Atmel Launches Capacitive Touch Controllers With Integrated Haptic Effects

Atmel announced it has integrated haptics capability to its QTouch capacitive touch controllers to support buttons, sliders and wheels (BSWs). This integration allows our customers to have a richer experience with touch and haptics feedback when using Atmel QTouch capacitive touch controllers. Leveraging Immersion's market-leading TouchSense® haptics technology, the Atmel AT42QT1085 (8-touch button) is the first capacitive touch controller in the industry to provide haptics support for BSWs for 14 unique haptic effects. Haptics enables design engineers the ability to add tactile feedback to greatly enhance the user experience for applications such as mobile phones, game consoles, navigation devices, cameras, Netbooks, appliances, PCs and more.

Haptics is a technology that provides physical feedback through the sense of touch. Immersion's TouchSense haptics technology incorporates numerous proprietary mechanical, electrical, software, and firmware technologies to make the user experience with digital devices more efficient, intuitive, safer and more accurate. By integrating this technology into Atmel's QTouch devices, engineers have an easy and cost-effective way of designing products that reshape the way humans interact with technology.

With the rapid adoption of touch interfaces across multiple markets, haptics are becoming an increasingly important aspect of user interface design by providing critical confirmation and realistic touch effects that improve device usability, said Dennis Sheehan, vice president of marketing at Immersion. We are excited to see Atmel, one of our eco-system partners, integrate our haptics capability into their market-leading touch controllers to support more dynamic user experiences through haptic-enabled button, slider and wheel functionality.

QTouch is a method for touch detection based on Atmel's proprietary Charge Transfer technology. The QTouch method is robust and reliable, making it easy to replace mechanical buttons and is also ideal for user interface applications requiring any number of buttons, sliders, knobs, dials, and more. With the integration of haptics in QTouch controllers, Atmel now offers a variety of capacitive touch interfaces to meet all its customer needs.

The addition of haptics to Atmel's BSW devices enables designers the opportunity to develop more differentiated and competitive products for their customer base, said Jon Kiachian, senior marketing director of touch marketing of Atmel Corporation. We are excited to launch our first series of touch controllers supporting 14 effects to allow the designer to choose the right feedback for their specific application.