Essentially, FlexSense is a self-sensing surface that can sit atop a tablet, like the Surface, and is capable of recognizing itself being folded or contorted. Upon being bent, the material accepts the deformation input and translates that information for the application in use.
FlexSense can be paired with tablets to provide users with what Microsoft dubs “2.5D input.” Any place you can imagine flexing or bending material, FlexSense can be applied. As the video below demonstrates, there are a wide-range of uses and opportunities, from paper-like animation to applying rendering effects in Photoshop.
In addition, there are also some entertainment value associated with FlexSense. Just envision playing a video game where you can use the entire smart cover as a gaming controller, flapping the surface like a pair of wings, or peeling back the material to check for crossword puzzle answers.
As its team notes, “FlexSense is based on printed piezoelectric sensors, which can reconstruct complex deformations without the need for any external sensing, such as cameras. FlexSense provides a fully self-contained setup which improves mobility and is not affected from occlusions.”
Using only a sparse set of sensors, printed on the periphery of the surface substrate, the Microsoft researchers developed two new algorithms to interpret the 16 sensors built into FlexSense.
The team went on to add, “Every piezoelectric sensor creates a surface charge which correlates to the applied deformation. Since the total number of sensors in our layout is small, we can connect each individually using conductive silver ink to the driver board. This removes the issues associated with the active ma- trix described earlier.”
“Each sensor is connected to a LMC6482 CMOS rail-to-rail amplifier. These are placed on a small PCB board that is connected to the foil. Before the amplification the signals run through a low pass filter, which protects it against electrostatic discharge. After the amplification a second low pass filter protects the signal from anti-aliasing issues.”
Each signal then gets measured through a MAX127 12-bit data acquisition system which sends the data via a two-wire serial interface to an Atmel | SMART Cortex-M3 MCU, the SAM3X8E.
Those interested in attaining more information on the innovative project — which was done in collaboration with Christian Rendl and Michael Haller of Media Interaction Lab at the University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria — can access the entire report here.
Electronic DesignTechnology Editor Bill Wong recently had the chance to catch up with Patrick Hanley, Atmel Product Marketing Manager for Touch Technology, to talk about recent market trends as well as the company’s latest offerings. The interview, which was published on September 26, 2014, can be found below.
Hanley: Atmel focuses on industrial, consumer, communications, computing, and automotive markets. We provide the electronics industry with complete system solutions by leveraging one of the industry’s broadest IP technology portfolios.
Wong: The world of touch-enabled devices is skyrocketing; from the proliferation of smartphones to tablets, almost everyone wants to tap a screen even if it’s not touch-enabled. What do you think has led to the widespread adoption?
Hanley: With the introduction of the iPhone in 2007, the general consumer market became more comfortable and aware of capacitive touch-enabled products to infiltrate our lives. For years prior, the idea of a capacitive touch was an unfamiliar concept that consumers were less comfortable with.
Today most individuals approach all displays with the assumption it is touch-enabled. The world of touch can be seen in a vast range of formats and devices, at its most basic levels in buttons, sliders, and wheels, to more advanced touchscreens that provide multiple, true X/Y coordinates. These touch devices also reach a multitude of applications. From GPS systems to wearables to all-in-one PCs, there is a place for touch in all of these devices.
Hanley: The mXT106xT family is a continuation of our T-series family of products. It is aimed at the largest growth touchscreen market, screens between 7 to 8.9-inches. We introduced adaptive sensing, which is a hybrid of mutual- and self-capacitance. This enables the best glove, finger hover sensing and stylus support available, even in the presence of moisture. Adaptive sensing is crucial, as it enables touch classification where the touch controller is able to determine the difference between a single finger, multi-touch, glove, hover, and stylus, and reacts to the user appropriately.
We unveiled several new features including the peripheral touch controller (PTC), the first touch controller that enables capacitive button capabilities within the same controller without compromising any additional x/y-lines. The PTC improves noise immunity, eliminates external components, and simplifies the sensor design. Additional features include voltage triplers and non-HDI (high-density interconnect) packages. The voltage tripler reduces external BOM components, saving the customer space and cost. The non-HDI package enables customers to reduce PCB layers, further reducing costs.
Wong: Sounds interesting. So, we all know device features are everything, starting from the initial touch performance carrying through to everything else that influences the UI. How is Atmel aiming to continue improving these features?
Hanley: The user interface can make or break the success of a product. An intuitive, yet attractive, UI can create demand for products where customers “have to have” these new products. This is the easiest way for an OEM to differentiate their end product.
Improving stylus performance is vital for a variety of applications and vertical markets. Active stylus support is becoming a must-have for higher-end tablets, which are typically identified for professional or artistic uses. Alternatively, passive stylus support is geared toward free-writing capabilities for general users as well as everyday uses. Passive stylus support carries universal stylus capabilities, even as standard as a no. 2 pencil, ultimately revolutionizing the “pen-to-paper” experience.
Atmel also offers features like hover support. We continuously improve range and accuracy while decreasing manufacturing costs through the flexibility of new materials, as well as enable immersive features like advanced gesturing. Features such as hover empower our devices to be able to think beyond the surface, creating the next wave of smart, intuitive products.
Wong: I also see that Atmel’s maXStylus was announced earlier this year at CES. How is this transforming the “pen-to-paper” experience?
Hanley: Historically, to achieve high performance with active stylus solutions, OEMs were spending upwards of $30, adding more inductive layers to the sensor stack-up. The maXStylus is the first capacitive active stylus to provide accurate active-pen performance without an additional sensor layer. This reduces the costs for tablets, laptops, and smartphones while maintaining excellent performance. The result for the user is fewer missing strokes, false detections, longer pen hover range, and more accurate and readable letters and characters. You can even go from using the stylus to your fingers without compromising performance or battery life.
Wong: What upcoming trends and user-interface technologies are you most excited about?
Hanley: Fingerprint security is exciting. It enables improved security with ease-of-use capabilities and more. 3D gesturing is another interesting and popular technology. As seen in the film Minority Report, technologies such as 3D gesturing and motion control allow users to interact with their devices without touching it. It gives you freedom both mentally and physically.
Additionally, Atmel is the leader in sensor hubs, which enable sensor fusion. Sensor fusion leads to more accurate readings of the movements, locations, temperatures, etc., of an object, all while increasing the battery life of the product despite the always-on capabilities.
At Atmel, we believe that these technologies are allowing OEMs and developers to create best-in-class products that let industry leaders create what they have always imagined.
Wong: Atmel recently announced the latest in touch with the introduction of the mXT106xT family. Can you elaborate?
Remember the “Big-Ass Table,” which first surfaced nearly seven years ago? Even if not, chances are that you’ve seen them before. CNN has one it dubs the “Magic Wall,” while Fox News recently unveiled 55-inch touschcreens of its own. Though Microsoft officials haven’t said a whole lot about its Perceptive Pixel (PPI) displays, the large touchscreen display that can stretch up to 82 inches in size, it appears that it may soon get more visibility in the company’s product line-up.
“Microsoft’s intention to mass-produce the hardware means that it will sell touch-based screens of all sizes. With its Nokia hardware purchase, Microsoft sells touchscreens that are best suited for your pocket. With Surface, touchscreens that fit best inside your backpack. And with PPI displays, touchscreens that can only fit on a huge slab of open wall,” writes TechCrunch’s Alex Wilhelm.
Microsoft has not elaborated upon price at this phase, only noting that costs are dropping, but at the moment a 55-inch model is likely to set you back in the ballpark of $7,000, according to TechCrunch’s report.
Regardless, it looks like we’re not too far away from the generational shift of homes outfitted with gigantic touch-enabled, Minority Report-like displays.
Last week at IFA 2014, Motorola announced a refresh of its product line with the revealing of the new Moto X and Moto 360 smartwatch.
In what may have been the most highly-anticipated Android Wear smartwatch to date, the Moto 360 comes equipped with a bold round face, heart rate monitor, both black and gray metal finishes. The wearable boasts a 1.5-inch 320×290 display with a backlit LCD touchscreen, powered by an Atmel MXT112S capacitive controller as a recent iFixit teardown revealed (in blue above). The body comes in at a diameter of 46mm and height of 11.5mm, while the leather band model weighs 49g – essentially, the same weight as your everyday wristwatch. Enhancing its durability, the attractive display is protected by a Gorilla Glass 3 covering.
Like all Android Wear devices, the Moto 360 features a wake-on-wrist-flick and automatic voice response via the “Ok Google” trigger, which allows a wearer to send texts, set reminders and such. It is compatible with any Android phone or tablet running Android 4.3 or higher, and has IP67 water resistance with submersion of up to 1 meter for 30 minutes. What this means: Shower, good. Swimming bad.
The Moto 360’s 320mAh battery should get you about a day of mixed usage. Additionally, the smartwatch comes with a pretty standard 4GB of internal storage and 512MB of RAM, in addition to the vibration motor included for notifications. Like other smartwatches, the Motorola accessory can be connected to your mobile device using Bluetooth 4.0 Low Energy.
(Source: Business Insider)
Not just beauty but it has brains as well! Unlike some of its competition, the Moto 360’s round dial not only tracks and displays a wearer’s heart rate, but with its embedded monitor and pedometer, can analyze activity intensity.
In terms of pricing, the Moto 360 will go for $249in the U.S. and £199 in the UK with a wider European rollout expected in October. Within three hours of making the Moto 360 smartwatch available on sale in the U.S., Google Play Store and Motorola’s website listed it as sold out.
Motorola has several competitors in the market, including the similarly-shaped LG G Watch R, the Samsung Gear S, the Sony SmartWatch 3 and the newly-unveiled Asus Zenwatch. With that said, the Atmel powered Moto 360 looks to differentiate itself with its wristwatch-like appearance — comprised of stainless steel and comes with a Horween leather band.
(Source: Forbes)
Motorola has now also taken aim at the affordable smartphone market with the new rendition of its Moto X flagship Android smartphone. The Moto X sports a 5.2-inch 1080p full HD display, 13-megapixel camera and a new dual LED flash that the company says provides more balanced light. Under its 1080p AMOLED display protected by Corning Gorilla Glass, there lies a 2.5Ghz Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 quad-core processor and 2GB of RAM.
“It’s high quality screen: it’s sharper, brighter, bigger, and just nicer to look at than the previous model. It has tremendous viewing angles, punchy colors, and can be seen in bright sunlight without issue. It’s everything the display on a flagship smartphone in 2014 should be,” Verge‘s Dan Seifert reviews.
The new Moto X measures 140.8 x 72.4mm (5.54 x 2.85 inches) with its tapered back ranging from 3.8 to 9.9mm (0.15-0.38 inches). To make room for the bigger screen, the phone itself needed to grow just a bit. The second generation Moto X retains the curved back from the original, but with a slightly slimmer width; as a result, the sloped design allows for the device to rest comfortably in a user’s hand. Despite its increased size, the Moto X may actually feel smaller than it should because of its new, metal frame that replaced the plastic on its predecessor.
“The new Moto X is shorter than the HTC One M8 and the Galaxy S5, while still having a larger display than either of them. It’s big, but not nearly as big as I normally expect a 5.2-inch smartphone to be. Part of that is because Motorola has maximized the screen’s footprint and shrunk the bezel surrounding it even further than before. Even so, it’s still managed to find room for a camera, light sensors, a new speaker, and new infrared sensors on the front of the phone,” Verge reveals.
Not only can you still launch the Moto X camera with a flick of the wrist, that’s not all. The new 13Mp camera starts to cache photos before you press the shutter so that it can capture the best looking photo, filtering out blurry shots or pics of people blinking. If you like taking selfies, this feature will surely be music to your ears!
(Source: Verge)
As with the original Moto X, the look of the new device is customizable through Motorola’s Moto Maker online design studio — adding new colors and materials like eco-friendly woods and new leather finishes.
You can now create your own launch phrase as well, ranging from a simple “Hello, Moto X” to something that better suits your personality like “What’s up, Moto X?” Motorola has included a number of new Moto X features such as voice, gestures and more, thereby helping deliver a distinct Moto X user experience. These include Moto Voice, Moto Assist (changes the phone’s options based on your current activity), Moto Display (shows notifications on the display even when the display is off) and Moto Actions (three IR sensors on the front of the device enable a user to wake the device with a simple wave of the hand).
Here is a breakdown of the Moto X’s specs that enable many of its key features:
5.2-inch 1080P Display
2.5Ghz Snapdragon 801 processor
2GB of RAM
16GB and 32GB storage options
2,300mAh battery
13MP rear facing camera w/ 4k video
Dual LED ring Flash
Android 4.4 KitKat
“The new Moto X looks and feels like the premium smartphone it should,” Verge concludes.
Those looking to purchase the new flagship device can do so for only $99.99 on-contract, or $499.99 (£419.99) if you decide to get an unlocked one. Currently, it appears that the U.S. carriers will likely be AT&T and Verizon. As for availability, the Moto X will be out later this month in countries across North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia.
As displayed inside our Maker Faire Bay Area booth earlier this summer, the Touch Board houses an ATmega32u4 processor clocked at 16 MHZ running at 5V — the same as the Arduino Leonardo. With expertise in the area of creating models for industrial or architectural design, Pullen thought this project would be an ideal way of showcasing his skills.
Jude tells Bare Conductive that he enjoys working with basic, accessible materials, and therefore, this device’s cardboard structure is not out of the ordinary for his work.
“Pretty much anyone can find a cardboard box, and preferably a glue gun and a scalpel. To produce something really great you of course need some imagination and skill,” Pullen explains. With the incorporation of some Electric Paint stenciled onto the boombox and the Touch Board running the show, the Maker was able to get this stylish creation to flood the streets of London with some of his favorite MP3s.
When speaking about the completed boombox project, Jude claims, “The boombox is simple in its formation but stands for something a bit more as it’s using materials in a fresh and unexpected way. I especially like the ‘surface mount speakers’ – which give an amazing sound!”
Long before the days of the iPhone and Android came Simon, the device that started it all. The world’s first smartphone turned 20 this week, and to commemorate the occasion, TIME Magazine compiled several fun facts on the handset that broke the mold. Simon anticipated our constantly-connected, app-happy lives by cramming the features of a cellphone, pager, fax machine and computer all into an 18-ounce device.
1. IBM and BellSouth first debuted Simon on November 23, 1992 at the COMDEX Convention in Las Vegas, but it wasn’t made available to consumers until August 16, 1994.
2. It was expensive, and rightfully so. The device that set the pace for future smartphones was available only in the United States, and initially set buyers back $899.
3. Alright, so it was a brick. The clunky phone itself measured 8 inches long by 2.5 inches wide by 1.5 inches thick, all while weighing over a pound.
4. Yes, it had a touchscreen. Though touchscreens weren’t exactly non-existent back in the early 1990s, they weren’t super ubiquitous either. The IBM device replaced the usual telephone keyboard by a sensitive touchscreen and integrated PIM applications and data communication features along with a stylus, too. The phone provided an onscreen keyboard or a QWERTY keyboard and an optional memory card.
5. The world’s first all-in-one smartphone allowed users to make and receive telephone calls, faxes, emails and cellular pages, among other functions. Though there may not have been an app store at the time, the phone did come preloaded with apps such as an address book, calculator, calendar, note pad, sketch pad, time and to-do lists.
6. The first autocorrect? Alright, so the feature was called “PredictaKey” at the time. Nevertheless, Simon always showed the six most-likely letters that the user needed, depending on the characters they just typed.
7. Simon even made an appearance in The Net.
8. It could be plugged into a regular wall jack, because let’s face it, cellular service was still spotty and expensive back in the mid-1990s.
9. RIP, Simon. August 1994 – February 1995. The revolutionary handset spent only six months on the market with around 50,000 units sold, primarily to business people.
Not only will robots soon replace bellhops during your next hotel stay, it appears the restaurant of tomorrow will be swapping out waiters and paper menus for multi-touch, interactive tabletops. Imagine not having to wait for a server to place an order. What if learning more about the dish you’re about order was only a mere tap away?
Writing for Gizmag, Ben Coxworth reveals that the Interactive Restaurant Technology (IRT) system represents an innovative way to make dining establishments more attractive, engaging and of course, high-tech. Upon sitting down, users begin by selecting a language of their choice. The unique tabletop then displays photos and detailed information on each the entrees, drinks and other menu items. Once they’ve decided on what they want, diners simply request it via the table’s waterproof touchscreen, and the order is instantly relayed to the kitchen.
As a child, you probably enjoyed playing with crayons on paper table mats, or in today’s tech-savvy world, tagging along your mobile device. Thanks to the multi-touch tabletop, patrons can now use the surface to keep themselves busy while waiting for their food to arrive with activities like playing games, reading the news, socializing with fellow patrons, or even receive live broadcasts from the kitchen. The company also offers the option of integrating screens on the walls, bar counters or other surfaces into the system, for purposes such as advertising special menu items or drinks, Gizmag notes.
Though a number of other interactive restaurant systems do also exist, the Ukranian tech firm claims that the “world’s first ultra HD interactive table” is dynamic in that the display occupies the table’s entire surface, features a backlit LED display and allows users to do more than just place orders. According to the company, its technology supports an unlimited number of touches, and “will keep working even if every single visitor sitting after the table will put his hands on the surface.”
“It is also about creating an atmosphere where the customer can have a good time, socialize with other patrons, meet new people, learn something new,” the company writes on their website. “So why do restaurateurs still offer traditional and boring solutions in the world where people are used to being online, using touch phones and voting for their favorite brands by likes?”
So far, IRT has been implemented in two restaurants — Oshi in Cyprus and Ebony in Dubai. Among other things, Gizmag says the multi-touch system will reportedly recognize returning customers when they place their smartphone on the table, and recommend dishes or drinks based on their previous orders.
Touchscreens have now even ventured into the world of land-dwelling reptiles. In a recent study, red-footed tortoises not only mastered the technology in exchange for strawberries, but the animals also transferred their knowledge to a real-life setting. Originally published in the July issue of the Journal of Behavioural Processes by researchers out of the University of Lincoln in England, the study set out to explore how well a tortoise could learn a spatial task when the response required was a simple touchscreen stimulus.
The tortoises, which are native to Central and South America, don’t have a hippocampus, an area of the brain associated with learning, memory and spatial navigation, researcher Anna Wilkinson explained. Instead, red-footed tortoises may rely on an area of the brain called the medial cortex, an area associated with complex cognitive behavior and decision-making in people. To understand how tortoises learn, the researchers tested how the reptiles relied on cues to get around, Live Science reported.
Wilkinson and researchers at the University of Vienna gave the tortoises treats when the reptiles looked at, approached and then pecked on the screen. From the looks of the video, these four red-footed tortoises learned how to use touchscreens rather quickly. The new findings will now assist researchers compare the perceptual and cognitive abilities of tortoises to other animals that can perform similar tasks. The experiment also reinforces other findings that tortoises are indeed intelligent creatures.
Last year’s CES was the modern technology equivalent of the voyage of Ferdinand Magellan, proving beyond any shadow of doubt displays no longer can be thought of as only flat. While the massive curved 105-inch TVs shown by LG and Samsung drew many gawkers, the implications of curved touch displays are even wider.
At DAC 50 there were more than a few chuckles and some mystified looks when Samsung’s Dr. Stephen Woo spent a lot of his keynote address highlighting flexible displays as one of the challenges for smarter mobile devices (spin to the 27:41 mark of the video for his forward-looking comments). I think if we had polled that room at that second, there would have been two reactions: 1) yeah, right, a flexible phone, or 2) hmmmm, there must be something else going on. His comments should have provided the clue the flat display theory was about to dissolve:
Is there any major revolution coming to us? My answer to that is yes. I’m afraid that we as EDA, as well as the semiconductor industry, are not fully appreciating the magnitude of the revolution.
Woo showed the brief clip from CES 2013 introducing the first Samsung flexible display prototype, hinting that while exciting, it is still a ways from practicality. Why? He went on to explore the rigid structure of the current high volume smartphone – flat display, flat and hard board with flat and hard chips, and a hard case. I have some unpleasant recollections of trying chips on flex harnesses in the defense industry, and the problems become non-trivial with bigger parts and shock forces coming into play, not to mention manufacturing costs.
We might be getting thrown off by the limiting context of a phone as we know it. A gently curved but still fixed display poses fewer problems in fabrication using current technology. Corning has announced 3D-shaped Gorilla Glass, and Apple, LG, and Samsung are all chasing curved display fabrication and gently curved phone concepts today.
The real possibilities for smaller curved displays jump out in the context of wearables and the Internet of Things. The missing piece from this discussion: the touch interface. Flexible displays present a challenge well beyond the simplistic knobs-and-sliders, or even the science of multi-touch that allows swiping and other gestures. Abandoning the relative ease of planar coordinates implies not only smarter touch sensors, but algorithms behind them that can handle the challenges of projecting capacitance into curved space.
Atmel fully appreciates the magnitude of this revolution, and through a combination of serendipity and good planning is in the right place at the right time to make curved touchscreens for wearables and the IoT happen. With CES becoming an almost-auto show, it was the logical place to showcase the AvantCar proof of concept, illustrating just what curves can do for touch-enabled displays in consumer design. (Old web design axiom, holds true for industrial design too: men tend to like straight lines and precise grids, women tend to like curves and swooshes – combine both in a design for the win.)
The metal mesh technology in XSense – “fine line metal” or FLM – means the touch sensor is fabricated on a flexible PET film, able to conform to flat or reasonably curved displays up to 12 inches. XSense uses mutual capacitance, with electrodes in an orthogonal matrix, really an array of small touchscreens within a larger display. This removes ambiguity in the reported multiple touch coordinates by reporting points independently, and coincidentally enables better handling of polar coordinates following the curve of a display using Atmel’s maxTouch microcontrollers.
Now visualize this idea outside of the car environment, extended to a myriad of IoT and wearable devices. Gone are the clunky elastomeric buttons of the typical appliance, replaced by a shaped display with configurable interfaces depending on context. Free of the need for flat surfaces and mechanical switches in designs, touch displays can be integrated into many more wearable and everyday consumer devices.
Dr. Woo’s vision of flexible displays may be a bit early, but the idea of curved displays looks to be ready for prime time. The same revolution created by projected capacitance for touch in smartphones and tablets can now impact all kinds of smaller devices, a boon for user experience designers looking for more attractive and creative ways to present interfaces.
What do you think of the emergence of curved displays and the coming revolution in device design? How do you see curved touchscreens changing the way industrial designers think of the user interface on devices? Looking out further, what other technological improvements are needed?
This post has been republished with permission from SemiWiki.com, where Don Dingee is a featured blogger. It first appeared there on January 10, 2014.
Recently, I met an Atmel maXTouch customer whose smartphone brand is well recognized by consumers in West and East Africa, competing against smartphones made by global brands like Samsung and Nokia. When the customer selected our touchscreen controller for their smartphone product, they needed two features that were very important for African consumers: robust moisture performance and strong noise immunity. This is hardly a surprise as many African countries have unreliable power supplies, and surge protection is important for electronic devices; additionally, the warm climates in most African countries make robust moisture performance a basic requirement for touchscreen controllers to handle sweaty fingers, palms and faces. When the touchscreen controller has trouble in combating charger noise or moisture presence on the touchscreen, a symptom called “ghost touch” would occur – in other words, when the touchscreen automatically triggers a false touch without the presence of a finger contact at that specific location.
With Adaptive Sensing technology, Atmel’s maXTouch T-series scans the touchscreen of a smartphone using both mutual-capacitance and self-capacitance sensing.
Mutual-capacitance enables true multi-finger touch operations, such as multi-finger gestures and rotations used in gaming apps. However, self-capacitance sensing is much less sensitive to the presence of moisture or water droplets than mutual-capacitance. Atmel’s Adaptive Sensing technology combines the analog signals of both self-capacitance and mutual-capacitance, allowing the embedded maXTouch microcontroller to intelligently determine moisture presence through obvious differences in both measurement deltas for corresponding touch locations. As seen in the example below, here a maXTouch device combines both set of signals to eliminate false touch (a.k.a. ghost touch) typically associated with the presence of moisture on a touchscreen.
I should point out that a smartphone with an excellent water-resistant rating does NOT necessarily mean that it has a robust moisture performance for its touchscreen. Here is a tidbit of consumer feedback on a premium smartphone with IP58 rating:
In comparison, the OEM customer designs smartphones for African consumers that can offer excellent touch performance with the presence of moisture, thanks to our maXTouch T-series. The maXTouch mXT640T series of touchscreen controllers dynamically switches into a Self-Capacitance based single-touch mode when touches are detected in the presence of significant water. This meaning, the normal touch functionality of a mXT640T touchscreen will be maintained for as long as possible before eventually switching to a single touch operation to maintain reliable operation and prevent false touch conditions. The picture below illustrates how we set the bar for superior water/moisture performance in the market:
All in all, a touchscreen powered by Atmel’s maXTouch T-series controllers can support true multi-finger operations with the presence of moisture. Even in a rainy condition where water falls down to your smartphone, the system dynamically maintains reliable touch operations and prevents false touches, so that when you press a speed-dial for Uber in the rain, your phone will not innocently call your ex-girlfriend instead.
I should point out that a smartphone with an excellent water-resistant rating does NOT necessarily mean that it has a robust moisture performance for its touchscreen. Here is a tidbit of consumer feedback on a premium smartphone with IP58 rating:
