FEATURE MACHINE CONTROL
Has COVID-19 paved the way towards contactless
touchscreens? Jaguar Land Rover and the University of Cambridge have developed a new
contactless touchscreen technology that could help limit the spread of viruses while reducing a driver’s touchscreen interaction effort in order to improve safety
T
oday, touchscreen technology is an important part of our everyday lives, and yet the
Coronavirus pandemic has led many to question how hygienic touch technology is. One company that has recently introduced a new technology to help is Jaguar Land Rover which, in collaboration with the University of Cambridge, has introduced a new contactless touchscreen technology. This, the company explains, will help to keep the driver’s eyes on the road while helping to reduce the spread of bacteria and viruses. Called ‘predictive touch’, this technology uses
artificial intelligence and sensors to predict a user’s intended target on the touchscreen – whether that’s satellite navigation, temperature controls or entertainment settings – without touching a button. According to laboratory tests and on-road trials, the predictive touch technology could reduce a driver’s touchscreen interaction effort and time by up to 50%, as well as limiting the spread of bacteria and viruses. In addition to helping prevent the spread of
viruses, however, contactless touchscreens can be beneficial in other ways. For example, vibrations caused by uneven or poor road surfaces can often result in the user pressing the wrong button on a touchscreen, meaning drivers need to take their
attention away from the road, increasing the risk of an accident. With this, however, AI is used to determine the item the user intends to select on the screen early in the pointing task, speeding up the interaction. A gesture tracker uses vision-based or radio frequency-based sensors, which are increasingly common in consumer electronics, to combine contextual information such as user profile, interface design and environmental conditions with data available from other sensors, such as an eye-gaze tracker, to infer the user’s intent in real time. Jaguar Land Rover vehicles are already designed
to help improve passenger wellbeing, with innovations including a Driver Condition Monitor, engine noise cancellation and cabin air ionisation with PM2.5 filtration to capture ultrafine particles and allergens. New technology like predictive touch is another step forward as Jaguar Land Rover addresses the wider landscape of mobility – from how customers connect with mobility services, to the infrastructure required to enable fully integrated, autonomous vehicles in our cities, like Project Vector. The software-based solution for contactless
interactions has reached high technology readiness levels and can be seamlessly integrated
CONTROL WITHOUT TOUCHING
With many of its customers questioning the hygiene of control panels, SCHURTER is now offering the possibility to control without touching. The company, for example, has developed a special capacitive sensor with extra active guard which results in maximum sensitivity, allowing the finger to be noticed sooner. The guard ensures that the capacitive action of the CapKey is more concentrated
towards the user. The capacitive key can therefore be operated without touching the glass. In addition, by developing sensors and fine-tuning the controller, the company
has succeeded in making a projected capacitive touch screen ‘touchless’ as the touchscreen reacts at a small distance between the finger and the actual surface. According to the company, the ‘touchless’ operation of CapKey and PCAP control
panels ensures exceptional hygiene. As a result, coffee and parking machines, petrol station touchscreens and those at kiosks, will no longer need to be touched. Of additional benefit, the customer can decide if ‘touchless’ needs to be switched
on or off for the application. SCHURTER
32 SEPTEMBER 2020 | DESIGN SOLUTIONS
https://uk.schurter.com/en/Home
into existing touchscreens and interactive displays, so long as the correct sensory data is available to support the machine learning algorithm, the company explains. Professor Simon Godsill from Cambridge
University’s Department of Engineering led the project. He said: “Touchscreens and other interactive displays are something most people use multiple times per day, but they can be difficult to use while in motion, whether that’s driving a car or changing the music on your phone while you’re running. We also know that certain pathogens can be transmitted via surfaces, so this technology could help reduce the risk for that type of transmission.” Many everyday consumer transactions are
conducted using touchscreens – in railway stations, when buying cinema tickets, at ATMs, airport check-ins and supermarket self-service checkouts, as well as many industrial and manufacturing applications. Predictive touch technology eliminates the need to touch an interactive display and could therefore reduce the risk of spreading bacteria or viruses on surfaces.
Jaguar Land Rover
www.jaguarlandrover.com/2019/strategy
HIGH PERFORMANCE CONTROL
New from Phoenix Contact is the PLCnext Control AXC F 3152 controller, a high-performance Axioline controller based on the open PLCnext Technology ecosystem. Suitable for realising demanding applications without safety
requirements, this modular controller features three separate Gigabit Ethernet interfaces, of which two are also TSN-ready. This also has a connection to the Proficloud, making it an IIOT-ready device and enabling simple networking of the system beyond local boundaries. With the separate interfaces for the Profinet controller
functions and device functions, large Profinet networks are particularly easy to segment, the company explains. As with all PLCnext Technology Control devices, the controller makes high-level language programming possible in addition to classic PLC programming in accordance with IEC 61131.
Phoenix Contact
www.phoenixcontact.co.uk / DESIGNSOLUTIONS
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