A touchscreen is a computer screen that can be used by touching it with a finger or a stylus pen, instead of using a mouse and keyboard. It can be described as a touchpad with a screen built-in to it.
Today, all kinds of devices, both big and small, make use of touchscreens. However, tablet computers and smartphones have made them popular and are the most widely known and used products that use touchscreens.
Touchscreens are used as information monitors, for example at trade fairs, for orientation in large department stores, for operating smartphones or for timetable information at railway stations. From time to time, touchscreens can also be found in the shop windows of pharmacies or tour operators, which can be used to call up detailed information. In addition, touchscreens are used in slot machines and arcade games. They are also often used to control machines in industry (industrial PCs), in particular because they are less susceptible to dirt than other input devices such as keyboards. Some banks have ATMs with touchscreen displays. In banks, they are increasingly used for transfer terminals, with SAW (Surface Acoustic Wave) technology being used because it is relatively vandal-proof. Due to its glass surface, it does not scratch and damage as quickly as, for example, resistive systems with ITO foil as a surface.
Touch screen terminals that are used for public information dissemination are called point of interest (POI) or kiosk systems in the IT industry. Terminals that are used for sales are called point of sale or abbreviated POS. Contrary to the high expectations of the economy and the IT industry, the latter have only gained limited acceptance. The reasons for this, apart from the maintenance effort for the devices, are often the lack of adaptation of the software to the special operating conditions of the touch screen devices or often simply the unergonomic and unattractive software and lack of benefit for the operators.
In newer, modern cars, multifunction displays are increasingly being designed as touchscreens. New technologies even offer electronically generated, tactile perceptibility here.
In the meantime, touchscreens have become widespread in home systems, especially in the field of PDAs, tablet PCs, smartphones, digital cameras and in the game consoles Nintendo DS, PlayStation Vita and Wii U. The input pens (also: stylus) used in the past due to the small screens and the user interfaces not adapted to them are quite unergonomic and have long prevented the breakthrough of touchscreens in this area. Only with the projected capacitive systems (first in the LG Prada) has this changed permanently.
A touchscreen does not need to be mounted in front of a display, it can also be used as a replacement for a membrane keyboard. For this purpose, a printed (polyester) foil is applied behind the touchscreen (at the place where the computer screen normally sits). There are various approaches to detach touchscreens completely from physical monitors in order to also make projections of user interfaces usable interactively. An example of this is the "Virtual Touchscreen" from Siemens, which has since been discontinued, or various systems from the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft.
These systems use several techniques to compensate for each other's disadvantages.
A: A touchscreen is a computer screen that one can use by touching it with a finger or a stylus pen.
A: A touchscreen is different from a regular computer screen because one can use it by touching it with a finger or a stylus pen, instead of using a mouse and keyboard.
A: Yes, all kinds of devices, both big and small, can use touchscreens.
A: The most widely known and used products that use touchscreens are tablet computers and smartphones.
A: A touchscreen can be described as a touchpad with a screen built-in to it.
A: Touchscreens have become so popular because of their convenience and ease of use, especially in devices like tablet computers and smartphones.
A: No, you can use your finger to operate a touchscreen. However, a stylus pen can provide more precision and accuracy.
