Touchscreen: The technology that revolutionised the way we live today!
Touchscreens, in various forms, can be seen in every aspect of our life now, beginning with smart phones. They can be found in your home on smart washing machines, refrigerators, televisions, iPads, and laptops too. Also, when you visit a bank, you will find a touchscreen ATM and an information kiosk. But who made the first touchscreen ever? In 1965, E.A Johnson came up with the first touchscreen variant that is still used today! Let’s read how it all began!
The world welcomes the first touchscreen technology
You have to admit that using a touchscreen is far more convenient than relying on an external device like a mouse to navigate a screen. It all started when E. A Johnson of the Royal Radar Establishment in England came up with the first touchscreen technology. His technology was used for air traffic control in the United Kingdom until 1995. Where do you think they are used now? On ATMs and ticketing machines! However, his invention could only read one touch at a time.
A new touch sensor and transparent touchscreen come into the picture
In 1971, George Samuel Hurst, a health physicist and professor of physics at the University of Kentucky, US accidentally designed a new type of sensor that revolutionised modern-day touchscreen technology. This was the first ever touch sensor known as Elograph. Nine friends from varying backgrounds built this in order to transform graphics into data. He also developed a touchscreen known as the EloTouch. It was not transparent, as it is today. Finding out the multiple functions of a touchscreen, Hurst eventually developed a transparent touchscreen, known as Accutouch. This one of the most widely used touch variants today.
Multi-touch screen is invented
In the meantime, other scientists also tried their hand in developing a similar technology. For example, Nimish Mehta from the University of Toronto created the first ‘multi-touch,’ screen in 1982 which employs a camera to communicate with the computer where the user touches the screen. However, in 1984, Bob Boie of America’s Bell Labs, made the true multitouch ‘capacitive screen’ that we all use today, a breakthrough in modern technology. You are scrolling up and down, zooming in and out, while reading this article easily because of Boise’s invention!
The first touchscreen laptops come into being
The company that made its first break in touchscreen laptop is none other than HP, the world’s most well-known laptop manufacturer. Hewlett-Packard, or HP, released its first personal computer, the HP-150, in 1983. This device employed a novel touch input system that included a grid of infrared emitters and detectors in the monitor’s bezel. The HP-150 could detect where the user was touching the screen when the infrared beam was interrupted.
As innovative as it may sound, the system had several flaws. However, HP was quick in its response and redesigned its computers to satisfy customers. Eventually, they released the HP touchscreen II in 1984, with the touchscreen being optional. After several trial-and-error rounds, HP has become one of the leading manufacturers of touchscreen laptops.
The first touchscreen phones introduced
Smartphones were first introduced in the 1990s. As computers shrank in size, tech companies began to see the potential of handheld devices. Apple was the first company to release a handheld device or personal digital assistant, the MessagePad or Newton in 1993. It used a stylus-friendly touchscreen and included a much-anticipated feature: Handwriting recognition! Exciting, right? However, the high price point and difficulties interpreting user writing prevented it from becoming successful.
During this time, tech giants IBM and BellSouth introduced the first smartphone to the world, called the Simon Personal Communicator! It came packed with advanced features such as a paging system, e-mail, an address book, a calculator and a stylus.
After a shaky start, Apple rose to prominence with its full touchscreen technology and released the crown jewel of all phones, the iPhone, in 2007. Ever since then, the use of touchscreens has grown manifold.
How does a touchscreen work?
The real question is how does a touchscreen function? To put it simply, a touchscreen is made up of three parts. First, the sensors under the surface are activated with touch. Next, the electrical current flowing through the sensors changes when the user touches them and alters the voltage. This change in voltage is what signals the second part ‘controller’ of the touch’s location. The third part ‘software’ then informs the device about what is going on. For example, who is touching what, and where is it being touched. The device then responds appropriately. And guess what, all these reactions take place in a fraction of a second!