Touchscreen - All things you ever wanted to know about it

Posted by tech master  |  at  2:25 PM No comments

Today everyone must be familiar of what a touchscreen is.
In simple words, a touchscreen is a screen which you can operate using your finger.

Today, we see touchscreens in mobiles, computers and many other devices and you all must be willing to know how touchscreen works.
Here i am going to tell you how a touchscreen works and about different types of touchscreens.


Components of touchscreen

A touchscreen consists of three major components. They are :-

1. Touch sensitive surface - It is a glass panel which is put over the viewable screen. Electric current or charge or ultrasonic waves are passed through it. When it is touched, there is a change in the current or charge or frequency of ultrasonic waves.

2. Controller - It can also be termed as CPU of touch screen. When touch sensitive surface is touched, the controller only records the change in the current or charge or frequency of ultrasonic waves and identifies the point where you have touched.

3. Software driver - Controller identifies the point of touch and then sends it to the machine in the form of signal. But the signal which is sent by the controller cannot be understand by the machine. Therefore the software driver converts the signal in to signal which is understandable by the machine and then the machine opens that thing which you have touched.



Different types of touchscreens

1. Resistive touchscreen - This type of touchscreen consists of two glass layers. One layer is coated with the conductive material and other is coated with the resistive material. Electric current is passed through the conductive material. When the pressure is applied on the screen, both the glass layers collide and change in current is recorded by the controller and it is sent to the machine by means of software driver. Resistive screens offer limited clarity na dcan be easily damaged by sharp objects.

2. Capacitive touchscreen - This type of touchscreen is consits of a glass panel coated with charge storing material. When the screen is touched, a small amount of charge is drawn to the point of contact which is registered by the controller and sent to the machine by means of software driver. They cannot be easily damaged and clarity is much better than resistive screens.

3. Acoustic touchscreen - In this type of touchscreen, ultrasonic waves are passed over the glass panel. When the screen is touched, change in frequency of ultrasonic waves is recorded by the controller and sent to machine by means of software driver.