Fujitsu resistive multi-touch panels coming to North America, Windows 7 certified

As I wrong-headedly researched resistive multi-touch screens, I ran across an old announcement by Fujitsu on their offering. By strange coincidence, they followed that up just yesterday with an announcement of their North American debut of these multi-touch panels certified for Windows 7.

Per their press release, Fujitsu is the first to release Windows 7 certified, analog-resistive, multi-input touch panels and also the first to release them as a standard product. These are not consumer releases, but components to be used by other manufacturers, though the standard USB interface would make it easy to implement in DIY projects.

Certified for Windows 7 multi-touch, they support all the Windows 7 single- and multi-touch gestures. Being resistive, they can detect stylus input as well as touch (sensitivity can be adjusted by the manufacturer). Interestingly, the sizes they offer are wide aspect ratio 5.6-inch, 7.0-inch and 12.1-inch. While 12.1 is a common Tablet PC size, there is no 10″ size (another common Tablet PC standard) and the smaller sizes are in the UMPC range. It will be interesting to see how these panels will be utilized and if Fujitsu will use them in their own tablet offerings.

Hat tip to Slashgear and Akihabara News