Pressure on the cover sheet allowed voltage to flow between the X wires and the Y wires, which could be measured to indicate coordinates. All the screen needed was a conductive cover sheet to make contact with the sheet that contained the X- and Y-axis. The group called its fledgling venture " Elographics," and the team discovered that a touchscreen on a computer monitor made for an excellent method of interaction. In his basement, Hurst and nine friends from various other areas of expertise set out to refine what had been accidentally invented. In 1970, after he returned to work at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Hurst began an after-hours experiment. "I thought it might be useful for other things," he said in the article. The university tried to file a patent on his behalf to protect this accidental invention from duplication, but its scientific origins made it seem like it wasn't that applicable outside the laboratory. Hurst and the research team had been working at the University of Kentucky. With this prototype, his students could compute in a few hours what otherwise had taken days to accomplish. That idea led to the first touch screen for a computer. He, Parks, and Thurman Stewart, another doctoral student, used electrically conductive paper to read a pair of x- and y- coordinates. Sam thought of a way to solve that problem. To study atomic physics the research team used an overworked Van de Graff accelerator that was only available at night. The Berea College Magazine for alumni described it like this: Samuel Hurst developed resistive touchscreens almost accidentally. 1970s: Resistive touchscreens are inventedĪlthough capacitive touchscreens were designed first, they were eclipsed in the early years of touch by resistive touchscreens. Johnson's discovery was eventually adopted by air traffic controllers in the UK and remained in use until the late 1990s. Pressure sensitivity would arrive much later.Įven without the extra features, the early touch interface idea had some takers. The invention was also binary in its interpretation of touch-the interface registered contact or it didn't register contact. Johnson's initial technology could only process one touch at a time, and what we'd describe today as "multitouch" was still somewhat a ways away. The "conductive" part is usually a human finger, which makes for a fine electrical conductor. 1960s: The first touchscreenĪ capacitive touchscreen panel uses an insulator, like glass, that is coated with a transparent conductor such as indium tin oxide (ITO). But first, let's put finger to screen and travel to the 1960s. Future entries in this series will study how the changes in touch displays led to essential devices for our lives today and where the technology might take us in the future. Today, we'll look at when these technologies first arose and who introduced them, plus we'll discuss several other pioneers who played a big role in advancing touch. The first three decades of touch are important to reflect upon in order to really appreciate the multitouch technology we're so used to having today. This article is the first of a three-part series on touchscreen technology's journey to fact from fiction. But their inclusion in the series paralleled the advancements in the technology world, and by the late 1980s, touchscreens finally appeared to be realistic enough that consumers could actually employ the technology into their own homes. Popular science fiction television shows like Star Trek didn't even refer to the technology until Star Trek: The Next Generation debuted in 1987, almost two decades after touchscreen technology was even deemed possible. Although the underlying technology behind touchscreens can be traced back to the 1940s, there's plenty of evidence that suggests touchscreens weren't feasible until at least 1965. It took generations and several major technological advancements for touchscreens to achieve this kind of presence. Homes, cars, restaurants, stores, planes, wherever-they fill our lives in spaces public and private. These days, it's almost unfathomable how we once got through our daily tasks without a trusty tablet or smartphone nearby, but it doesn't stop there. It's hard to believe that just a few decades ago, touchscreen technology could only be found in science fiction books and film.
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