• Question: how does touch screen technology work?

    Asked by hugo to Betul, Bridget, Ceri-Wyn, Laurel, Maria on 21 Jun 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Bridget Waller

      Bridget Waller answered on 18 Jun 2010:

      I don’t know, but we use them with the apes and monkeys and they work fine! We have to get special toughened touch screens so that the chimps don’t break them…they are very strong!

    • Photo: Ceri-Wyn Thomas

      Ceri-Wyn Thomas answered on 21 Jun 2010:

      Touch screens are quite complex, (which is why they’ve taken so long to develop).
      The basic touchscreen consists of a non conductive material like glass, coated with a conductive material such as certain special metal oxides. The human body conducts electricity, so when you touch the screen, a small electric current is generated, which changes the capacitance of the area where the finger is.
      Capacitance is how much charge a body can hold, and the circuit of your finger plus
      the conductive layer can hold much more charge than the conductive layer alone. Sensors
      in the device detect the areas on the screen where this has happened, and send the
      information to the processor to interpret. The layer of conductive material is very thin, and
      divided up into tiny squares (just like the pixels on a screen), and the sensors that detect capacitance changes are very sensitive, so these devices are now capable of some amazing things.

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