Touch Screen Technology 1BI17MCA07

Table of Contents
1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 3
2 Literature Survey ..................................................................................................................... 3
3 Detailed Description ................................................................................................................ 4
History............................................................................................................................................. 4
Development ................................................................................................................................... 5
Construction .................................................................................................................................... 5
Technologies ................................................................................................................................... 6
Restrictive: ...................................................................................................................................... 6
Surface acoustic wav....................................................................................................................... 8
Capacitive ..................................................................................................................................... 10
Infrared .......................................................................................................................................... 12
Comparison of touchscreen technologies ..................................................................................... 14
4 Advantages ............................................................................................................................ 15
5 Disadvantage ......................................................................................................................... 15
6 Application ............................................................................................................................ 16
7 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................. 17
8 References ............................................................................................................................. 17

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Abstract:
A touchscreen is a display that can detect the presence and location of a touch within the display
area. The term generally refers to touch or contact to the display of the device by a finger or hand.
In the last decade, touchscreen equipped displays have become common features in applications
such as kiosks, point of scale systems, industrial control, and medical instrumentation. There are
more of choices in touchscreen technologies from the branded manufactures. This paper presents
the choices that are available to the product designer and integrator, and to assist in the selection
of the most appropriate touchscreen options. Touch Screens, are display overlays that have the
ability to display and receive information on the same screen. As prices for this panels have decline
steadily in the past decade, touch screen panels have become more and more commonplace. This
report will include a full assessment of resistive, capacitive, pan touch capacitive touch screen,
surface acoustic wave, surface capacitive, infra-red, sensor in pixel, and others.

This report also will feature market analysis of touch screen technology on following applications:
public information displays, customer self-service, retail and restaurant system, computer base
training, control & automation system, assistive technology.

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1 Introduction
Touchscreens can also sense other passive objects, such as a stylus. The touchscreen has two main
attributes. First, it enables one to interact with what is displayed directly on the screen, where it is
displayed, rather than indirectly with a mouse or touchpad. Secondly, it lets one do so without
requiring any intermediate device, again, such as a stylus that needs to be held in the hand. Such
displays can be attached to computers or, as terminals, to networks. They also play a prominent
role in the design of digital appliances such as the personal digital assistant (PDA), satellite
navigation devices, mobile phones, and video games. A touch screen display has three primary
components that allow it to function: the touch sensor, the controller, and the software driver. The
software driver is the application program that transcribes touch sensations into commands and
communicates with the operating system installed on the computer. The controller is a PC card
that connects the touch sensor to the PC. It is a small gadget that translates information from the
touch sensor into information that is comprehensible to the PC.

2 Literature Survey
As the cost of the technology falls, touch screens are becoming more common. The purpose of this
report is to document the human factors research in touch screens from 1980 to 1992. It covers the
topics of touch-selection strategies, button size, touch-screen keyboards, touch-feedback
strategies, mouse-emulation strategies, touch biases and screen angles. The literature review
provides the basis for making recommendations to touch screen designers.

Touch International is a full-service touchscreen display solutions center, designing and

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Staffed with diverse and extensive touchscreen experience and experts, Touch International
ensures the success of your touch project from concept design to implementation. For more in-
depth information, please read our white paper on Filters and Custom Touchscreen Enhancements.

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3 Detailed Description
History
Touchscreens emerged from academic and corporate research labs in the second half of the 1960s.
One of the first places where they gained some visibility was in the terminal of a computer-assisted
learning terminal that came out in 1972 as part of the PLATO project. They have subsequently
become familiar in kiosk systems, such as in retail and tourist settings, on point of sale systems,
on ATMs and on PDAs where a stylus is sometimes used to manipulate the GUI and to enter data.
The popularity of smart phones, PDAs, portable game consoles and many types of information
appliances is driving the demand for, and the acceptance of, touchscreen.

The HP-150 from 1983 was probably the world's earliest commercial touchscreen computer. It
doesn't actually have a touchscreen in the strict sense, but a 9" Sony CRT surrounded by infrared
transmitters and receivers which detect the position of any non-transparent object on the screen.
Until the early 1980s, most consumer touchscreen could only sense one point of contact at a time,
and few have had the capability to sense how hard one is touching. This is starting to change with
the commercialization of multi-touch technology.

Touchscreens are popular in heavy industry and in other situations, such as museum displays or
room automation, where keyboard and mouse systems do not allow a satisfactory, intuitive, rapid,
or accurate interaction by the user with the display's content.

Historically, the touchscreen sensor and its accompanying controller-based firmware have been
made available by a wide array of after-market system integrators and not by display, chip or
motherboard manufacturers. With time, however, display manufacturers and chip manufacturers
worldwide have acknowledged the trend toward acceptance of touchscreen as a highly desirable
user interface component and have begun to integrate touchscreen functionality into the
fundamental design of their products.

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Development
The development of multipoint touchscreen facilitated the tracking of more than one finger on the
screen, thus operations that require more than one finger are possible. These devices also allow
multiple users to interact with the touchscreen simultaneously.

With the growing acceptance of many kinds of products with an integral touchscreen interface the
marginal cost of touchscreen technology is routinely absorbed into the products that incorporate it
and is effectively eliminated. As typically occurs with any technology, touchscreen hardware and
software has sufficiently matured and been perfected over more than three decades to the point
where its reliability is unassailable. As such, touchscreen displays are found today in airplanes,
automobiles, gaming consoles, machine control systems, appliances and handheld display devices
of every kind. With the influence of the multi-touch-enabled iPhone and the Nintendo DS, the
touchscreen market for mobile devices is projected to produce US$5 billion in 2009.

Construction
There are several principal ways to build a touchscreen. The key goals are to recognize one or
more fingers touching a display, to interpret the command that this represents, and to communicate
the command to the appropriate application. In the most popular techniques, the capacitive or
resistive approach, manufactures coat the screen with a thin, transparent metallic layer. When a
user touches the surface, the system records the change in the electrical current that flows through
the display. Dispersive-signal technology which 3M created in 2002, measures the piezoelectric
effect — the voltage generated when mechanical force is applied to a material — that occurs
chemically when a strengthened glass substrate is touched.

There are two infrared-based approaches. In one, an array of sensors detects a finger touching or
almost touching the display, thereby interrupting light beams projected over the screen. In the
other, bottom-mounted infrared cameras record screen touches. In each case, the system
determines the intended command based on the controls showing on the screen at the time and the
location of the touch.

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Technologies
The types of technologies that can be found are as follows:

Restrictive:
A resistive touchscreen panel comprises several thin layers, the most important of which are two
transparent electrically resistive layers facing each other with a thin gap between. The top layer
(that which is touched) has a coating on the underside surface; just beneath it is a similar resistive
layer on top of its substrate. One layer has conductive connections along its sides, the other along
top and bottom. A voltage is applied to one layer, and sensed by the other. When an object, such
as a fingertip or stylus tip, presses down onto the outer surface, the two layers touch to become
connected at that point. The panel then behaves as a pair of voltage dividers, one axis at a time. By
rapidly switching between each layer, the position of pressure on the screen can be detected.

Resistive touch is used in restaurants, factories and hospitals due to its high tolerance for liquids
and contaminants. A major benefit of resistive-touch technology is its low cost. Additionally, as
only sufficient pressure is necessary for the touch to be sensed, they may be used with gloves on,
or by using anything rigid as a finger substitute. Disadvantages include the need to press down,
and a risk of damage by sharp objects. Resistive touchscreens also suffer from poorer contrast, due
to having additional reflections (i.e.: glare) from the layers of material placed over the screen. This
is the type of touchscreen used by Nintendo in the DS family, the 3DS family, and the Wii U
Gamepad.

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The resistive touch screen uses a glass panel with a uniform conductive ITO (Indium Tin Oxide)
coating on the side surface. A PET film is a tightly suspended over the ITO coating surface of a
glass panel. The glass substrate and the PET film are separated by tiny, transparent insulating dot
spacers. The Pet film has a hard coating on the outer side and a conductive ITO coating on the
inner side. The structure is film glass process. The early process is film-film-glass structure.

Working Principle

When the screen is touched, it pushes the conductive ITO coating on the PET film against
the ITO coating on the glass. That results the electrical contact, producing the voltages. It
presents the position touched.
The pins (X left) and (X right) are on the glass panel, and the pins (Y up) and (Y down)
are the PET film.
The microprocessor applies +5V to pin (X left) on the glass panel, and the voltage is
uniformly decreasing to pin (X right) for 0V because of the resistive ITO coating on the
glass substrate, and the PET film is grounded. When the touchscreen is not touched, the
controller detects the voltage on the PET film is zero. The next electric cycle, the
microprocessor applies +5V to pin (Y up) on the PET film, and the voltage is uniformly
decreasing to pin (Y down) for 0V. When the touchscreen is not touched, the controller
detects the voltage on the glass panel is zero.
When the touchscreen is touched, a voltage on the glass substrate proportional to the X
(horizontal) position of the touch appears on the PET film. This voltage is digitized by the
A/D Converter and subjected to an averaging algorithm. Then it is stored and transferred
to the host. Hence, the X position is produced.
The next electric cycle, a voltage on the PET film proportional to the Y (vertical) position of the
touch appears on the glass substrate. This voltage is digitized by the A/D Converter and subjected
to an averaging algorithm. Then it is stored and transferred to the host. Hence, the Y position is
produced.

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Resistive touchscreen deliver cost-effective, consistent and durable performance in environments

where equipment must stand up to contaminants and liquids, such as in restaurants, factories, and
hospitals. Disadvantages of Resistive technology include only 75% optical.
transparency and the fact that a sharp object can damage the resistive layers. The Analog Resistive
technology is perfect for PDAs, web phones, and other handheld consumer applications. Resistive
touchscreen can also support Multitouch. Analog resistive touch technology is suitable for
applications that require ease of integration, low power consumption, light weight, portability, cost
effectiveness and compact mechanism. It is used in outdoor applications where environment is
dusty.

Surface acoustic wav

Surface acoustic wave (SAW) technology uses ultrasonic waves that pass over the touchscreen
panel. When the panel is touched, a portion of the wave is absorbed. The change in ultrasonic
waves is processed by the controller to determine the position of the touch event. Surface acoustic
wave touchscreen panels can be damaged by outside elements. Contaminants on the surface can
also interfere with the functionality of the touchscreen.

The structure of a SAW touchscreen:

On the pure glass substrate, there are four piezoelectric transmitting and receiving transducers on
the three corners for both the X and Y axes. Around the glass, there are four 45-degree reflectors
around the glass, divert the ultrasonic bust across touchscreen.

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Working Principle

The SAW controller sends a 5 MHz electrical signal to the X-axis and Y-axis transmitting
transducers. They convert the signal into ultrasonic waves to the reflectors. These waves
are changed direction across the front surface of the touchscreen by an 45degree array of
reflectors. The 45-degree reflectors on the opposite side gather and redirect the waves to
the X-axis and Y-axis receiving transducers, which reconvert them into an electrical signal.
The signal is represented by a wavy curve on a oscillograph.
When the touchscreen is touched, the finger absorbs a portion of the wave passing across
the surface of the panel. The signal received by the receiving transducers is then compared
to the wavy curve that is produced when the touchscreen is not touched. The
microprocessor in the controller recognizes the change of the wave and calculates a
coordinate. This process happens independently for both the X and Y axes. The coordinates
are transmitted to the host for processing. Y- axis transmitting transducer Y- axis receiving
transducer. Array of reflectors X- axis receiving transducer X- axis transmitting transducer
Edge of Active Area
The touchscreen made by surface acoustic wave is incomparable for clarity and reliability, even in
public environment. It mainly features pure glass for durable scratch resistant surface, superior
image clarity, and light transmission. The SAW can be used in public places in open environment.
Furthermore, it is sensitive and fast on response, accurate touch position performance. The SAW
system works much like the resistive system, allowing a touch with almost any object, except hard

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and small objects like a pen tip. SAW can be used in any and all applications for the best possible
image clarity an unlimited life. The SAW is specially designed to prevent dust or water from
influencing the SAW touchscreen performance. The transducers are completely hidden and
protected inside the covering eliminating risk of damage during integration. It is easy to install and
maintain inside the kiosk.

Capacitive
A capacitive touchscreen 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 an electrical conductor,
touching the surface of the screen results in a distortion of the screen's electrostatic field,
measurable as a change in capacitance. Different technologies may be used to determine the
location of the touch. The location is then sent to the controller for processing. Touchscreens that
use silver instead of ITO exist, as ITO causes several environmental problems due to the use of
Indium.
Unlike a resistive touchscreen, some capacitive touchscreens cannot be used to detect a finger
through electrically insulating material, such as gloves. This disadvantage especially affects
usability in consumer electronics, such as touch tablet PCs and capacitive smartphones in cold
weather when people may be wearing gloves. It can be overcome with a special capacitive stylus,
or a special-application glove with an embroidered patch of conductive thread allowing electrical
contact with the user's fingertip.
Although some standard Capacitance detection methods are projective, in the sense that they can
be used to detect a finger through a non-conductive surface, they are very sensitive to fluctuations
in temperature, which expand or contract the sensing plates, causing fluctuations in the capacitance
of these plates. These fluctuations result in a lot of background noise, so a strong finger signal is
required for accurate detection. This limits applications to those where the finger directly touches
the sensing element or is sensed through a relatively thin non-conductive surface.

The structure of a Capacitive touchscreen

Capacitive touchscreen is a four multi-layer glass. The two sides of the glass substrate are coated
with uniform conductive ITO (indium tin oxide) coating. The thickness of 0.0015-millimeter
silicon dioxide hard coating are coated on the front side of ITO coating layer. There are electrodes
on the four corners for launching electric current.

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Working Principle

Small amount of voltage is applied to the electrodes on the four corners

A human body is an electric conductor, so when you touch the screen with a finger, a slight
amount of current is drawn, creating a voltage drop.
The current respectively drifts to the electrodes on the four corners. Theoretically, the
amount of current that drifts through the four electrodes should be proportional to the
distance from the touch point to the four corners.
The controller precisely calculates the proportion of the current passed through the four
electrodes and figures out the X/Y coordinate of a touch point.

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One advantage of the capacitive system over the resistive system is that it transmits almost 92%
of the light emitted from the monitor, whereas the resistive system transmits only about 75%. This
gives the capacitive system a much clearer picture than the resistive system. Also, the capacitive
system has very long life (about 225 million clicks). The bad news is that this touchscreen type
cannot be activated by contact with inanimate objects (e.g., the gloves that being used for wearing).
There are mainly two subtypes: one cannot register more than one touch at a time, while the other
called ‘Multitouch’ (used in Apple iPhone and iPod) does. It is not damaged by running water
applied to the active area. Our capacitive touch screens withstand contaminants such as grease,
dirt, water, running liquid and harsh chemicals.

Infrared
An infrared touchscreen uses an array of X-Y infrared LED and photodetector pairs around the
edges of the screen to detect a disruption in the pattern of LED beams. These LED beams cross
each other in vertical and horizontal patterns. This helps the sensors pick up the exact location of
the touch. A major benefit of such a system is that it can detect essentially any opaque object
including a finger, gloved finger, stylus or pen. It is generally used in outdoor applications and
POS systems which cannot rely on a conductor (such as a bare finger) to activate the touchscreen.
Unlike capacitive touchscreens, infrared touchscreens do not require any patterning on the glass
which increases durability and optical clarity of the overall system. Infrared touchscreens are
sensitive to dirt and dust that can interfere with the infrared beams, and suffer from parallax in
curved surfaces and accidental press when the user hovers a finger over the screen while searching
for the item to be selected.

However, certain features of infrared touch remain desirable and represent attributes of the ideal
touchscreen, including the option to eliminate the glass or plastic overlay that most other touch
technologies require in front of the display. In many cases, this overlay is coated with an
electrically conducting transparent material such as ITO, which reduces the optical quality of the
display. This advantage of optical touchscreen is extremely important for many device and display
vendors since devices are often sold on the perceived quality of the user display experience.

Another feature of infrared touch which has been long desired is the digital nature of the sensor
output when compared to many other touch systems that rely on analog-signal processing to
determine a touch position. These competing analog systems normally require continual

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recalibration, have a complex signal-processing demand (which adds cost and power
consumption), demonstrate reduced accuracy and precision compared to a digital system, and have
longer-term system-failure modes due to the operating environment.

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Comparison of touchscreen technologies

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4 Advantages
User friendly.
Fast response.
Error free input.
Easy to install.
Use finger, fingernail, gloved hand, stylus or any soft-tip pointer to operate.
Easy to clean and maintain.
Compatible with Windows, Macintosh and Linux.
Does not interfere mouse and keyboard function.
Make computing easy, powerful and fun.

5 Disadvantage
It has two types of problems

Finger stress
An ergonomic problem of touchscreen is their stress on human fingers when used for more
than a few minutes at a time, since significant pressure can be required for certain types of
touchscreen. This can be bared by some users with the use of a pen or other device for more
accurate pointing. However, the introduction of such items can sometimes be problematic
depending on the desired use case (for example, ATMs). Also, fine motor control is better
achieved with a stylus, because a finger is a rather broad and ambiguous point of contact with
the screen. Ordinary styluses do not work on capacitive touchscreen nor do fingers gloved in
insulating materials.
Fingerprints
Touchscreens can suffer from the problem of fingerprints on the display. This can be reduced
by the use of materials with optical coatings designed to reduce the visible effects of fingerprint
oils, such as the oleo phobic coating used in the iPhone 3G S, or by reducing skin contact by
using a fingernail or stylus.

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6 Application
Public Access

➢ Museums
➢ Library resource guides
➢ Corporate information
➢ Public Transportation Schedule / Status
➢ Airport terminal passenger internet and email systems
➢ Automated travel and entertainment ticket dispensers
➢ Shopping mall directory

Business

➢ Gas stations
➢ Point of sales
➢ Restaurants
➢ Grocery stores
➢ Hospital and hotel directories (check-in, registration)
➢ Banks and Financial Reporting
➢ Bank cash advance and teller machines
➢ Corporate presentation
➢ Employee relation information

Education

➢ Assistive technology
➢ Computer Aided Instruction for Children
➢ Edutainment
➢ Professional training and presentations
➢ Employee orientations

Entertainment

➢ Interactive computer games

➢ Casinos

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Government

➢ Government voting facilities

➢ Military control system

Scientific research lab Industry

➢ Industrial Equipment and Instrument Control

7 Conclusion
Twenty years ago, PC’s were just arriving on the scene and simple GUI interfaces were almost
unheard of. Designers strove to use touchscreen to simplify compute input commands for
largely unsophisticated computer users. The proliferation of touch-enabled self-service kiosks,
the conversion from cash registers to point of sale systems, and countless automotive, medical
training, and industrial products that use touchscreen as operator interfaces have validated
touch screen concept. Today, a larger share of population is PC literate, yet the touchscreen
has become adopted by computer users of all abilities because it is simple, fast, and innovative.
Today’s product designer or system integrator would be served to remember yesterday’s
technology adoption challenges and flexibly adopt new technological approaches if they wish
to solve today’s application challenges.

8 References
➢ HowStuffWorks
➢ MERL - Mitsubishi Electric Research Lab (MERL)'s research on interaction with touch
tables.
➢ Jefferson Y. Han et al. Multi-Touch Interaction Research. Multi-Input Touchscreen using
Frustrated Total Internal Reflection.
➢ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Touchscreen
➢ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Touchscreen

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