Select Human Machine Interface Properties for Cockpit Touchscreen Displays

Touchscreen displays are of growing interest to the aerospace community and are having a significant impact on how pilots interact with avionics. With the right hardware construction and software algorithm, a touchscreen display can present information and provide controls to the pilot in an intuitive manner for safe operation of an aircraft. This paper reviews touch sensor technologies and describes the properties of a touchscreen display designed for cockpit applications. In particular, we describe a durable modified resistive touchscreen display that minimizes accidental inputs, improves the high ambient contrast ratio, provides smooth and low friction properties to the user's finger, and disrupts the distinctiveness of reflected images.