At a recent SID chapter meeting here in the Pacific Northwest, I had the opportunity to sit down with Adi Abileah, chief scientist, technology group, at Planar Systems in Beaverton, Oregon. As is often the case for me in the presence of greatness, at first I failed to recognize that I was privileged to be talking with a remarkable person.

Steve Sechrist
Senior Analyst and Editor
Projection Monthly

We had a few minutes before his talk was to begin, so I thought I would enlighten Adi and tell him about the new Sharp optical touch display technology I saw at CEATEC-Japan earlier this month (see Oct-07 issue of Mobile Display Report.)

To my surprise, not only was he familiar with the new breakthrough approach, but he, along with his colleagues at Planar, invented the technology. The group also authored a technical paper at SID a full four years earlier (SID 03 Digest 56.3 Active Matrix LCD with Integrated Optical Touch Screen) and presented a fully functional demo at that show.

Along with Adi, the Planar team included Willem den Boer, Pat Green, Terrance Larsson, Scott Robinson and Tin Nguyen. They worked with AUO to develop the TFT LCD backplanes with embedded sensor array and received electronics design support from Synaptics Inc. Here’s a quote from the abstract of that 2003 paper on the technology Planar likes to call "Midas".

There is a need for a more integrated touch screen technology that does not significantly degrade the optical performance and will further reduce cost and improve lifetime.

In this paper, we present a prototype 2.4 in. x 2.4 in TFT LCD with an integrated array of optical sensors, which, after image processing, provides the XY location of a shadow cast by a stylus or finger touch.

Adi went on to tell me how they briefed a technology group at Sharp Camas that same year, giving a full technology demonstration to the company that included visiting engineers from Japan. Since then, Midas has chiefly remained on Planar’s R&D shelf until it (or some derivative of Midas) appeared at the recent CEATEC show in the Sharp booth.

But the company doesn’t seem too concerned. This year five patents on the embedded optical touch technology were issued to Planar (including multi-touch, light pen and others), with "three or four more in the pipe line," according to Adi. The group also moved from the 60 x 60 pixel demo to a full 14-inch display, again with the help of AUO.

For its part, it is only fair to mention that Sharp did apply the embedded optical sensor technology in ways not mentioned in that first SID paper submitted by Planar. Sharp showed the embedded optics used to scan an image placed on the display, then placed a digital copy directly on the screen.

But for me, the bottom line is in the overpowering lesson in humility. Never presume to enlighten, especially a luminary such as Adi Abileah. Just share and then, very carefully, listen to the wealth of knowledge that begins to flow.

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