HTC Patents Stylus for Capacitive Screens

Cell phone companies have always had a problem in choosing what kind of screen to use, capacitive or resistive. Capacitive is much friendlier to fingers but is more expensive and less accurate, while resistive screens are cheaper and more accurate but require a stylus to get that extra accuracy. HTC seems to be trying to figure out a way to get the best of both worlds (something RIM has been working on too) by filing a patent for a stylus that works with capacitive screens.

There’s just one problem: who honestly wants to go back to using a stylus now that there are so many phones that let you use your fingers? People don’t want to pull out a stylus to use their phones, and the technology has been moving away from that for a long time. Even Windows Mobile, that horrible interface that absolutely demands a stylus, is soon going to be more finger-friendly and compatible with capacitive screens. So why is HTC trying to bring the stylus back?

The patent illustrates how a special stylus with a magnetically charged tip can be used with unaltered capacitive screens, making it possible to get greater accuracy with the screens manufacturers are already using.

Frankly, HTC can keep doing whatever they want as long as they still provide on-screen buttons big enough to be run with fingers alone.

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