Sentons is Software-Defined Surfaces: Bringing high-resolution touch and force sensing to various surfaces on any device, and unlocking a new level of interactivity for human machine interfaces. The company’s patented SDSwave electronic acousto-mechanics technology is in-market on a number of mobile devices, and is expanding its ability to bring richer user experiences to a dozen more phone models.
The ultrasonic SDSwave sensors and processors represent a new technology capable of accurately sensing touch and force on unconventional materials and substrates. Force sensing on curved waterfall displays, aluminum or stainless steel, or even bendable/foldable displays all become possible, providing unprecedented levels of design freedom to a device manufacturer. The basis of SDSwave technology is the use of actively-driven ultrasound waves. Similar to sonar arrays, piezoelectric transducers are attached to the interior of the touch surface, and these transducers are used to both transmit and sense ultrasonic waves traveling through a substrate. As a finger contacts the surface, the wave that has been transmitted is disturbed and the receiver senses the change in the waveform; pulses in the receiver waveform then correspond to disturbance of the ultrasound vibrations by each touch.