About Touch Screen Technology – part 2

The Technology Behind It

The idea of using a touchscreen goes back to the early days of computing in the 1960s. Most systems remained very experimental until the 1990s, when a number of commercial systems became successful.

The first major technology that became successful is resistive touchscreen technology. This uses a panel that consists of several layers, including two thin, electrically charged layers separated by a thin space. By pressing on the panel, these two layers touch and the location of the connection is recorded as the input. Resistive touchscreens are relatively cheap and very resistant to liquids. The major downsides are that you need to actually press down with a certain amount of pressure and they have relatively poor contrast. As a result, resistive touchscreens did not become widely used for computer systems but instead were developed as part as other electronic systems. For example, the display screens used in restaurants to enter orders and control panels in factories are often made of resistive touchscreens.

The second major technology used in touchscreens is capacitive sensing. A capacitive touchscreen uses a layer of insulating material, such as glass, coated with a transparent conductor. The human body is also an electrical conductor, so touching the screen with your finger results in a change in the electrostatic field of the screen. A number of different approaches can be used to record the location of the touch. One of the most common ways is to use a fine grid of capacitors, which record the change in the electrostatic field. These capacitors are organized by rows and columns, and they function independently of each other. This makes it possible to record multiple touches at the same time, known as multi-touch technology.

Multi-Touch Gestures

At a basic level, touchscreen technology works similar to a computer mouse. Instead of moving your pointer with a mouse and then clicking on a location, you press on the location with your finger. However, multi-touch technology makes it possible to interact with the computer display in many different ways. Tasks like scrolling up and down a webpage, selecting text and drag-and-drop have become quite different using touchscreen technology. This figure shows a number of the most common single and multi-touch gestures.

Common single and multi-touch gestures

 

From <https://study.com/academy/lesson/touchscreen-technology-definition-lesson-quiz.html>

4 Touch Panel Types – Explained

Touch screens are found everywhere from our smartphones to self-serve kiosks at the airport. Given their many uses, it should come as no surprise that there are several touch monitor types. Each has its advantages and disadvantages and is suited to specific tasks.

Continue reading to learn more about touch monitor types and how they’re used. Or discover Viewsonic’s touchscreen displays here.

Did you know that touch panel technology was invented in the 60s?

That’s right. Long before your precious smartphone entered the market in the late 00s, touch panels had already been an established technology for nearly 4 decades. 

Despite the panels’ simplicity of use, the underlying technology is more complex than it appears, with 4 different touch panel types in existence. 

Before we get to that, let’s back up.

It’s quite possible that you’re not clear on exactly what a touch panel is, what the touch panel types are, or how they’re applied in your daily life, beyond that of your smartphone. For that and more, we’re here to help. 

What Are Touch Panels?

Quite simply, touch panels, which are also known as touchscreens or touch monitors, are tools that allow people to operate computers through direct touch. More specifically, via the use of internal sensors, a user’s touch is detected, then translated, into an instructional command that parlays into visible function. 

Touch Panel Types in the Professional World

It would be a mistake to assume that the applications of all these touch panel types are limited to that of consumer-level devices, or even those that have been previously mentioned. Really, these touch panel types can be found throughout everyday life and in a variety of industries.

What’s more is that in many of these industries, these touch panel types are used less to market products to consumers, and more to sell solutions to businesses. Whether it be in regards to finance, manufacturing, retail, medicine, or education, there is always a need for touch-based solutions. In conjunction with the so-called ‘Internet-of-things’, these touch-based solutions play a key role in practices related to industry 4.0.

In practice, these solutions largely offer a form of personnel management. In hospitals, stores, or banks, for instance, these touch panel types can be used to answer basic questions, provide product information, or offer directions, based on the user’s needs. When it comes to manufacturing, on the other hand, these solutions enable employee management in the possible form of workplace allocation or attendance tracking. 

At the end of the day, touch panels are here to stay. In the four decades since their inception, the level of adoption this technology has experienced is remarkable. They transform how we teach in classrooms and collaborate with colleagues. 

Although you may not have been clear on the specific details of each touch panel type, we hope that you are now. This knowledge will absolutely serve you well, particularly if you’re interested in ViewSonic’s selection of touch-based solutions.

From <https://www.viewsonic.com/library/business/touch-panel-types-explained/>

A Brief Note on Touch Screen Technology

In this article, we will learn about a technology that has become an integral part of our lives: The Touch Screen Technology.  You can find Touchscreens almost everywhere like mobile phones, tablets, laptops, automobiles, gaming consoles, printers, elevators, industries, ATMs, shopping malls, ticket vending machines to name a few.

With the increase in demand for intuitive and easy GUI (graphical user interface), the development in touch screen technology has also taken an exponential curve. So, we will try to learn a little about touch screen technology, different types of touch screen technologies available, the advantages and disadvantages of each technology etc.

What is a Touch Screen?

Simply speaking, a Touch Screen is an input device in an electronic system. Traditionally, if we take our computers, the input devices include keyboard and mouse. But in a touch screen, you can provide the input to the system, well, by simply touching the screen.

A touch screen device may or may not include an electronic display unit but in most cases the touch screen technology is usually fixed on top of a display unit (like in a mobile phone).

The way we interact with our electronic devices like TVs and mobiles has been completely changed with the touch screen technology. For example, the interaction with a computer is made very simple as you control the computer directly through its display without the need for other input devices.

2D Human Machine Interface

Touch screens is a type of User Interface, which allows touch based human machine interface. It is considered to be a two-dimensional sensing device. If you take buttons into account (touch or tactile), they provide a single point of contact. Hence, they are one-dimensional input devices.

Coming to touch screens (or touch pads), you can touch, drag, write swipe, pinch etc. in the x-y plane. Hence, they are two-dimensional input devices.

There is a three-dimensional user interface known as Gesture Control, where hand gestures in free space act as input.

Components of a Touch Screen

Any touch screen device, whether a mobile phone or a tablet computer, usually consists of three important components. They are:

Touch Sensor

Controller

Software    

The Touch Sensor is the device which measures the parameters of contact between the device and the device and an object. It measures the contact force at any point.

For more information on touch sensors, read “Touch Sensors”.

Controller is responsible for capturing the “touch” information from the touch sensor and provide it to a main controlling device like a microcontroller or a processor.

Finally, the software is responsible for the main microcontroller or processor to work in harmony with the touch sensor and its controller.

Touch Screen Technology Types

Based on the types of Touch Sensor used in the development of a touch screen, there are 5 types of touch screen technologies. They are:

·         Resistive Touch Screen Technology

·         Capacitive Touch Screen Technology

·         Infrared Touch Screen Technology

·         Acoustic Wave Touch Screen Technology

·         Near Field Imaging Touch Screen Technology

Let us briefly understand about each of these technologies. But before going into the details, one point you should remember is that almost all touch screen devices are usually part of a display unit like an LCD, TFT, LED, CRT etc.

WHICH TYPE OF TOUCH SCREEN IS BEST FOR YOU?

You interact with a touch screen monitor constantly throughout your daily life. You will see them in cell phones, ATM’s, kiosks, ticket vending machines, manufacturing plants and more. All of these use touch panels to enable the user to interact with a computer or device without the use of a keyboard or mouse. But did you know there are several uniquely different types of Touch Screens? The five most common types of touch screen are: 5-Wire Resistive, Surface Capacitive touch, Projected Capacitive (P-Cap), SAW (Surface Acoustic Wave), and IR (Infrared).

 VIEW ALL TOUCH SCREENS  

We are often asked “How does a touch screen monitor work?” A touch screen basically replaces the functionality of a keyboard and mouse. Below is a basic description of 5 types of touch screen monitor technology. The advantages and disadvantages of type of touch screen will help you decide which type touchscreen is most appropriate for your needs:

Resistive Touch Screen

5-Wire Resistive Touch is the most widely touch technology in use today. A resistive touch screen monitor is composed of a glass panel and a film screen, each covered with a thin metallic layer, separated by a narrow gap. When a user touches the screen, the two metallic layers make contact, resulting in electrical flow. The point of contact is detected by this change in voltage. 

Advantages:

·         Can activate with virtually any object (finger, stylus, gloved hand, pen, etc.)

·         Has tactile feel

·         Lowest cost touch technology

·         Low power consumption

·         Resistant to surface contaminants and liquids (dust, oil, grease, moisture)

Disadvantages:

·         Lower image clarity compared to other touch technologies

·         Outer polyester film is vulnerable to damage from scratching, poking and sharp object

Surface Capacitive Touch Screen

Surface Capacitive touch screen is the second most popular type of touch screens on the market. In a surface capacitive touch screen monitor, a transparent electrode layer is placed on top of a glass panel. This is then covered by a protective cover. When an exposed finger touches the monitor screen, it reacts to the static electrical capacity of the human body. Some of the electrical charge transfers from the screen to the user. This decrease in capacitance is detected by sensors located at the four corners of the screen, allowing the controller to determine the touch point. Surface capacitive touch screens can only be activated by the touch of human skin or a stylus holding an electrical charge.

Advantages:

·         Better image clarity than Resistive Touch

·         Durable screen

·         Excellent resistance to surface contaminants and liquids (dust, oil, grease, water droplets)

·         High scratch resistance

Disadvantages:

·         Requires bare finger or capacitive stylus for activation

·         Sensitivity to EMI/RFI

Projected Capacitive Touch Screen

Projected Capacitive (P-Cap) is similar to Surface Capacitive, but it offers two primary advantages. First, in addition to a bare finger, it can also be activated with surgical gloves or thin cotton gloves. Secondly, P-Cap enables multi-touch activation (simultaneous input from two or more fingers). A projected capacitive touch screen is composed of a sheet of glass with embedded transparent electrode films and an IC chip. This creates a three dimensional electrostatic field. When a finger comes into contact with the screen, the ratios of the electrical currents change and the computer is able to detect the touch points. All our P-Cap touch screens feature a Zero-Bezel enclosure.

Advantages:

·         Excellent image clarity

·         More resistant to scratching than resistive

·         Resistant to surface contaminants and liquids (dust, oil, grease, moisture)

·         Multi-touch (two or more touch points)

Disadvantages:

·         Sensitive to EMI/RFI

·         Must be activated via exposed finger, or thin surgical or cotton gloves

SAW (Surface Acoustic Wave) Touch

SAW (Surface Acoustic Wave) touch screen monitors utilize a series of piezoelectric transducers and receivers. These are positioned along the sides of the monitor’s glass plate to create an invisible grid of ultrasonic waves on the surface. When the panel is touched, a portion of the wave is absorbed. This allows the receiving transducer to locate the touch point and send this data to the computer. SAW monitors can be activated by a finger, gloved hand, or soft-tip stylus. SAW monitors offer easy use and high visibility.

Advantages:

·         Excellent image clarity

·         Even better scratch resistance than surface or projected capacitive

·         High “touch-life”

Disadvantages:

·         Will not activate with hard items (pen, credit card, or fingernail)

·         Water droplets remaining on the surface of the screen can cause false triggering

·         Solid contaminants on the screen can create non-touch areas until they are removed

IR (Infrared) Touch Screen

IR (Infrared) type touch screen monitors do not overlay the display with an additional screen or screen sandwich. Instead, infrared monitors use IR emitters and receivers to create an invisible grid of light beams across the screen. This ensures the best possible image quality. When an object interrupts the invisible infrared light beam, the sensors are able to locate the touch point. The X and Y coordinates are then sent to the controller.

 

 

Advantages:

·         Highest image clarity and light transmission of all touch technologies

·         Unlimited “
touch-life”

·         Impervious to surface scratches

·         Multi-touch (two or more touch points)

·         Palm Rejection Capability

Disadvantages:

·         Accidental activation may occur because the infrared beams are actually above the glass surface

·         Dust, oil, or grease buildup on screen or frame could impede light beam causing malfunction

·         Buildup of snow and pooling of water (such as rain) can cause false triggering

·         May be sensitive to direct high ambient light interference

·         Higher cost 

From <https://tru-vumonitors.com/touch-screen-basics/>

 

For all discussed seminar topics list click here Index.

…till next post, bye-bye and take care.

About Touch Screen Technology

Traditional input devices for computer systems include keyboards and mice. In recent years, touchscreen technology has become widely used as a way to interact with computer systems, particular for mobile devices.

A touchscreen is an electronic visual display that a user can control by touching the screen with one or more fingers. A touchscreen allows for a much more direct interaction with what is displayed compared to a device like a mouse. Touchscreens have become very common on tablet computers, smart phones and other mobile devices. Increasingly, regular laptop and desktop computers use touchscreen displays so users can use both touch as well as more traditional ways of input.

 

Touch screen technology: as per Wikipedia

A touchscreen or touch screen is the assembly of both an input ('touch panel') and output ('display') device. The touch panel is normally layered on the top of an electronic visual display of an information processing system. The display is often an LCD AMOLED or OLED display while the system is usually a laptop, tablet, or smartphone. A user can give input or control the information processing system through simple or multi-touch gestures by touching the screen with a special stylus or one or more fingers. Some touchscreens use ordinary or specially coated gloves to work while others may only work using a special stylus or pen. The user can use the touchscreen to react to what is displayed and, if the software allows, to control how it is displayed; for example, zooming to increase the text size.

The touchscreen enables the user to interact directly with what is displayed, rather than using a mouse, touchpad, or other such devices (other than a stylus, which is optional for most modern touchscreens).

Touchscreens are common in devices such as game consoles, personal computers, electronic voting machines, and point-of-sale (POS) systems. They can also be attached to computers or, as terminals, to networks. They play a prominent role in the design of digital appliances such as personal digital assistants (PDAs) and some e-readers. Touchscreens are also important in educational settings such as classrooms or on college campuses.

The popularity of smartphones, tablets, and many types of information appliances is driving the demand and acceptance of common touchscreens for portable and functional electronics. Touchscreens are found in the medical field, heavy industry, automated teller machines (ATMs), and kiosks such as museum displays or room automation, where keyboard and mouse systems do not allow a suitably intuitive, rapid, or accurate interaction by the user with the display's content.

Historically, the touchscreen sensor and its accompanying controller-based firmware have been made available by a wide array of after-market system integrators, and not by display, chip, or motherboard manufacturers. Display manufacturers and chip manufacturers have acknowledged the trend toward acceptance of touchscreens as a user interface component and have begun to integrate touchscreens into the fundamental design of their products. 

Development

The development of multi-touch screens 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 growing use of touchscreens, the cost of touchscreen technology is routinely absorbed into the products that incorporate it and is nearly eliminated. Touchscreen technology has demonstrated reliability and is found in airplanes, automobiles, gaming consoles, machine control systems, appliances, and handheld display devices including cellphones; the touchscreen market for mobile devices was projected to produce US$5 billion by 2009.

The ability to accurately point on the screen itself is also advancing with the emerging graphics tablet-screen hybrids. Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVFD) plays a major role in this innovation due its high piezoelectric properties, which allow the tablet to sense pressure, making such things as digital painting behave more like paper and pencil.

 

TapSense, announced in October 2011, allows touchscreens to distinguish what part of the hand was used for input, such as the fingertip, knuckle and fingernail. This could be used in a variety of ways, for example, to copy and paste, to capitalize letters, to activate different drawing modes, etc.

A real practical integration between television-images and the functions of a normal modern PC could be an innovation in the near future: for example "all-live-information" on the internet about a film or the actors on video, a list of other music during a normal video clip of a song or news about a person.

Touchscreen Accuracy

For touchscreens to be effective input devices, users must be able to accurately select targets and avoid accidental selection of adjacent targets. The design of touchscreen interfaces should reflect technical capabilities of the system, ergonomics, cognitive psychology and human physiology.

Guidelines for touchscreen designs were first developed in the 1990s, based on early research and actual use of older systems, typically using infrared grids—which were highly dependent on the size of the user's fingers. These guidelines are less relevant for the bulk of modern devices which use capacitive or resistive touch technology.

 

From the mid-2000s, makers of operating systems for smartphones have promulgated standards, but these vary between manufacturers, and allow for significant variation in size based on technology changes, so are unsuitable from a human factors perspective.

Much more important is the accuracy humans have in selecting targets with their finger or a pen stylus. The accuracy of user selection varies by position on the screen: users are most accurate at the center, less so at the left and right edges, and least accurate at the top edge and especially the bottom edge. The R95 accuracy (required radius for 95% target accuracy) varies from 7 mm (0.28 in) in the center to 12 mm (0.47 in) in the lower corners. Users are subconsciously aware of this, and take more time to select targets which are smaller or at the edges or corners of the touchscreen.

 

This user inaccuracy is a result of parallax, visual acuity and the speed of the feedback loop between the eyes and fingers. The precision of the human finger alone is much, much higher than this, so when assistive technologies are provided—such as on-screen magnifiers—users can move their finger (once in contact with the screen) with precision as small as 0.1 mm (0.004 in).

 

From <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Touchscreen>

 

What is a Touch Screen Technology & Its Working

Touch screen technology is the direct manipulation type of gesture-based technology. Direct manipulation is the ability to manipulate the digital world inside a screen. A Touch screen is an electronic visual display capable of detecting and locating a touch over its display area. This is generally referred to as touching the display of the device with a finger or hand. This technology most widely used in computers, user interactive machines, smartphones, tablets, etc to replace most functions of the mouse and keyboard.

Touch screen technology has been around for a number of years but advanced touch screen technology has come on in leaps and bounds recently. Companies are including this technology in more of their products. The three most common touch screen technologies include resistive, capacitive, and SAW (surface acoustic wave). Most low-end touch screen devices contain a standard printed circuit plug-in board and are used on SPI protocol. The system has two parts, namely; hardware and software. The hardware architecture consists of a stand-alone embedded system using an 8-bit microcontroller, several types of interface, and driver circuits. The system software driver is developed using an interactive C programming language.

What is a Touch Screen Technology?

A touch screen technology is the assembly of a touch panel as well as a display device. Generally, a touch panel is covered on an electronic visual display within a processing system. Here the display is an LCD otherwise OLED whereas the system is normally like a smartphone, tablet, or laptop. A consumer can give input through simple touch gestures by moving the screen using a special stylus otherwise fingers. In some kinds of touch screens, some normal otherwise gloves are used which are coated to work properly whereas others may simply work with the help of a special pen.

The operator uses the touch screen to respond to what is displayed and if the software of the device permits to control how it can be exhibited like zooming the screen to enhance the size of the text. So touch screen allows the operator to communicate directly through the displayed information instead of using a touchpad, mouse, etc. Touch screens are used in different devices like personal computers, game consoles, EVMs, etc Touch screens are also essential in educational institutions like classrooms in the colleges.

Who Invented Touch Screen?

The first concept of a touch screen was described & published in the year 1965 by E.A. Johnson. So, the first touch screen was developed in the 1970s by CERN engineers namely Bent Stumpe 7 Frank Beck. The first touch screen device was created & used in year 1973. The first resistive touch screen was designed in 1975 by George Samuel Hurst however wasn’t launched 7 used until 1982.

How Does Touch Screen Technology Work?

Different types of touchscreen technology work in different methods. Some can detect simply one finger at a time & get very confused if you seek to push in two positions at once. Other types of screens can simply notice and differentiate above one key push at once. There are different components used in touchscreen technology which include the following.

Operation of Touch Screen Panel

A basic touch screen is having a touch sensor, a controller, and a software driver as three main components. The touch screen is needed to be combined with a display and a PC to make a touch screen system.

Touch Sensor

The sensor generally has an electrical current or signal going through it and touching the screen causes a change in the signal. This change is used to determine the location of the touch of the screen.

Controller

A controller will be connected between the touch sensor and PC. It takes information from the sensor and translates it for the understanding of PC. The controller determines what type of connection is needed.

Software Driver

It allows computers and touch screens to work together. It tells OS how to interact with the touch event information that is sent from the controller.

Modes of Touch Screen

The operation of the touch screen can be done in different ways like single tap, double-tap, touch and hold, swipe, pinch.

·         In a single tap, a single touch is used to tap on the screen to open an app otherwise choose an object.

·         In double-tap, multiple touches are used for serving different functionalities like zooming a display, choose a word or set of words.

·         The touch and hold option is mainly used to choose an object to drag it and also it gives the option to unlock the screen otherwise powering ON/OFF.

·         Swiping a finger over the screen is used to type the letters using the keyboard on the screen. It is also used to move the pages from right to left and also close unwanted apps.

·         In pinch, two fingers are used to zoom in or zoom out a display.

Transparent Touch Screen Technology

Transparent touch screens work by using two modern technologies to make a cutting-edge display that is tough to ignore. These touch screens deliver 4K images or HD based on the display size similar to a normal professional screen. The main difference between a transparent and normal touch screen is a clear screen substrate. White pixels appear completely transparent, black pixels not clear. The full variety of RGB colors has the properties of semi-transparent. Transparent touch screens are available in different types like transparent LCD screens and transparent OLED screens.

Why Some Touch Screens Work Only with a Bare Finger?

Once a bare finer is used to tap on the screen then it registers the commands. If you use a gloved finger otherwise a stylus pen then it doesn’t register the commands. So the main reason is conductive properties. There are different kinds of touchscreen technologies available in the market, but the capacitive type is more popular as compared to others because 90% of the touch screens sold and shipped worldwide are powered through capacitive technology.

These touchscreens depend on conductivity to notice touch commands. If you use a stylus or gloved finger to control them, then they won’t record the commands otherwise react to your commands.

Application – Remote Control using Touch Screen Technology

The touch screen is one of the simplest PC interfaces to use, for a larger number of applications. A touch screen is useful for easily accessing the information by simply touching the display screen. The touch screen device system is useful in ranging from industrial process control to home automation.

Touch Screen based Robotic Vehicle- Transmitter

 

From <https://www.elprocus.com/touch-screen-technology-working/>

Touch Screen Properties

The main properties of the touchscreen include the following.

·         Ball drop test

·         Clarity and Brightness

·         Mechanical and Mounting

·         4K vs Full-HD

·         HID Compatible

·         Touchpoints

·         Response Time

·         Touch Resolution

·         Raised Bezel

·         Latency / Lag / Touch Response

Advantages

The advantages of touchscreen technology include the following.

·         Easy to Clean and Maintain

·         Engaging and Interactive

·         Self-Service Feature

·         Keyboard and Mouse are not required

·         Speed and Efficiency

·         Mobility and Space

·         Durability and Resilience

·         Easy User Interface

Disadvantages

The disadvantages of touch screen technology include the following.

·         The display of the device has to be large to operate the screen properly

·         The display will get dirty

·         These are expensive as compared to normal devices

·         Indirect sunlight, it is less efficient to read the screen

·         Battery life is low due to the big bright screen and uses massive computing power

·         Accuracy & Feedback

·         Issues on On-screen Keyboard

·         Issues due to Sensitivity

·         Screen Size

·         Accidental Dialing

Applications

The applications of touchscreen technology include the following. Some of the examples of touchscreens like smartphones, a tablet or a computer & a point of sale device.

·         All-in-One computer

·         Touch screen printer

·         Ticket machine

·         Arcade game

·         Tablet

·         ATM

·         Car GPS

·         Smartphone

·         Signature pads

·         Camera

·         POS machine

·         Car stereo

·         Medical equipment

·         Cash register

·         Large interactive screen

·         Digital camcorder

·         In-flight entertainment screen

·         Laptop

·         Handheld game console

·         E-book

·         Grocery self-checkout machine

·         Kiosk

·         Gas station

·         Sewing machine

·         Fitness machine

·         Electronic whiteboard

·         Factory machine

The touch screen supported most of the computers are Acer, HP, Dell, Microsoft, Lenovo, and other PC designers. And also, some high-end Google Chromebooks use touch screens.

Thus, this is all about an overview of touchscreen technology. The main reasons to choose this technology instead of physical buttons by the manufacturers are; these are instinctive, particularly to younger generations of users. By using this technology, the devices can make smaller. The design of these devices is cheaper. In touch screens, different technologies are used to let the operator operate a screen. Some technologies use a finger whereas others use tools such as a stylus. Here is a question for you, Do touch screens use a keyboard?

From <https://www.elprocus.com/touch-screen-technology-working/>

 

Communication between humans and computer systems has come a long way from the keyboard and mouse. As more and more interaction is being done on mobile devices, touchscreen technology makes it possible to interact with a computer system using direct touch of the electronic display, eliminating the need for a bulky mouse or keyboard. Explore the definition and applications of touchscreen technology. 

 

For all discussed seminar topics list click here Index.

                                                                                                    …till next post, bye-bye and take care.