Hitachi made an impression with a prototype capacitive panel that worked with gloves at the 2010 FPD International show, but this year SMK's gone one better — it's announced at this year's show that it's ready to actually produce a similar panel. The new panel uses a high sensitivity control chip that's paired with a sensor panel that filters background noise. This combination removes false positives and increases sensitivity, meaning insulating objects such as a glove or pen can be detected as well as conductors like your finger.

The panel is aimed at the auto market for now and offers multitouch in sizes up to 8 inches; SMK is promising a monthly run of around 100,000 a month at first. We're looking forward to seeing these in use — and we're eager to see how well they perform.