The human machine interface (HMI) is the first impression your customer gets about your device. A well designed interface makes it easy to use a device, cutting down on training, mistakes, time and frustration. Touch based input is quickly becoming the most dominant way to interact with devices. Because of cell phones, everyone knows how to use a touch screen. Full touch screens are often more than some simple devices require and can be more expensive than other touch based options. Using a capacitive touch based overlay is a cost effective solution that has a long life span. A capacitive touch overlay will give your product the familiar, modern look and feel your customers will love.

Capacitive touch based controls do not have moving parts that wear out over time and can be hardened against malicious physical damage.  They work on the same principle as your touch based cell phone except each button or touch area is a localized touch device. Because no physical pressure is required to activate a touch based button, the overlay tends to have a long life span and works the same after thousands of uses as it does on day one. Adding cover glass or using a hardened material for the overlay can extend the life of the input device.

NTX Embedded has built capacitive touch based overlays for a variety of systems and environments. We can design and manufacture overlays to send user input to any device. We also excel at creating back compatible overlays to replace traditional mechanical overlays or input devices. If you want to upgrade your device from a button based keypad or dome switch keypad to a touch based keypad, we can design the device so that it simulates the exact method of communicating with your existing control board so that you can take out the old keypad and replace it with our capacitive overlay without changing the connectors or firmware.

Our capacitive touch overlays can incorporate individually controlled back lights into any touch area that indicate touch feedback or that illuminate to indicate which options are available for input. Colored backlights or filters allow a variety of colors to be incorporated into your interface design. We can design touch buttons, sliders, proximity detection and multiple touch into any interface system.

NTX Embedded is your source for touch based interface design, development and manufacturing. If you have a device with mechanical input today and are considering replacing it with a touch interface please contact us to learn how easy it will be to get a capacitive overlay for your device. If you are interesting in finding out how NTX Embedded can help you move to touch, please contact us.