NCR, Scriptel push cordless digitizer

Electronic News, Nov 14, 1994 by Jim DeTar

Colorado Springs, Col. - NCR Microelectronic Products and Scriptel Holding Inc. have jointly developed a cordless-electrostatic digitizer technology that offers both touchscreen and digitizer pen capabilities.

The two companies said they intend to bring products based on the new technology to market by mid-1995.

The WriteTouch cordless digital pen technology is comprised of four components, all developed specifically for this system: a sensor, stylus, controller and drivers. NCR will make the controllers and software drivers at its own foundry.

Scriptel, Columbus, Ohio, will make the sensor panels and stylus cartridges. Scriptel contracts with Samsung for manufacture of sensor panels and makes the pens itself. WriteTouch technology is the result of a licensing agreement signed three years ago by NCR, a division of AT&T Global Information Solutions (formerly NCR Corp.) and Scriptel. The goal was to develop a cordless-electrostatic digital pen technology designed expressly to meet the needs of mobile computer OEMs and end-users. Developments resulting from the efforts of the combined team of 16 engineers, such as algorithms, circuit architectures, sensor panel and stylus design, are protected by 60 patents, according to Vance Holloway, president and COO of Scriptel.

"WriteTouch is uniquely capable of meeting OEM needs, particularly ease of integration and range of functionality delivered to endusers. Most importantly, it delivers the required pen performance plus fingertouch in same system. No one has been able to do this," Mr. Holloway said. The technology is targeted at notebook and handheld applications which some industry observers feel have not yet lived up to the market potential they initially promised.

"To date PDAs have been less than successful. A lot of it was that expectations were not met," Mr. Holloway said, noting that Microsoft's Windows 95 operating system, due out within the next year, is expected to have digitizer pen capabilities at a level not previously available. "At this time, Windows 95 offers outstanding pen support. It is treating pens right for the first time."

In addition, to Windows 95, WriteTouch will initially address WinPad - Microsoft's operating system for handheld devices - also dubbed Microsoft At Work for Handhelds. A number of companies including NEC, Olivetti, Sharp, Zenith, Compaq and Toshiba, have committed to building WinPad systems (EN, Data Topics, March 14). However, Microsoft recently admitted it has yet to complete code on WinPad, partly because it will use Plug-and-Play elements being developed for Windows 95 (EN, Sept. 19).

Bruce Trunck, WriteTouch product manager at NCR, said his company and Scriptel have been working closely with Microsoft as it develops Windows 95. "We are involved in beta programs and developer programs at Microsoft. Windows 95 Provides frequent updates to us, and access to their lab."

Using pen technology on Windows 95 is fundamentally a matter of NCR/Scriptel writing a driver for Windows 95, Mr. Trunck said. Currently Microsoft is not planning to offer such drivers, he said. However, Microsoft is expected to provide drivers at a later date. "At some point in Windows 95 they will include it as a standard driver. Their initial motion on this is that pen extensions are shipped with pen hardware." Also at a later date, WriteTouch will be made Apple-compatible, Mr. Holloway said. The NCR/Scriptel announcement follows on the heels of a similar one from Synaptics, San Jose, Calif., which has developed a touch-sensitive mouse/trackball replacement technology for notebooks, dubbed TouchPad (EN, Oct. 31), as well as penbased handwriting recognition software, which is expected to emerge as a product within a year.

WriteTouch differs from Synaptics' TouchPad module in that the NCR/Scriptel offering is strictly a silicon solution for OEMs wanting to offer pen and touch capabilities on-screen, whereas Synaptics is offering neural network-based handwriting recognition capability along with the TouchPad module which is built into a position normally occupied by trackball devices.

WriteTouch is a positioning subsystem. It provides the pen and touch coordinates to operating systems as well as recognition. It is all hardware, and all components used in it were developed for this system," Mr. Trunck said, noting that the Synaptics solution uses some off the shelf components and is targeted toward systems requiring touch sensitivity at an affordable price.

"The difference between our technology and theirs is that ours is intended for full screen overlay whereas theirs is a replacement for the trackball. Ours is not intended for trackball replacements. I don't see a lot of application for touch sensitivity in the markets we are targeting, and I don't see them as competitors at all. They could wind up in the same system."

One feature that Synaptics will offer with their trackball replacement is touch sensitivity - a feature Mr. Trunck said is not applicable in the markets the NCR/Scriptel team is targeting. "I don't see an application for that in terms of the OEMs we have been working with."