:Image:IPhone_Release_-_Seattle_(keyboard) cro...
Image via Wikipedia

A touchscreen is an input device that allows users to operate a PC by simply touching the display screen.  Touchscreens are increasingly visible in our society as the popularity of PDAs, GPS units, mobile phones, and portable gaming devices such as the Nintendo DS rise.  To further simplify navigation, the touchscreen only displays options that are relevant to the task.  There’s certainly been some thought going into the subject at Cupertino, as Apple has filed various patents showing ways in which a touchscreen interface can be employed in computers, not just in handheld devices.  Touchscreen component manufacturing and product design are no longer encumbered by royalties or legalities with regard to patents and the manufacturing of touchscreen-enabled displays on all kinds of devices is widespread.  Virtually all of the significant touchscreen technology patents were filed during the 1970s and 1980s and have expired.In the past two decades, touchscreens have rapidly changed from only sensing on/off at a single point to the now common multi-touch sensors that can process multiple contact points and often integrate analog pressure control, roviding the ability to detect how hard the user is pressing the screen.  A touchscreen is a display that allows a user to interact directly with the on-screen contents via physical touch rather than with a mouse, touchpad, or other external control system.  A touchscreen is an easy to use input device that allows users to control software applications and access information by simply touching the display screen.  Touchscreens are popular in heavy industry and in other situations, such as museum displays or room automation, where keyboards and mouse do not allow a satisfactory, intuitive, rapid, or accurate interaction by the user with the display’s content.  The touchscreen user interface represents one of the most significant innovations in the mobile phone user interface in years.  The touchscreen simplifies the traditional phone keypad by eliminating up to a dozen keys that were previously used for navigating the menus of traditional mobile phones.  The gains have come due to the popularity of new touchscreen technology.With the growing acceptance of many kinds of products with an integral touchscreen interface the marginal cost of touchscreen technology is routinely absorbed into the products that incorporate it and is effectively eliminated.  With time, however, display manufacturers and System On Chip (SOC) manufacturers worldwide have acknowledged the trend toward acceptance of touchscreens as a highly desirable user interface component and have begun to integrate touchscreen functionality into the fundamental design of their products.  As typically occurs with any technology, touchscreen hardware and software has sufficiently matured and been perfected over more than three decades to the point where its reliability is unassailable.

Related articles by Zemanta
Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Tagged with: • •

Filed under: Touch Screen Information

Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!