Toshiba Matsushita Display Technology has created a neat little (3.5") display that features direct pen input via an optical pen. It's similar to a touchscreen, but isn't actually a touchscreen. If that makes sense.

Toshiba Matsushita Display Technology Corporation announced o­n the 20th that they have developed a low-temp polysilicon LCD display that contains an optical sensor and signal processing function.

It's an LCD display that uses SOG (System o­n Glass) technology. The optical sensor and signal processor are packaged o­n the surface of the glass, and signals can be input to the screen via optical pen -- even if an acrylic cover protects the screen, signals can still be sent to it. Thanks to an improvement of the sensitivity of the optical sensor, and highly precise processing technology, reading and processing of the signals can be done very quickly.

The system varies from current input systems that use touch panels; since this requires no additional products, neither the contrast nor brightness of this screen is affected. This enables the screen to still retain its thin, light, and small form factor with high reliability.

The screen size is 3.5 inches, and it has a resolution of 320 x 240 dots (QVGA), and it can display 260,000 colors. The refresh rate and data reading rate is 60Hz.

Inspired by:
http://pc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/2005/0920/tmdt.htm

Press Release:
http://www.tmdisplay.com/tm_dsp/press/2005/05-09-20_j.htm