Using one of the major benefits of capacitive switching, namely the ability to control very accurately the pressure required for activation, WASP have designed a switch panel for hospital lifts which allows staff, patients and visitors to lightly wipe over the controls with germicidal tissues without causing the lift to operate. By locating the wipes by the controls, their use dramatically decreases the spread of infection.

protected by clear acrylic or polycarbonate which is used together with a circuit design which operates a switch using the user's natural body capacitance. The switch panel uses a proprietary capacitive sensor IC to detect the operation from the user.

The IC's project sense fields (from conductive sensors) up through dielectric, translucent material which can be up to10mm thick. The use of capacitive switching enables the switch positions to be backlit. The use of completely flat gloss or matt materials means that the control is easily cleaned and totally impervious to accidental liquid ingression. No gaps between the keypads completely eliminates 'grime harbours'.

Capacitive sensors can be designed to take into account many conditions before the switch is activated by continuous self calibration. This is achieved by changing the duration of the capacitive charge burst and allows the product to be used in any condition.

A complete lack of moving parts means that mechanical failure is eliminated and sense fields can be predicted through dielectric material enabling vandal resistant
panels to be easily produced. The operational sensitivity of the switch can be easily adjusted to overcome various environmental conditions.