How Do Touch Screens Work?
Question:
How Do Touch Screens Work?
I know that when you touch the screen that it rings up an item. How does a touch screen know what item to ring up?
Answer:
A touch screen acts and performs the duties of a mouse. Touching the screen is like double clicking the left mouse button.
Touch screens have an overlay that covers the screen and a special bezel that goes around the outside of the monitor. This overlay lets the sensors in the bezel know the X/Y coordinates of where your touch took place. These coordinates are transmitted to the computer via a cable connected to the serial port or a USB port.
Within the computer a special program called a "Driver" will convert the X/Y coordinates of your touch into a double click of a mouse. In other words, the computer simply thinks you used a desktop mouse and double clicked the item on the screen.
The computer performs the action as if it were a double clidk of the mouse with no knowledge that you touched the screen.
What is a Capacitive touch screen?
Question:
What is a Capacitive touch screen?
I have heard of a capacitive touch screen but I don't know what it means.
Answer:
There are different types of touch technology. Capacitive touch is one of the oldest types of touch screens. In some environments it is the best choice of the available technology.
Capacitive touch technology works off the static electricity in your body. Capacitors, or small electronic sensors detect where your finger has touched the screen and transmits these coordinates to the touch screen driver in the computer. These coordinats are then converted to appear as though you had double clicked the left mouse button on a standard desktop mouse.
Capacitive touch screens will only recognize a touch of a human finger. Gloved hands, fingernails, keys, pencils and other objects will not trigger the capacitors to recognize that a touch has happened.
What is a Resistive touch screen?
Question:
What is a Resistive touch screen?
I know that resistive touch screens have been around for a long time. What makes them work?
Answer:
Resistive touch technology uses 2 overlays and a special bezel. The 2 overlays are pressed together when you touch the screen. The X/Y coordinates of your touch are then sent through sensors in the bezel to either a serial or USB connection on the computer.
These coordinates are then converted to appear like a double click of the left mouse button. The computer cannot tell that it was your touch that caused the double click.
In older model resistive touch screens these double overlays could be seen and did slightly mask the buttons on the screen. Newer technology has now made these double overlays almost impossible to see.
Resistive touch screens work well in environments where there are gloved hands or when objects such as stylist that are used to touch the screen. Hand held devices are a good example of resistive touch technology in use.
