How Do Touch Screens Work?

abstract: This article will explain to you how touch screens work, what a touch screen is, what touch screens are used for, problems with touch screens and the different ways touch screens are created.

What is a touch screen?

A touch screen is a screen that accepts input via touch from the user.  Simply put if you touch a screen the device will react to it and use it as a form of input similar to the way a computer reacts to a mouse click.  Touch screens are most popular on tablets and mobile devices because of there simplicity and usability.  Touch screens can also respond to other movements such as sliding across the screen in different directions.  

Great but how do touch screens work?

So how do touch screens work?

There are a huge variety of different ways to implement touch screens and new ways are being researched as we speak.  I will look over a few of these methods here.

Resistive 

These touch screen panels consist of several layers.  There is a gap between two transparent layers which touch whenever a user uses the screen.  

Surface acoustic wave

Ultrasonic waves pass over the panel.  Whenever the user touches the screen a portion of the wave is absorbed and the change is registered and sent to the controller.

Capacitive

This type of touch screen uses an insulator such as glass and is coated with a transparent conductor.  The human body is a conductor itself so whenever a user touches the screen a distortion is caused in the screens electrostatic field.

Problems with touch screens

Some of the problems with touch screens can be calibration.  If a user touches a part on the screen the system may pick it up as somewhere else on the screen.  Some touch screens can also be easily destroyed by contaminants or dust etc.  

Hopefully this article will have helped you answer how do touch screens work and any other related questions.

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