People often say that owning an object and being hopeful can keep us continuing to move forward. The development of touchscreen presents to us a wonderful prospect of the future society. When it makes its first appearance, it shocks everybody and proves to be a great marvel. As is known to us all, decades ago it may only exist in human beings mind and be a far away dream that may never come true. Or even someone may dare not to imagine and do not have this kind of thought. As the science and technology develops drastically, a series of impossible things at last become a reality in our daily life and be available to us ordinary people.
According to PC Magazine a touchscreen is a display screen that is sensitive to the touch of a finger or stylus. Widely used on ATM machines, retail point-of-sale terminals, car navigation systems, medical monitors and industrial control panels, the touch screen became wildly popular on handhelds after Apple introduced the iPhone in 2007. The touchscreen is one of the easiest to use and most intuitive of all computer interfaces, a touchscreen allows users to navigate a computer system by touching icons or links on the screen.
By combining touchscreen technology to our industry, business and large numbers of different areas, touchscreen shows its strong functions and serves for us and the whole society. It is a new kind of technology and it has its own incomparable superiority, which is determined by its special structure. The following will offer you information on how it works.
According to Malik Sharrieff, an eHow Contributor, “the resistive system is comprised of five components, including the CRT (cathode ray tube) or screen base, the glass panel, the resistive coating, a separator dot, a conductive cover sheet and a durable top coating.” When a finger or stylus presses down on the top surface, the two metallic layers become connected (they touch), the surface acts as a pair of voltage dividers with connected outputs. This causes a change in the electrical current. The pressure from your finger causes conductive and resistive layers of circuitry to touch each other, changing the circuits’ resistance, which registers as a touch screen event that is sent to the computer controller for processing. Capacitive touch screens use a layer of capacitive material to hold an electrical charge; touching the screen changes the amount of charge at a specific point of contact. And multi touch wall recently has emerged.
Since the emergence of touchscreen technology and the latest application of multi touch wall, it has undergone a long history. The following article will provide you with a better understanding of the complete development of touchscreen technology. By getting a clear knowledge of it, we may surprise at how wonderful achievements we have made.
Let’s together have a general knowledge of the development of touchscreen technology and the application of multi touch wall.
1960s
Historians consider the first touch screen to be a capacitive touch screen invented by E.A. Johnson at the Royal Radar Establishment, Malvern, UK, around 1965 – 1967. The inventor published a full description of touch screen technology for air traffic control in an article published in 1968.
1970s
In 1971, a “touch sensor” was developed by Doctor Sam Hurst (founder of Elographics) while he was an instructor at the University of Kentucky. This sensor called the “Elograph” was patented by The University of Kentucky Research Foundation. The “Elograph” was not transparent like modern touch screens, however, it was a significant milestone in touch screen technology. The Elograph was selected by Industrial Research as one of the 100 Most Significant New Technical Products of the Year 1973.
In 1974, the first true touch screen incorporating a transparent surface came on the scene developed by Sam Hurst and Elographics. In 1977, Elographics developed and patented a resistive touch screen technology, the most popular touch screen technology in use today. On February 24, 1994, the company officially changed its name from Elographics to Elo TouchSystems.
1980s
In 1983, the computer manufacturing company, Hewlett-Packard introduced the HP-150, a home computer with touch screen technology. The HP-150 had a built in grid of infrared beams across the front of the monitor which detected finger movements. However, the infrared sensors would collect dust and require frequent cleanings.
1990s
The nineties introduced smart phones and handhelds with touch screen technology. In 1993, Apple released the Newton PDA, equipped with handwriting recognition; and IBM released the first smart phone called Simon, which featured a calendar, note pad, and fax function, and a touch screen interface that allowed users to dial phone numbers. In 1996, Palm entered the PDA market and advanced touch screen technology with its Pilot series.
2000s
In 2002, Microsoft introduced the Windows XP Tablet edition and started its entry into touch technology. However, you could say that the increase in the popularity of touch screen smart phones defined the 2000s. In 2007, Apple introduced the king of smart phones, the iPhone, with nothing but touch screen technology.
Recent development of touchscreen is obvious to all of us. The above knowledge on the history of touchscreen shows us a clear outline of its development. It grows from an immature technology to a strong one step by step and the latest application of multi touch wall strengthens our confidence in going further. Its development is just like the growth of we human beings, which is a process of witnessing miracle. The application of multi touch wall not only makes profits for commercial companies, but also benefits our daily life which means that we can complete lots of tasks by just gently pressing some buttons. And it saves our time and energy and provides us a bright prospect of our society.