OPTICAL TOUCH PANEL

A touch panel is a piece of equipment that lets users interacts with a computer by touching the
screen directly. Incorporating features into the monitor like sensors that detect touch actions
makes it possible to issue instructions to a computer by having it sense the position of a finger or
stylus. Essentially, it becomes a device fusing the two functions of display and input.

Touch panel technologies can be found in current digital devices like smartphones, slate devices
like iPad, digital cameras, bank ATMs, photocopiers, etc.

Touch panel sensing methods include;

Resistive film touch panels

Capacitive touch panels
Surface acoustic wave (SAW) touch panels
Optical touch panels (infrared optical imaging touch panels)
Electromagnetic induction touch panels

Optical touch panels (infrared optical imaging touch panels)

A touch panel in this category features one infrared LED each at the left and right ends of the top
of the panel, along with an image sensor (camera). Retroreflective tape that reflects incident light
along the axis of incidence is affixed along the remaining left, right, and bottom sides. When a
finger or other object touches the screen, the image sensor captures the shadows formed when
the infrared light is blocked. The coordinates of the location of contact are derived by
triangulation.

Triangulation is a method of finding our distance and position by measuring the distance
between two fixed points and then measuring the angle from each of these to the third point.

Calculating distance with Triangulation

First find the coefficient of the triangle, we'll call it S.

S= 1/2 (a + b +c)

Then find the area A

___________________
A= S x (S-a) x (S-b) x (S-c)

Where a, b, c are sides of the triangle and

__________________
a = b2 + c2 - 2bc x COS ()

Example: A triangle with sides measuring 5, 8, and 12

S = 1/2 * (5 + 8 + 12) = 12.5

_____________________________
A = 12.5 x (12.5-5) x (12.5-8) x 12.5-12)
_________________
A = 12.5 x 7.5 x 4.5 x 0.5
_______
A = 210.9375
A = 14.5237 square units

The data obtained from triangulation is sent to software which dictates response to the touch.

The whole action occurs in split second.

Pros of Optical Touch Screens

Entire screen including the corners is sensitive to touch

Images are crystal clear because no coating is used on the panel

Panels last for a long time as only a light touch is needed to register an input

Support multi-touch events and gestures

Scales with perimeter and not area

Cons of Optical Touch Screens

Performance can be affected by direct sunlight or reflections from wet and shiny surfaces.

Multi-touch performance not accurate due to ghosting (limited number of image sensor).
Costly