Microsoft Research shows off touchscreen prototype with only 1ms lag

Microsoft’s Applied Sciences Group has developed a touchscreen prototype that reduces input latency down to 1ms. While current smartphones and tablets with fully optimized operating systems such as Windows Phone and iOS don’t generally feel laggy in operation, they still have a delay of about 100ms before your touch input is actually recognized and converted into a UI interaction, according to the company’s research. Comparing between latencies of 100, 10 and 1 milliseconds on the new prototype – which is not actually a touchscreen but simply a projector surface — there’s a very noticeable improvement as the latency goes down, with the touch target sticking to the finger no matter how fast it’s moving.

It’s great to see Microsoft constantly working to improve touchscreen interaction, essential for a fast and fluid operation of touchscreen devices, even though Windows Phone 7 and Windows 8 are already doing very well in this regard.

Source: Microsoft Research, via Dustin Curtis