Understanding HyPr Touch technology

Basic Principles of HyPr Touch

HyPr touch combines several touch technology principles. Like DViT, HyPr detects reflected light for size-based object recognition. Like DIR, HyPr uses emitter/receiver grid-based touch detection. This creates a robust and precise system of interactivity, found only on 7000 series SMART Boards.

HyPr Touch Emitter and Receivers

The HyPr Touch emitters and receivers are not visible. Unlike DIR’s system of emitters and receivers on opposite sides of the display, HyPr alternates emitters and receivers along all four sides. (This is explained in depth in the Operation section.) HyPr’s emitters and receivers are covered by a black plastic cover that is transparent to infrared (IR) light.
Emitters and receivers are not field serviceable. The image to the left highlights the location of these emitters and the receivers along the displays frame itself.

Touch Master

The HyPr Touch Master processes the information from the receivers to determine the size and position of the object interacting with the display’s surface. HyPr relies on active pens to distinguish between a pen and a finger. The Touch Master is not field accessible.

The HyPr system does not require calibration, but like a tablet, it can be oriented through Windows and macOS operating system settings. There are no additional system diagnostics for the touch hardware.

Active Pens

When you contact the display’s surface with a pen or finger, the HyPr system does not immediately differentiate the two. After that initial contact, the pen transmits a signal that the system uses to differentiate not only pen from finger, but also which end of the pen is touching the surface: the tip for writing and drawing, and the opposite end for erasing. The brick eraser is detected by size and is completely passive.

Operation

The HyPr Touch system’s emitters and receivers are in interleaved pairs around the display’s entire frame.



When an object touches the display’s surface, the object interrupts the plane of IR light that shines across the surface, creating a shadow on corresponding receivers on the opposite axis. This is indicated by the grey lines below.



At the same time, the system uses reflections from the object to determine the object’s size (represented by the purple lines in the picture). A larger object, such as the eraser or your palm or fist, is interpreted as an eraser. Although a smaller object is initially interpreted as a finger (even if it is an active pen), the display interprets the contact as a pen if it receives the active pen’s signal. When a pen touches the display’s surface, the pen transmits a signal that indicates readiness and the color of digital ink to use.