Pressure-sensitive multi-touch technology, eg. Force Touch, promises to change the way humans interact with their computers and devices by creating new user experiences that are more engaging, immersive and aware. This can lead to higher user satisfication, productivity and even safety, in a broad range of applications and markets including smartphones, automotive, industrial and the military. This feasibility project is meant to demonstrate the potential of an enhanced user experience (UX) using Force Touch to overcome limitations in performance and battery life of the existing and very familiar Multi-Touch experience, and is aimed especially at mobile and wearable applications. It will use state-of-the-art sensing technology currently under development by our company in Cambridge.

The goal of this project is to apply recent breakthrough results of an advanced, transparent piezoelectric nano-material made of Zinc-Oxide using a novel low temperature and potentially high throughput process called HiTUS recently developed at the University of Cambridge. By applying this new film, and other similar candidate advanced materials, into touch screens for smartphones and tablets, the project hopes to develop a new ‘3D’ pressure sensitive touch input technology, where the force of multiple touch inputs pressing into the display screen can be accurately sensed as well as their locations. The new technology is expected to be 25% lower cost to manufacture and 10% lower power compared to today's touch panels which should lead to better phones and fewer charges. It will also enable new rich and immersive uses with our devices such as true 'one handed' phone operation & realistic typing - no more two hands just to zoom in on a map, or clumsy 1-finger typing.