DELHI COLLEGE of ENGINEERING

Presentation on

TOUCH TECHNOLOGY

Presented by:DEVESH SINGH 2K8/EC/634

Points of Discussion
Introduction to touch technology History & Development Construction of Touch Screen Types of Touch Technologies Comparison
Manufacturer Applications Advantages Disadvantages Future Closing Thought Q&A

Introduction
A touch screen is an electronic visual display that can detect the presence and location of a touch within the display area. Touch screens can sense Finger and other passive objects, such as a stylus.

History & Development

In 1971 Dr. Sam Hurst, founder of Elographics developed the first touch opaque sensor Elograph at the University of Kentucky. In 1974 He developed the first real touch screen. In 1977, Elographics developed the five-wire resistive technology then with the backing of Siemens Corporation, developed a curved glass sensor called the touch screen. The new transparent technology, AccuTouch, was later developed by the founders of Elographics, Dr. Hurst and Bill Colwell

Dr. Samuel Hurst

Dr. Samuel Hurst is considered as the father of the touch screen technology. In 1971, while he was working as an instructor at the University of Kentucky Research Foundation, he had to read a great volume of information during the graduation exams. In an effort to save some time he invented the first touch sensor that he called lo graph(electronic graphics), which allowed him to enter data faster.

First Touch Phone

Apple was the first with a touch screen phone in 1983.
Jason Ford of Elo Touch Systems, the company whose founder invented touch screen technology in 1971, provided the touch technology to Apple.

First Touch Mobile

The Nokia 7710 was the first touch screen mobile phone model produced by Nokia in 2004. The 7710 was based on the Nokia 7700 which was never released. It was Nokia's first, and so far only smart phone to run the Series 90 GUI a top the Symbian OS.

Construction of Touch screen

A basic touch screen has three main components: Touch sensor, Controller, Software driver. The touch screen is an input device, so it needs to be combined with a display and a PC or other device to make a complete touch input system.

Touch Sensor
A touch screen sensor is a clear glass panel with a touch responsive surface which is placed over a display screen so that the responsive area of the panel covers the viewable area of the display screen.

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

A Touch Sensor

Controller
The controller is a small hardware card that connects between the touch sensor and the Processor.

It takes information from the touch sensor and translates it into information that Processor can understand.

Software Driver
The driver is a software that allows the touch screen and computer to work together. It tells the operating system how to interpret the touch event information that is sent from the controller.

Most touch screen drivers today are a mouse-emulation type driver. This makes touching the screen the same as clicking your mouse at the same location on the screen.

Types of Touch Technologies

There are mainly Four types of touch Technologies:1.Resistive 2. Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW) 3. Capacitive

4. Infrared

1. Resistive
A resistive touch screen panel is composed of several layers, the most important of which are two thin, metallic, electrically conductive layers separated by a narrow gap. When an object, such as a finger, presses down on a point on the panel's outer surface the two metallic layers become connected at that point.

This causes a change in the electrical current, which is registered as a touch event and sent to the controller for processing. It is used in Grocery Stores, Hotels, Restaurants and Retail Stores.

Advantages & Disadvantages of Resistive

Cost-effective solution Activated by any stylus

Polyester surface can be damaged

Lower endurance (35 million touches)

Very accurate
Low power requirements Liquids won't affect touch screen performance

2. Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW)

Surface acoustic wave (SAW) technology uses ultrasonic waves that pass over the touch screen panel. When the panel is touched, a portion of the wave is absorbed.

This change in the ultrasonic waves registers the position of the touch event and sends this information to the controller for processing.
SAW touch screen technology is suggested for use in ATMs, Amusement Parks, Gaming Environments, Industrial Control Rooms etc.

Advantages & Disadvantages of SAW

Durable glass construction High optical clarity Activated by a finger, gloved hand, or soft tip stylus Moving liquids or condensation can cause false touches Solid contaminants create non-touch areas until removed Doesn't support drag or draw effectively

3. Capacitive
A capacitive touch screen panel consists of an insulator such as glass, coated with a transparent conductor such as indium tin oxide (ITO). As the human body is also a conductor, touching the surface of the screen results in a distortion of the body's electrostatic field, measurable as a change in capacitance.

Advantages & Disadvantages of Capacitive

Scratch resistant, durable surface High endurance (225 million touches) Very accurate Good optical clarity Liquids doesn't affect touch screen performance

Does not work with gloved fingers or stylus

4. Infrared
An infrared touch screen uses an array of X-Y infrared LEDs and photo detector pairs around the edges of the screen to detect a disruption in the pattern of LED beams.

Infra-red bezels have proven to be a very reliable technology for use in ATMs, Medical Instrumentation and Transportation, Tracking applications.

Advantages & Disadvantages of Infrared Touch Screen

Highest quality of underlying image Excellent anti-glare, with use of chemically etched glass Can be activated with almost any device Higher accuracy than other technologies Very high durability and reliability Surface obstructions can cause a false touch It is very sensitive and can be activated by stray touches. Low resolution Parallax problems

Touch Screen Technology Comparison Chart

Resistive Infrared SAW Capacitive

Touch Resolution

High

High

Average

High

Clarity

Average

Good

Good

Good

Operation

Finger or Stylus Finger or Stylus Finger or Softtipped Stylus

Finger only

Durability

Can be Damaged by Sharp Objects

Highly Durable

Susceptible to Dirt and Moisture

Highly durable

Manufacturers
Apple Inc. was the first company which introduce the touch phone and after that Nokia come into existence with their Nokia 7710.

Now a days the big companies like Nokia, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Motorola, Blackberry are making touch screen technology.

Applications of Touch Screens

Informational kiosks Trade show displays Museum / tourism displays Point-of-sale terminals Restaurant systems Employee time clocks Industrial process controls World Wide Web access kiosks Home automation systems Casino and other gaming systems Computer access for the physically disabled

Advantages & Disadvantages

of

all Touch Technologies

Advantages
A touch screen is easy to use (as the user simply touches what he or she sees on the display). Save space as no buttons are required. Touching a visual display of choices requires little thinking and is a form of direct manipulation that is easy to learn. Touch screens are the fastest pointing devices with easier hand eye coordination than buttons. Touch screens are durable in public access and in high volume usage.

Disadvantages
Screen has to be really big not to miss things when pressing them with your finger. Big screen leads to low battery life. Touch screens cant be read too well in direct sunlight as it applies an additional not 100% transparent touch panel.

Touch screen devices usually has no additional keys and this means when an app crashes, without crashing the OS, you cant get to the main menu as the whole screen becomes unresponsive. Screens get very dirty.

Future

If we're among those who think that touch screen phones are only available on high-end devices, think again! Gartner Inc estimates that the global market for touch screen mobiles will cross 362.7 million units in 2010, a 96.8 per cent increase from the 184.3 million units sold in 2009. And by 2013, touchscreen mobiles will account for 58 per cent of all global mobile sales, and more than 80 per cent in high-end markets, such as North America and Western Europe.

CLOSING THOUGHTS
Though the touch screen technology contains some limitations its very user friendly, fast, accurate, easy for the novices & fun to operate. It has been widely accepted and now by just modifying a little it can replace the mouse and key board completely in near future.