TOUCH SCREEN

TECHNOLOGY

By,
Pavan Kumar M.T. & Prathik
G.
 INTRODUCTION
A touchscreen is a display that can

detect the presence and

location of a
touch within the display area.
The term generally refers to touch or
contact to the display of the device by
a finger or hand.
Touchscreen can also sense other
passive objects, such as a stylus.
Continues…….

The touchscreen has two main attributes:

1. It enables one to interact with what is
displayed directly on the screen, where it is
displayed, rather than indirectly with a mouse
or touchpad.
2. It lets one do so without requiring any
intermediate device, again, such as a stylus that
needs to be held in the hand. Such displays can
be attached to computers or, as terminals, to
networks.
 History
 Touchscreens emerged from academic and corporate
research labs in the second half of the 1960s.
 One of the first places where they gained some
visibility was in the terminal of a computer-assisted
learning terminal that came out in 1972 as part of
the PLATO project.
 The HP-150 from 1983 was probably the world's
earliest commercial touchscreen computer.
 It doesn't actually have a touchscreen in the strict
sense, but a 9" Sony CRT surrounded by infrared
transmitters and receivers which detect the position
of any non-transparent object on the screen.
 Development
• The development of multipoint touchscreen facilitated
the tracking of more than one finger on the screen,
thus operations that require more than one finger are
possible.
• These devices also allow multiple users to interact with
the touchscreen simultaneously.
• With the influence of the multi-touch-enabled iPhone
and the Nintendo DS, the touchscreen market for
mobile devices is projected to produce 5 billion in
2009.
 Construction

There are several principal ways to build a touchscreen:

• In the most popular techniques, the capacitive or resistive approach,
manufactures coat the screen with a thin, transparent metallic layer.
• When a user touches the surface, the system records the change in
the electrical current that flows through the display.
• Dispersive-signal technology which 3M created in 2002, measures the
piezoelectric effect — the voltage generated when mechanical force is
applied to a material — that occurs chemically when a strengthened
glass substrate is touched.
Continues…….

There are two infrared-based approaches .

• An array of sensors detects a finger touching or
almost touching the display, thereby interrupting
light beams projected over the screen.
• Bottom-mounted infrared cameras record screen
touches.
• In each case, the system determines the
intended command based on the controls
showing on the screen at the time and the
location of the touch.
 Technologies
The types of technologies that can be found are as
follows:
Resistive:

● The resistive touch screen uses

a glass panel with a uniform
conductive ITO(Indium Tin
Oxide) coating on the side
surface.

● A PET film is a tightly

suspended over the ITO coating
surface of a glass panel.
Working Principle:

● When the screen is touched, it pushes the conductive ITO coating

on the PET film. That results the electrical contact, producing the
voltages. It presents the position touched.

• The microprocessor applies +5V to pin (X left) on the glass panel, and
the voltage is uniformly decreasing to pin (X right) for 0V because of the
resistive ITO coating on the glass substrate, and the PET film is
grounded.
 Continues…….
• When the touchscreen is touched, a voltage on the glass substrate
proportional to the X position of the touch appears on the PET film.

•This voltage is digitized by the A/D Converter and subjected to an

averaging algorithm. Then it is stored and transferred to the host.
Hence, the X position is produced. The next electric cycle, Y position is
produced.

•Resistive touchscreen deliver cost-effective, consistent and durable

performance

•Resistive technology include only 75% optical transparency and the

fact that a sharp object can damage the resistive layers.
Surface Acoustic Wave:

• On the pure glass substrate, there are four

piezoelectric transmitting and receiving transducers
on the three corners for both the X and Y axes.
• The SAW controller sends a 5 MHz electrical
signal to the X-axis and Y-axis transmitting
transducers.

• When the touchscreen is touched, the finger absorbs a portion of the

wave passing across the surface of the panel.

• SAW can be used in any and all applications for the best possible
image clarity an unlimited life.
 Capacitive:

• Capacitive touchscreen is a four multi-layer glass.

• Small amount of voltage is applied to the electrodes on the four
corners
• A human body is an electric conductor, so when touched the screen
with a finger, a slight amount of current is drawn, creating a voltage
drop. The current respectively drifts to the electrodes on the four
corners.
• The capacitive system has very long life (about 225 million clicks).
 Infrared:
● Conventional optical-touch systems
use an array of infrared (IR) light-
emitting diodes (LEDs) on two
adjacent bezel edges of a display,
with photosensors placed on the two
opposite bezel edges to analyze the
system and determine a touch event.

• IR eliminates the use of glass or plastic overlay that most other touch
technologies require in front of the display.

• High cost of the technology.

• IR increases the noise floor at the optical sensor

 Comparison of Technologies:
Technology Resistive SAW Infrared Capacitive

Durability: 5 years 5 years 3 years 2 years

Stability: High Higher High Ok

Transparency: Ok Good Good Ok

Touch: Anything Finger/ pen Sharp Conductive

Response time: <10ms 10ms <20ms <15ms

Advantages & Disadvantages:
Advantages:
• User friendly.
• Fast response.
• Error free input.
• Easy to install.
• Use finger, fingernail, gloved hand, stylus or any soft-tip
pointer to operate.
• Easy to clean and maintain.
• Compatible with Windows, Macintosh and Linux.
• Does not interfere mouse and keyboard function.
• Make computing easy, powerful and fun.
 Disadvantages:

1)Finger stress:

Stress on human fingers when used for more than a few minutes
at a time. (for example, ATMs).

2)Fingerprints:

Touchscreens can suffer from the problem of fingerprints on the display

 Applications
Public Access:
•  Museums
•  Library resource guides
•  Corporate information
•  Public Transportation Schedule / Status
• Airport terminal passenger internet and
email systems
• Automated travel and entertainment ticket
dispensers
• Shopping mall directory
Continues…….
Business

•  Gas stations
•  Point of sales
• Restaurants
•  Grocery stores
• Hospital and hotel directories (check-in,
registration)
•  Banks and Financial Reporting
•  Bank cash advance and teller machines
Continues…….

Entertainment:

• Interactive computer games

• Casinos

Government:
●  Military control system
●  Scientific research lab
 Future Touchscreens Technology:

RPO’ s Digital Waveguide Touch:

• Minimal power requirements.
• High inherent accuracy & precession.
• Zero-pressure touch & allows finger scrolling.
• Allows100% display light output, picture definition and colour
clarity.
• Low-cost & Excellent durability.

3-dimensional Touchscreens
Conclusion:
• Designers are trying to use touchscreen to simplify input
commands for largely unsophisticated computer users.

• Today, a larger share of population is PC literate, yet the

touchscreen has become adopted by computer users of all
abilities because it is simple, fast, and innovative.

• In future there is no usage of mouse and keyboards as they

will be replaced by touchscreens.
References:

1. Wikipedia.

2. How stuff works.

3. Electronics for you.

Any Queries………?