Touchscreens have becoming increasing common in mobile devices, laptops and pretty much every other type of recent technology. But how do they exactly work?
There are 2 basic types of touchscreen (capacitive or resistive). Most cellphone use capacitive touchscreens, as this type accepts multiple touches and responds very quickly. The downfall of these capacitive touchscreen is that they can only be activated by conducting objects, example your fingers. Resistance touchscreens are more durable, can be weatherproof, and are more commonly used with GPS devices. Since we are a cell phone repair company, we only work with capacitive touchscreens.
Today’s smartphones and cellphone screens are made from high strength glass. You have have heard of the term “gorilla glass” in the past. This is a type of chemically tempered glass, which is produced, to stand up against dropping your phone. Although it is still very possible to break your cell phone screen, gorilla glass makes the chances of it breaking a lot less likely. The reason the glass still can break is that the glass is manufactured to less than 1mm to reduce the phones size and weight.
The touch sensors on today’s smartphones are all underneath the glass itself, through capacitive measurements. Capacitance is described as the ability to hold a charge. Your phone screen sense your finger because your finger has the “ability to hold charge”. The device has an electrical grid embedded in its display, allowing it to know exactly where you have touched. This information is transferred quickly back to the phones motherboard to process.
Resistive touchscreens work by pressure being applied to the screen, which then registers as a touch. This type of touchscreen is typically found in older devices or those on a budget, as they’re not as accurate or responsive as capacitive touchscreens.
Capacitive touchscreens, on the other hand, work by sensing the electrical field generated by your body. When you touch the screen, that field is interrupted and registered as a touch. This type of touchscreen is far more common nowadays, as it’s much more sensitive and accurate than resistive touchscreens.
Both types of touchscreens work by registering touch input in the form of X and Y coordinates. This touch input is then processed by the device’s software in order to carry out the desired action.
So there you have it! The next time you’re using your touchscreen device, you can impress your friends by telling them exactly how it works.