A small British company has been snapped up by Methuen, Massachusetts-based MicroTouch Systems Inc, which was after two specific innovative technologies it had developed. Brentford-based Moonstone Designs Ltd is providing a new touch input technology and a method of projecting audio output through glass. MicroTouch is buying all the related assets – for an undisclosed amount – and the management of the company will be joining MicroTouch’s newly-formed European Technical Centre. James Tagg, who is managing director of Moonstone and now also product manager for TouchStone, said that the technology was aimed at interactive applications on shop-fronts. The Projective Capacitative touch-screen technology is based on projecting electrostatic fields out from a transparent glass sensor with touch zones on its surface. When an area of the glass is touched, changes in the electrostatic field are detected. As these fields can penetrate a considerable way through ordinary glass, the sensor can be placed, for example, behind a shop window to provide interactive applications such as showing product brochures. The sound projection avoids the need for external speakers, which are expensive to install and require planning permission, he said. Under the deal, the products will be manufactured in the UK, and marketed internationally by MicroTouch. Tagg said that the product development was originally financed by a UKP100,000 grant from the UK Department of Trade and Industry. But we developed the technology and then ran out of money, so we had to do something, he said. The conditions of the UK grant prohibit Moonstone from actually being sold, so the company remains, at least nominally, separate from MicroTouch. MicroTouch has plans to launch products based on the technology later this year.
