How do Touchscreen Laptops work?

Touchscreens are all set to be the future of our interface with computers. With touchscreens there would be no need for input devices like the mouse, track pad or a physical keyboard. You do not need to poke at the screen with a styles either. You can do it all with your finger, kind of conjures up images of Da vinci’s famous painting on the roof of the Sistine chapel. 

Touchscreen tablet allow users to use their finger to register a touch on the screen which is registered by the computer as an input. There are three different types of touchscreen monitors:

Resistive Touchscreen

Capacitive Touchscreen

Surface acoustic touchscreen

Resistive touchscreen – A resistive touchscreen works on same principle of a switch when the switch in in ON position it makes contact between two wires and allows current to flow. The resistive touchscreen is made up of the actual screen that displays images and icons. Over this screen you have a conductive and resistive metal layer. These two layers are held apart by spacers so that they do not make contact without pressure. An electric current moves between these layers. When a user touches the screen the two layers make contact and the coordinates of the exact spot is calculated and sent to the computer which registers the touch.

Capacitive touchscreen – Capacitive touchscreen has a screen with a layer over it which stores an electrical charge. When you touch the screen some of this charge is transferred to you, this is a mild charge and would not harm you in any way. There are sensors on each corner of the screen which measure the decrease in charge and calculates the exact coordinates. The touch is thus registered as an input. The major difference between resistive and capacitive touchscreen is that capacitive touchscreen allows more light to pass through which make the images more sharp and clear.

Surface acoustic wave – This type of touchscreen works on the principle of a wave. When you touch a liquid surface it disturbs surface creating a ripple. Surface acoustic wave touchscreens have two transducers placed along the edge of the screen. Also on the glass you have reflectors which reflect signal sent from one transducer to the other. When you touch the screen the wave effect is formed and thus the touch is registered as an input. 

This is considered to be the best type of touchscreen as it allows 100% of light to pass through it.

Touchscreen netbooks were first launched in 2009 and you can find many touchscreen netbooks on the market that use either resistive or capacitive touchscreens.