Touchless 3Dpad gets a Matlab update

Back in May, Ootsidebox introduced the 3Dpad, a sophisticated touchless gesture control interface with a depth perception of 10cm.

The platform – which made its Indiegogo debut last month – comprises three primary components:

• Electrode plane PCB
• Arduino shield
• Arduino Uno (Atmel ATmega328 MCU)

“To detect the proximity of the human hand or finger, we use the projected capacitive technique. This is the principle of virtually all modern touch screens – except that now we are in the air, relatively far away from the detector surface (10 cm max). So we build capacitors which are as ‘open’ as possible, using electrodes drawn on the electrode plane PCB in order to obtain a maximum ‘hand effect,’” 3Dpad creator Jean-Noël explained.

“[Meanwhile], the capacitors formed by the electrodes are part of an oscillator whose frequency is influenced by the distance of a hand. When it enters the electrostatic field, this ‘intruder’ is going to cut the field lines and divert the electrical charges. The closer the hand approaches the electrodes, the more the oscillator’s frequency increases.”

Recently, Jean-Noël told Bits & Pieces that Ootsidebox is working with Matlab to create a 3Dpad Arduino shield as a Simulink block.

“After a discussion we had with MathWorks, we decided to make the 3Dpad Arduino shield  available as a Simulink block, downloadable from MATLAB central,” he explained.

“We are convinced that this solution, which enables graphical programing, is one of the best ways to learn and experiment with Arduino.”

In addition, says Jean-Noël, the Ootsidebox team is designing a MIDI controller for electronic music built around the 3Dpad.

“It will be based on 3Dpad shield + an Atmel-based Arduino Mega,” he added. “Making a ‘virtual percussion’ system with few 3Dpad synchronized sounds good!”

Interested in learning more about the 3Dpad? You can check out the the project’s official Indiegogo page here and browse our Ootsidebox article archive here.

EE Times features Atmel’s next-gen touch controllers

Writing for the EE Times, Max Maxfield notes that Atmel is a major player in the touchscreen tech arena, especially in the large format screen space. Indeed, Atmel boasts a wide range of ultra-low-power single-chip touchscreen controllers for screens ranging from 1.5 to 15.6 inches. Earlier this week, the company expanded its popular maXTouch T lineup of touchscreen controllers with the mXT106xT2 family of devices.

“These devices include the high-end touchscreen features associated with state-of-the-art smartphone-sized products, but they target the larger format market with products whose screens are in the 7- to 8.9-inch range,” Maxfield explains.

“The mXT1066T2 and mXT1068T2 controllers support both mutual-capacitance and self-capacitance sensing. By intelligently switching back and forth between the two and using a hybrid approach, designers can achieve optimal power consumption and noise immunity, even in high humidity and moisture environments, while supporting bare finger and gloved operation.”

As Maxfield points out, mXT1068T2 controllers also supports hover operation in which the user’s finger can be up to 20mm above the touch surface. Indeed, hover adds another dimension to the user-touchscreen interface by allowing the touchscreen to detect, track and interact with a floating finger without physical contact.

“Currently, only single-finger hover is supported, but one can easily imagine how useful this would be if using a tablet to read a recipe when one’s hands are covered in food. In the future, multi-fingered hover control might allow the user to ‘grab’ objects and rotate them,” says Maxfield.

“Hover is one element in an increasingly sophisticated realm of human-machine interfaces (HMIs) that also include gesture recognition. In the not-so-distant future, people will interact with electronic systems using a mixture of voice control, gesture recognition and touchscreens, including hover technology.”

Last, but certainly not least, Maxfield notes that the mXT106xT2 lineup features a peripheral touch controller (PTC) capability that enables capacitive sensing of up to 12 channels via a dedicated hardware block in the mXT chip.

The new devices in the maXTouch T Series are currently in production, with the 8.3” screen size evaluation kit slated to ship in May.

Interested in learning more about Atmel’s popular maXTouch T lineup of touchscreen controllers? You can check out the product’s official page here.

Atmel debuts mXT106xT2 touchscreen controller lineup

Atmel has expanded its popular maXTouch T lineup of touchscreen controllers with the mXT106xT2 family of devices. The new series incorporates a wide range of features for 7 – 8.9″ mid-sized tablet displays including hover, stylus and optimized noise immunity.

As Atmel exec Patrick Hanley points out, the maXTouch is the only product currently available that enables finger hovering up to 20mm on devices larger than a smartphone. This capability allows users to interact with their devices – without physically making contact with the screen.

Indeed, the T Series incorporates Atmel’s Adaptive Sensing technology to facilitate dynamic touch classification, which automatically switches between self- and mutual-capacitance sensing – providing a seamless transition between finger touch, hover, passive or active stylus, as well as glove touch. Additionally, Adaptive Sensing dramatically reduces power consumption, facilitating longer battery life for mobile devices.

“The mXT106xT2 offers features required in today’s tablet devices, including 0.4mm thin cover lenses and multifinger glove support for users in cold weather climates,” said Hanley. “For [those] who seek the extensive benefits in going paperless, the mXT106xT2 also [includes] stylus capabilities in either active stylus through Atmel’s maXStylus, or passive stylus with a 1mm tip to facilitate more precise selection.”

Essentially, the 106xT2 offers the same performance features as Atmel’s T Series maXTouch controllers, while enabling capacitive button, slider and wheel control via an embedded hardware module known as the Peripheral Touch Controller (PTC). This feature allows systems to integrate capacitive buttons without tying up nodes from the touch controller, while performing with improved noise immunity and lower power than when implemented via firmware.

The new devices in the maXTouch T Series are currently in production, with the 8.3” screen size evaluation kit slated to ship in May.

Interested in learning more about Atmel’s popular maXTouch T lineup of touchscreen controllers? You can check out the product’s official page here.

MaXTouch S targets larger auto touchscreens

Atmel has confirmed that two new maXTouch touchscreen controllers were recently certified for use in next-gen automobiles. The mXT1188S is optimized for touchscreens up to 12 inches, while the mXT1664S is targeted at touchscreens up to 14 inches.

Both touchscreen controllers are optimized for single-layer shieldless sensor designs in automotive center consoles, navigation systems, radio interfaces and rear-seat entertainment systems. 

Meanwhile, a single-layer shieldless sensor design eliminates additional screen layers, effectively delivering improved light transparency. This results in lower power consumption, along with an overall lower system cost for the manufacturer.

The above-mentioned maXTouch controllers are AEC-Q100 compliant and designed for high reliability in harsh environments. They also offer glove support and improved moisture resistance – two key requirements for touch screen use in vehicles.

“The new automotive-qualified maXTouch controllers further strengthen Atmel’s automotive market position enabling more touchscreens in the car to hit the streets,” said Rob Valiton, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Automotive, Aerospace and Memory Business Units.

“We are also making in-car systems with capacitive touchscreens more accessible by enabling a shieldless single-layer touch sensor, which significantly reduces the total system cost. [Simply put], Atmel’s maXTouch controllers deliver superior touch performance, multi-touch, faster response times, more precise touches, robust operation and lower power consumption for an excellent user experience.”

To help accelerate design, Atmel is currently offering the EVK-MXT1664SAT-A evaluation kit, which includes an mXT1664S touch controller that interfaces with a 10.1-inch sensor (with an aspect ratio of 16:9).

 It should be noted that samples of the mXT1664S-A and mXT1188S-A in LQFP144 packages are available now, while devices in the PPAP packages will ship in June 2014 with volume production by July 2014.

Interested in learning more about Atmel automotive-qualified touch solutions? You can check out our official product page here.

AT91SAM9X35 powers SBC with touchscreen display

Premier Farnell has launched the EDM6070AR-01, a fully-integrated embedded display module (EDM) that pairs an ARM9-based single board computer (SBC) with a 7” LCD and touch-screen assembly. According to Premier Farnell CTO David Shen, the multi-function embedded EDM is powered by Atmel’s  AT91SAM9X35 industrial microprocessor (MPU).

“The EDM6070AR-01, designed as an all-in-one solution, is ideally suited for a variety of embedded control HMI (human machine interface) applications including industrial control terminals, intelligent instruments, medical products, network terminals as well as data acquisition and analysis,” he explained.

“The module has a plate with display, connectors and place for the Mini6935 module with ARM microcontroller.”

The module also includes a pre-loaded Smart-Home demo app with an intuitive smart-LED controller that allows users to set independent light levels in each room, regulate temperature and humidity, play streamed audio files and manage surveillance cameras.

Aside from Atmel’s ARM-based MPU, key EDM6070AR-01 specs include:

• 128MB DDR2 SDRAM
• 256MB NAND Flash
• 4MB Data Flash
• 24-bit TFT LCD module, 7” (800 x 480, 24-bit color depth)
• four-wire resistive touch-screen
• SD card interface
• Power supply: +12V@1.25A

On the software side, the EDM6070AR-01 is packaged with Linux BSP, offering support for Linux QT GUI (Graphical User Interface) and multiple file systems such as FAT and NTFS. 

As noted above, the SBC is also supplied with a Smart Home demo app and a number of example applications for developers.

The EDM6070AR-01 is available for $179 with the 7” LCD, although a standalone CPU module can be picked up for $69. Both are live on Farnell element14 in Europe, Newark element14 in North America and element14 in APAC.

Video: Building a multitouch music controller

Amanda Ghassaei – creator of the Glitchbox and Vocal Effect Box – recently published a detailed list of build instructions for an Atmel-based (Duemilanova or Uno), Arduino-powered infrared touchscreen/coffee-table interface.

According to Zoe Romano of the official Arduino blog, Ghassaei has been using the multitouch platform to control various music and graphics applications on her PC.

So, how does the platform work?

“The touchscreen uses infrared (IR) sensing to detect fingers and other objects on the screen, [while] an IR laser at each corner shines IR light across the surface of the screen,” Ghassaei explained.

“When a finger or other object touches the surface, it causes the IR light to scatter in many directions. Some of this light is directed down into the screen, towards an array of 64 IR sensors. By scanning through the sensors, you can determine the x and y position of the touch event(s) and use this to control a variety of apps.”

Interested in learning more about the Arduino-powered multitouch music controller? You can check out the project’s Instructables page here.