Needs better touchscreen

[Plasmax]

According to pyra-handheld.com/specs.html it is slated to have a resistive touchscreen. I think that this would be a grave mistake. They are unresponsive and prone to scratching which means that they require an annoying screen protector with it's inherant bubbles or trapped dust. Whatsmore they're not very sensitive to multiple pressure levels.

I think that the ideal would be a capacitative touchscreen (very responsive) coupled with a Wacom style electromagnetic digitiser with passive pen (enabling up to 1024 pressure levels) a-la the Samsung Galaxy Note series of phones/tablets. This would be the gold standard.
An additional benefit if the developers were to take this route would be with some luck they might be able to procure the whole screen assembly from Samsung which would mean a Super AMOLED screen with superior contrast to all LCDs.

Have any of the developers looked into this? What do the other forum members think?

Thanks & Best Regards,
Roger

p.s. I can send one of the major hardware developers an old Galaxy Note to play around with (I have subsequently upgraded to the Note 3)

 

[Null]

 

[TrashyMG]

Oh THIS again...

For one you're gravely mistaken about many things.. One capacitive screens are not typically sensitive to multiple pressure levels. Resistive is MUCH better at it than capacitive in that regards.. sure a Wacom digitizer pen and what not would solve much of this but... they have expensive licensing, expensive parts and the openpandora isn't that big of project. Sourcing parts from Samsung would be near impossible for a small company.

Yes the Developers HAVE looked into it.. and decided to go with the better choice resistive.. since the Wacom/Capacitive screens can be had and normal capacitive screens are too inaccurate for typical Linux desktop use.. Android and IOS have GUI's that make due with inaccurate touchscreens, this device uses a typed Linux desktop and it just doesn't fit.  

From my understanding the Pyra screen may some multi-touch support.. 

 

[ekianjo]

This would be the gold standard.

No, you don't seem to understand we don't really care about having a capacitive touchscreen THAT much anyway, because:

1) the Pyra has physical controls that should be used instead of the touchscreen most of the time

2) Touching the screen does not make sense for most applications

3) A resistive touchscreen is not that bad, at least on my 1Ghz it works very well with the stylus

4) The Pyra is not going to be Android-focused.

 

[Plasmax]

Resistive touchscreens in 2014 is an anachronism. They are a dated technology that has been superceded by capacitive ones. Modern interfaces in most OS support capacitive screens e.g. Windows 8 (albeit a terrible implementation), Ubuntu's Unity, KDE's Plasma Active, the Linux operating system on Nokia's N9 and the keyboard-centric N950, not just Android (and iOS). Surely the Pyra can use one of these Linux-based interfaces?
I just want to put resistive touchscreens behind me and buy a pocket computer with a future-proof interface. It's shortsighted to use a resistive screen because the development is initially easier. The Pyra should embrace a modern paradigm.

 

[ekianjo]

Resistive touchscreens in 2014 is an anachronism. They are a dated technology that has been superceded by capacitive ones. Modern interfaces in most OS support capacitive screens e.g. Windows 8 (albeit a terrible implementation), Ubuntu's Unity, KDE's Plasma Active, the Linux operating system on Nokia's N9 and the keyboard-centric N950, not just Android (and iOS). Surely the Pyra can use one of these Linux-based interfaces? I just want to put resistive touchscreens behind me and buy a pocket computer with a future-proof interface. It's shortsighted to use a resistive screen because the development is initially easier. The Pyra should embrace a modern paradigm.

Explain me why you have so much desire to tap with your finger on a screen when that screen is on the top position of a clamshell design ? It's not really practical anyway. If you want a touchscreen device, made for touch as a primary control, why do you need a Pyra in the first place ? 

 

[ghostpatch]

this debate is meaningless. You won't find any 720p resistive touchscreens anyway. There is simply no market.

 

[thatgui]

I just want to put resistive touchscreens behind me and buy a pocket computer with a future-proof interface. It's shortsighted to use a resistive screen because the development is initially easier. The Pyra should embrace a modern paradigm.

Not that I want to take part on anyones side - the thing I use the least (well except the microphone) is the touchscreen, so I don't really care, but what do you mean when you talk about "future-proof" and "modern paradigm" ? Don't see a real connection between these two rather broad topics and the touch technology.

 

[_wb_]

Capacitive does not work with an accurate passive stylus. I don't like having to use an active stylus, it is one more battery to worry about. My fingertip has a 150 pixel diameter  on a 5" full HD screen. It is also greasy.

Real multitouch is essential if you don't have physical buttons and need to be able to use, say, an on-screen dpad and action buttons simultaneously. On a clamshell handheld with physical buttons, it is not that useful, and you can only really use one hand on the screen anyway (the other hand is needed to hold the device).

What would be the advantage of capacitive? I see only disadvantages, really.

 

[pmprog]

Before I start, I don't care whether the screen is resistive or capacitive, but...

One capacitive screens are not typically sensitive to multiple pressure levels. Resistive is MUCH better at it than capacitive in that regards..

Yes, because sooooo many applications use the pressure aspect of the touch screen

From my understanding the Pyra screen may some multi-touch support..

Really? Last I saw is people said (Mcobit and Exophase IIRC) multi-touch resistive tech never made it out into a viable product

Explain me why you have so much desire to tap with your finger on a screen when that screen is on the top position of a clamshell design ? It's not really practical anyway. If you want a touchscreen device, made for touch as a primary control, why do you need a Pyra in the first place ?

Because poking the top of a clamshell with a stylus works so much better? It doesn't.

 

[Bosbeetle]

This would be the gold standard.

No, you don't seem to understand we don't really care about having a capacitive touchscreen THAT much anyway, because:

1) the Pyra has physical controls that should be used instead of the touchscreen most of the time

2) Touching the screen does not make sense for most applications

3) A resistive touchscreen is not that bad, at least on my 1Ghz it works very well with the stylus

Here here

 

[bzar]

There are already countless posts discussing this topic to death. All your points have been addressed in them. The decision has already been made. Let it go

 

[WizardStan]

Really? Last I saw is people said (Mcobit and Exophase IIRC) multi-touch resistive tech never made it out into a viable product

It's a trick. With a single 4 wire touch screen you can somewhat detect two points. When you touch in two places the screen can detect a filled box between those points. You can only do it with two points and you don't know whether the points being touched are upperleft/lowerright or vise versa, but it is more than good enough to detect pinch/stretch and rotation.

 

[moxie]

It's a trick. With a single 4 wire touch screen you can somewhat detect two points.

...which, incidentially, is the same technique used in early seventies analogue synthesizers to be able to get a duophonic keyboard, only generalized to two dimensions. Funny that

 

[Hồng Thất Công]

This would be the gold standard.

This makes me laugh!  Apple calls their headphone the "standard" way too.  Standard my ass

Pyra doesn't have to follow today's gadgets' way.  That's why it's different from any other gadgets out there and we ("Pyrates") like it that way.  

 

[WizardStan]

I guess the important thing to say is that capacitive has not superceded resistive: they have different pros and cons. Chosing capacitive simply because it's "the future" means accepting all the drawbacks that comes with it, drawbacks that are undesireable in the design of a desktop style handheld.

 

[Puppetmaster]

Hopefully the Pyra Touchscreen will be more sensitive/lower force needed to press than the one on my GHz Unit.

It is extremely hard for me to drag something with the Stylus over the Screen or draw a frame to select multiple items.

It is even nearly impossible for me to move the horizontal Scrollbar at the right side of the Screen in Firefox in a continous motion.

So i use the Stylus only to close and maximise Windows.

 

[Klumpen]

It's easy.

clamshell - stylus - resistive

tablet/smartphone - fingers - capacitive

Modern interfaces in most OS support capacitive screens e.g. Windows 8 [...], Ubuntu's Unity, [...] Android (and iOS)

 

[Granitehead]

I guess that's a sign ED should maybe add more information on the website - he should add some paragraphs about why resistive is best for our purposes.

 

[Hồng Thất Công]

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