New Touch technology: When the phone stops your sweat – N24

Touchscreens are viruses skidding. Therefore, scientists now want to make contacts completely unnecessary. But what is to respond to the no-touch screen? The researchers know already.

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Per fingertip on the screen the number or write a message – it could not get any more. Without the touch screen display of the triumph of smart phones would be unthinkable. Hygienic it could, however, already leave. Because by the constant “Getouche” bacteria and germs collect on the screen. Experts classify the source of infection smartphone now considered just as dangerous as a public toilet. So how about a display that one no longer needs to touch directly when you operate?

“Touchless” call the researchers. At the Max Planck Institute (MPI) for Solid State Research in Stuttgart and the University of Munich, they are now closer to the non-contact display a big step. The scientists have developed nanostructures which respond to moisture which gives the human body. They take a property of man advantage, which often is rather annoying in everyday life. Sweating

“But you have not sweat the normal moisture that surrounds the finger, ranging “says MPI researcher Bettina solder. Through tiny pores in the skin of the body are constantly from water molecules. So to approach the finger to a few millimeters the display to trigger a signal ranges -. And so to use the smartphone

chemical instantaneously reacts

based on the contactless displays is antimony phosphoric acid, a crystalline solid at room temperature. “This material is known for some time that it can absorb moisture well and thereby swells,” explains Pirmin Ganter, a doctoral student at the MPI. On moisture this nanostructure responds with a change in color -. The user sees so well, at which point the display arrives its input signal

The ability of this material to retain water molecules, the researchers were indeed well known – observed but never before it such a strong and fast color change. “The answer lies in the millisecond range,” said solder. Important for use as a cell phone screen.

Use can the “Touchless” display when it comes according to researchers, but not only in smartphones and tablets. “Everywhere people currently have to touch screens to navigate, contactless screens are conceivable,” said solder. Thus the technique could prevent medical equipment in the hospital that accumulate germs on the displays. Contactless screens would be but also in banking and ticket machines or vegetable scales in the supermarket conceivable.

touch displays are viruses Spin

Just to such public touch screens, the exposure to bacteria is particularly high, showed about an investigation into the Hochschule Niederrhein. The American physician Jeffrey Cane compared smartphones as source of infection even with public toilets. A study in the journal “Journal of Applied Microbiology” concludes that it is possible not only bacteria but also 20 to 30 percent of viruses transmitted by a touch on a touch screen.

Until contactless displays their way found on the mass market, however, is likely to take some time. At the moment, the researchers are focussing on how the nanostructures can be produced economically. Also still missing a protective layer against wear. “From time to time you touched the screen anyway times,” said solder. The protective layer must protect the moisture-sensitive nanostructures against chemical and mechanical influences, but nevertheless let through moisture for operation. Solder is however certain: “There are materials that can do this.”