Touchless Technologies for Displays and POS Systems

In the case of capacitive gesture control, an in-house developed controller board based on GestIC^e technology is used, combining 2D-PCAP functionality with 3D gesture control. This ensures a seamless synchronisation between 2D PCAP Touch Scan and 3D Gesture Scan, and in addition to the usual touch input on the screen also enables touchless system input by means of simple hand movements (gestures). The amount of commands in the GUI software includes multiple gestures which are detected by the capacitive sensor and translated into the corresponding system commands. One that is well known and widely used is the so-called swiping gesture (flick/swipe), which can be used for both vertical (up/down) and horizontal (left/right) actions. Depending on the customer's requirements and the subsequent area of application, other gestures such as AirWheel (rotating gesture) can be implemented. One feature of this intuitive and capacitive-based gesture control is comparatively easy integration into an existing system. This is primarily used for diagonal sizes of 5 to 15.6 inches, as in this size range the gestures can be optimally detected by the surrounding transmitting and receiving electrodes.

On the other hand, for large format diagonals the camera-based touchless solution, which DATA MODUL has recently added to the portfolio, is better suited. With this technology, the user’s hand movements are automatically detected by the software in this specially developed Plug&Play camera solution and converted into the corresponding screen cursor actions using a virtual model. Depending on the camera's recording angle, an interactive UI display screen area of up to 29 inches in portrait format, as well as up to 40 inches in landscape format, can be achieved in one time. The overall display diagonals can be individually adjusted to the customer’s requirements and consequently may also be much larger than the actual UI interaction area. The camera-based touchless technology  can also be integrated effortlessly into existing systems. If the existing system is not equipped with a special camera for a touchless UI display, this can be simply retrofitted by the display experts – as well as the software solution for the required gesture recognition performance.

Touchless display technologies such as capacitive-based or camera-based gesture control with their innovative Human Machine Interfaces are used in numerous application areas and are becoming increasingly popular. Both reliably combine very important aspects for today's world: intuitive and hygienic operation. A combination that is not only highly relevant for the medical field, but is also becoming increasingly important in the public sector and other industries. The advantages for information, registration, or ordering and payment terminals, or for the food industry, are obvious. They are also already being implemented successfully in the automotive and gaming sector. For example, by helping to maintain concentration on the driving process and interaction with the car, or to promote immersive virtual reality gaming experiences.

¹ Product of the Year, Elektronik Magazin, WEKA Fachverlag, May 2021