I'm thinking of building an LCD screen into my coffee table and setting it up as a large remote control interface for my HTPC and home automation systems. I'd like to just have a multitouch LCD like this(http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824009303) or similar that I flush mount to the surface of the table. However I'd still like to be able to use the table for normal use(drinks, occasional food, cocaine), and I'm concerned about how tough the glass is in an LCD screen. Perhaps because this is a touch screen it is already strong enough? Has anyone here attempted to add a layer of stronger material? I remember way back when people would add glass to the screen and then cover the glass with the resistive touch layer. I just don't know how well that works with modern capacitive touch sensing, if it can be done at all. Any advice would be great. Side note: I haven't been here since 2004. Holy crap this place got busy.
If you put a glass over the touchscreen, then the touchscreen doesn't work anymore. Touchscreens (capacitive or resistive) need direct contact to recognize input. The link you've put in there directs to a screen with optical sensors in the bezel of the screen and that aswell requires you to be very close to the surface of the screen to be recognized as input (i.e. anything above the bevel doesn't get recognized).
You would need to have some sort of conductive glass to make it work by simply putting a glass sheet over the screen. I'm not sure that even exist. Your best bet is to get a screen with a glass surface. Try looking at places that sell equipment used in industrial automation. (They will most likely be bloody expensive, though...) Another thing you should consider though is the viewing angle of the screen. A TN panel usually won't have all that great viewing angles. A screen in a table will always be viewed from a surprisingly steep angle. And with that come another problem: If you view a screen from the side, and that screen have a sheet of glass in front of it, you finger won't touch the area of the screen you are seeing. (look here). You could compensate for thins by recalibrating your touch sensors, but then it would only feel right from the angle you are calibrating it from. From the other side of the table, for instance, if would be even worse after calibration. The smaller the distance between the sensor and the display, the less of a problem this is. Just something to take into consideration.
Agreed. I tried searching a few places and found only resistive single touch displays. Some are fairly respectable. The one I'm looking at is 160 deg. Obviously it's extremely obfuscated at that point, but that's less of an issue. If it really becomes a problem I can throw in an actuator to move it up and down as needed. Great point. I didn't think about that. Thanks.
It depends on whether you can adjust the sensitive of the capacitive touch sensor. Capacitive sensors DO NOT require contact to function, the impingement of your finger into the field is what is sensed. However, ready-made displays are calibrated so the sensing area terminates only just above the surface of the outer layer of the display laminate, to prevent accidental triggering when moving your finger over. It's entirely possible that you could place a thin (I wouldn't bet on anything above 2mm working, 1mm to be on the safe side) sheet of glass over the display, then run the built-in calibration routine to readjust the sensitivity of the panel. But this is something that you'd have to buy the panel to test, so might not be worth the hassle of returning it if it doesn't work.
Yeah. Realistically 1mm of glass is probably going to do nothing against any accidental spills, etc anyway. I'll just make sure to seal the ends well.
You could use a normal glass sheet as the table top. (hardened glass would be best), then you could add a touch sensor array on top of the glass, then put a thing glass on top of the sensor array as protection.
I thought about that, but where can I find a multitouch array like that? I looked online a bit and my google-fu failed me.
what about getting a normal monitor and then picking up an external film to put on top of whatever glass you are going to use? why cant you use something small, like a mimo?
I didn't find any films as big as the screens I was looking at. I want a huge display. I plan on having to build the UI to control the TV myself anyway, so I want a huge screen to work from, with over sized controls so that I don't have to be so precise when laying on the couch. Haha, I will. It's less that kind of thing I'm worried about, and more the accidental stuff. Dropping a glass, tipping it over, etc.
