Touch screen is the simplest and most direct way to interact with computer. Although it was born in 1970, it is the first new technology promoted to the market by Elo TouchSystems, but it is the most basic way of interaction between people. You can point anywhere you need. Adults and children can use it directly.
The function of touch screen has been successfully developed and applied in a wide range of commercial fields. Airlines use touch screen to simulate the running state of aircraft and train pilots. Real estate developers use the touch screen to let buyers click with their fingers, and they can get the true color renderings of the house, which is convenient for selection. Greeting card companies use touch screens to enable customers to create their own personalized greeting cards. Hotel catering industry uses them to simplify operations and achieve click-to-sell sales. Medical schools use it to train their own students so that they can cope with emergencies.
Although it has been used in industry, the most basic function of touch screen has not changed.
Touch screen allows people without any training to use the computer immediately.
Users can choose to click on a clearly defined menu, so touch screen technology actually eliminates mistakes in user operation.
Touch screen technology eliminates cumbersome and daunting keyboards and mice.
The touch screen is strong enough to withstand many harsh environments, which usually damage the keyboard and mouse easily.
Touch screen technology provides the quickest way for all digital media, and it does not need tedious text description.
Touch screen technology does not need to add other input devices on the desktop and anywhere else, because the input devices have been integrated into the display.
How does the touch screen work?
The following five basic components constitute a touch screen system:
Touch screen for touching.
A computer (usually a personal computer) suitable for touch screen display.
A control card that can convert a touch signal into a control signal.
A set of drivers used for communication between the control card and the operating system.
A set of application development software enables touch program developers to build their own application touch programs and adapt the existing touch application content and methods according to their own needs.
Who is buying a touch screen?
Many different types of users are buying touch screens to simplify computer operation and speed up the acquisition of intermediate data. Most of the buyers are from original equipment suppliers (OEM), and many of them realize the great value of eliminating the keyboard in the use of the client and using a more direct and friendly touch screen as the user interface. OEM has developed many applications based on finger click, which are suitable for all walks of life. They can be used in hospitals, restaurants, factories and stadiums, as well as public facilities such as tree-lined paths and tourist centers.
Like other system integrators, value-added distributors such as IBM, DEC, Apple and EDS have also purchased a large number of touch screen devices, designed and installed them in products, and provided them to customers as a whole. In many cases, value-added distributors and system integrators focus on the best man-machine interface, and use touch screen technology to improve the functions of their products in limited solutions or limited environments, so as to increase their use value and commercial value. The main reason why more and more value-added dealers and system integrators use touch screen interface is that it can simplify the man-machine interface.
Many large companies also buy touch screens as information technology solutions in their respective fields. For example, many large financial institutions use touch screen technology as a trading platform. Some large retailers such as Macy's and J.C. Penny Co use touch screens for classified storage.
Elo TouchSystems: Redefining Touch Technology
Elo TouchSystems, which founded touch screen technology, has long recognized the potential of designing excellent touch screen systems. With the unremitting efforts of Elo TouchSystems engineers for more than 20 years, touch technology and products have developed very well. In this process, they have repeatedly redefined the main trends of the touch screen industry. Today, the company has 27 technical patents related to all kinds of touch products, including a number of pressure-sensitive technologies-this technology is the most popular touch screen technology at present, and also has a number of surface wave technologies-to ensure that touch products have good durability and reliability in harsh or public environments.
Auxiliary equipment support: easy to form a system
Just like an epic movie, the protagonist of the movie can get hundreds of special help. The production line of Elo TouchSystems also provides many auxiliary devices, which are not as conspicuous as the touch screen itself, but they are an indispensable part of a touch screen system. First, Elo TouchSystems provides a complete control card production line, which can provide various types and specifications of control cards, from bus and serial structure to the bus specification of MAC, and even make special interfaces that can be embedded in the computer motherboard of OEMs according to their requirements. Second, the production line of Elo TouchSystems provides a series of perfect drivers and application software development programs, which is convenient for developers to develop touch-driven applications. For example, on-screen mouse software is a unique and innovative application, which can transform a mouse-driven program into a program that can be controlled by touch. On-screen mouse software enables the touch screen to simulate various functions of the mouse, and users can pull down the menu with their fingers to complete daily affairs. Screen mouse software can be used in DOS, Windows, OS/2, Macintosh and Windows NT operating systems.
In addition, the touch screen provided by Elo TouchSystems can meet the needs of various models and sizes of monitors that are popular today. The company's touch screen products can be installed on flat, cylindrical and spherical cathode ray tubes, electronic light-emitting tubes and liquid crystal displays, and even meet the requirements of new technologies such as plasma. The company can provide various sizes, from small curved units on large or oversized displays to small flat-panel touch screens suitable for compact point-of-sale systems.
Intelligent Touch Technology: Breakthrough of Touch Screen Technology
Intelligent touch screen technology is a surface wave-based technology, which has the advantages of providing the best and clearest image display effect and the durability of the touch screen. 1997 surface wave technology, once introduced, immediately promoted a breakthrough leap in the touch screen industry. Why do you say that? Because it is the first and only technology that can be directly used on glass display screen so far, it does not need additional plastic coating, conductive coating or special inclined base of cathode ray tube. Only one glass sensing layer is needed between the user and the screen. Surface wave technology provides users with unparalleled clarity and durability. Elo TouchSystems applied this technology to the production line of IntelliTouch touch screen, which immediately made the products of this touch screen family the most popular products for developers. They are mainly used in high-definition graphics processing and public display systems, and you can often find their applications in electronic phone books, video games and computer simulation training systems.
Working principle of surface wave technology
The working principle of the smart touch screen based on surface wave technology is introduced as follows: The smart touch screen includes a high-definition glass coating matched with the shape of the display, and a piezoelectric transducer and a group of reflective strips are arranged on the coating along the axial direction. The touch screen controller sends a pulse signal with a frequency of 5MHz to the transmitting transducer and converts it into a surface acoustic wave signal. This kind of surface acoustic wave is a mechanical wave that can propagate on the surface of glass objects. The reflection belt can propagate the pulse signal to the coating surface. When fingers or gloved hands or other soft objects touch the touch screen, the vibration waves in this area will be absorbed. The control card can measure the coordinates of the X-axis and Y-axis you clicked by analyzing the change of the received signal, so as to know the area you clicked. Similarly, the Z-axis value can be measured by the number of signals absorbed. Different from other technologies, click position can only be judged by proportion, which is easy to drift and cause wrong reaction. Intelligent touch screen technology determines that it is a stable technology and can provide drift-free operation.
Intelligent touch screen production line
IntelliTouch touch screen series products are very popular in applications that pay attention to picture and reliability. For example, IntelliTouch touch screen can be used in commodity catalog system, video gambling system, real-time real estate inventory system, and also in the increasingly popular computer simulation training system for training nurses, pilots, managers and other types of employees. All the above applications need high-quality image output, and the IntelliTouch touch screen can fully meet the above requirements.
IntelliTouch touch screen products can not only provide brighter and clearer images, but also resist external shocks and ensure good reliability because they are only composed of simple single-layer structure. The traditional touch screen has such a common problem that it can't repair the scratched conductive coating, while the IntelliTouch touch screen does not have this problem because of its all-glass structure, and it can resist the damage of external forces. We know that touch screens are installed in some public places (such as boulevards, tourist centers, supermarkets, etc.). ) It is easy to be damaged by customer's mistakes or rough operation. At this time, the IntelliTouch touch screen can fully reflect its advantages. Reliability statistics have been made on touch screens all over the United States. IntelliTouch touch screen is often used in electronic games in bars (such as touching poker machines), so some gamblers who have lost their eyes often use it to vent their grievances, but even so, it can still bear such injuries and work well. Therefore, the IntelliTouch touch screen system without drift effect can ensure good reliability and can work continuously without frequent calibration.
In some cold application environments, other touch screens will encounter a problem: users often wear thick cold gloves, and it is difficult to activate the control mechanism of the touch screen at this time. At this point, the IntelliTouch touch screen provides you with a good solution. If you use the IntelliTouch touch screen, you can avoid such trouble, and it can respond to your operation well whether you wear gloves or not.
Pressure-sensitive characteristics: three-dimensional space application
Surface wave IntelliTouch touch screen is sensitive not only to the touch area, but also to the applied pressure, which adds more control means for users. For example, the engineer in charge of checking the engine quality in the engine factory can change the engine speed by changing the intensity of clicking the icon to check the engine quality.
AccuTouch touch screen technology: the leader in touch screen field
In addition to surface wave technology products, Elo TouchSystems also produces and sells another popular touch screen product, resistive touch screen. Elo TouchSystems has applied its patent of resistive touch screen to AccuTouch's touch screen production line. The upper AccuTouch touch screen can show good efficiency and reliability in polluted and humid environment, and can be used in restaurants, factories, hospitals and other applications.
Firstly, the working principle of AccuTouch (resistive touch screen) technology is introduced: each touch screen is composed of a glass panel which is well matched with the display screen, and the inside of the glass layer has a transparent hard plastic conductive layer. There is a gap of less than one thousandth of an inch between the conductive layer and the glass layer. When the screen is clicked by hand, the plastic conductive layer will touch the inner glass layer and transmit the click signal, so that the controller can determine the click position within one hundredth of a second.
AccuTouch touch screen application
Many users often choose the AccuTouch touch screen because it is durable and can maintain good performance even in demanding situations. If necessary, you can even add a sealing protective layer on the surface of the AccuTouch touch screen to make the display waterproof. This makes it widely used in fast food, high-end restaurants and other click-to-consume occasions, and cashiers can click on it to enter a sales message. According to the statistics of the National Emergency Management Agency, AccuTouch touch screens are also widely used in factories. In medicine, AccuTouch touch screen can resist all kinds of pollution and provide a simple and good working interface for medical workers.
Multifunctional: You can also operate the touch screen with gloves on.
Different from other touch screen technologies, both AccuTouch and IntelliTouch touch screens can be operated with gloves on, which makes them not only suitable for cold environment in public places, but more importantly, they can meet many occasions such as food processing, hospitals and factories. Where gloves are often used. Sometimes, workers in these occasions have to wear gloves to work. For example, some states in the United States (such as new york) stipulate that food processors must wear gloves when working. At this time, Elo TouchSystems provides a good solution to such a difficult problem.
What will be the next step-the future of touch screen technology
Since the mid-1990s, several different trends have changed the booming touch screen market. First of all, the price of touch screen will continue to decline, and the application ability of touch screen will further develop. This good trend will improve the cost performance of products, thus promoting the sales of products. Especially in the application of personal computer in unknown fields, it can provide a friendly user interface for unskilled operators.
Elo TouchSystems plans to ensure that its latest touch screen products will be launched at the same time as the latest monitors. At the same time, Elo TouchSystems will also focus on products controlled by microprocessors and software. They also opened up a new path in the development of personal computer chips and high-end operating systems. Elo TouchSystems will continue to maintain its leading position in the field of touch screen technology, aiming at the most advanced technology in the touch screen market and guiding the trend of the touch screen market.