{"id":1791,"date":"2013-04-18T10:10:17","date_gmt":"2013-04-18T14:10:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.nccomputertech.com\/?p=1791"},"modified":"2013-04-18T10:10:17","modified_gmt":"2013-04-18T14:10:17","slug":"how-todays-touchscreen-tech-put-the-world-at-our-fingertips","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2013\/04\/18\/how-todays-touchscreen-tech-put-the-world-at-our-fingertips\/","title":{"rendered":"How today\u2019s touchscreen tech put the world at our fingertips"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"article-content clearfix\">\n<figure class=\"intro-image image center full-width\" style=\"width:640px;\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cdn.arstechnica.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/touch-phone-home.jpg?resize=640%2C360\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" \/><figcaption class=\"caption\">\n<div class=\"caption-byline\">Aurich Lawson \/ Thinkstock<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<aside class=\"related-stories\">\n<h2 class=\"subheading notched\">The Past, Present, and Future of Touch<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/arstechnica.com\/gadgets\/2013\/04\/from-touch-displays-to-the-surface-a-brief-history-of-touchscreen-technology\/\">From touch displays to the Surface: A brief history of touchscreen technology<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"http:\/\/arstechnica.com\/feature-series\/the-future-of-touch\/\">View all\u2026<\/a><\/span><br \/>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Welcome back to our three-part series on touchscreen technology. <a href=\"http:\/\/arstechnica.com\/gadgets\/2013\/04\/from-touch-displays-to-the-surface-a-brief-history-of-touchscreen-technology\/\">Last time<\/a>, Florence Ion walked you through the technology&#8217;s past, from the invention of the first touchscreens in the 1960s all the way up through the mid-2000s. During this period, different versions of the technology appeared in everything from PCs to early cell phones to personal digital assistants like Apple&#8217;s Newton and the Palm Pilot. But all of these gadgets proved to be little more than a tease, a prelude to the main event. In this second part in our series, we&#8217;ll be talking about touchscreens in the here-and-now.<br \/>\nWhen you think about touchscreens today, you probably think about smartphones and tablets, and for good reason. The <a href=\"http:\/\/arstechnica.com\/apple\/2012\/06\/who-needs-an-app-store-five-years-of-iphone\/\">2007 introduction of the iPhone<\/a> kicked off a transformation that turned a couple of niche products\u2014smartphones and tablets\u2014into billion-dollar industries. The current fierce competition from software like Android and Windows Phone (as well as hardware makers like Samsung and a host of others) means that new products are being introduced at a frantic pace.<br \/>\nThe screens themselves are just one of the driving forces that makes these devices possible (and successful). Ever-smaller, ever-faster chips allow a phone to do things only a heavy-duty desktop could do just a decade or so ago, something we&#8217;ve discussed in detail <a href=\"http:\/\/arstechnica.com\/gadgets\/2013\/04\/the-pc-inside-your-phone-a-guide-to-the-system-on-a-chip\/\">elsewhere<\/a>. The software that powers these devices is more important, though. Where older tablets and PDAs required a stylus or interaction with a cramped physical keyboard or trackball to use, mobile software has adapted to be better suited to humans&#8217; native pointing device\u2014the larger, clumsier, but much more <i>convenient<\/i> finger.<\/p>\n<h2>The foundation: capacitive multitouch<\/h2>\n<figure class=\"image right medium\" style=\"width:300px;\"><a class=\"enlarge\" href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cdn.arstechnica.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/iphone-rev-2.jpg\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cdn.arstechnica.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/iphone-rev-2-300x419.jpg?resize=300%2C419\" width=\"300\" height=\"419\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"caption\">\n<div class=\"caption-text\"><a class=\"enlarge\" href=\"http:\/\/cdn.arstechnica.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/iphone-rev-2.jpg\">Enlarge<\/a> <span class=\"sep\">\/<\/span> Many layers come together to form a delicious touchscreen sandwich.<\/div>\n<div class=\"caption-byline\"><a class=\"caption-link\" href=\"http:\/\/electronics.howstuffworks.com\/iphone2.htm\">How Stuff Works<\/a><\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Most successful touch devices in the last five or so years have had one thing in common: a capacitive touchscreen capable of detecting multiple inputs at once. In this way, interacting with a brand-new phone like <a href=\"http:\/\/arstechnica.com\/gadgets\/2013\/03\/where-we-go-from-the-top-hands-on-with-samsungs-galaxy-s-4\/\">Samsung&#8217;s Galaxy S 4<\/a> is the same as interacting with the original <a href=\"http:\/\/arstechnica.com\/apple\/2007\/07\/iphone-review\/\">2007-model iPhone<\/a>. The list of differences between the two is otherwise about as long as your arm, but the two are built upon that same foundation.<br \/>\nWe discussed some early capacitive touchscreens in our <a href=\"http:\/\/arstechnica.com\/gadgets\/2013\/04\/from-touch-displays-to-the-surface-a-brief-history-of-touchscreen-technology\/\">last piece<\/a>, but the modern capacitive touchscreen as used in your phone or tablet is a bit different in its construction. It is composed of several layers: on the top, you&#8217;ve got a layer of plastic or glass meant to cover up the rest of the assembly. This layer is normally made out of something thin and scratch-resistant, like <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Gorilla_Glass\">Corning&#8217;s Gorilla Glass<\/a>, to help your phone survive a ride in your pocket with your keys and come out unscathed.\u00a0Underneath this is a capacitive layer that conducts a very small amount of electricity, which is layered on top of another, thinner layer of glass. Underneath all of this is the LCD panel itself. When your finger, a natural electrical conductor, touches the screen, it interferes with the capacitive layer&#8217;s electrical field. That data is passed to a controller chip that registers the location (and, often, pressure) of the touch and tells the operating system to respond accordingly.<br \/>\nThis arrangement by itself can only accurately detect one touch point at a time\u2014try to touch the screen in two different locations and the controller will interpret the location of the touch incorrectly or not at all. To register multiple distinct touch points, the capacitive layer needs to include two separate layers\u2014one using &#8220;transmitter&#8221; electrodes and one using &#8220;receiver&#8221; electrodes. These lines of electrodes run perpendicular to each other and form a grid over the device&#8217;s screen. When your finger touches the screen, it interferes with the electric signal between the transmitter and receiver electrodes.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"image center full full-width\" style=\"width:635px;\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cdn.arstechnica.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/Screen-Shot-2013-04-12-at-4.42.04-AM.png?resize=635%2C325\" width=\"635\" height=\"325\" \/><figcaption class=\"caption\">\n<div class=\"caption-text\">When your finger, a conductor of electricity, touches the screen, it interferes with the electric field that the transmitter electrodes are sending to the receiver electrodes, which registers to the device as a &#8220;touch.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div class=\"caption-byline\"><a class=\"caption-link\" href=\"http:\/\/ww1.microchip.com\/downloads\/en\/DeviceDoc\/93064A.pdf\">Microchip Technology (PDF)<\/a><\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Because of the grid arrangement, the controller can accurately place more than one touch input at once\u2014most phones and tablets today support between two and ten simultaneous points of contact at a time. The multitouch surfaces of the screens allow for more complex gestures like pinching to zoom or rotating an image. Navigating through a mobile operating system is something we take for granted now, but it isn&#8217;t possible without the screen&#8217;s ability to recognize multiple simultaneous touches.<br \/>\nThese basic building blocks are still at the foundation of smartphones, tablets, and touch-enabled PCs now, but the technology has evolved and improved steadily since the first modern smartphones were introduced. Special screen coatings, sometimes called &#8220;oleophobic&#8221; (or, literally, afraid of oil), have been added to the top glass layer to help screens resist fingerprints and smudges. These even make the smudges that <i>do<\/i> blight your screen a bit easier to wipe off. Corning has released two new updates to its original Gorilla Glass concept that have made the glass layer thinner while increasing its scratch-resistance. Finally, &#8220;in-cell&#8221; technology has embedded the capacitive touch layer in the LCD itself, further reducing the overall thickness and complexity of the screens.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"image center full-width\" style=\"width:635px;\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cdn.arstechnica.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/Screen-Shot-2013-04-12-at-4.42.28-AM.png?resize=635%2C250\" width=\"635\" height=\"250\" \/><figcaption class=\"caption\">\n<div class=\"caption-text\">Using the coordinates from this grid of electrodes, the device can accurately detect the location of multiple touches at once.<\/div>\n<div class=\"caption-byline\"><a class=\"caption-link\" href=\"http:\/\/ww1.microchip.com\/downloads\/en\/DeviceDoc\/93064A.pdf\">Microchip Technology (PDF)<\/a><\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>None of these changes have been as fundamentally important as the original multipoint capacitive touchscreen, but they&#8217;ve enabled thinner, lighter phones with more room for batteries and other internal components.<br \/>\nFull Story: <a href=\"http:\/\/arstechnica.com\/gadgets\/2013\/04\/its-just-a-little-touch-how-todays-tech-put-the-world-at-your-finger\/\" target=\"_blank\">Ars Technica<\/a>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Aurich Lawson \/ Thinkstock The Past, Present, and Future of Touch From touch displays to the Surface: A brief history [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3,10],"tags":[987,1065,1097],"class_list":["post-1791","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hardware","category-technology","tag-smartphones","tag-tablets","tag-touchscreen"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/papNkV-sT","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7141,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2014\/12\/16\/this-week-in-computer-hardware-295-samsung-850-evo-tested\/","url_meta":{"origin":1791,"position":0},"title":"This Week in Computer Hardware 295: Samsung 850 EVO Tested","author":"NCCT","date":"December 16, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Hosts:Patrick Norton Why does Windows have auto-correct for touchscreen keyboard? ASUS Maximus VII Impact motherboard review, NZXT H440 Mid-Tower enclosure review, Samsung EVO 120GB and 500GB RAID review, Steam Broadcasting introduced to Steam Client (BETA), Samsung Gear VR, and more! Guest:Robert Heron","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Hardware&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Hardware","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/category\/hardware\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9166,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2017\/05\/15\/this-week-in-tech-614-46-at-the-piggly-wiggly\/","url_meta":{"origin":1791,"position":1},"title":"This Week in Tech 614: $46 at the Piggly Wiggly","author":"NCCT","date":"May 15, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=d3Br2lZcce0 The WannaCry ransomware attack is far from over. Amazon introduces the Echo Show - will the touchscreen voice assistant\/videophone flop? Microsoft announces their own voice assistant, the Cortana Speaker. The US plans to ban laptops on flights from Europe. Comcast and Charter agree not to compete on wireless. Russian\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Security&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Security","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/category\/security\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/d3Br2lZcce0\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2978,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2013\/07\/18\/microsoft-the-desktop-ui-will-never-go-away-completely\/","url_meta":{"origin":1791,"position":2},"title":"Microsoft: The desktop UI will never go away completely","author":"NCCT","date":"July 18, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Microsoft's launch of Windows 8 in 2012 introduced the PC world to its Modern user interface, made mostly for touchscreen display interactions. Many PC users, however, still interact with Windows 8 primarily with the traditional desktop UI. You might think that Microsoft would like to do away with the desktop\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Microsoft&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Microsoft","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/category\/microsoft\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5545,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2014\/05\/14\/microsoft-extends-windows-8-1-update-deadline\/","url_meta":{"origin":1791,"position":3},"title":"Microsoft extends Windows 8.1 Update deadline","author":"NCCT","date":"May 14, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"When Microsoft launched Windows 8.1 Update last month, the company noted that current Windows 8.1 users would need to download and install the update by May 13 (tomorrow) in order to be eligible to receive future patches. Unfortunately, a number of Windows 8.1 users ran into issues almost immediately while\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Microsoft&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Microsoft","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/category\/microsoft\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5717,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2014\/06\/11\/windows-8-1-users-wont-receive-any-more-patches-unless-spring-update-is-installed\/","url_meta":{"origin":1791,"position":4},"title":"Windows 8.1 users won&#8217;t receive any more patches unless spring update is installed","author":"NCCT","date":"June 11, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Microsoft is staying true to a promise it delivered all the way back in April: Windows 8.1 users who have yet to install the Windows 8.1 Update released this spring won\u2019t be able to download today\u2019s Patch Tuesday updates\u2014or any future Patch Tuesday updates\u2014until they get around to upgrading their\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Microsoft&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Microsoft","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/category\/microsoft\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6704,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2014\/10\/27\/this-week-in-tech-481-good-touch-bad-touch\/","url_meta":{"origin":1791,"position":5},"title":"This Week in Tech 481: Good Touch, Bad Touch","author":"NCCT","date":"October 27, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Hosts: Leo Laporte, Philip Elmer-DeWitt, Dave Hamilton, and Ben Thompson Tim Cook talks user data protection with Chinese Vice Premier, CVS and Rite Aid disabling NFC in stores to block Apple Pay and Google Wallet, Apple iTunes' music sales take a dive, Roku, considers an IPO, Ello raises $5.5 million,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Technology&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Technology","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/category\/technology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1791","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1791"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1791\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}