Zytronic, a leader in custom-designed, durable Projected Capacitive Technology (PCT and MPCT) touch sensors, announced that its touch sensors are central to a new kitchen experience where young children can enjoy the illusion of ‘cooking with fairies’ in complete safety. ‘Hungry Kitchen’ is part of the Docodoco indoor island of adventure, a digital playground attraction built within the Hachikawa Takashimaya S.C by Bandai Namco Amusements Inc.

‘Hungry Kitchen’ offers young children a full ‘augmented reality’ kitchen experience including cutting foods on a virtual plate, frying and mixing to serving up, without any of the risks of a real kitchen. Zytronic touch technology under the chopping board senses the position of the plastic knife and the palms, allowing an appropriate response from the system. The plastic kitchen knife and other utensils include a conductive material that allows the touch sensor to detect their location.

A custom-sized 15.2-inch Zytronic Zyfilm®, together with a ZXY150 multitouch controller, was selected following a comprehensive performance evaluation. A key requirement was that the touch sensor responded reliably from its location underneath an 8mm-thick melamine chopping board, with the kitchen surface and foods all projected onto the surface from an overhead projector. The plastic knives in this virtual kitchen contain a conductive element, allowing their position to be sensed by the projected capacitive touch screen. For this application, the touch controllers “palm rejection” algorithm was disabled, so for example, if a child used a hand to flatten a piece ‘virtual’ chicken with a palm, the touch controller would recognize this and Bandai Namco’s software would respond appropriately. The system designers appreciated the fact that set-up values are stored on the ZXY150 touch controller itself, eliminating the need to store them on the host PC, and improving servicing.

Tetsuo Takahashi is the producer of “Indoor Island of Adventure Docodoco” and is the manager of Bandai Namco Amusement Lab Inc.’s development and planning team. He commented, “In order to balance both the playfulness and the precision of the experience, Zytronic technology was adopted. Its touch sensor is a highly sensitive device that can be mounted behind very thick overlays whilst maintaining intuitive and precise interactivity. Its performance makes an important contribution to the children’s cookery experience.”

Ian Crosby, Zytronic’s VP of Sales and Marketing added, “For their special project, Bandai Namco Amusements Inc. had been seeking a projected capacitive touch sensor available in a unique design and in very small quantities. In addition, the chosen technology had to be capable of detecting a touch through a thick, opaque surface. We designed a bespoke 15-inch multitouch foil to their precise specifications. As our touch sensors and controllers can also operate through various non-conductive materials such as glass, acrylics and even stone, it provided an ideal solution for Bandai Namco Amusements Inc.”

About Bandai Namco Amusement Inc.

Bandai Namco Amusement (head office: Minato-ku, Tokyo, CEO: Mr.Hitoshi Hagiwara) was started when, in April 2018, Namco and Bandai Namco Entertainment’s Amusement Devices Operations Unit united as the core company to take control of the real entertainment businesses within the Bandai Namco Group. We will deliver to the world “an entertainment experience that only exists here, now” through the development, production and sales of amusement devices or through real entertainment operations such as planning and management of facilities utilizing VR / IP (https://bandainamco-am.co.jp/).