Five fascinating facts about Touch Technology

Five things you should know about Touch technology.

 

1 – Touch technology is a misleading term – it is often not necessary to actually touch the sensitive plate. Simply bringing your hand close to the plate will activate the switch.

 

Membrane and piezo keypads are often referred to as touch sensitive, but in
fact they require light to firm pressure to operate. Capacitive touch technology
detects the presence of a finger touch on the surface and even above the surface
of the keypad. Capacitive touch sensors are the same as proximity sensors but with much lower sensitivity

 

2 – The more accurate term is Proximity technology. Which gives rise to possibility of activating the switch through glass, opening up a wide range of security applications which are not possible with conventional switches.

 

Coastform are at the leading edge of developing through-glass touch technology.

 

3 – Touch switches can be used to trigger more than one electronic action. For instance, light a light and sound a buzzer to indicate that the action has taken place, as well as open a magnetic door lock and maybe turn on a light inside the room.

 

A capacitive proximity sensor can also be used to detect the removal of objects from the local vicinity of the sensor.

 

4 – Touch technology uses no moving parts, so there is no ongoing maintenance and no parts replacement programme required.

 

5 – Touch and proximity sensors can be made in a wide variety of shapes and sizes.
Coastform have created touch buttons from the size of the smallest finger tip and proximity sensors to detect a persons foot anywhere above a paving slab.

 

 

Coastform Systems are leading designers and manufacturers of devices using touch technology. Full details of our products at www.coastform.co.uk