WEBVTT - How Touch Screens Work 0:00:00.320 --> 0:00:02.880 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. 0:00:03.240 --> 0:00:08.959 It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology? With 0:00:09.039 --> 0:00:17.840 tech Stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hello everybody, 0:00:17.840 --> 0:00:20.120 and welcome to tech stuff. My name is Chris Poulette, 0:00:20.120 --> 0:00:21.919 and I'm the tech editor here at how stuff works 0:00:21.960 --> 0:00:24.840 dot com. Sitting next to me as usual as senior 0:00:24.840 --> 0:00:29.360 writer Jonathan Strickland. I have the swine flu. Actually, yes, 0:00:29.800 --> 0:00:34.240 yes he does. Yeah, that's I'm I'm beyond the contagious stage. 0:00:34.240 --> 0:00:36.440 But if you guys think I sound a little weird 0:00:36.680 --> 0:00:38.800 or maybe even sounded weird and past episodes, because the 0:00:38.800 --> 0:00:41.480 episodes we recorded last week, I was already coming down 0:00:41.520 --> 0:00:45.520 with it, that's why. And uh, I can report that 0:00:45.600 --> 0:00:50.520 it kind of is awful. It's very much like the flu. 0:00:50.680 --> 0:00:54.600 It is, um, except that apparently I now also have 0:00:54.800 --> 0:01:01.360 the uncontrollable urge to lick pigs. I'll so let's uh 0:01:01.360 --> 0:01:04.560 and then of course lead Yes, I was about to say, 0:01:04.600 --> 0:01:08.000 it leads directly into our topic. UM. Now, I don't 0:01:08.040 --> 0:01:10.880 have a listener mail for this specifically, we did have 0:01:10.920 --> 0:01:13.240 a request for this topic, and it was from a 0:01:13.280 --> 0:01:17.080 listener and it did arrive in mail, but our listener 0:01:17.200 --> 0:01:24.319 Thomas sit in several requests for different text stuff podcast episodes, right, Like, 0:01:24.360 --> 0:01:28.520 he had about five or six different lists topics listed, 0:01:28.560 --> 0:01:30.720 And so we're just gonna tackle one of those today, 0:01:31.360 --> 0:01:35.679 and that one is touch screens. And of course touch 0:01:35.720 --> 0:01:41.520 screens are becoming more and more ubiquitous ever present all 0:01:41.600 --> 0:01:45.600 over the place because things like smartphones. You got a 0:01:45.640 --> 0:01:48.400 lot of cell phones out there that now have touch screens. Um. 0:01:48.440 --> 0:01:54.400 You've got things like the iPod, TOUCHERSK reader right that 0:01:54.480 --> 0:01:56.400 has a touch screen. Um. So yeah, there are a 0:01:56.440 --> 0:01:58.280 lot of them out there. And of course then they're 0:01:58.320 --> 0:02:00.520 always the other ones that have been around for ages 0:02:00.680 --> 0:02:05.280 a t M S. Yeah, good example, vending machines, Um, yeah, 0:02:05.720 --> 0:02:09.760 vending machines. I always think back to, uh, Epcot, the 0:02:09.800 --> 0:02:12.760 old days of Epcot where they would have a computer 0:02:12.840 --> 0:02:14.960 screen and you could walk up to it and touch 0:02:15.040 --> 0:02:18.679 the computer screen and uh and and pull up information 0:02:18.720 --> 0:02:21.480 about the park and about you know, the different aspects 0:02:21.480 --> 0:02:24.000 of the park and make reservations. And this was back 0:02:24.040 --> 0:02:26.360 in the early eighties, you know, when Epcot first opened 0:02:26.720 --> 0:02:29.600 and uh and back then, a touch screen seemed like 0:02:29.760 --> 0:02:32.960 freaking science fiction to me. It was. It was pretty 0:02:33.000 --> 0:02:34.960 amazing because you didn't have to have like any sort 0:02:34.960 --> 0:02:36.920 of keyboard to get it. In fact, that was that 0:02:37.000 --> 0:02:42.440 was even before computer mouse had become really a commonplace item. Yeah, 0:02:42.520 --> 0:02:45.079 you know, some of those early touch screens, at least 0:02:45.080 --> 0:02:46.960 the ones that I used, were sort of like touched 0:02:47.520 --> 0:02:52.720 touch touch touch, touch, touch, touch touch touch touch screens. Punch, punch, cry, 0:02:53.040 --> 0:02:56.640 mop up blood. Yes, those were the stupid thing doesn't work. Yeah, 0:02:56.639 --> 0:03:01.399 that the technology has improved somewhere, it hasnally. Now, there 0:03:01.440 --> 0:03:07.520 are different touchscreen technologies that that are commonly used today. 0:03:07.680 --> 0:03:10.400 The two most common when it comes to things like 0:03:11.160 --> 0:03:14.720 portable electronic devices, so things like NP three players or 0:03:14.880 --> 0:03:20.880 smartphones or whatever, would be resistive screens and capacitive screens. Yes, 0:03:21.080 --> 0:03:24.600 all right, so let's talk about the differences between these 0:03:24.639 --> 0:03:27.639 two systems since these are the most common that you'll 0:03:27.680 --> 0:03:33.320 find out there a resistive screen or resistive system. It 0:03:33.360 --> 0:03:38.240 consists of several layers of screens. It's like an onion 0:03:38.320 --> 0:03:41.920 of screen. Yes, And the way that the system works 0:03:42.080 --> 0:03:46.360 is when you press upon the screen, you compress these 0:03:46.400 --> 0:03:49.720 different layers together and when they touch, it creates an 0:03:49.720 --> 0:03:53.240 electric circuit. Right. Normally, there are spacers they keep the 0:03:53.280 --> 0:03:56.920 two the layers apart. Right, If those spacers were to 0:03:57.120 --> 0:04:01.600 be damaged and the space the screen were to permanently 0:04:01.680 --> 0:04:06.000 be fused together, you would lose your resistive UH capabilities. 0:04:06.040 --> 0:04:09.280 It would it would constantly be detecting a specific point 0:04:09.320 --> 0:04:12.600 of pressure somewhere on the screen. So those the spacers 0:04:12.640 --> 0:04:16.000 are very important because basically where you're touching it, the 0:04:16.040 --> 0:04:19.960 computer is able to tell basically the coordinates of where 0:04:19.960 --> 0:04:22.480 you're touching, and you know, maps that up to what's 0:04:23.000 --> 0:04:24.920 being displayed on the screen, and that's how it knows 0:04:25.000 --> 0:04:27.960 what you're touching and when. Right, So there's a processor 0:04:28.000 --> 0:04:33.200 that is um it's receiving this information based upon where 0:04:33.240 --> 0:04:36.960 the different layers of the screen are touching, and that 0:04:37.040 --> 0:04:39.920 way it can it can give the correct response. So, 0:04:40.040 --> 0:04:41.800 for example, if you have a phone that has a 0:04:41.839 --> 0:04:46.760 resistive screen touch screen and you're pushing the call feature, 0:04:47.320 --> 0:04:50.960 then it's going to map out the location of the 0:04:51.000 --> 0:04:54.520 touch send that information to the processor. The processor says, hey, 0:04:55.080 --> 0:04:58.360 when this particular area on the screen is touched, that 0:04:58.400 --> 0:05:01.919 means that this action must be performed, and your phone 0:05:01.960 --> 0:05:04.520 makes a call. And this all happens very very quickly. 0:05:04.960 --> 0:05:08.320 Anklebone is connected to the footphone something like that. And 0:05:08.720 --> 0:05:13.479 old resist of screens had a few big disadvantages really 0:05:13.680 --> 0:05:17.200 compared to the other type the capacity of screen. One 0:05:17.240 --> 0:05:22.599 of those was that the the the different layers would 0:05:22.640 --> 0:05:26.320 somewhat obscure the light coming from the screen, so you 0:05:26.360 --> 0:05:29.400 would only get a certain percentage of the light coming 0:05:29.400 --> 0:05:31.200 out of the screen that you would get if the 0:05:31.480 --> 0:05:35.120 if the screen were completely clear or transparent. UM. The 0:05:35.160 --> 0:05:37.520 layers had to be really thin, yes, in order for 0:05:37.560 --> 0:05:40.919 this to work properly, right, and some of them could. 0:05:41.760 --> 0:05:44.680 Some of them could detect things like the amount of 0:05:44.680 --> 0:05:47.200 pressure that you used, and really the amount of pressure 0:05:47.279 --> 0:05:49.800 was coming from not how hard you were pushing, but 0:05:49.920 --> 0:05:53.720 how much surface area of your finger or other whatever 0:05:53.760 --> 0:05:56.839 it was was in contact with the screen. UM and 0:05:56.880 --> 0:05:59.000 that could give it an indication of how hard you're pushing, 0:05:59.000 --> 0:06:00.760 because the harder you push, the more of your finger 0:06:00.920 --> 0:06:03.760 is going to be against the screen. So that whole 0:06:03.760 --> 0:06:06.839 punching thing not really effective. No, that would be a 0:06:06.839 --> 0:06:09.160 bad idea. It's pretty much a guarantee that you're gonna 0:06:09.160 --> 0:06:13.760 break your resistive or any other touch screen. UM. The 0:06:13.760 --> 0:06:18.279 the other disadvantage was that early resistive screens couldn't do 0:06:18.400 --> 0:06:23.680 multi touch. Um, they were not capable of of accepting 0:06:23.680 --> 0:06:26.800 two different points of contact at the same time and 0:06:26.880 --> 0:06:32.080 could not interpret that as a you know, a legitimate command. Now. 0:06:32.120 --> 0:06:33.960 Of course, we've got a lot of devices out there 0:06:33.960 --> 0:06:36.440 that support multi touch now, and most of those are 0:06:36.520 --> 0:06:40.520 using capacity screens. However, I can report it is possible 0:06:40.720 --> 0:06:44.000 to create a resistive touch screen that supports multi touch. 0:06:44.080 --> 0:06:47.520 You have to create a system that specifically supports this. 0:06:47.640 --> 0:06:49.920 You know. It's not just like any resistive screen could 0:06:49.960 --> 0:06:52.400 do this with a firmware update. You'd actually have to 0:06:52.400 --> 0:06:55.560 go through the manufacturing process. But engadget has a video 0:06:55.640 --> 0:07:00.760 on their site of a pretty cool device. Um. It 0:07:00.920 --> 0:07:06.440 really was a concept of prototype where it's resistive screen, 0:07:06.640 --> 0:07:09.960 it can detect pressure, and it is uh, it can 0:07:10.000 --> 0:07:13.320 detect multi touch. One of the advantages of the resistive 0:07:13.320 --> 0:07:16.760 system to the capacitive system is that you don't have 0:07:16.960 --> 0:07:20.080 to You can use pretty much anything to contact the 0:07:20.120 --> 0:07:22.720 screen and and give a command. So it doesn't have 0:07:22.760 --> 0:07:24.280 to be your finger. It could be a stylist, right, 0:07:24.320 --> 0:07:28.480 it could be anything, because it could be a dog. Yes, 0:07:28.760 --> 0:07:33.320 it could be a rock, it could be some play doh. Um, 0:07:33.360 --> 0:07:35.480 it really doesn't matter because as long as it is 0:07:35.520 --> 0:07:38.680 able to make that pressure against the screen, that's going 0:07:38.720 --> 0:07:43.360 to count as a an input. Now, capacity of screens 0:07:43.400 --> 0:07:47.880 are different. Now they actually have a layer that stores 0:07:47.920 --> 0:07:52.480 an electrical charge in them. That would be the capacitance layer. Yes, 0:07:52.800 --> 0:07:56.040 Thus the name kind of makes sense now, doesn't it amazing, 0:07:56.120 --> 0:07:59.200 isn't it. I mean the capacitive layer is uh, you know, 0:07:59.360 --> 0:08:03.040 storing a like Tron's right, So it's storing these electrons 0:08:03.160 --> 0:08:05.200 right there on the screen. When your finger comes in 0:08:05.280 --> 0:08:09.760 contact with the screen, this actually ends up transferring the 0:08:09.880 --> 0:08:13.080 charge to you. So technically you are kind of getting 0:08:13.080 --> 0:08:16.800 a very mild shock. I find that revolting. Do you 0:08:17.280 --> 0:08:19.760 do you get a charge out of it? We can 0:08:19.800 --> 0:08:21.760 do this all day, palass oh, I know, and and 0:08:21.880 --> 0:08:27.800 our listeners are depart like lightning was especially a shocking 0:08:27.880 --> 0:08:31.520 kind of experience as long as you stay current. But 0:08:31.600 --> 0:08:35.319 you know, I could tell that my iPod Touch has 0:08:35.360 --> 0:08:42.239 a capacity screen because I'm stopping because you know, sitting 0:08:42.400 --> 0:08:45.200 out and waiting for the bus or the train to 0:08:45.440 --> 0:08:48.400 bring me to work here in the morning in the wintertime, 0:08:48.760 --> 0:08:52.440 and having gloves on. You can't change you know, the 0:08:52.520 --> 0:08:57.280 volume on your iPod because you know, my bears get 0:08:57.320 --> 0:08:59.959 you know, the gloves won't because they start for the chart. 0:09:00.000 --> 0:09:02.079 If they don't, they don't, they won't pick up the 0:09:02.160 --> 0:09:07.440 charge like your skin would if you are But otherwise, 0:09:07.520 --> 0:09:09.800 if you if you are outside on a really cold, 0:09:09.880 --> 0:09:12.720 dry day, you might have problems getting a capacity of 0:09:12.760 --> 0:09:16.320 screen to work at all. Uh. Capacity screens work best 0:09:16.360 --> 0:09:18.440 when there's at least a little bit of humidity to 0:09:18.520 --> 0:09:23.000 help conduct that electricity. Right. Yeah, but if it were 0:09:23.080 --> 0:09:26.560 really called dry day, you might find that your touch 0:09:26.600 --> 0:09:28.960 screen is not very responsive. It's not necessarily because your 0:09:28.960 --> 0:09:31.959 phone is cold. It may be because you don't have 0:09:32.120 --> 0:09:35.720 the moisture on your finger that helps create that that 0:09:35.800 --> 0:09:40.280 electrical connection. And um, we'll see. That's good because I 0:09:40.320 --> 0:09:42.800 like licking my iPod, So that explains why it always 0:09:42.840 --> 0:09:45.480 works pretty well. Also explains why I have the swine flu. 0:09:46.480 --> 0:09:51.839 So anyway, the capacity of screens actually do support multi 0:09:51.880 --> 0:09:55.840 touch if you create the right hardware and software around it. 0:09:56.000 --> 0:09:59.160 They don't automatically. It's not like magically supports it. You 0:09:59.200 --> 0:10:01.880 have to build the system around it. Um. And of course, 0:10:01.920 --> 0:10:03.880 if you were to build the system around it, you 0:10:03.920 --> 0:10:09.839 could very possibly engender the wrath of Apple because they 0:10:09.880 --> 0:10:15.559 patented it. They patented multi touch for for mobile devices. 0:10:15.920 --> 0:10:19.880 That was really smart of them. It's also incredibly mean 0:10:20.400 --> 0:10:25.360 because the Android operating system actually supports multi touch, but 0:10:25.480 --> 0:10:29.320 it is not um enabled in any Android device that 0:10:29.480 --> 0:10:35.199 I know of. Specifically, I assumes the patent I should have. Yeah, 0:10:35.200 --> 0:10:37.440 I should assume it's because of this patent, and if 0:10:37.960 --> 0:10:40.640 if the phones were to support multi touch, then it 0:10:40.679 --> 0:10:43.560 could very well be Even if it's not directly in 0:10:44.360 --> 0:10:47.200 violation of the patent, I'm sure that an argument could 0:10:47.200 --> 0:10:49.480 be made and then you've got a costly legal battle. 0:10:49.920 --> 0:10:51.880 So that would be why the iPhone is this great 0:10:51.960 --> 0:10:55.880 multi touch device and most other devices don't support multi 0:10:55.920 --> 0:10:59.120 touch in the same way. Um, some of you may 0:10:59.160 --> 0:11:01.840 be yelling, hey, what the Microsoft surface. We'll get to that. 0:11:01.920 --> 0:11:05.760 It's a it's a totally different animal. But the capacitive system, 0:11:05.880 --> 0:11:09.040 so you know, like I said, it's it's it detects 0:11:09.040 --> 0:11:13.319 this electrical uh connection, and that it's in a way 0:11:13.480 --> 0:11:15.400 does the same sort of thing as the resistive screen 0:11:15.400 --> 0:11:18.000 in the sense that it finds out you know, it 0:11:18.040 --> 0:11:21.560 says where the connection happens on the screen, it maps 0:11:21.640 --> 0:11:25.240 that to a specific command, and then the processor executes 0:11:25.280 --> 0:11:28.920 that command. So the big difference between the two systems 0:11:29.200 --> 0:11:33.280 is how it how the electrical connection is made. Yeah, 0:11:33.320 --> 0:11:36.679 basically the one Once the the circuit or you know, 0:11:37.280 --> 0:11:41.520 is completed and an electrical connection is made, the computer 0:11:41.640 --> 0:11:43.680 on the other end figures out where it is and 0:11:43.880 --> 0:11:45.800 what it's supposed to be doing at that point, right, 0:11:45.880 --> 0:11:48.160 and and again with capacity of screens, you would have 0:11:48.240 --> 0:11:51.120 to use something like a finger or you know, your 0:11:51.120 --> 0:11:55.600 nose or you know, something that could create could accept 0:11:55.600 --> 0:11:58.199 this charge from the screen. You couldn't use something that 0:11:58.320 --> 0:12:03.520 was passive like a stylus or the rock four mentioned rock. Right, 0:12:03.600 --> 0:12:05.720 you could possibly use a dog, depending on what part 0:12:05.760 --> 0:12:09.559 of the dog was touching the screen. Yeah, yeah, you know, 0:12:10.480 --> 0:12:16.200 or nose or something. But well yeah, well some of 0:12:16.280 --> 0:12:19.760 us can leave a lot of finger smudges already, so um. 0:12:19.920 --> 0:12:22.559 But yeah, if you wanted to use a stylist with 0:12:22.600 --> 0:12:24.360 a capasity screen, you would have to have a stylist 0:12:24.440 --> 0:12:27.640 had an active point on it that could accept that charge, 0:12:27.720 --> 0:12:31.760 otherwise you wouldn't get anything out of it. So that 0:12:31.840 --> 0:12:36.000 actually makes me wonder what the Microsoft Courier tablet, the 0:12:36.160 --> 0:12:39.120 prototype that we we We've seen a video that was 0:12:39.160 --> 0:12:42.680 more or less an animation of this prototype tablet that 0:12:42.720 --> 0:12:45.200 Microsoft is coming out with. It's got two screens and 0:12:45.240 --> 0:12:48.480 it has a touch screen interface, and it shows people 0:12:48.600 --> 0:12:52.480 flicking through with their wealth. It shows an animation of 0:12:52.520 --> 0:12:56.040 a finger flicking through pages UM and it also shows 0:12:56.040 --> 0:12:59.120 an animation of like a stylist writing on a page. 0:12:59.600 --> 0:13:03.079 So I kind of wonder what kind of touchscreen technology 0:13:03.120 --> 0:13:05.040 it's playing on using if if they're using going to 0:13:05.120 --> 0:13:08.080 use resistive or they're going to use capacitive UM. There 0:13:08.200 --> 0:13:11.640 is another choice, but you don't see it that often 0:13:11.760 --> 0:13:18.040 in in smaller devices. Is the surface acoustic waves system. Yeah. 0:13:18.120 --> 0:13:19.640 Now this is something that you would see in and 0:13:20.200 --> 0:13:21.920 more often in things like a t M S and 0:13:23.040 --> 0:13:26.080 bigger displays. But what this uses is a couple of 0:13:26.080 --> 0:13:29.760 transducers and they are placed along the X and y 0:13:29.800 --> 0:13:34.280 axes of the glass plate of the monitor, and whenever 0:13:34.800 --> 0:13:37.880 it sends an electrical signal, one transducer sends it to 0:13:37.920 --> 0:13:41.000 another transducer, and there are reflectors on there to kind 0:13:41.000 --> 0:13:43.760 of reflect the signal from one to the other. When 0:13:43.840 --> 0:13:48.160 something makes contact with the screen, it disturbs that electrical wave, 0:13:48.600 --> 0:13:54.040 and by measuring the disturbance, the touchscreen knows where it 0:13:54.160 --> 0:13:57.760 was touched that. When I say knows, of course, we're 0:13:57.760 --> 0:14:03.000 talking about a processor that that that the screen. Yeah, 0:14:03.000 --> 0:14:06.280 the screen itself does not know. Um, it's not magic, 0:14:06.320 --> 0:14:09.320 and it doesn't it's not sentient. It's once touch screens 0:14:09.360 --> 0:14:12.680 become sentient, sexual harassment lawsuits will go through the roof 0:14:14.440 --> 0:14:18.920 because of inappropriate touch screen interface. Let's we'll see if 0:14:18.920 --> 0:14:24.320 that stays in the right. At any rate, the surface 0:14:24.360 --> 0:14:28.280 acoustic wave system UH is not often Now, for one thing, 0:14:29.240 --> 0:14:31.040 the equipment that you need in order to make this 0:14:31.080 --> 0:14:36.040 thing work is kind of um big. It wouldn't really 0:14:36.040 --> 0:14:41.480 be easy to miniaturize this into a mobile format, right, 0:14:41.520 --> 0:14:44.000 So you wouldn't want to try and use this kind 0:14:44.000 --> 0:14:47.640 of technology in your in your general mobile device because 0:14:47.640 --> 0:14:50.880 it would make it too fat, too heavy. Um. And 0:14:50.920 --> 0:14:55.040 of course we all want sleek and stylish. Well, I mean, 0:14:55.160 --> 0:14:58.040 you know, the iPod pretty much proves that the sleek 0:14:58.080 --> 0:15:01.240 and stylish approaches is really popular. I mean, it's a 0:15:01.240 --> 0:15:04.320 good product anyway, but I think that the style is 0:15:04.360 --> 0:15:08.520 definitely a large contributing factor to the popularity of the 0:15:08.560 --> 0:15:14.160 iPod line. So at any rate, uh, capacity of resistive, 0:15:14.280 --> 0:15:15.960 that's the two that you're going to see the most 0:15:16.000 --> 0:15:19.880 often in your in your average mobile devices. Um, the 0:15:19.960 --> 0:15:24.840 iPhone uses a capacity of screen, and like we said before, 0:15:24.960 --> 0:15:28.440 it actually can detect multi touch. So that means that 0:15:28.520 --> 0:15:33.080 you can use gestures instead of just touching. Two give 0:15:33.120 --> 0:15:37.480 commands things like pinching, you know, like if you pinch. No, not, 0:15:37.640 --> 0:15:40.600 I'm not actually pinching, Pillette. I want to make that clear. 0:15:40.640 --> 0:15:45.120 I've already made one sexual harassment. I am not. I 0:15:45.160 --> 0:15:48.640 am not even within pinching range of palette. Um, he 0:15:48.680 --> 0:15:52.560 has barricaded himself in the corner and he's perfectly safe. 0:15:52.920 --> 0:15:56.600 I got my blanky. Yes, he does have his blankie. No. 0:15:56.760 --> 0:15:59.560 But but you know, like like when you wanna when 0:15:59.560 --> 0:16:04.120 you want to squish or enlarge a photo doing various 0:16:04.120 --> 0:16:08.480 pinching motions, or if you're panning or whatever, these are gestures. Okay, 0:16:08.480 --> 0:16:11.480 But so these are commands that your phone should or 0:16:11.960 --> 0:16:14.200 m P three player or whatever should be able to 0:16:14.240 --> 0:16:18.280 recognize as a very general command as opposed to open 0:16:18.360 --> 0:16:20.400 up this application I want to use it. It's more 0:16:20.440 --> 0:16:24.480 of a you know, I'm I'm manipulating something, rotating a picture, 0:16:24.720 --> 0:16:28.240 or you know, scrolling from one screen screen to another, 0:16:29.080 --> 0:16:32.960 that kind of thing. And UM. I mean, regular touch 0:16:33.000 --> 0:16:36.080 screens can identify some gestures as well. It's just multi 0:16:36.120 --> 0:16:43.280 touch can identify more complex gestures. Uh. So that's pretty 0:16:43.400 --> 0:16:47.360 much the the basis there. I mean, the the both 0:16:47.560 --> 0:16:49.880 kinds of display are both kind of touch screens are 0:16:50.080 --> 0:16:54.440 fairly accurate if they're done well. The execution has to 0:16:54.480 --> 0:17:00.160 be there. But there's nothing about either u I Their 0:17:00.240 --> 0:17:04.679 technology that makes one far more accurate than the other. UM. 0:17:04.720 --> 0:17:09.399 They're both challenging to do well. But if you do uh, 0:17:09.520 --> 0:17:12.600 you know, if you do the good work, then either 0:17:12.640 --> 0:17:16.720 one should be more than accurate enough for the average user. UM. 0:17:16.800 --> 0:17:22.240 The resistive screens are much cheaper than capacitive screens. UM 0:17:22.400 --> 0:17:28.399 capacity seems to have the probably more support among the 0:17:28.440 --> 0:17:33.280 technology savvy crowd. They seem to like the capacity screens more, 0:17:33.920 --> 0:17:37.280 probably because of things like the old resistive screens were 0:17:37.320 --> 0:17:41.920 harder to it's harder to see the images they were scratched. 0:17:42.320 --> 0:17:44.760 They weren't scratch proof that they could get scratched pretty 0:17:44.800 --> 0:17:47.159 easily because the screens had to be soft enough for 0:17:47.160 --> 0:17:51.000 you to press them in a little bit. UM. But 0:17:52.240 --> 0:17:55.919 if you're concerned with manufacturing a device that's going to 0:17:56.040 --> 0:18:00.680 be an inexpensive one for your customers than the resistive 0:18:00.720 --> 0:18:03.440 screen is a more attractive approach because it's less expensive 0:18:03.520 --> 0:18:06.880 for those components. If you're doing a premium product, capacitive 0:18:06.880 --> 0:18:09.040 it is probably the way to go. Yeah, well, it 0:18:09.080 --> 0:18:12.280 seems like, you know, over the past few years, with 0:18:12.359 --> 0:18:17.359 the ubiquitous nous of these devices, it's you know, it's 0:18:17.400 --> 0:18:22.000 harder to find the implementation done poorly. He thinks that 0:18:22.240 --> 0:18:24.760 more and more people are getting it right, which is 0:18:24.800 --> 0:18:29.119 what's making you know, applications for these devices more and 0:18:29.200 --> 0:18:32.800 more common. And a lot of the problems with touch 0:18:32.880 --> 0:18:36.439 screens have more to do with the underlying operating system 0:18:36.480 --> 0:18:40.360 than the technology of the screens themselves. So like older 0:18:40.760 --> 0:18:44.399 operating systems for smartphones are tend to tend to have 0:18:44.400 --> 0:18:46.480 a little more trouble with touch screens than the more 0:18:46.520 --> 0:18:49.560 recent ones. You might have an older phone that's running 0:18:49.760 --> 0:18:53.680 an older version of Windows Mobile, for example, that UH 0:18:54.240 --> 0:18:58.040 is not as responsive as newer versions. UM. I think 0:18:59.320 --> 0:19:03.560 Microsoft philosophy right now is from now on going forward, 0:19:03.680 --> 0:19:08.760 smartphones running running Windows Mobile will have resistive screens. Smartphones 0:19:08.800 --> 0:19:11.800 that will run the Windows Mobile or the Windows seven 0:19:12.640 --> 0:19:16.679 modified modified UH operate system for mobile devices will have 0:19:16.800 --> 0:19:20.720 multi touch and will be capacitive screens. So that's kind 0:19:20.720 --> 0:19:24.400 of interesting that they've actually developed two different strategies that 0:19:24.600 --> 0:19:27.960 and each one focuses on a specific technology. Well, it 0:19:28.040 --> 0:19:30.120 makes sense that they would try to keep the cost 0:19:30.200 --> 0:19:33.199 down by using a resistive screen in a you know, 0:19:33.680 --> 0:19:37.040 more consumer device and higher end screens. Yeah, it's it's 0:19:37.040 --> 0:19:40.000 actually a pretty clever approach. I think it'll be interesting 0:19:40.040 --> 0:19:41.960 to see how that plays out. The only thing I 0:19:41.960 --> 0:19:44.040 could think of that might cost them more money down 0:19:44.080 --> 0:19:47.240 the road is by having the complexity of having another 0:19:47.320 --> 0:19:49.520 system and another device, and it's another thing they have 0:19:49.600 --> 0:19:52.400 to tool up for and another thing they have to support. Yeah. Well, 0:19:52.400 --> 0:19:56.040 they've also got issues with their their Windows Mobile store, 0:19:56.320 --> 0:19:59.440 and there there are a lot of things that the issues, 0:20:00.040 --> 0:20:02.760 a lot of things Microsoft look at. Yeah, never any 0:20:02.800 --> 0:20:05.040 issues with technology. I was going to mention also that 0:20:05.400 --> 0:20:09.520 Research in Motion also known as risk Yes, the the 0:20:09.560 --> 0:20:12.959 company behind BlackBerry. They filed a patent in January two 0:20:12.960 --> 0:20:17.760 thousand eight for a hybrid resistive capacitive screen would have 0:20:17.840 --> 0:20:21.160 both resistive and capacitive layers. I tried reading this patent 0:20:21.240 --> 0:20:23.240 to figure out how it would work for this podcast, 0:20:23.640 --> 0:20:25.560 and I think I would need another three or four 0:20:25.640 --> 0:20:28.760 days to really get through it to understand it. Um. 0:20:28.880 --> 0:20:31.840 I can't even pretend to go into the science behind 0:20:31.880 --> 0:20:34.600 it because part of it is written in Martian. Well, 0:20:34.640 --> 0:20:37.879 it's written in patent ease and okay, so it's a 0:20:38.520 --> 0:20:41.679 level of difficulty above Martia. It's slightly more difficult than 0:20:41.720 --> 0:20:44.040 Martian UM. And then I said, we were going to 0:20:44.080 --> 0:20:48.000 talk about the Microsoft Surface very quickly. So the surface, 0:20:48.280 --> 0:20:52.000 it doesn't use a capacitive resistive It does not. It 0:20:52.119 --> 0:20:54.040 is if you don't know what it is. It is 0:20:54.119 --> 0:20:57.239 a table like device. It has a monitor on the 0:20:57.240 --> 0:21:00.080 top of it, so you would sit down at one 0:21:00.119 --> 0:21:03.680 of these things, and it has a big screen that 0:21:03.720 --> 0:21:07.080 you can touch and manipulate things on the screen. You 0:21:07.119 --> 0:21:10.080 can have images there, you can play games, and it 0:21:10.119 --> 0:21:13.720 can detect dozens of different touch points, so it's not 0:21:13.800 --> 0:21:15.919 just you know, two finger touching. You could have a 0:21:16.000 --> 0:21:18.240 game where five people are sitting around this table and 0:21:18.280 --> 0:21:20.480 are playing a little pinball game or whatever, and each 0:21:20.480 --> 0:21:23.919 one's controlling a set of flippers, you know, or tons 0:21:23.920 --> 0:21:27.560 of other different implications. It does not use capacity or 0:21:27.640 --> 0:21:33.479 resistive touch screens. Instead, it uses cameras and an image 0:21:33.520 --> 0:21:37.800 recognition UH software that is in the infrared spectrum. So 0:21:37.840 --> 0:21:42.320 these cameras are pointing up from inside the device. They're 0:21:42.359 --> 0:21:46.040 pointing up at the screen, the screen surface, and they 0:21:46.080 --> 0:21:49.520 detect the points of contact and then send that information 0:21:49.560 --> 0:21:53.280 to the processor, which then you know, translates into a command. 0:21:54.160 --> 0:21:57.320 The neat thing about this is you can use multiple 0:21:57.400 --> 0:22:02.439 objects on the surface and and automatically transmit commands. So 0:22:02.520 --> 0:22:06.119 let's say that you have a an MP three player 0:22:06.320 --> 0:22:10.640 that can wirelessly sink with a computing device. So let's 0:22:10.640 --> 0:22:14.560 say you've got a Microsoft Zoom and you lay this 0:22:14.680 --> 0:22:19.199 down on the surface, the surface, the surface of the surface. Yes, 0:22:19.240 --> 0:22:21.000 you could lay it on the screen of the surface, 0:22:21.400 --> 0:22:24.560 and you could sink your device with the surface automatically 0:22:24.640 --> 0:22:26.680 just by laying it on the screen, because it would 0:22:26.720 --> 0:22:29.600 detect the shape and size of that Say, hey, you 0:22:29.680 --> 0:22:33.200 know what that is. That's a zoom uh, and it 0:22:33.320 --> 0:22:35.639 just automatically has the command that when that device is 0:22:35.680 --> 0:22:38.920 placed on there, it'll sink. Yeah. So there are a 0:22:38.960 --> 0:22:44.879 lot of interesting swine flu interesting um applications for this device. 0:22:45.960 --> 0:22:48.600 So anyway, that was one thing I wanted to bring 0:22:48.680 --> 0:22:51.119 up because technically that's not even if you think of 0:22:51.119 --> 0:22:54.439 it as a touch screens. It's not really a touch screen. 0:22:54.560 --> 0:22:57.360 It's really all because the camera. You had a similar 0:22:57.400 --> 0:23:00.320 device you wanted to mention briefly, right, Well, yeah, because uh, 0:23:00.480 --> 0:23:02.879 you know, as we were talking before hand, I started 0:23:02.920 --> 0:23:07.640 thinking about other devices like that UM and uh one 0:23:07.680 --> 0:23:10.720 of the ones that our friends that stuff from the 0:23:10.760 --> 0:23:15.000 B side uh recorded And actually John Fuller wrote about 0:23:15.040 --> 0:23:19.520 the React table, which uses a series of acrylic shapes 0:23:20.119 --> 0:23:25.240 on a Microsoft surface like surface UM to control music. 0:23:25.680 --> 0:23:28.800 And I started thinking about how that worked, and you said, basically, 0:23:28.800 --> 0:23:32.119 it's the same, you know, a similar situation of cameras 0:23:32.160 --> 0:23:35.240 underneath the table. And I remember from editing that that yes, 0:23:35.280 --> 0:23:38.440 it's got UM, it's got a screen on which the 0:23:38.480 --> 0:23:42.440 shapes said, and it's you know, the cameras tracking where 0:23:42.480 --> 0:23:45.160 those those different pieces are. And it says, okay, well 0:23:45.160 --> 0:23:47.439 this is a this is a circle. I know, you 0:23:47.480 --> 0:23:50.159 know when his circle it controls the beat is you know, 0:23:50.320 --> 0:23:53.840 the square does this. So that's uh yeah, So depending 0:23:53.880 --> 0:23:58.320 on the position of those and the position and configuration 0:23:58.520 --> 0:24:02.560 right those different objects, it'll create a different set of 0:24:02.600 --> 0:24:05.800 sounds and you can rotate things in it, you know 0:24:05.520 --> 0:24:09.600 it because it's the shape and the position of the 0:24:09.680 --> 0:24:12.320 uh implement that it has to do a certain thing. Yeah, 0:24:12.320 --> 0:24:15.360 I've seen similar applications which would do things like even 0:24:15.440 --> 0:24:20.160 incorporate stuff like colors, so you might have a one 0:24:20.200 --> 0:24:22.359