Touch Screens: A Historical Overview of Development and Adoption

The concept of touch screens and early prototypes date back to the mid-20th century.
While there isn't a single inventor credited with the invention of touch screens, several
individuals and teams contributed to the development and advancement of this
technology over time.

Here are some key milestones in the evolution of touch screen technology:

1. E.A. Johnson: In 1965, E.A. Johnson, a British engineer, filed a patent for a
touchscreen device that used capacitive touch sensing. This technology became
the basis for modern capacitive touch screens, which detect touch by measuring
changes in capacitance.
2. George Samuel Hurst: In 1971, George Samuel Hurst developed the first resistive
touchscreen while working at the Royal Radar Establishment in the United
Kingdom. Resistive touch screens detect touch by measuring pressure applied to
the screen's surface.
3. CERN: In the early 1970s, researchers at CERN (the European Organization for
Nuclear Research) developed a touch screen interface for controlling and
interacting with their computer systems.
4. HP: In 1982, Hewlett-Packard released the HP-150, one of the first commercially
available computers to feature a touchscreen interface. This helped popularize
touch screen technology in consumer electronics.
5. University of Toronto: In the late 1980s and early 1990s, researchers at the
University of Toronto developed the first multi-touch touchscreen, which allowed
for more complex gestures and interactions with the screen.
6. IBM: IBM continued to advance touch screen technology in the 1980s and 1990s,
developing various types of touch screens for different applications, including
resistive, capacitive, and surface acoustic wave (SAW) touch screens.
7. Apple: In 2007, Apple introduced the iPhone, which featured a capacitive
multi-touch screen that revolutionized the smartphone industry. The success of
the iPhone helped popularize touch screen technology in mobile devices and
paved the way for future innovations in touch interfaces.