A constant in touch screens is that with use, just by touching them, grease fingerprints and other elements remain on the hands that make it much more difficult to see what they are showing clearly with reflections. And since they are being established in automobile design, this problem increases when handling components on the uncontrollable occasions when the reflection does not allow us to see correctly.
General Motors seems to be fighting that problem. the past day February 14, filed a patent for a self-cleaning touch screen which erases fingerprints regularly. This is how they hope to eliminate the need for drivers to manually wipe their screens.
Patented self-cleaning touch screen
According to the GM patent, this self-cleaning screen would include a fourth type of LED instead of the usual three; that would emit ultraviolet light. UV light is known to be invisible to the human eye, so it would not change the visual experience of drivers. It would also activate a transparent photocatalytic coating built into the transparent material that covers the LEDs. When activated, this coating would undergo a chemical reaction that uses moisture in the air to break down the organic material that makes up fingerprints.
The purple LEDs built into GM's touchscreen would activate on a scheduled basis. Further mention is made of a controller that would activate the purple LEDs during a road trip, should grease from food be detected on the screens.
They are not the first to develop photocatalytic coatings for touch screens, as other brands have already done so to kill microbes that accumulate on them. But they require ultraviolet light to activate, which renders them useless at night or on cloudy days. By incorporating purple LEDs into its displays, GM would eliminate external condition requirements and allow its drivers to wipe their fingerprints off their displays whenever they want. As it happens with patents, it is just that, a patent, and it is not known if they could effectively apply it to vehicles. It is normal to register patents for technologies that they do not use, at least to be able to record the advances of their R&D teams.
