Touch screens that work through gloves: welcome to the world

We’ve been waiting for you! Or more precisely, we have been freezing our hands off in the winter trying to tap out text messages on dainty touch screens, gloves tucked in our pockets.

Although it looks like we have to wait a little longer to solve this specific problem, as the first touch screens that work even though the user wears gloves, won’t be for phones. They will be for car navigation systems, according to inventor SMK Corp, which has improved the detection sensitivity of the screen using a unique chip.

Those of us less concerned about car navigation can still consider one of the many touch screen gloves on the market. Touch screens react less to the pressure of your hand and more to the electrical conductivity of your fingers, and therein lies the problem of gloves. Products, from the likes of Touchscreengloves.co.uk, have a special conductive material embedded to help with this.

Or alternatively, get some scissors and go for the snip – free your texting finger to interact with the elements.