Speaker: Geoff Walker, Principal, Walker Mobile, LLC

Abstract:   This session will provide a fast-paced survey of ten transparent touch-screen technologies: analog resistive, surface capacitive, surface acoustic wave (SAW), infrared (IR), projected capacitive, optical, bending wave (APR & DST), force sensing, pixel-integrated photo-sensitive elements, and frustrated total internal reflection (FITR). How each technology works will be explained very briefly with a conceptual drawing. The primary applications, advantages, disadvantages, market share, market leaders and market trends of each technology will be identified. A simple method will be suggested for selecting a touch technology. What won't be covered is profiles of touch-screen suppliers, application details, cost comparisons, opaque touch, electromagnetic resonance pen digitizers, direct-RF pen digitizers, ultrasonic pen digitizers, 3rd-party touch controllers and ITO (indium tin oxide) replacement materials.

Speaker Background: Geoff Walker is a technical marketing consultant and writer specializing in touch screens & active digitizers, flat-panel displays & enhancements, and mobile computers running Windows. Geoff started his career at Hewlett-Packard, holding a variety of different jobs over 12 years. His last job at HP was managing the 60-person Eastern Region systems engineering organization supporting all HP minicomputers. Geoff left HP to become employee #49 at GRiD Systems, where he worked on the first laptop in 1982 and the first pen tablet in 1989. His last job at GRiD was Program Director for all GRiD OEM products, working directly with Alps, Matsushita, Samsung and Sanyo. After 10 years at GRiD, Geoff moved to a six-month-old startup division of Fujitsu. During his seven years at Fujitsu, he defined all of Fujitsu's pen tablet products and helped drive revenue from $4M to $100M. Geoff's last job at Fujitsu was VP of Marketing. Geoff then joined Handspring as employee #30 and the Director of Engineering Program Management, where he worked on the Visor Prism (Handspring's first color PDA) and the VisorPhone (the predecessor of the Treo smartphone). After 31 years in high-tech industry, Geoff started Walker Mobile, LLC in January 2001, offering consulting on strategic and tactical marketing topics to companies engaged in developing or marketing products in the above technology areas. Geoff has also served as the Technology Editor of Pen Computing magazine since November 2001, the Associate Editor of the Veritas et Visus series of display-industry newsletters since January 2006, and the Guest Editor for Touch of SID's Information Display magazine since January 2007. Geoff holds BS-Electrical Engineering and BS-English degrees from Polytechnic University of New York (formerly Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn), and has completed the coursework for an MBA in Marketing from New York University.