What is the technology which revolutionised smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices in last 10 years? Is it VLSI technology, which scaled down complete electronics design and made processors more powerful and increased the storage capacity? Yes indeed but there is one more unnoticed technology which modernised our user experience with mobile devices – Multi Touch Screen, which have sparked the explosive growth of the mobile device market.
It was not so long that we would tap away on a Palm Pilot with tiny stylus or exercise our thumb on QWERTY keyboard phones. Then in 2007, Apple launched iPhone and people were wiping their fingers across the screen, pinching images and performing other manoeuvres that had not previously been part of smartphone interface.
Now we not only take touch input for granted, we expect to be able to use multi-touch and gesture as well. What made this touch screen revolution possible, and where is it likely to take us?
To begin with, not all touch is created equal. There are around 18 distinctly different touch technologies available to design engineers. Some rely on visible or infrared light, some use sound waves while some others use force sensors. They all have individual combinations of advantages and disadvantages, including size, accuracy, reliability, durability, number of touches sensed and of course cost.
Two of these technologies dominated the market for transparent touch technology applies to display in the mobile screen and both have distinct differences.
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