1. The Recent Advancement And Application Of Touch Screen Technology Touch screen technology is the direct manipulation type gesture based technology. Direct manipulation is the ability to manipulate digital world inside a screen without the use of command-line-commands. A device which works on touchscreen technology is coined as Touchscreen. A touchscreen is an electronic visual display capable of ‘detecting’ and effectively ‘locating’ a touch over its display area. It is sensitive to the touch of a human finger, hand, pointed finger nail and passive objects like stylus. Users can simply move things on the screen, scroll them, make them bigger and many more.

2. The first ever touch screen was developed by E.A Johnson at the Royal Radar Establishment, Malvern, UK in the late 1960s. Evidently, the first touchscreen was a capacitive type; the one widely used in smart phones nowadays. In 1971, a milestone to touchscreen technology was developed by Doctor Sam Hurst, an instructor at the University of Kentucky Research Foundation. It was a touch sensor named ‘Elograph’. Later in 1974, Hurst in association with his company Elographics came up with the first real touchscreen featuring a transparent surface. In 1977, Elographics developed and patented a resistive touch screen technology, one of the most popular touch screen technologies in use today. Ever since then, touchscreen displays are widely used in computers, user interactive machines, public kiosks, point of sale applications, gaming consoles, PDAs, Smartphone, tablets, etc. For just about 40 years now, touch screen technology had been around. Since the early days of this technology, progress have come at a very quick pace. At the moment they are used in every day life, with loads of uses. Touch screens are used by most people nearly every day today. They are getting more and more common at the moment, with items such as ATM bank machines and the state of the art ipad. No need to use a pen to control the graphical user interface presently either. These ipads are truly portable, as they do not need a mouse or keyboard to control them. These touch screens can now sense more than one point of contact at a time, with it’s multi touch technology.

3. Touch screens are a visual display that can sense the presence and location of pressure with the display area. Smart phones, all in one computers and lots more products have this form of technology incorporated. With direct interaction with the screen, it is certainly easier then having to use a mouse or keyboard. Touch screen technology is incorporated in navigation units today. The Pioneer avh-p4200dvd is an in-dash receiver that uses this technology. It has loads of features, that can be accessed by simply touching the screen. Decide what you wish to do on the system by simply touching the function on the menu page, this will take you to that functions settings. Radio with a super tuner and presets are included, CD player to play all of your music, DVD player to play movies. These fit straight into your dashboard, and are getting more and more common recently. The navigation system gets you to your destination positively easily. It will direct you to your destination turn by turn, once you have programmed final zip code or place name. Display images on these screens can be in 2D or 3D, that gives you a birds eye view of the area. You can make and receive phone calls, hands free with it’s built in bluetooth technology. An awesome feature, as nowadays the police are clamping down drivers who use there cell phones whilst at the wheel

4. Rapid technological advancements which started during the industrial revolution are now regarded as the most potent instrument in environmental developments. In fact, the invention of computer paved the way to the emergence of other electronic gadgets which are used by today’s generation. As it has been inculcated in our mind, computers really help us accomplish variety of things in least possible time. It is apparent that all societal and environmental sectors use computers in almost all of their transactions since according to an article; computers are ubiquitous and that they find a wide variety of applications in different spheres of life. In the fast moving life of the modern world of today, another advancement has been introduced which according to the Wikipedia, plays a prominent role in the design of digital appliances such as the personal digital assistant (PDA), satellite navigation devices, mobile phones, and video games. This advancement is what we know, the Touchscreen technology. Mary Bellis, the author of the article Touchscreen, stated that touchscreen is one of the easiest to use and most intuitive of all interfaces, making it the interface of choice for a wide variety of applications. This technology is defined as an electronic visual display that can detect the presence and location of a touch within the display area

5. TYPES OF TOUCH SCREEN TECHNOLOGY Resistive The resistive system is one of the prevalent systems used in detecting a person’s touch in the world of touch screen devices. In this, the resistive panel is consists of several layers in which the two opposing ones are electrically conductive and metallic. Insulating dots which are transparent and very small serve as the space of the two essential layers. When a finger or a stylus touches the screen specifically on the conductive outer surface of it, the primary layer flexes towards the inner layers making the opposed layers to link up. The pressure of the outer layer to the inner ones lets the electric current runs through producing outputs. These outputs cause the environment of electric field to change which registers a touch event. Marking up the said change followed by the determining of the coordinates of the touch location are executed. If the coordinates are already calculated, then a registered touch will be translated by a controller and be processed.

6. Capacitive The capacitive system is also a common system used in touch screen technologies like of the resistive system. In this, the capacitive touch screen has an insulating glass panel transparently coated with a conductive material like indium tin oxide. This panel also consists a two-layer grid of electrodes and an integrated circuit(IC) in the opposed side of the panel that are being connected. The upper layer and the lower layer include vertical electrode strips and a horizontal electrode strips for the latter. Both these two said electrodes are used by the IC in calculating their mutual capacitance when a finger touches the screen. Not by the pressure of the outer surface but because a change of the electrostatic field has occurred for the fact that a finger has a dielectric properties. As the screen detects a touch, some of the charge is diverted to the person who did the event that makes a potential difference on the screen letting the controller to distinguish the location of the touch. As the location is determined, the system will translate the touch event to the desired output of the user.

7. Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW) This type of technology came in existence in the late 90's and uses sound waves to detect the position you have pressed. The screen used in a Surface-Wave touch technology has a glass overlay with transmitting and receiving piezoelectric transducers for both X and Y axes designed for sending and reflecting back sound waves. Ultrasonic sound waves which too high pitched for human to hear, pass over the touchscreen panel and are generated at the edges of the screen and reflected back and forth. Whenever the panel is touched, a portion of the wave is absorbed. This sound beam interruption registers the position of the touch event and sends information to the controller for processing. `The user's finger absorbs some of the acoustic wave and the microchip controller figures out the exact location of where the event occurred. The pure glass construction of Surface-Wave touch technologies provides superior image clarity, resolution and higher light transmission. However, since it cannot be sealed, it can easily be affected by contaminants and water disallowing to be used in EX-zones especially in oil industry. “Dead” spots would then be created if these technologies would be exposed to contaminants for these will absorb their acoustic waves.

8. Infrared Infrared touchscreen technology is based on “legacy” technology and is increasingly replaced by Capacitive and Resistive touch systems. This touchscreen technology relies on an array of Infrared (IR) light emitting diodes (LED) on two adjacent bezel edges of a display which also contains phototransistors, each mounted on two opposite sides to create a grid of invisible light. When the display screen is touched, the light beams would then be obstructed causing the decrease in the amount of light in a corresponding photosensor. The measured photosensor outputs would then be the bases of the x and y coordinate of the touch event. Infrared touchscreens are usually used in medical and manufacturing areas because of its property to be sealed and covered with hard or soft materials. Another desirable feature of touchscreen is the digital nature of the sensor it uses unlike other touchscreen systems that rely on analog-processing system to sense and locate touch events making it more accurate and precise. However, the spread of this technology has been hindered by two factors: the high cost of manufacturing bezel and the issue of performance under bright ambient light. In addition, the seating of its touch frame is slightly above the screen causing its susceptibility in early activation before the actual touch in the surface.

9. Projected Capacitance Projected Capacitive Touch (PCT) technology is a capacitive technology that uses embedded microfine wires within a glass laminate composite. Each wire has a diameter of about one third of a human hair making it almost invisible to human eye when projected in a powered display. It permits more accurate and flexible operation by etching the conductive layer. This type of technology produce X-Y array by etching a single layer to form a grid pattern of electrodes, or by etching two separate, perpendicular layers of conductive material with parallel lines or tracks to form the grid. When voltage is applied to the array, grid of capacitors would then be established. Furthermore, oscillation frequency is produced by each wire which is connected to an integrated controller board. When part of the screen is touched, change of electrostatic field occurs which results in a measurable oscillation frequency change in the wires surrounding the touch point. The integrated controller will be responsible of calculating the new capacitive values then it will be transmitted to a host controller. The sensor contact point will be translated to an absolute screen position by software. Since PCT uses grids, it has a higher resolution compared to the resistive technology and it allows multi-operation. Even if without direct contact, this can still operate effectively because of its resolution; thus, permitting conducting layers to be coated with insulating materials and screen protectors, or behind weather and vandal- proof glass.

10. Dispersive Signal Technology (DST) Dispersive Signal Technology is said to be developed for interactive signage application and was introduced in around 2002. It also sets new large- format touch standard for fast, accurate repeatable touch. This type technology of uses an extra layer of sensor enabled specially-designed glass, which responds for finger and pen touches. DST determines the touch point by calculating the location the “shock” or mechanical energy (bending waves) the motion creates within a glass substrate. The distance from the sensor determines the extent the signal is dispersed. Namely, the further away the “touch point” is from the sensor, the more signal is smeared. This innovation utilizes algorithms which can interpret these chaotic series of waves and the precise location of the touch location providing a highly accurate and sensitive solution.

11. Strain-gauge Strain-gauge is a device used to measure the strain thatoccurs in an object. It is consists of a foil of resistive characteristics, which is safely mounted on backing material. The foil’s resistance alters consequently when aknown amount of stress is subjected to the resistive foil. Thus, this device was used to measure the deflection of touch event in a touch screen. This pressure sensor is placed at the four corners of the display device. A touch in the display event would be converted to force in the platform’s base corners. The ratio of the four readings would then specify the touch point coordinate which is calculated by the platform’s controller. This controller detects static forces such as gravity and repetitive force like that of vibration. This type of technology does not utilize panel construction, enhancing the visibility of display. Typically, this is commonly used in public places such as ATM machines and ticket machines due to its resistance to damage.

12. ADVANTAGES 1. Touch screen gadgets usually have simple user interfaces, which are more intuitive. 2. Touch screen devices have fewer buttons which means no more buttons falling off. 3. It is so direct. Using your fingers or a pen is very hands on, and manipulating objects on the screen is very similar to manipulating them in the manual world. 4. Intuitively easy to use. 5. Without a keypad or mouse attached, touch screen devices provide a much larger display. It also saves desk space since its screen acts as both input and output. 6. Functions for touch screen devices are novice oriented. 7. When you particularly touch the screen to run a specific application, it displays and easily adapts to the current application. No other unnecessary buttons are displayed. 8. At a single touch or two, it displays a different interface which suits the user’s need.

13. DISADVANTAGES 1. Mostly touch screen devices means screen cannot be read too well in direct sunlight. 2. Touch screen devices usually have no additional keys such as end keys. For instance, when your device or an application crashes, you are not able to return to the main menu since the screen becomes unresponsive. 3. Touch screens are not super precise because it cannot immediately and accurately detect the position of a touch. 4. The screen can get dirty easily from finger prints andsweat. 5. Mostly touch screen devices such as laptops and cell phones are fragile. 6. Have to look to touch or requires full attention when making use of it. 7. Touch screen devices have mostly low battery life.