Promethean are pioneers in educational interactive whiteboard systems. Their core product was developed before touch screens became ubiquitous and used an inductive pen-based interface with a projector, camera and whiteboard.
Our expertise in sensors, electronics and manufacturing process development allowed us to develop a novel, low-cost touch panel solution for Promethean’s latest generation of interactive whiteboard.
Expectations have been transformed with the touchscreen revolution, to the extent that there is an almost universal belief that any display will have a finger touch interface.
Promethean wanted a board that combined their existing electromagnetic technology with capacitance technology to separately sense the presence and location of a finger and pen respectively.
The challenge they faced was that the dominant ITO capacitive sensors were designed for relatively small displays and made in huge volumes using complex flat-panel fabrication processes. This was not a viable solution for a whiteboard up to 2m in diagonal. Additionally, Promethean wanted several users to be able to touch and interact with the whiteboard simultaneously, functionality that simply does not exist in the smart phone / tablet product space.
Drawing upon fundamental expertise in 3D electromagnetic field modelling, sensor design, electronics and manufacturing process development, TTP worked with Promethean to develop a novel, low-cost solution for their latest generation of interactive whiteboard.
This disruptive new product provides the user with a precise pen capability for handwriting and drawing whilst allowing the finger to control non-dominant features such as rulers and compass. The board also supports touch gestures such as tap, flick, swipe, pinch, rotate to move or resize objects, as well as numerous other natural actions.
