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The topic of Windows Mobile and capacitive screens comes up from time to time. It seems that it is the subject of discussion more frequently as time progresses. In some discussions I hear statements that “Windows Mobile can’t use capacitive screens.” The only reason ever given is that some change needs to occur in the operating system for the screens to be supported. I can only imagine that the statement originates in the word “don’t” being erroneously changed to “can’t” and caused this misconception. The Windows Mobile operating system in its present state could be put on a device that has a capacitive touch screen.

I’ll need to take a step back and talk about how Windows Mobile gets built for a device. Microsoft doesn’t ship a Windows Mobile in a form that can be installed directly onto a device; there’s some construction required. They make available to the original equipment manufacturers (OEM) a tool known as the Adaptation Kit for Windows Mobile. The adaptation kit is used to create a Windows Mobile image. The kit contains some components that must always be installed on a Windows Mobile device and other components that are optional. Regardless of what components are selected for a Windows Mobile image there’s one more thing that needs to be added; the drivers.

Drivers are not included with the Adaptation Kit. There are code samples for drivers that an OEM could use as guidance for writing their own.  The actual drivers included may be derived from modified versions of these samples or written entirely by the OEM.  In either case its the OEMs responsibility to provide the drivers that are appropriate for the hardware being included in their device. It is possible for an OEM to use any type of screen input technology for which they can provide a driver. If an OEM wanted to develop or license capacitive technology as long as they can provide a driver for it then it will work. If the OEM wanted to track eye movement and blinks for input as long as they can provide a driver for it then it will work with Windows Mobile. No changes need to be applied to the Windows Mobile OS for a capacitive screen to work.

I don’t want to cause confusion so I need to make a distinction between two features. Capacitive-touch is  a type of touch screen technology. Multi-touch is an interaction technique that can be applied to touch input devices.  There is no software technology obstacle preventing capacitive screens from being used on Windows Mobile devices. However the Windows Mobile OS doesn’t provide support for multi-touch. Windows Mobile also doesn’t provide support for front-facing cameras, accelerometers, or the scroll wheel on the HTC Diamond. (Windows Mobile 2003 didn’t support the rear facing camera though you could find  2003 devices with cameras). The idea to take away here is that while there’s no support for multi-touch from Microsoft that is not limiting OEMs from including such a feature. The advantage that would come from Microsoft support is there would be a standard and agreed upon way of accessing and interacting with the feature irrespective of the device manufacturer.

Written by Joel Ivory Johnson - Email

February 14th, 2009 | Category: Editorials | Subscribe to comments | Both comments and pings are currently closed