Short Cuts: Roaming Around the Mobile Computing Industry

MicroTouch Intros Pen and Touch for CRTs

Much has been written in this newsletter over the past few months about the advantages of systems that incorporate both stylus and finger (touch) input. Certain membrane technologies feature this combination, as does the innovative electrostatic technology known as WriteTouch.

Now Methuen, Massachusetts-based MicroTouch Systems, Inc. has entered the arena with a new CRT input device that allows both pen and finger input, correctly distinguishing between the two. Dubbed TouchPen, the system is designed to help systems integrators and OEMs create a new range of applications using annotation, signature capture, as well as handwriting recognition.

Unlike WriteTouch, which is targeting the pen-based mobile computing market, including the new class of pen-enabled devices that are expected to follow the introduction of Microsoft Windows 95, TouchPen is geared more at the desktop market. Here, applications such as data and video conferencing, or whiteboarding can use the features of pen and touch input in a more natural way than with a mouse or trackball.

MicroTouch also sees opportunities in a number of vertical applications, including interactive kiosks that can capture handwritten signatures, valuable for completing automated credit card purchases, for example.

TouchPen is based on MicroTouch’s proprietary analog-capacitive touch technology that senses pen and finger input using two distinct sensing systems. TouchPen locates the position of a finger by measuring the disturbances in a uniform voltage field generated over the sensor. The position is calculated based on measurements taken at the four corners of the sensor.

Input from the stylus is calculated by measuring the current injected into the conductive surface when the pen touches the screen. Again, the position is determined by taking readings at the four corners of the sensor. In the case of hand and pen contact, MicroTouch uses its patented Intelligent Hand Rejection (IHR) technology to ignore a hand resting on the screen during writing.

TouchPen features a resolution of 1,024 x 1,024 in finger mode and 2,048 x 2,048 when using a stylus, matching the typical use of finger input (menu selection) and pen input (writing). MicroTouch is making software drivers available for DOS, Windows 3.x, Pen Windows, OS/2, and Pen OS/2.

TouchPen is available immediately direct from MicroTouch. The TouchPen Kit, which consists of a sensor, stylus, controller, and driver, is priced at $795 and enables you to convert a 14-inch monitor into a TouchPen system. A fully-integrated 15-inch TouchPen monitor, based on the Mitsubishi 5600 monitor, is available for $1,445. MicroTouch is also making models of TouchPen available for flat panel displays.

For more information, please contact Annette Burak of MicroTouch Systems, Inc. at (508) 659-9000.

Geotek Will Deliver Unified Wireless Device

Hoping to carve itself a nice piece of the mobile digital communication market, Montvale, New Jersey-based Geotek Communications previewed a set of wireless products and services while, at the same time, announcing that it has signed 50 dealerships in the Northeast and more than 150 customers for a Philadelphia-area pilot.

The hook? Geotek is offering a fully digital network that is capable of supporting both voice and data applications using a single handset. The company is hoping that the estimated 25 million mobile workers in the United States will find this more appealing than carrying an assortment of wireless devices including pagers, cellular phones, and wireless-equipped portable computers.

The handset, developed by Geotek and manufactured outside the company, is available in two versions: The Enhanced Mobile Workstation and the Integrated Mobile Workstation. Geotek is also jointly developing a digital wireless terminal that the company plans to make available by the middle of 1996. This device, which is designed to reside in a worker’s vehicle, features a large five-line LCD screen and will include a self-contained applications capability.

Geotek’s digital network uses a proprietary technology known as FHMA. Based on frequency hopping spread spectrum technology initially developed by the military because of its resistance to external interference, Geotek claims that its FHMA implementation will deliver higher quality transmission and security than competing wireless service providers.

Geotek intends to begin service in New York, Washington D.C., Baltimore, and Boston by the end of the year. This goal includes further extending the network to 32 additional metropolitan areas by 1997, thereby creating a national network. For more information, please contact Andrew Siegel of Geotek Communications at (201) 930-9305.

Europe Gets AirMobile

For European professionals and executives who feel the need to keep in touch with their office electronic mail, help may be at hand. Motorola Wireless Data Group’s European Operations has started shipping a client-server software product which enables people to use Lotus cc:Mail Mobile for Windows over a wireless data network.

Using this add-on software, dubbed AirMobile Wireless Software for Lotus cc:Mail, people who need to access their corporate email on a cc:Mail server can now use a wireless modem operating on the RAM Mobile Data Network in Belgium, The Netherlands, and the United Kingdom.

The AirMobile Wireless Software relies on so-called wireless middleware which has been optimized for mobile use. This software adds several useful features to cc:Mail Mobile without changing its basic user interface. These features include server-based filters, giving mobile professionals the option to download partial messages and to use other intelligent message delivery options.

The AirMobile Wireless for cc:Mail software is designed to work with the Motorola InfoTAC and Ericsson Mobidem wireless modems in the European market. The software was introduced slightly earlier in the United States and functions with both the ARDIS and RAM Mobile Data wireless packet data networks.

AirMobile Wireless for cc:Mail is available as a complete package consisting of client and server software enabling the wireless connectivity. It is available through select resellers and systems integrators in each of the three countries.

For more information, please contact Aylin Kuechler of WDG Europe, Wiesbaden at 49-611-3611-808 or Mario Salvadori of Wireless Data Group, USA at (708) 576-7164.

AMD to Power Mobile Satellite Telephone System

Imagine a wireless communication system that supports voice, fax, and data, and is accessible throughout all of North America. We’re not talking about just the populated areas of North America, but literally everywhere on the continent. What you’re imagining is a satellite-based mobile communication system, and one of the leading vendors in this growing field is Westinghouse Electric Corp.’s Communication Division.

Recently, Westinghouse announced that it has selected the Am2900 microcontroller to help power its Series 1000 Mobile Satellite Telephone System. The Am2900 features a RISC architecture that is binary compatible with the entire 29K family of microcontrollers and microprocessors. The Series 1000 system is also designed to incorporate AMD’s 5-volt Flash memory.

Westinghouse has over a quarter-century of experience in satellite communication systems, supplying ground network equipment and end-user mobile satellite terminals. The company is currently building the ground communication network for American Mobile Satellite Corp.’s (AMSC) SKYCELL and TMI Communications, Inc.’s MSAT geostationary communication satellite service.

The Westinghouse Series 1000 Mobile Satellite Telephone Systems is designed for use with the both the AMSC and TMI MSAT satellite services within North America, as well as with Optus Pty Ltd.’s Mobile Service in Australia.

For more information, please contact of Advanced Micro Devices at (800) 222-9323 or (408) 749-5703.