From Movies to Must Haves- How Touchable Technology is Everywhere

Most of us remember the first time we saw a touch screen gadget. It was most likely Mission Impossible or Minority Report or a James Bond flick where we remember seeing an actor impressively using a touch screen gadget with ease as they received information, charted out a mission or looked up enemy files using their fingertips.
 
The one time jaw-dropping idea of touching software to control functions is now a reality we take for granted. For example, we use touch screens at ATMs, purchasing tickets, the grocery store and even at the post office. Many of the modern technology to perform these touch functions is through resistive or capacitive sensor.
A capacitive touch screen panel is coated with a thin indium tin oxide material that conducts continuous electrical currents across a sensor- say a touch screen of an iPhone. So it exudes a controlled electronic field in both a vertical and horizontal axis and therefore is capacitive. In order for the capacitive technology to function, it must be touched by something else that also exhibits electricity- like the human body. When a person’s finger touches a capacitive screen, it sends an electric current to then form a mathematical function which signals an action.
 
Until recent attention was drawn to capacitive sensor technology, it was considered too expensive and delicate to use in touch screen products like grocery store check out kiosks or toys. Resistive touch screens use a different, more durable technology that most of us often see and are affected by objects like a stylus pen or physical pressing onto a button which signals the resistive screen in a toy lets say. Now, thanks to the iPhone and fun products like the Microsoft coffee table with a capacitive touch screen, we could see an increase in factory production of capacitive sensors, thus reducing the cost of capacitive touch technology. Due to the popularity of touch technology, capacitive sensors are the biggest emerging trend in the mobile phone world and phones are just one area. The list of future products containing capacitive touch technology is growing. Portable game consoles, cameras and music players are being designed with
 
Future of Capacitive Touch
Since an overwhelming majority of Americans use a touch screen device at least once a day, it’s not surprising to see the value in all that capacitive touch has to offer. From car navigation touch screens to aviation, the touch screen phenomenon is far from over. Even bars in Las Vegas have touch screen technology inside them where customers are able to write on the bar, draw and play with light. Soon, patrons will be able to set their check cards onto a touch screen table and instantly pay for their meal. The digital camera created a boom for digital pictures and all accessories that went with it. Touch screens of the future will allow users to play with their digital images using a virtual scrapbook tool, enabling photos to enlarge and shrink, flip and move. Who knows what will happen next- pens that take photos, self-destructing letters or high performance jet packs? One thing is for sure- it will probably wow us at the movies before we see it at the store.