How Do Touch Screens Work
Touch screens are gaining importance in everyday life. These screens can be found in various electronic gadgets like mobile phones, Tablet PCs, car navigation devices etc. A lot of ticket vending machines, bank ATMs etc. also include a touch screen user interface. Since the technology used in touch screens is becoming cheaper, more and more gadgets in future would include a touch screen interface.
Anyone who has used a touch screen phone would agree that touch screens provide almost ubiquitous interface with electronic devices. Touch screens work like magic, understanding touch like humans do. Have you ever thought, how all this is made possible? The following points provide a brief explanation.
Touch screens mainly consists of three modules, namely, touch sensor, controller and software driver.
Touch Sensor:
As the name suggests the touch sensor is a responsive surface which senses the touch. The display of the device is normally covered with the touch sensor, which has electric current flowing through it. The touch causes a change in voltage, showing the location of the touch. The touch screen is an input device so it is placed in some kind of casing which forms the outermost perimeter of the touch screen device.
Controller:
The controller is the brain of a touch screen system. When the sensor determines the location of the touch within the touch screen, a controller converts these signals into computer commands. These controllers can either be integrated with the touch screens, as done in most of the touch screen mobile phones, or installed as a separate unit. The controllers in touch screen kiosks operate as stand alone units and communicate via standard serial or USB ports with a computer.
Software driver:
The software driver forms an interface between the touch screen controller and the computer. The driver receives the commands from the controller and converts them to usable computer operations. Similarly, the software driver sends commands to controller to perform operations that are requested by the computer.
The combination of all these modules makes the touch screen function in a way we see in phones and other electronic equipments.
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