Platform combines capacitive and resistive touch in single chip

The platform is suitable for applications involving control panels, human machine interface, keyboard replacement, automotive and signature capture devices. It is designed to add gesture recognition to resistive screens for markets and situations in which capacitive screens are not a viable option. According to Freescale, resistive touch screens can be inexpensive to implement and the platform's capability allows the detection of different gestures, such as slide, touch rotate and two pinch for zooming in and out. Resistive touch screens are also a viable alternative when the use of gloves is necessary due to medical, weather or security reasons. "Freescale's Xtrinsic capacitive and resistive touch sensing platform is the first device to integrate gesture recognition without the need for complex hardware or screen modifications," said Geoff Lees, vice president of Freescale's Industrial and Multi-Market MCU business. "It offers a quick and inexpensive solution for customers to develop advanced user interfaces for markets that haven't previously incorporated touch sensing technologies and should have a strong impact on mobile health care applications, automobiles, netbooks and smart mobile devices." The Xtrinsic touch sensing platform enables the addition of up to four capacitive electrodes to a system, packaged in a 5 x 5mm 32pin QFN. The platform includes standard X-Y resistive touch screen detection with optional calibration and pressure detection on resistive screens. Gesture detection includes slide, two touch pinch and expand, and two touch rotate with four capacitive electrodes independent from the touch screen utilising I2C and UART communications protocols, as well as a user configurable screen resolution.