Technology Microsoft demos a high-performance 1ms-latency touchscreen.

[tom_mai78101]

Whenever a new tablet gets released the main question that gets asked about its touchscreen is “what’s the resolution?” It seems to be taken for granted that the capacitive touch display will just work, and we all accept a certain amount of finger lag when using it.

The reason for this is the typical latency of a touchscreen is around 100ms. That’s why if you are drawing quickly on the screen your finger gets ahead of what is happening on the display. Is that acceptable? Microsoft thinks not.

Paul Dietz works in the Applied Sciences Group at Microsoft, and he’s been working on improving the latency of touchscreens. What they have achieved is to decrease the latency of a touch panel down to just 1ms. That’s fast enough to keep up with the quickest finger movements.

The video above gives a great demonstration of the difference the super low latency makes. Even at 10ms the lag is noticeable, but 1ms makes it as close to perfect finger tracking as it will ever get.

Microsoft Demos Super Fast Touchscreen Display

Video The iPad 3 has gotten a lot of attention for its high-definition display, but there are other factors to take into consideration when thinking about touchscreen technology. Michael Humphries, at Geek.com, notes that whenever "a new tablet gets released the main question that gets asked...

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[Darthfett]

Agree with this guy 100%. I can't stand drawing on/using something with that kind of latency.

 

[PurgeandFire]

Awesome. IMO, this is the best update they could make to tablet devices--it is a change that is actually worth the expense of updating. (or at least of more worth than most other updates)

 

[Accname]

Awesome. IMO, this is the best update they could make to tablet devices--it is a change that is actually worth the expense of updating. (or at least of more worth than most other updates)

Latency is decreased from 100ms to 1ms, battery life is decreased from 8 hours to 10 minutes == profit.

 

[Hatebreeder]

Latency is decreased from 100ms to 1ms, battery life is decreased from 8 hours to 10 minutes == profit.

No clue where you got that Idea from.

 

[esb]

By the way, I earlier read an article stating this was just a demo. Like a concept car, non-existent and probably in the distant future.

 

[Accname]

No clue where you got that Idea from.

Everything comes with a cost, technic isnt magic.

 

[tom_mai78101]

Only if you insist that tablets are to be unplugged from their power source...

 

[NoobImbaPro]

Something expected from the ones who first created a Pad.

*Latency is decreased from 100ms to 1ms, battery life is decreased from 8 hours to 10 minutes == profit.
When something is better, it does not mean it consumes more energy....in distant future that technology won't harm battery life.

 

[Accname]

There are some kinds of "improvements" which you can really say they will not need to use up too much more energy. Increasing the number of updating circles per second however is one of those things which i can blindly guess to be making a huge deal in energy consumption.

 

[rover2341]

Pretty cool. It doesn't really show they are advancing it but showing what it would be like if things get down to 1 ms.
The future of computing is sure going to be interesting.

(I wont let anyone touch my keyboard or mouse though. Ill shoot first if someone tries to take it away from me)