Touch DisplayTouch Screen Mechanisms Involved

What is a touch screen?

An electronic visual display that locates the coordinates of a users touch within display area
Works independently of what is being displayed on screen

[7]

Brief History
Invented by E.A. Johnson (Royal Radar Est.) around 1965 for air traffic control HP-150 home computer using infrared technology in 1983

1993 Apples Newton and IBMs Simon

2002 Microsofts Windows XP Tablet
[6]

2007 Apples iPhone (Multi-touch)

Multi-Touch Architecture
Touch screen sensor
to sense touch

To determine location

Touch screen controller and driver

Signal to execute application

Operating system Application

Capable of sensing multiple simultaneous points Capable of delivering sets of simultaneous points to the OS Capable of forwarding multiple streams of moving points (and acting on a defined subset of them) Capable of decoding multiple streams of moving points and taking actions in response

One Reason Why There Are So Many Technologies

Touch Technology
Resistive Surface capacitive Surface acoustic wave Projected capacitive, Embedded (capacitive) Camera-based & Infrared (all forms), Planar scatter detection Embedded (light-sensing) Vision-based Acoustic Pulse Recognition & Dispersive Signal Technology

Whats Being Measured

Voltage Current Ultrasonic wave amplitude Change in capacitance Absence or reduction in light

Presence of light Change in image Bending waves

Resistive Touch Screens

Two layers of conductive material Touch creates contact between resistive layers completing circuit Voltage in circuit changes based on position Controller determines location based on voltages

Why Resistive?
Advantages:
Cost-effective and low power Requirements Activated by any object Accurate

Disadvantages:
Polyester surface can be damaged Only 75% light transmission Lower endurance (~35 million touches)

Capacitive Touch Screens

Glass panel with conductive layer (Indium Tin Oxide) electrodes around the panel's edge distribute low voltage uniformly across the conductive layer creating a uniform electric field

[2]

Projected Capacitive
It is of two types : self and mutual capacitance. Self capacitance:

Self-capacitance electrode variations

Self capacitance Multiple separate slots in a single layer Each slot is scanned individually

Mutual-capacitance principle

No touch

Touch

Mutual capacitance example (Apple iPhone)

Surface capacitance
Touch draws minute amount of current creating voltage drop Coordinates of point of contact calculated by controller

[2]

Surface capacitance
Scratch-resistant top coat Hard coat with AG Electrode pattern Conductive coating (ATO, ITO or TO) Glass Optional bottom shield (not shown)

Why Capacitive?
Advantages:
Durable surface material High endurance (~255 million touches) Very accurate Good optical quality

Disadvantages:
Triggered only by bare finger or active stylus High cost

Acoustic Wave Touch ScreensSurface Acoustic Wave

Surface consists of glass overlay with transmitting and receiving transducers

[2]

Projected variation of amplitude of ultrasonic waves with time and distance

Acoustic Pulse Recognition

Plain glass sensor with 4 piezos on the edges

Table look-up of bending

wave samples (acoustic touch signatures)

Acoustic Pulse Recognition

Dispersive Signal Technology

Plain glass sensor with 4 piezos in the corners Real-time analysis of bending waves in the glass (time of flight calculation)

Why AWT?
Advantages:
Best optical quality High surface durability and seal Activated by multiple sources

Disadvantages:
Expensive Contaminates on screen can cause false-touches

Optical or Infrared Touch Screen Traditional infrared

Uses infrared LEDs and matching photo detectors

Touching screen interrupts LEDs

[2]

Waveguide Infrared
Principle

Camera based optical

Planar Scatter Detection

Infrared (IR) light is injected in the sensor substrate from the edges. The IR light travels via Total Internal Reflection within the substrate and is disturbed or scattered by any object touching the surface of the substrate. The IR light is injected and analyzed, scattered light from a touch points is detected at the edge of the sensor substrate and used to calculate the touch.

Vision based
When the user comes into contact with the surface, the light rays are frustrated, since they can now pass through into the contact material and the reflection is no longer total at that point. This frustrated light is scattered downwards towards an infrared webcam, capable of picking these blobs up, and relaying them to tracking software.

Infrared/Optical Touch Screens

Advantages:
High optical clarity Durable surface Supports multi-touch Can scale to large sizes

Disadvantages:
Expensive Cameras can get out of alignment

Touch Screen Techniquescomparison

Technology Major Advantage
Multi-touch Touch sensitivity Low cost Durability Any touch-object Any touch-object Reliability Low cost Scalability Flush surface Multi-touch Integration

Major Flaw

Projected Capacitive Surface Capacitive Analog Resistive Surface Acoustic Wave Acoustic Pulse Recognition Dispersive Signal Technology Traditional Infrared Waveguide Infrared Camera-Based Optical Planar Scatter Detection Vision-Based LCD In-Cell

Finger-only High drift Low durability Soft touch object No touch & hold No touch & hold High cost Contamination Profile height High cost Rear projection Sensitivity

Applications
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

Latest in touch technology

Freescale is announcing a new industrial touch sensing technology that'll even sense your swipes and prods through a film of water.it can withstand noise, detect electrical interference and reduce false touches. Chris Harrison, co-founder of a startup called Qeexo.new technology called FingerSense that adds a tiny acoustic sensor inside a smartphone to listen for and measure the vibrations of the object that touches it. The new LCD technology patent will allow Apple to fuse touch sensors into display circuitry, a change that could have a dramatic effect on how thin smart phones or tablets can get. Integration can further include eliminating redundant structures and/or finding dual purposes

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