HOW TOUCHSCREEN WORKS

Our world is taken out by storm by the Smartphone technologies, that involves just swiping screen, when I was kid opening a lock was a tough task  but the present generation kids can unlock touchscreen phones without breaking a sweat.

       Now a days touchscreen phones are the most commonly used gadget, from a kid to a grandpa everybody uses touchscreen phones and we all feel like civilized tech geniuses. But when somebody asks you how touchscreen actually works, then that civilized tech mind of yours run’s to Stone Age.     

 Well I was able to surf the web and a hour of searching and reading lot of articles I was finally able to understood how a touchscreen actually works. 

 There are different types of touchscreen technologies.

But most commonly used are RESISTIVE and CAPACITIVE touchscreens.   

                                                THE RESISTIVE TOUCH SCREENS

The resistive screen literally resists touch and if you press hard enough you could feel the screen bend slightly this is what makes resistive screen work.Thereare two layers in resistive touch screen, THE CONDUCTIVE LAYER AND RESISTIVE LAYER. These two layers are separated by tiny dots called SPACER. 

The electric current run through the conductive layer all the times, when you touch the screen the resistive layers comes in contact with the conductive layer thus the electric current changes at that point of contact and the function corresponding to that point of contact is carried out.

THE CAPACITIVE TOUCHSCREENS         

Unlike resistive touchscreen capacitive touchscreen do not use pressure of your finger to create change in the flow of electricity instead they work with anything that holds electric charge including human skin.                                                         

The capacitive touchscreen are constructed using copper or indium tin oxide that can store electric charges in an electro-static grid of tiny wires each smaller than human hair.                       A circuit with a glass layer overlapped with conductive layer, controllers and electrodes are present at the corner. The electrodes apply a low voltage current on the conductive layer creating a uniform electric field. 

When a finger hits the screen a tiny electric charge is transferred to the finger completing the circuit, creating a voltage drop at that point of the screen.     The location of this voltage drop is recorded by the controller and this is how capacitive touchscreen works. Well the next time somebody asks you how the touchscreen works, be sure to surprise them with your inner CIVILIZED TECHGENIUS.