Touch Screen Displays

Decan Dana
The American University of Iraq, Sulaimani
Kirkuk Main Road
Raparin, Sulaimani

Abstract Over the years touch screen displays have

progressed with the induction of smaller electronic
components while also allowing for far more advanced
types of touch screens to be developed. With the
advancements of touch screen technology to where they
are today, this paper will look to explain how the touch
screen displays have come to advance so rapidly in recent
years. I also will look to explain how the main types of
displays work, whether it be smaller mobile phone
displays or larger computer displays.
I.

1965

1972

1982

1983

1984

E.A Johnson
Touch Screen
PLATO
IV
Touch-Screen
Terminal
First
Multitouch
Device

Video Place

First
Multitouch
screen

Apple
Desktop Bus

1993

Simon
Personal
Communicator
Phone

1998

FingerWorks

2003

Multitouch
screen

2005

Lemur

2005

TactaPad

2007

iPhone

INTRODUCTION

Touch screen displays are a specially designed screen that

allows users to interact (whether using a stylus or fingers)
with the display. The display then reacts to the interaction
between the user and the display accordingly. Basic one touch
displays can be found at ATMs and kiosks as they are
relatively inexpensive in comparison to more advanced multi
touch displays or high definition touch displays.
History [1]
1948
The Electronic
Sackbut

1987

A
touch
sensitive
music
synthesizer. Consisted of a
keyboard while above it the
control board.
Touch technology that was used
by airport air traffic controllers
until the mid 90s.
The early 70s brought along the
PLATO IV terminal.
A video camera attached to a
computer allowing for a touch
tablet that was able to pick up on
multiple points that would have
been touched. This was founded
by Nimish Mehta from the
University of Toronto.
A gesture based optical system
produced that allowed for the
system to track hand movements
thus allowing it to understand the
gesture.
In 1984 the first multi touch
screen was developed at Bell
Labs, which allows users to
manipulate graphics with their
fingers.

ADB for short was an earlier

rendition of the current USB cable
which then allowed for the
multiple
devices
such
as
keyboards and mouses to be
connected at once to the computer
system.
IBM and BellSouth release the
first touch screen phone that
allowed the phone to have an on
screen calendar, scheduler, a
pager, address book, calculator
and a pen-based sketchpad within
the phone.
Fingerworks
launched
the
iGesture Pad, an earlier but
similar rendition to Apples
trackpad. Fingerworks. John Elias
and Wayne Westerman cofounded Fingerworks whereon in
2005 Apple computers brought
out Fingerworks.
Three friends from France design
and create a multitouch screen
that was able to track various
numbers of fingers that came in
contact to the screen.
The three friends later went and
produced a company, JazzMutant,
in which they later released the
first
transparent
multitouch
screen. The Lemur was a music
controller with a multitouch
interface that allowed for a direct
touch to manipulate interface.
Used tactile responses to actions
like that of a stiff buzzing
sensation
when
disabling.
Through a camera, the hand
movements were displayed while
at the same time the touch pad
gave the tactile responses to the
user.
Apple launches the Apple iPhone,
which was the first successful
release of a touch screen
smartphone. Allowed for a
simplistic design as well as
intuitive multi touch abilities

2010

iPad

allowing users various gestures

such as pinch-to-zoom pictures
and maps.
After the success of the iPhone,
the iPad was a larger everyday
computing device launched by
Apple allowing for the users to
have a mobile computer that
worked mainly using the touch
screen display. It allowed for
watching films and videos,
playing games, sending and
receiving e-mails to become a
much simpler task.

Fig. 2 Simon Communicator Phone,

http://www.npr.org/2011/12/23/144185699/timeline-ahistory-of-touch-screen-technology
II.

APPLICATION

Touch screen displays have been adapted to various

industries depending on the needs of that industry and how
they will use it. Aerospace, telecommunications, construction
are a few to mention. Industries such as construction require
their screens to be versatile and intrinsically safe.
Over the course of decades leading up to the recent
advances in touch screen displays, it is notable to see that
displays have become more touch sensitive while the images
shown on the display have become more vibrant and to a
much better quality. Screens like Apples Retina or Samsungs
Super AMOLED display, allowing for picture quality of over
326 PPI and 441 PPI (Pixels per inch) respectively. This
translates to eye popping picture quality. More recently
Samsung and LG have released their new line of flexible
displays on smartphones, Samsung round and LG G Flex.

Fig. 1 Apple Desktop Bus,

http://www.npr.org/2011/12/23/144185699/timeline-ahistory-of-touch-screen-technology

Fig. 3 LG G Flex mobile phone,

http://regmedia.co.uk/2013/10/28/lg_g_flex.jpg

can be processed and analysed by a computer. These include

the use of multi touch, holding the screen or tapping on it.
This controller is a printed circuit board (PCB). [3]
The final main component is a software driver which allows
the information from the controller to be computed and
recognised by the computer as an input from the screen. This
driver will process the data from the controller and thus relay
the result of the touched area of the screen to the system
accordingly.
Resistive screens
One of the types of touch screen displays used commonly is
a resistive screen. This type of screen is fairly inexpensive to
produce. Unlike a capacitive displays which only has a glass
screen, resistive displays have a layer of flexible material over
the glass screen. This material that covers the main glass is
usually susceptible to scratches. The flexible material used is
usually made from polyester, which is not the most durable of
materials and is prone to damages. [4]
The process in which a resistive screen works is a fairly
straight forward one. The two layers of are composed of a
glass bottom layer with the top plastic (polyester) layer. When
contact is made with the plastic layer, the film is pushed onto
the glass layer allowing for the circuit to be completed. The
glass and plastic film are each covered with a grid of electrical
conductors. These can be fine metal wires, but more often
they are made of a thin film of transparent conductor material.
In most cases, this material is indium tin oxide (ITO). The
electrodes on the two layers run at right angles to each other:
parallel conductors run in one direction on the glass sheet and
at right angles to those on the plastic film. [5] At the point of
contact, the voltage within the closed circuit is measured. This
ultimately leads to finding the X, Y axis points within the
screen. A converter is used produce a digital signal that can be
read by the controller. [6]
Some draw backs of a resistive display are that is has no
multi touch capability (pinch to zoom function), while also
having poor visibility in direct sunlight situations.

Fig. 4 Samsung Round mobile phone,

http://asset1.cbsistatic.com/cnwk.1d/i/tim2/2013/10/08/Galax
yRound_610x382.png

Fig. 5 Samsungs Flexible OLED panel,

http://static.knowyourmobile.com/sites/knowyourmobilecom/f
iles/styles/gallery_wide/public/samsung_youm.jpg?itok=C2IU
IyV9
These new revolutionary flexible touch screen displays
open the market up to new forms of innovative designs and
even new forms of hardware centred around the capability of
the display to be flexible.

III.

VARIOUS TYPES

Over time, various touch screens have been designed and

introduced into the market. Of course each bringing with it its
own pros and cons, but the main three screen types that have
been found on mobile phones are: Resistive and Capacitive.
[2]
Components of a touch screen
Although many touch screens nowadays work in various
different methods and have somewhat of a different structure
when put together, the basic components of each touch screen
remain the same whether it is a capacitive or resistive touch
screen.
The first component would be the actual touch screen
sensor. This usually consists of a panel of durable glass that
has been specially designed and configured to be responsive
to touch. The actual method in which it reacts to touch
changes from the different types of touch screens.
A controller is another main component within a touch
screen display allowing for the information taken from the
touch screen to be read and converted into information that

Fig. 6 Resistive touch screen technology,

http://www.dawar.com/touch-screen-tools

Capacitive Touch Screens are an all-glass construction with

greater than 9H Surface hardness able to withstand over 300
million touches. A transparent conductive ITO coating is
evenly distributed over both sides of a glass substrate. An
electrode pattern is precisely printed around the perimeter of
the glass to accurately generate an alternating current over the
top conductive layer. The touch of a conductive probe draws
the current to the specific point of contact. The controller then
calculates the location of the touch by evaluating the flow of
current from each corner. This flow of current is proportional
to the distance to the touch. The ITO coating on the back of
the glass functions as a shield to protect against ESD and
outside interference. [8]

Capacitive screens
Projected capacitive display (p-cap or pro-cap) is a
moderately priced screen when it comes to production costs.
Unlike resistive displays, it only has a glass screen rather than
a flexible material over it. This display allows for the multi
touch functionality which allows the user to use more than
one finger on the screen at the same time. In comparison to
the resistive display, a capacitive display is far more durable.
They do not allow scratches as easily as the resistive displays
did nor are they prone to the screen wearing down. The only
major damage that can be caused to the display is that of a
high impact hit to the display that will shatter it. If a
capacitive screen is brought into direct sunlight is will
perform well as the visibility is reasonably good in
comparison to that of a resistive displays. [7]
A capacitive display works on the basis that currents are
flowing constantly through the screen in an even manner. The
currents are being produced from the corners of the display.
Once a finger touches the screen, this changes the flow of
currents and from this the controller is able to work out
precisely where the touch has been made. This is also
beneficial since if more than one finger touches the display,
the controller is able to pick it up and act on that touch
accordingly.

IV.

CONCLUSION

Touch screen display technology have come a long way

from their initial production. They are much more widely used
nowadays due to the ease of production and how inexpensive
it is for the consumer to purchase them. You can clearly see
the growth in touch screen displays nowadays in comparison
to that of 10 years ago by simply looking at the types of
mobile phone devices they use. A decade ago, touch screen
displays would have been something only seen in sci-fi
movies, but nowadays regular mobile phones with physical
buttons are very much a rarity, being replaced by all touch
screen mobile phones.
With the introduction of flexible displays, the possibilities
are boundless. We can see the likes of foldable displays on
mobiles phones that are not bounded by a solid phone
structure. With this it is also worth noting that even though
touch screens have become less expensive, they are more
precise and offer a much better quality image than that of
previous generations. As mentioned above with the likes of
super AMOLED and Retina displays, we will be seeing the
introduction of 4K displays that have a much higher resolution
to that of the current HD displays that show images in 1020p.
Screens are getting smaller and thinner thus when installed
onto modern day mobile phones, it allows for the reduced size
and weight of the device.
With smartphones being more readily used nowadays,
touch screen displays will be seen in more households than
ever before. With the need to innovate between competitors
such as Apple and Samsung, this will spur on the evolution of
the touch screen display further.

Fig. 7 Capacitive touch screen technology,

http://www.dawar.com/touch-screen-tools

REFERENCES

[1] N. Cohen, Timeline: A history of touch-screen

technology, available at http://www.npr.org
[2] Cricket wireless, How does a touchscreen phone
work?, available at
http://www.mycricket.com/community/sites/all/uploads/i
mages/the_411/infographics/How_Does_a_Touchscreen_
Work.jpg
[3] Dawar Technologies, Touch Screen Basics, in How
touch screens work, available at
http://www.dawar.com/touch-screen-tools

Fig. 8 Capacitive touch screen layers,

http://www.dawar.com/touch-screen-tools

[4] Cricket wireless, How does a touchscreen phone

work?, available at
http://www.mycricket.com/community/sites/all/uploads/i
mages/the_411/infographics/How_Does_a_Touchscreen_
Work.jpg
[5] A. Poor, How it works: The technology of touch
screens, pp. 1, available at
https://www.computerworld.com
[6] A. Poor, How it works: The technology of touch
screens, pp. 1, available at
https://www.computerworld.com
[7] Cricket wireless, How does a touchscreen phone
work?, available at
http://www.mycricket.com/community/sites/all/uploads/i
mages/the_411/infographics/How_Does_a_Touchscreen_
Work.jpg
[8] Dawar Technologies, Touch Screen Basics, in How
touch screens work, available at https://www.dawar.com