During the rapid rise of the computer in the second half of the 20th-century people were always searching for the next best way to interact with them the early days of punched cards and paper became too cumbersome as computers advanced and keyboards become the input device of choice
In the 1960s USA inventor Douglas Engelbert invented the computers mouse which represented a milestone in computer interaction the next big leap forward became in 1971 when doctor Samuel Hurst invented the electronic touch screen interface while teaching at the University of Kentucky He was faced with the daunting task of reading a huge amount of data from a strip chart realising that this work normally took graduate students at least two months to completely decided to work on an easier method
What he came up with was the elograph Coordinate measuring system. It was an input tablet that could measure where the user was pressing a stylus. Hurst quickly formed the El oh graphics company to make and sell the devices working furiously to develop their concept Hurst and his team took just three years to make a proper transparent version that could sit over a screen four years later in 1977 they came up with what was to become the most popular technology for touch screens today the five-wire resistive touch screen contained transparent layers that a squeeze together by the pressure of a finger touching them easily translated into electrical resistive data the modern touch screen is durable and offers high resolution
Touchpad
the introduction of the laptop computer represented a problem namely how to operate the computer scarcer without a mouse the solution most widely adopted was created by American inventor doctor George his capitate if touchpad invented in 1988 could detect a user’s finger movement and transfer it to the on-screen cursor. Interestingly George developed his technology before point and click was the standard method of operating computer interface this may explain why it was not until 1994 that apple computers bought the first license to use his technology [which first appeared on the Apple PowerBook 520]
His touchpad works by employing several layers of material. At the top is a protective layer about 3 inches square that the user touches underneath are the successive layer of electrodes arranged in horizontal and vertical rows each separated by a thin layer of insulation. The electrodes are all connected to a circuit board that provides them with a constant supply of alternating current. When the finger touches the pad it interrupts the current and the locality of this interruption is registered by the circuit board. Any further moments of a finger and new interruptions are then compared to the initial touchpoint and so the finger's movement can be recorded and reproduced on screen.
Nowadays touchpads are increasingly found on mobile devices from personal digital assistants to cell phones the reasoning behind the innovation is simple as George himself said when you are talking about mobile applications the mouse is not suitable nobody wants a mouse dangling from their net-connected cell phone
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