Touch screens

Capacitive vs resistive touch screens

With the first touch screen debuting in 1965, we’ve seen incredible advancements in touch screen technology and computing technology in general. If we told E.A. Johnson that over 2 billion people currently carry touch screens in their pockets every day, he probably wouldn’t have believed us. But that same technology he developed for the Royal Radar Establishment helped shape the future of the modern touch screen technology that we use daily [1].

There are many iterations of touch screen technology including infrared and surface acoustic wave (SAW), but there are two that most of us are familiar with. The most common smart touch board screens we interact with today are capacitive and resistive touch screens. Let’s get to know how these technologies work, and where you’ll see each.

Capacitive touch screens

Capacitive touch screen technology is the style we interact with most. This is the kind of display we see in our smartphones, laptops, and tablet screens, and digital signage.

Capacitive screens are made up of multiple layers of glass and plastic, coated with a conductor material like indium tin oxide or copper. This conductive material responds when contacted by another electrical conductor, like your bare finger. When you touch your screen, an electric circuit is completed at the point where your finger makes contact, changing the electrical charge at this location. Your device registers this information as a “touch event.”

Once a touch event has been registered, the screen’s receptors signal this event to the operating system, prompting a response from your device. This is the application’s interface that you experience.

Capacitive touch screens generally have a brighter, clearer appearance and are much more sensitive than resistive touch smart board screens. We tend to see capacitive touch screens in more modern technologies like smartphones and tablets. They give us the ability to experience high-quality imagery that imitates reality.

Each screen has strengths and weaknesses that make it a better choice for certain applications. Capacitive screens with portable monitor offer more flexibility in functionality as resistive screens lack the ability to register multiple touch points at the same time.

Think about when you zoom in on your smartphone - you’re using two fingers at different receptors to zoom in on an image. Resistive touch screens get confused when you try to apply multiple points to them, since their technology relies on recognizing pressure at a specific location.

This means that other objects with the same charge as your bare finger could complete the same request when using your phone, tablet, or interactive touch screen laptop. This is why touch screens respond to styluses, special gloves, and the occasional pocket-dial.

The good news is that as technology in touch screens has advanced, so have their durability. Touch TV Screen protectors aren’t as necessary now as they were when consumers were first introduced to touch screen products. Many of us are still scarred by the first time we shattered the glass display on our shiny new device. Contrary to over-protective techies, you don’t need to worry so much about the safety of your screen thanks to developments in materials.