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MEETING NOTICE
Pacific Northwest Chapter · Society for Information Display

TUESDAY December 3, 2008 - 6:00 PM
PLANAR Systems (Headquarters)
1195 NW Compton Dr.
Beaverton, OR 97006

A Survey of Current and Emerging Touch Technologies

Geoff Walker
Director of Business Development
Elo TouchSystems

Abstract: This seminar will provide a fast-paced survey of all current transparent touch-screen technologies, including analog and digital resistive, surface capacitive, surface acoustic wave (SAW), infrared (conventional and waveguide based), projected capacitive (wire and ITO-
based), camera-based optical, bending wave (APR and DST), force sensing, and LCD in-cell elements (optical, capacitive and resistive). How each technology works will be explained briefly with a conceptual drawing. The primary applications, advantages, disadvantages, market share, market leaders, and market trends of each technology will be identified. The basics of multi-touch will be explained. Finally, the speaker will conclude with a prediction of which touch technologies are likely to gain share in five application categories: mobile devices, POS terminals, consumer PCs and monitors, kiosks, and interactive digital signage. The speaker will answer questions after the seminar for as long as anyone wants to keep asking them.

View presentation - PDF (2.7MB)

Biography: Geoff Walker is the Global Director of Business Development for Elo TouchSystems, a business unit of Tyco Electronics. As such he is responsible for analyzing and communicating existing & future customer requirements to guide Elo’s technology & product roadmaps and
development investments. A mobile-computing industry pioneer, Geoff was employee #49 at GRiD Systems, where he worked on the first laptop in 1982 and the first pen tablet in 1989. Geoff served as product architect and VP of Marketing at Fujitsu Personal Systems, where he architected all of Fujitsu’s pen tablet products from 1993-1999. Geoff was employee #30 at
Handspring, where he worked on the Visor Prism (Handspring's first color PDA) and the VisorPhone (the predecessor of the Treo smartphone). Prior to joining Elo at the end of 2007, Geoff ran his own consulting firm (Walker Mobile, LLC) for seven years, focusing on touchscreens, mobile displays and mobile computers. During that time Geoff also served as the Technology Editor of Pen Computing magazine, the Associate Editor of the Veritas et Visus series of display-industry newsletters, and the Guest Editor for Touch of SID's Information Display magazine. 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.

The Seminar is free. Please join the speaker for a no-host dinner after the seminar. Directions to the restaurant will be provided at the seminar. Non-Members are welcome. RSVP to Gary Johnson at Gary.Johnson@tek.com or (503) 627-1985. Please indicate if you plan to participate in the dinner.

Directions & Map to Planar Systems

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