What is a touchscreen?

Before the dawn of smartphones, there used to be simpler phones that worked with a keypad with actual physical buttons to dial numbers. While these phones did have displays, they were only output devices, like the monitors of most regular desktops. To actually input numbers or other data, mobile phone users had to rely on physical buttons. That changed with touchscreens – displays that worked as both input and output components.  

A touchscreen, as the name suggests, is a display screen that can detect and respond to the touch of a user’s finger or a stylus. Touchscreens have multiple layers to facilitate both input and output. Here’s how they work. 

How touchscreens work?

A touch panel (input) is generally layered on top of the electronic visual display (output) of an information processing system such as a smartphone, computer, wearable, etc. The touchscreen works by sensing the touch of a finger or stylus through capacitive or resistive technology. 

ALSO READ: What is a Notebook?

Capacitive touchscreens use a thin electrically conductive layer to detect touch while resistive touchscreen uses pressure to detect touch. The first phone with a capacitive touchscreen was LG Prada released in May 2007, before the first iPhone, which would launch later in the same year and kickstart the smartphone era.  

Note that today, most touchscreens in smartphones and other devices are capacitive in nature, since these panels offer a smoother touch-experience that requires lesser effort and is more accurate.  

The biggest benefit of touchscreens is that they allow for more flexible and versatile use of a device. Touchscreens are commonly used pieces of technology that can be found in a variety of devices, from computers and smartphones to cars and large infotainment systems.