows 7 and touchscreens. To utilize Windows 7 gestures and multi-touch features, you will need a HID compliant touch screen, that also reports itself as a HID-Digitizer and not a HID-Mouse or other proprietary device. Unfortunately this means that most if not all existing touch screens will NOT be able to take advantages of these
built in Windows 7 features. These existing Touch screens (HID, Serial or USB-Driver) WILL work with Windows as single touch devices (with existing WinXP drivers), but Windows 7 will not
recognize these devices as digitizers and make use of all those cool gestures and multi-touch
features available to that display. Most likely existing touch screen hardware will not be field
upgradable either. New hardware and firmware will be required to ensure that touch data is
properly and accurately reported back to Windows 7 as a HID-Digitizer device.

To be clear, if you have an existing touch screen with drivers. The drivers and the touch screens
will work with Windows 7, just as it did with Windows XP. Furthermore if you have a HID compliant touch screen or embedded display it too will work with Windows 7, just as it did with Windows XP. Only touch screens that are multi-touch capable AND report to Windows as a HID Digitizer will be able to take advantage of the native multi-touch and gesturing of Windows 7.

Windows 7 will be a great tool for use in industrial display applications, we just have to get
new touch screens to market to make that happen.

What Touch Technology Should I Use?

Spend 90 seconds to get a short answer from Al Gard, our Director of Engineering.




Let us know if there are any other topics you want to know more about.