Schurter has created a small user interface that combines a graphics and video interface with touch and swipe-style gesture controls.

The 64mm diameter font panel has a central circular OLED display, described at 128 x 128 by the company, then tough buttons around the edge (at north, south east and west) plus a central touch area. Long and short touches are differentiated by the internal hardware. Touch is capacitive. The south touch button, nominally the ‘home’ key, is backed by an RGB led. Images can be programmed to scroll north-south or east-west.

Schurter CDS1 touch displayIt is called CDS1 (configurable display switch 1) and is 64mm in diameter by 30mm deep.

“Configurable display switch offers a simple, elegant look combined with the technology that we are now used to from smartphones,” according to Schurter. A gentle tap or wipe is all it takes for CDS1 to reliably do the job it was designed to do. The novel input system can be configured completely freely. Icons and images or video sequences can be uploaded via a standard USB interface. How and what the display shows is determined solely by the developer.”

No host operating system is needed for operation, but the host has to read data from a serial interface (see below).

There is a device simulator for interface development, running on Windows 7 or later. Also for development there are design-in kits with accessories for a prototype assembly.

Schurter CDS1 touch displayA micro USB connector on the rear is used for programming (CDS1 recognised as mass storage) and can be used as an interface to the application (as RS232-over-USB), but the preferred application interfaces are I2C (standard or fast mode), SPI (Motorola 4-line) or RS232. There are three different variants of CDS1, each with one of those interfaces – through a JST XHP connector on the back, along with power.

There is an optional optional O-ring for sealing up to IP67.

OLED are nice and crisp to look at, but they have limitations. According to the company: “Life time strongly depends on the picture and video content. The display of static images over a long period of time may lead to a burn-in in which the static image remains permanently visible on the display.”

Applications are foreseen in brown goods, consumer electronics that normally have a multitude of buttons and switches (audio, for example), washing machines and dishwashers.

“White goods and everything else you use at home have one thing in common: they want to be told what to do by their user: type of wash cycle, temperature, spin speed, water quantity, pre-wash, extra rinse – the perfect application for a CDS1” said Schurter. “We get a very similar picture when we look at air conditioning systems – at home or even in the car – or systems for controlling room lighting. How warm or cool should it be? Which rooms should be illuminated? Soft twilight or glaring floodlight? The CDS1 does it.”