An advanced innovation into the direction of wearable touch screens is coming up. The transparent, foldable and stretchable "Touchpad Sensor" combine the features of the iPhone's 3D Touch that detects pressure and the Samsung Airview that can detect even just a finger hovering over it.

Like Us on Facebook

In the report of ESciencenews, this is the invention of a PhD student in the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. This new and flexible "Touchpad Sensor" is made with a new material that can sense pressure like touch and can detect objects just hanging in front of it.

Hence, this has the capability to be combined to a display device to create a flexible touch screen. This invention is the first of its kind, in which a transparent plastic-like material is touch-sensitive that even when it is bent or stretched it can detect touch.

According to LiveScience, there are similar innovations on flexible electronics that are used for display screens and cameras as well as on solar panels and batteries. Those devices are made of flexible materials like carbon nanotubes and silver nanowires. Nevertheless, these materials have problems when stretched and these could not differentiate touch of a finger and the stretching effect of the fabric.

Bendy Touchpad Could Power Future Touch-Screen Tech | Video https://t.co/G4oXBg4rU2 pic.twitter.com/Jn2atWZrQP

— Live Science (@LiveScience) March 15, 2017

The new "Touchpad Sensor" is made of highly conductive gel placed in between layers of silicone. As revealed by Techxplore, the sensor can detect different kinds of touch such as swiping, and tapping, while these are stretched or are folded and bent.

This capability makes the pads applicable for foldable and stretchable devices of the future like foldable tablets with a size of the phone, artificial skin sensitive to the human body's movements and vital signs.

The "Touchpad Sensor" is a technology of the future that would make possible the manufacture of a transparent and stretchable touch screen at a lower cost. For more update of this technology, stay tuned to Telegiz.