Interactive video wall with multi-touch transition screen tiles

"To build an interactive video wall, designers typically fix protective glass panels to each display and then use a clip-on infra-red or camera-based touch detection system around the tiled, narrow border screens, which creates an unsightly 'protruding bezel'," explained Ian Crosby, Sales and Marketing Director, Zytronic.

Unfortunately, in addition to the frame, infra-red and camera-based touch detection technologies tend to be susceptible to false and accidental touches and can be confused by strong direct sunlight or prevented from working by dirt and debris accumulating on the surface, affecting the optical transmitters or receivers. The alternative is to use other touch technologies such as acoustic or capacitive-based systems, but until now, these have required wider borders which detract from the appearance of the interactive video wall.

The new Zytronic projected capacitive solution removes both these issues completely, while enabling ultra-fast, accurate touchscreen responses and providing borders that match the latest near-borderless LCDs. Each zero-border ZyBrid screen is supported by its own ZYX500 multi-touch controller, which outputs to a single master controller.

Zytronic has created new, proprietary firmware for the master ZXY500, which combines the data from the individual controllers, ‘stitching’ them together, and then presenting a set of x-y co-ordinates to the host computer as a HID plug and play touchscreen device. Instead of individual touchscreens, the computer ‘sees’ one giant touch sensor.

This innovative approach solves the problem of touch co-ordinates being dropped as a user passes their fingers from one screen to an adjacent unit to achieve a seamless transfer ‘handshake’ - no matter how many people are interacting on the video wall. The individual screens can be tiled, and multiple touch controllers linked to create huge, near-borderless interactive walls, with each thermally toughened glass touch sensor providing durable, vandal-resistant protection for the fragile displays beneath.

For this solution, Zytronic collaborated closely with TSItouch and their EMEA partner, Displaylite, to utilise their patented Glass Retention Bezel System (GRBS) to attach each zero-bezel 55” ZyBrid touch sensor to the 55” ultra-narrow border displays, in an incredibly slim frame maintaining millimetres wide spacing between the screens.

“With this latest Zytronic development, accurate and incredibly responsive projected capacitive touchscreen video walls of almost any size can be created by AV developers,” concluded Crosby. “With virtually unlimited scalability, the Zytronic video wall solution enables endless possibilities for them to create the ultimate interactive experience.”