It has been presumed that the reason for the lateast touch screen devices being larger than the push-button version, was down to a “fat finger” problem - this is where touch targets are packed too close together and a finger being too wide to hit the right one.
But the real reason for tounch-screen mishits is now believed to be finger orientation and variation between users, suggests a study done at the Institute in Potsdam, Germany. It is now believed that it can be corrected.
The fat finger problem is the reason why icons on touch screen devices are about 10 millimetres apart. Numerous ways around this problem have been explored including combining a touch screen with a touch sensitive pad on the rear of the device.
It was found that the touch screen registered distinct clusters of touch points for different finger orientations, some were just 2 to 3 millimeters across. This precision has gone unappreciated because each precise cluster is located at slightly different region beneath the finger. It is now believed that if the device knew the orientation of the finger as it would be possible to define much smaller targets than previously thought possible.
By taking information gathered in the study they tripled the precision of the touch interaction. Fingerprints can reveal finger orientation, so the researchers adapted a type of fingerprint scanner – called ridgepad – to find the center of the fingerprint for each touch on the screen and compared it with a database that calculates the finger’s orientation. This system gave twice as much accuracy as traditional touch technology.
Although the scanner was such a success it cannot be built into portable devices because the components are too big, but helps provide some guidelines on how to improve accuracy with touch screen devices.
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18190-fat-fingers-can-become-dainty-for-touch-screens.html
But the real reason for tounch-screen mishits is now believed to be finger orientation and variation between users, suggests a study done at the Institute in Potsdam, Germany. It is now believed that it can be corrected.
The fat finger problem is the reason why icons on touch screen devices are about 10 millimetres apart. Numerous ways around this problem have been explored including combining a touch screen with a touch sensitive pad on the rear of the device.
It was found that the touch screen registered distinct clusters of touch points for different finger orientations, some were just 2 to 3 millimeters across. This precision has gone unappreciated because each precise cluster is located at slightly different region beneath the finger. It is now believed that if the device knew the orientation of the finger as it would be possible to define much smaller targets than previously thought possible.
By taking information gathered in the study they tripled the precision of the touch interaction. Fingerprints can reveal finger orientation, so the researchers adapted a type of fingerprint scanner – called ridgepad – to find the center of the fingerprint for each touch on the screen and compared it with a database that calculates the finger’s orientation. This system gave twice as much accuracy as traditional touch technology.
Although the scanner was such a success it cannot be built into portable devices because the components are too big, but helps provide some guidelines on how to improve accuracy with touch screen devices.
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18190-fat-fingers-can-become-dainty-for-touch-screens.html
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