Touch screen in technology has become such a big use in everyday life, our phones, laptops, and even business use it to function. There are many different ways that touch screens work and are being built. Resistive, Capacitive, surface acoustic wave, Infrared and Near Field Imaging are all different ways that touch screens work and are being used. It all started from 1 system to expanding forms of touch screen technology.

Resistive touch screens are made by layers of glass and other materials to create a surface that responds to touch. The screen has a normal glass panel that is covered with a conductive and resistive metallic layer. The layers are separated by spacers with a scratch resistant layer on top of everything on the screen. When the monitor is on or operating an electrical current runs through the layers. When the screen is touched the electrical current is disrupted and the coordinates are recorded. The coordinates are sent to the driver, which sends it to the operating system to carry out the task that was pressed.

The capacitive system of touch screen like the resistive has an electrical charge or current in the actual screen. The layer that stores the electrical charge is placed on the other glass panel. When the monitor is touched a little bit of the electricity is transferred from the monitor’s layer with the electrical charge to the user that is touching the screen. Wherever the screen is touched the electrical charge is decreased and the changes in charge are measured in the circuits that are located in the corners of the screen. The computer takes the measurements and calculates in the amount of electrical charge in each of the 4 corners to pinpoint exactly where the touch happened. After the computer finds out where the touch happened, the coordinates are sent to the driver where the function will be carried out.

Surface acoustic wave systems are set up with 2 transducer that are attached to glass under the screen. These 2 transducers are set up to do different things for the touch screen. One of the transducers is meant to send, the other is meant to receive. The transducers are set up under the screen on the x and y axis’. There are also reflectors under the glass that sends the transducer signal that is meant to send to the other transducer that is meant to receive. Whenever the signal is disrupted, the receiving transducer senses the disruption and it will find the exact place where the screen was touched.

Infrared screens are screens that use light to operate the touch screen. It uses LEDs to make a grid pattern on the screen. There are also light-detector photocells with LEDs on the screen. The screen is covered in LED light beams like a mesh over the screen. Whenever the screen is touched the LEDS are interrupted it is picked up by the light-detector photocells because the LEDs aren’t shining all the way to the other side of the screen.
Near field imaging are a lot better for rough environments so it won’t be used as much in fancy brand new laptops, monitors, or phones. When there is any object close to the, the electrical field on the screen is disrupted. When the field is disrupted, the touch is immediately recorded. Anything that can be used to touch the screen such as pens, styluses, or gloves.

Light pens touch screens are a picture drawn out by an electron beam that scans left to right then right to left. The computer always knows where the electron beam is on the screen. There is a pen that is used for this specific touch screen that contains photo electric cell that interrupts the electron beam. The computer knows where the beam is at all times. Whenever the beam is interrupted the computer knows exactly where it was interrupted  and sends the signal to the processer to carry out the action that is requested from the touch.

The biggest ways touch screens are different from each other is which stimuli will activate the computer to acknowledge that there was a touch that happened on the screen. For example, resistive touch systems are activated by anything that touches the screen. Touching screens like resistive touch with anything doesn’t matter because there are two layers or something that a touch would interrupt  to the screen that gets pushed together to activate the touch. On the other hand, capacitive touch screens must use something that has a conductive property to it. The only reason using anything to touch the screen doesn’t work is because, the touch screen works when some of the electricity is taken out of the electrical layer and into whatever is touching the screen.
Touchscreens have come such a long way from the first and are now used in almost every technology used in everyday life such as laptops, phones, monitors, and even cars. Historians usually say that the first finger driven touch screen was made by E.A Johnson. They say that he made the touch screen at Royal Radar Establishment in Malvern, United Kingdom. This first finger driven touch screen is called a capacitive touch screen.