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Topics
What is Touch screen? History of touchscreen? How Does a Touchscreen Work? Technologies in Touchscreen Forms of Touchscreen Development in touchscreen Ergonamics and usage

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Applications Of Touchscreen

Advantages and Disadvantages of Touchscreen Conclusion: BIBILOGRAPHY:

Touch Screen

What is Touch screen?

A touch screen is a computer display screen that is sensitive to human touch, allowing a user to interact with the computer by touching pictures or words on the screen. A type of display screen that has a touch-sensitive transparent panel covering the screen. Instead of using a pointing device such as a mouse or light pen, you can use your finger to point directly to objects on the screen. Touch screens are used with information kiosks, computer-based training devices, and systems designed to help individuals who have difficulty manipulating a mouse or keyboard. Touch screen technology can be used as an alternative user interface with applications that normally require a mouse, such as a Web browser. Some applications are designed specifically for touch screen technology, often having larger icons and links than the typical PC application. Monitors are available with built-in touch screen technology or individuals can purchase a touch screen kit. A touch screen kit includes a touch screen panel, a controller, and a software driver. The touch screen panel is a clear panel attached externally to the monitor that plugs into a serial or Universal Serial Bus (USB) port or a bus card installed inside the computer. The touch screen panel registers touch events and passes these signals to the controller. The controller then processes the signals and sends the data to the processor. The software driver translates touch events into mouse events. Drivers can be provided for both Windows and Macintosh operating systems. Internal touch screen kits are available but require professional installation because they must be installed inside the monitor.Although touch screens provide a natural interface for computer novices, they are unsatisfactory for most applications because the finger is such a relatively large object.

It is impossible to point accurately to small areas of the screen. In addition, most users find touch screens tiring to the arms after long use.

A touch screen kit includes a touch screen panel, a controller, and a software driver. The touch screen panels are is a clear panel attached externally to the monitors that plug in to a serial or a universal serial Bus (USB) port a bus Card installed inside the computer. The touch screen panel registers touch event and passes these signal to controller. The controller then processes the signals and sends the data to the processor. The software driver translates the touch events into mouse events. Driver can be provided for both Window and Macintosh operating systems. Internal touch screen kits are available but require professional installation because the must be installed inside the monitors. A type of display screen that has a touch-sensitive transparent panel covering the screen. Instead of using a pointing device such as a mouse or light pen, you can use your finger to point directly to objects on the screen. Although touch screens provide a natural interface for computer novices, they are unsatisfactory for most applications because the finger is such a relatively large object. It is impossible to point accurately to small areas of the screen. In addition, most users find touch screens tiring to the arms after long use. Touch-screens are typically found on larger displays, in phones with integrated PDA features. Most are designed to work with either your finger or a special stylus. Tapping a specific point on the display will activate the virtual button or feature displayed at that location on the display. A touch screen is an input device that allows users to operate a PC by simply touching the display.

HISTORY OF TOUCH SCREEN TECHNOLOGY

Dr. Sam Hurst, founder of Elographics, developed the first touch screen while he was an instructor at the university of Kentucky in 1971. Ten stockholders founded Elographics, Inc. in March 1971, to produce Graphical data Digitizers for use in research and industrial application, with the, principal being Dr. Sam Hurst. He was on leave from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory to tech at the University of Kentucky for two years, where he was faced with a need to read a huge stack of strip chart data. It would have taken two graduate student s approximately two month to do the task. He started to thinking of a way to read the and during the process, the Elograph (Electronic graphics) coordinate measuring system and Elographics the company were born. The University Kentucky research foundation applied for and was granted a patent on the Elograph. The foundation granted an exclusive license to Elographics. The touch screen is one of the easiest to use and most intuitive of all PC interface of choices from a wide variety of applications. A touch interface to allow users to navigate a computer system by touching icon or links on the screen.

How Does a Touchscreen Work?

A basic touchscreen has three main components: a touch sensor, a controller, and a software driver. The touchscreen is an input device, so it needs to be combined with a display and a PC or other device to make a complete touch input system. 1. Touch Sensor A touch screen sensor is a clear glass panel with a touch responsive surface. The touch sensor/panel is placed over a display screen so that the responsive area of the panel covers the viewable area of the video screen.

There are several different touch sensor technologies on the market today, each using a different method to detect touch input. The sensor generally has an electrical current or signal going through it and touching the screen causes a voltage or signal change. This voltage change is used to determine the location of the touch to the screen.

2. Controller The controller is a small PC card that connects between the touch sensor and the PC. It takes information from the touch sensor and translates it into information that PC can understand. The controller is usually installed inside the monitor for integrated monitors or it is housed in a plastic case for external touch add-ons/overlays. The controller determines what type of interface/connection you will need on the PC. Integrated touch monitors will have an extra cable connection on the back for the touchscreen. Controllers are available that can connect to a Serial/COM port (PC) or to a USB port (PC or Macintosh). Specialized controllers are also available that work with DVD players and other devices. 3. Software Driver The driver is a software update for the PC system that allows the touchscreen and computer to work together. It tells the computer's operating system how to interpret the touch event information that is sent from the controller. Most touch screen drivers today are a mouse-emulation type driver. This makes touching the screen the same as clicking your mouse at the same location on the screen. This allows the touchscreen to work with existing software and allows new applications to be developed without the need for touchscreen specific programming. Some equipment such as thin client terminals, DVD players, and specialized computer systems either do not use software drivers or they have their own built-in touch screen driver.

There are three basic systems that are used to recognise a person's touch Resistive, Capacitive and Surface acoustic wave. The resistive system consists of a normal glass panel that is covered with a conductive and a resistive metallic layer. These layers are held apart by spacers, and a scratch-resistant layer is placed on top of the whole set up. An electrical current runs through the two layers while the monitor is operational. When a user touches the screen, the two layers make contact in that spot. The change in electrical field is noted and coordinates of the point of contact are calculated. Once the coordinates are known, a special driver translates the touch into something that the operating system can understand, much as a computer mouse driver translates a mouse's movements into a click or drag. In the capacitive system, a layer that stores electrical charge is placed on the glass panel of the monitor. When a user touches the monitor with his or her finger, some of the charge is transferred to the user, so the charge on the capacitive layer decreases. This decrease is measured in circuits located at each corner of the monitor. The computer calculates, from the relative differences in charge at each corner, exactly where the touch event took place and then relays that information to the touch screen driver software. One advantage of the capacitive system is that it transmits almost 90 per cent of the light from the monitor, whereas the resistive system only transmits about 75 per cent. This gives the capacitive system a much clearer picture than the resistive system.

The surface acoustic wave system uses two transducers (one receiving and one sending) placed along the x and y axes of the monitor's glass plate. Also placed on the glass are reflectors they reflect an electrical signal sent from one transducer to the other. The receiving transducer is able to tell if the wave has been disturbed by a touch event at any instant, and can locate it accordingly. The wave setup has no metallic layers on the screen, allowing for 100-percent light throughput and perfect image clarity. This makes the surface acoustic wave system best for

displaying detailed graphics (both other systems have significant degradation in clarity). Another area in which the systems differ is which stimuli will register as a touch event. A resistive system registers a touch as long as the two layers make contact, which means that it doesn't matter if you touch it with your finger or a rubber ball. A capacitive system, on the other hand, must have a conductive input, usually your finger, in order to register a touch. The surface acoustic wave system works much like the resistive system, allowing a touch with almost any object except hard and small objects like a pen tip.

Technologies in Touchscreen
There are a number of types of touch screen technology 1. Resistive A resistive touch screen panel is composed of several layers. The most important are two thin metallic electrically conductive and resistive layers separated by thin space. When some object touches this kind of touch panel, the layers are connected at certain point; the panel then electrically acts similar to two voltage dividers with connected outputs. This causes a change in the electrical current which is registered as a touch event and sent to the controller for processing. When measuring press force, it is useful to add resistor dependent on force in this model -- between the dividers. A resistive touch panel output can consist of between four and eight wires. The positions of the conductive contacts in resistive layers differ depending on how many wires are used. When four wires are used, the contacts are placed on the left, right, top, and bottom sides. When five wires are used, the contacts are placed in the corners and on one plate. 4 wire resistive panels can estimate the area (and hence the pressure) of a touch based on calculations from the resistances.

Resistive touch screen panels are generally more affordable but offer only 75% clarity[ (premium films and glass finishes allow transmissivity to approach 85% and the layer can be damaged by sharp objects. Resistive touch screen panels are not

affected by outside elements such as dust or water and are the type most commonly used today.

5-wire resistive touch screens are very accurate and reliable. Everyone can use them for whatever purpose he or she wants. Our touch screens enlarge the active area to the entire screen, and advance an excellent quality as compared to common displays because of improved flatness and durability of the touch+d surface. 8-Wire Resistive Technology Resistive touchscreen technology exists in 4-wire, 5-wire, or 8-wire forms. FastPoint LCD touchscreens specifically employ 8-wire resistive technology because of its benefits over its counterparts. Whereas 8-wire FastPoint touchscreens are available in all sizes, 4-wire resistive technology is restricted to small flatpanels (<10.4"). Additionally, 8-wire resistive touchscreens are not susceptible to problems caused by high-level short-term variances and axis linearity and drift.

1.Polyester Flim 2.Uper Resistive circuit Layer 3.condutive ITO(Transparent metal) 4. Lower Resitive Circuit Layer 5.Insulating Dots 6.Glass/Acrlic Substrate 7.Touching the overlay surface causes the (2) Upper Resistive circuit Layer to contact the (4) Lower Resistive circuit Layer ,producing a circuit switch from the activated area. 8.The touchscreen controller gets the alternating voltages between the (7) two circuit Layer and converts them into the digital X and Y coordinates of the activated area.

2. Surface wave
Surface wave touch screen monitors use ultrasonic waves to process inputs from the screen. A surface wave touch screen display is composed of two transducers (acting as receivers and senders) positioned along the X and Y axis of the displays glass layer.

Reflectors are placed on the glass layer which reflects an electrical signal propelled fromone transducer to the other. The receiving transducer is capable to identify if the signalhas been altered by a touch at any moment, and can trace it consequently. Ultrasonicwaves flow over the touch screen, when a person touches the pad at a specific location,the wave is absorbed and immediately processed by the computer. The wave arrangementhas no metallic coatings on the display, permitting for 100 percent light throughput andideal picture clearness. This formulates the surface wave touch screen display as finest forexhibiting detailed pictures. While not as common as resistive touch panels, they are used in certain applications. Dustand water can contaminate a surface wave touch screen so it is important to keep thescreens properly maintained.
Figure 4

3. Capacitive A capacitive touch screen panel is coated with a material, typically indium tin oxide that conducts a continuous electrical current across the sensor. The sensor therefore exhibits a precisely controlled field of stored electrons in both the

horizontal and vertical axes - it achieves capacitance. The human body is also an electrical device which has stored electrons and therefore also exhibits capacitance. When the sensor's 'normal' capacitance field (its reference state) is altered by another capacitance field, i.e., someone's finger, electronic circuits located at each corner of the panel measure the resultant 'distortion' in the sine wave characteristics of the reference field and send the information about the event to the controller for mathematical processing. Capacitive sensors can either be touched with a bare finger or with a conductive device being held by a bare hand. Capacitive touch screens are not affected by outside elements and have high clarity, but their complex signal processing electronics increase their cost. A capacitive touch screen consists of a glass panel with a capacitive (charge storing) material coating its surface. Circuits located at corners of the screen measure the capacitance of a person touching the overlay. Frequency changes are measured to determine the X and Y coordinates of the touch event. Capacitive type touch screens are very durable, and have a high clarity. They are used in a wide range of applications, from restaurant and POS use to industrial controls and information kiosks.

Advantages High touch resolution High image clarity Not affected by dirt, grease, moisture. Disadvantages Must be touched by finger, will not work with any non-conductive input

Surface capacitance

In this basic technology, only one side of the insulator is coated with a conductive layer. A small voltage is applied to the layer, resulting in a uniform electrostatic field. When a conductor, such as a human finger, touches the uncoated surface, a capacitor is dynamically formed. The sensor's controller can determine the location of the touch indirectly from the change in the capacitance as measured from the four corners of the panel. As it has no moving parts, it is moderately durable but has limited resolution, is prone to false signals from parasitic capacitive coupling, and needs calibration during manufacture. It is therefore most often used in simple applications such as industrial controls and kiosks.

Projected capacitance

Projected Capacitive Touch (PCT) technology is a capacitive technology which permits more accurate and flexible operation, by etching the conductive layer. An X-Y grid is formed either by etching a single layer to form a grid pattern of electrodes, or by etching two separate, perpendicular layers of conductive material with parallel lines or tracks to form the grid (comparable to the pixel grid found in many LCD displays). The greater resolution of PCT allows operation without direct contact, such that the conducting layers can be coated with further protective insulating layers, and operate even under screen protectors, or behind weather and vandal-proof glass. Due to the top layer of a PCT being glass, PCT is a more robust solution versus resistive touch technology. Depending on the implementation, an active or passive stylus can be used instead of or in addition to a finger. This is common with point of sale devices that require signature capture. Gloved fingers may or may not be sensed, depending on the implementation and gain settings. Conductive smudges and similar interference on the panel surface can interfere with the performance. Such conductive smudges come mostly from sticky or sweaty finger tips, especially in high humidity environments. Collected dust, which adheres to the screen due to

the moisture from fingertips can also be a problem. There are two types of PCT: Self Capacitance and Mutual Capacitance.

Mutual capacitance

In mutual capacitive sensors, there is a capacitor at every intersection of each row and each column. A 16-by-14 array, for example, would have 224 independent capacitors. A voltage is applied to the rows or columns. Bringing a finger or conductive stylus close to the surface of the sensor changes the local electrostatic field which reduces the mutual capacitance. The capacitance change at every individual point on the grid can be measured to accurately determine the touch location by measuring the voltage in the other axis. Mutual capacitance allows multi-touch operation where multiple fingers, palms or stylus can be accurately tracked at the same time.

Self-capacitance

Self-capacitance sensors can have the same X-Y grid as mutual capacitance sensors, but the columns and rows operate independently. With self-capacitance, the capacitive load of a finger is measured on each column or row electrode by a current meter. This method produces a stronger signal than mutual capacitance, but it is unable to resolve accurately more than one finger, which results in "ghosting", or misplaced location sensing.

4. Infrared An infrared touch screen panel employs one of two very different methods. One method used thermal induced changes of the surface resistance. This method was sometimes slow and required warm hands. Another method is an array of vertical and horizontal IR sensors that detected the interruption of a modulated light beam

near the surface of the screen. IR touch screens have the most durable surfaces and are used in many military applications that require a touch panel display.

5. Strain gauge In a strain gauge configuration the screen is spring mounted on the four corners and strain gauges are used to determine deflection when the screen is touched. This technology can also measure the Z-axis. Typically used in exposed public systems such as ticket machines due to their resistance to vandalism.

6.Optical imaging A relatively-modern development in touch screen technology, two or more image sensors are placed around the edges (mostly the corners) of the screen. Infrared backlights are placed in the camera's field of view on the other sides of the screen. A touch shows up as a shadow and each pair of cameras can then be triangulated to locate the touch. This technology is growing in popularity, due to its scalability, versatility, and affordability, especially for larger units. 7. Dispersive signal technology

Introduced in 2002, this system uses sensors to detect the mechanical energy in the glass that occur due to a touch. Complex algorithms then interpret this information and provide the actual location of the touch. The technology claims to be unaffected by dust and other outside elements, including scratches. Since there is no need for additional elements on screen, it also claims to provide excellent optical clarity. Also, since mechanical vibrations are used to detect a touch event, any object can be used to generate these events, including fingers and styli. A downside is that after the initial touch the system cannot detect a motionless finger. 8.Acoustic pulse recognition This system uses more than two piezoelectric transducers located at some positions of the screen to turn the mechanical energy of a touch (vibration) into an electronic signal. This signal is then converted into an audio file, and then compared to preexisting audio profile for every position on the screen. This system works without a grid of wires running through the screen, the touch screen itself is actually pure glass, giving it the optics and durability of the glass out of which it is made. It works with scratches and dust on the screen, and accuracy is very good. It does not need a conductive object to activate it. It is a major advantage for larger displays. As with the Dispersive Signal Technology system, after the initial touch this system cannot detect a motionless finger.

Forms of Touch Screen

Touchscreens come in three main forms: Single-Touch, Multi-Touch Gesture, and the epitome of it all, Multi-Touch All-Point. Single-Touch Touchscreen Single-touch touchscreens remove the need for the traditional mechanical button by integrating that user control interface directly onto the screen itself. Single-touch has brought two main advantages to the user interface: 1) Device design space can be optimized, especially in smaller devices, by locating both a screen and buttons in the same area, and 2) devices can now have an unlimited amount of buttons since a button could be tied to any application within the devices operating system. This functionality, predominantly based on resistive touchscreen technology, became quite popular across consumer electronics, airport kiosks, grocery store POS terminals, and automobile GPS systems.

Multi-Touch All-Point Touchscreens As with Single-Touch touchscreens, Multi-Touch Gesture touchscreens too have a limitation: the number of points the technology can identify on the screen. Why limit device makers to two points at a time? Users have ten fingers across two hands and when users interact with each other the number of fingers and hands grow even more. That is

the concept of Multi-Touch All-Point, the ability to handle more and not just two fingers.

Touchscreens As Input Device All of the touchscreens that basically work like a mouse. Once the software driver for the touchscreen is installed, the touchscreen emulates mouse functions. Touching the screen is basically the same as clicking your mouse at the same point at the screen. When you touch the touchscreen, the mouse cursor will move to that point and make a mouse click. You can tap the screen twice to perform a doubleclick, and you can also drag your finger across the touchscreen to perform dragand-drops. The touchscreens will normally emulate left mouse clicks. Through software, you can also switch the touchscreen to perform right mouse clicks instead.

Development in Touchscreen Virtually all of the significant touchscreen technology patents were filed during the 1970s and 1980s and have expired. Touchscreen component manufacturing and product design are no longer encumbered by royalties or legalities with regard to patents and the manufacturing of touchscreen-enabled displays on all kinds of devices is widespread. The development of multipoint touchscreens facilitated the tracking of more than one finger on the screen, thus operations that require more than one finger are possible. These devices also allow multiple users to interact with the touchscreen simultaneously.

With the growing acceptance of many kinds of products with an integral touchscreen interface the marginal cost of touchscreen technology is routinely absorbed into the products that incorporate it and is effectively eliminated. As typically occurs with any technology, touchscreen hardware and software has sufficiently matured and been perfected over more than three decades to the point where its reliability is unassailable. As such, touchscreen displays are found today in airplanes, automobiles, gaming consoles, machine control systems, appliances and handheld display devices of every kind. The ability to accurately point on the screen itself is taking yet another step with the emerging graphics tablet/screen hybrids.

Ergonomics and usage

An ergonomic problem of touchscreens is their stress on human fingers when used for more than a few minutes at a time, since significant pressure can be required and the screen is non-flexible. This can be alleviated with the use of a pen or other device to add leverage, but the introduction of such items can sometimes be problematic depending on the desired use case (for example, public kiosks such as ATMs). Also, fine motor control is better achieved with a stylus, a finger being a rather broad and ambiguous point of contact with the screen. Yet all of these ergonomic issues can be bypassed simply by using a different technique, provided that the user's fingernails are either short or sufficiently long. Rather than pressing with the soft skin of an outstretched fingertip, the finger is curled over, so that the top of the forward edge of a fingernail can be used instead. (The thumb is optionally used to provide support for the finger or for a long fingernail, from underneath.) The fingernail's hard, curved surface contacts the touchscreen at a single very small point. Therefore, much less finger pressure is needed, much greater precision is possible (approaching that of a stylus, with a little experience), much less skin oil is smeared onto the screen, and the fingernail can be silently moved across the screen with very little resistance, allowing for

selecting text, moving windows, or drawing lines. (The human fingernail consists of keratin which has a hardness and smoothness similar to the tip of a stylus, and so will not typically scratch a touchscreen.) Alternately, very short stylus tips are available, which slip right onto the end of a finger; this increases visibility of the contact point with the screen. Oddly, with capacitive touch screens, the reverse problem applies in that individuals with long nails have reported problems getting adequate skin contact with the screen to register keystrokes (note that styluses do not work on capacitive touch screens nor do gloved fingers).

LIMITATION AND COMPARISION OF TOUCH

Limitations
Touchscreens have limitations that - to our opinion - prevent them from becoming the "universal" solution for user interface problems.

Size
Fingers have a certain size. So, screen elements have to have a minimum size, to ensure that a touchscreen can be operated with few errors. Even with a stylus, which makes possible to use smaller screen elements, there are limiting factors .

Sequential Input

Input on a touchscreen is inherently sequential: One finger is used for clicking. This slows input down compared to keyboard input where several fingers can be used virtuallyin parallel.

Strain
Keying in many numbers or letters by pointing with the finger is also very straining and tiring. Therefore, touchscreens make no sense in workplaces, where much text or numberinput is required.

Feedback
On touchscreens, there is no analogue to mouse-move events. Mouse users can move the mouse pointer over screen elements, get feedback about the selected element (e.g. by highlighting), and may confirm the selection by clicking the mouse button. Touchscreen users directly point on a screen element. If they are lucky, they can withdraw their finger if they touched the wrong screen element. On other touchscreens, the touch immediately initiates an action - there is no opportunity to cancel the action.

Drag Operations
Dragging is generally not well suited to finger-operated touchscreens; here pointing is the preferred interaction. However, this is different for stylus-operated touchscreens. Here gestures and handwriting offer promising possibilities for making interaction with computers easier and more intuitive. But here, too is the limitation of strictly sequential input.

Applications Of Touchscreen Most games for the Nintendo DS use the touchscreen as a primary controlling device Touchscreens have become commonplace since the invention of the electronic touch interface in 1971 by Dr. Samuel C. Hurst. They have become familiar in retail settings, on point of sale systems, on ATMs and on PDAs where a stylus is sometimes used to manipulate the GUI and to enter data. The popularity of smart phones, PDAs, portable game consoles and many types of information appliances is driving the demand for, and the acceptance of, touchscreens. The HP-150 from 1983 was probably the world's earliest commercial touch screen computer. It actually does not have a touch screen in the strict sense, but a 9" Sony CRT surrounded by infrared transmitters and receivers which detect the position of any non-transparent object on the screen. Touchscreens are popular in heavy industry and in other situations, such as museum displays or room automation, where keyboards and mouse do not allow a satisfactory, intuitive, rapid, or accurate interaction by the user with the display's content. Historically, the touchscreen sensor and its accompanying controller-based firmware have been made available by a wide array of after-market system integrators and not by display, chip or motherboard manufacturers. With time, however, display manufacturers and System On Chip (SOC) manufacturers worldwide have acknowledged the trend toward acceptance of touchscreens as a highly desirable user interface component and have begun to integrate touchscreen functionality into the fundamental design of their products Information kiosks are often used in public locations such as railway/airline/bus terminals, tourist areas, museums, and shopping centers. In information kiosk a touch based multimedia application will be developed with rich text, proper graphics animations, photograph, videos, hi quality voice over and back ground music with colorful and attractive screen layouts. The application to start with can have organizational related information in a detailed manner. The content would be arranged in a clearly defined menus for the user to operate easily. The same can be done in multi language. Now here our kiosks has major benefit if they are online so by entering a policy number through a virtual number pad on the screen the user can see the policy status. If he wants to get a print out he can also do that. When the kiosk is not in use for longer time product promos / ads may continuously run in the form of screen savers to attract more customers

Touchscreen Application Tips

Ten simple pointers that can make your touch-enabled application a success. 1. Run your application full screen. Remove title bars and menu bars so your application can take full advantage of the entire display area. 2. Use bright background colors (not black). Bright backgrounds in your application will hide fingerprints and reduce glare. Dithering or other patterned backgrounds (for example, the "crumpled paper look") help the eye focus on the screen image instead of reflections, even in areas where there are no icons or menu choices. 3. Use a simple point-and-click interface with large buttons. Dragging, double-clicks, scroll bars, drop-down menus, multiple windows, or other elements can confuse the typical user and detract from user-friendliness and efficiency. 4. Turn the cursor off so your user will focus on the entire screen instead of the arrow. A cursor on the screen makes the user think, "How do I get the arrow to do what I want?" Remove the cursor, and the user's thinking and actions become direct instead of indirect-thereby unlocking the true power of touchscreens.

5. Always give your users feedback as soon as they touch the screen.

Immediate feedback is critical to reassure the user that a touch has registered. Responses can be visual, such as 3-D button effects similar to those found on a standard Windows button. Or you can provide an audio response, such as a "click" or other sound output whenever a user touches the screen. 6. Make your application fun and fast. 7. Users will walk away from a sluggish system. You can keep their attention with a quick response to touches. Speedy systems also reduce vandalism. Avoid graphics modes offering excessive colors or high resolution-these will only slow down your system.

8. Make the application intuitive, limit choices, and guide the user as much as possible. Test your application with users. If they pause in confusion-even for a momentyou've identified the areas than need improvement. 9. Digitized speech can talk users through your application. 10. Because the human brain can simultaneously process a voice and absorb an image, there is something almost magical about a user interface that provides voice prompts and touch response. The better kiosk applications exploit this knowledge for maximum effect. For example: "Touch the first letter of the company you are looking for." Click. "Now touch OK." Click. 11. Make your application part of an attractive package. Animation and large fonts help attract users to kiosk applications. The actual design of the kiosk cabinet should also be attractive and sturdy.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Touchscreen Disadvantages The user must sit within arm's reach of the display Possible arm fatigue Difficult to select small items Possible retrofit problem (the touch screen must be fitted on the screen) The Risks of Touch-Screen Balloting With no end in sight to the election debacle, readers had strong reactions to last week's column about voting technologies. Most of them agreed with the case I made for touch-screen systems, but a few sharply disagreed, and others provided some interesting additional information and perspectives. One issue -- or, to my mind, nonissue -- concerned absentee voting: Several readers worried that if their jurisdictions converted to touch-screen voting machines, it would be more difficult or even impossible for them to cast a ballot without visiting their local polling place on election day. That one is easy to dispose of: The equipment used in polling places has no necessary bearing on how absentee voting is conducted. Jurisdictions that use oldfashioned mechanical lever machines obviously can't ship those to absentees -they have always had to send out some kind of paper ballot. Places that adopt touch-screen "direct-recording electronic" systems can do the same. Riverside County in Southern California has converted to DRE at the polls, but it still mails out paper ballots to absentees. They're scanned optically, and the results are added to the totals from DRE equipment. This adds a bit of cost and complexity to the process, but it's hardly a reason to rule out the electronic approach. Much more serious objections came from Peter G. Neumann, and he's certainly not someone to argue with lightly: He's principal scientist at the Computer Science Lab at SRI International in Menlo Park, chairman of the Association for Computing Machinery Committee on Computers and Public Policy and author of a book called "Computer-Related Risks," among many other distinctions. Among his areas of expertise is the problem of election security. In essence, he argues that the challenge of ensuring the integrity of elections conducted on electronic equipment is much greater than my column suggested. In fact, he describes touch-screen systems as "disasters waiting to happen -- with enormous opportunities for fraud and accidents that are very difficult to detect and almost impossible to rectify."

Through Neumann I also heard from Rebecca Mercuri, a computer scientist who recently completed a Ph.D. dissertation on "Electronic Vote Tabulation Checks & Balances." In laying out a perspective similar to Neumann's, she focused in particular on the absence of an audit trail with electronic systems: "It is essential to elections that there be an alternative method for independently verifying that the votes cast correspond to the totals reported. Since I (as well as many 12-year-olds) can write programs that accept one input value, record a different one and report yet another, computer systems can be no more trusted to provide their own verification than can a fox guarding the hen house." Advantages User Friendly No Much Hardware is needed eliminates the need for a costly proprietary big-ticket POS keyboard Eliminates the need of serviceman at pulic places like Airport,railway stations etc. Conclusion: The touch screen is one of the easiest PC interfaces to use, making it the interface of choice for a wide variety of applications. Public Information Displays: Information kiosks, tourism displays, trade show displays, and other electronic displays are used by many people that have little or no computing experience. The user-friendly touch screen interface can be less intimidating and easier to use than other input devices, especially for novice users. A touchscreen can help make your information more easily accessible by allowing users to navigate your presentation by simply touching the display screen. Retail and Restaurant Systems: Time is money, especially in a fast paced retail or restaurant environment. Touchscreen systems are easy to use so employees can get work done faster, and training time can be reduced for new employees. And because input is done right on the screen, valuable counter space can be saved. Touchscreens can be used in cash registers, order entry stations, seating and reservation systems, and more.

Customer Self-Service In today's fast pace world, waiting in line is one of the things that has yet to speed up. Self-service touch screen terminals can be used to improve customer service at busy stores, fast service restaurants, transportation hubs, and more. Customers can quickly place their own orders or check themselves in or out, saving them time, and decreasing wait times for other customers. Automated bank teller (ATM) and airline e-ticket terminals are examples of self-service stations that can benefit from touchscreen input. Control and Automation Systems The touch screen interface is useful in systems ranging from industrial process control to home automation. By integrating the input device with the display, valuable workspace can be saved. And with a graphical interface, operators can monitor and control complex operations in real-time by simply touching the screen. Computer Based Training: Because the touch screen interface is more user-friendly than other input devices, overall training time for computer novices, and therefore training expense, can be reduced. It can also help to make learning more fun and interactive, which can lead to a more beneficial training experience for both students and educators. Assistive Technology: The touch screen interface can be beneficial to those that have difficulty using other input devices such as a mouse or keyboard. When used in conjunction with software such as on-screen keyboards, or other assistive technology, they can help make computing resources more available to people that have difficulty using computers Hospital / Medical Center Directory: Designed for use in hospitals, clinics and medical centers, the Prudential Touch Screen Hospital Information System provides visitors with a complete directory and way finding system. This electronic system includes a directory of major departments, as well as a directory of staff members. For facilities with attached medical office buildings, the directories can also list physicians by name, by group or by specialty. Any listing can be linked to a floor plan showing the visitors current location as well as guide them to their destination.

Other options available with the software include a schedule of upcoming events, general hospital information and even interactive donor recognition. Each facility is different, and we work with you to select just the right mix of features. Our goal is to help your visitors, quick and efficiently, while not overwhelming them with information. Touch screens have inevitably become the major part our life as the interface between human world and the digital world. The world is moving towards improvising digital technology to match the comprehension level of the human mind. Human gestures and even artificial intelligence is being combined to form future interfacing devices which makes the digital world more easy and fascinating to look at. This report dealt with the innovative touch screen input output interface and its uses. Also , many other inprocess innovations related to future interfacing devices were described. The research in this field is touching new benchmarks every now and then and the worldof technology is keeping its fast pace.

BIBILOGRAPHY: Websities: www.Touchscreen.com

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