A touchscreen is an electronic visual output that can detect the presence and location of a touch within the display area. The term generally refers to touch or contact to the display of the device by a finger or hand. Touchscreens can also sense other passive objects, such as a pen. However, if the object sensed is active, as with a light pen, the term touchscreen is generally not applicable. The ability to interact physically with what is shown on a display (a form of "direct manipulation") typically indicates the presence of a touchscreen.
History[]
The first touchpad tablet was invented in 1971, by Hidekazu Terai and Kazuo Nakata at Hitachi's Central Research Laboratory. It used a data tablet as a touchpad, with Japanese writing character recognition, for use with a computer.[1] Touch-based tablet input later appeared in the Japanese electronic word processor industry in the 1970s.[2]
In 1976, Sharp's Takeo Hara, Takeshi Kasufuchi and Ko Ozawa invented an electrode-based touch input device, using electrode technology,[3] which was improved by Sharp's Hisao Komori and Makoto Shigeta in 1977, using electro-optical technology.[4] Sharp commercially introduced it with its Shoin WD-3000 word processor, released in 1979. It had touch-based tablet input, with a touch-pen used for entry.[5][2] This touch-based interface soon appeared in most Japanese word processors released from 1980 to 1982. A reason for this was because of the complexity of the Japanese writing system, with touch-based entry allowing typists to type faster. As better Japanese input methods developed for keyboards in the early 1980s, however, the Japanese word processor industry soon reverted back to keyboard entry.[2]
In 1979, the first touchscreen tablet was invented by a Japanese team at Hitachi consisting of Masao Hotta, Yoshikazu Miyamoto, Norio Yokozawa, and Yoshimitsu Oshima, who received a US patent for their invention.[6]
In 1984, Fujitsu released a touch pad for the Micro 16, to deal with the complexity of kanji characters, which were stored as tiled graphics.[7] In 1985, Sega released the Terebi Oekaki, also known as the Sega Graphic Board, for the SG-1000 video game console and SC-3000 home computer. It consisted of a plastic pen and a plastic board with a transparent window where the pen presses are detected. It was used primarily for a drawing software application.[8] A graphic touch tablet was released for the Sega AI Computer in 1986.[9][10]
See also[]
- Dual-touchscreen
- Pen computing
- Energy harvesting
- Flexible keyboard
- Gestural interface
- Graphics tablet
- Graphics tablet-screen hybrid
- Light pen
- List of touch-solution manufacturers
- Lock screen
- Tablet computer
- Touchpad
- Touch switch
- Touchscreen remote control
- Multi-touch
- Omnitouch
- SixthSense
References[]
- ↑ "Text Editing System Using On-Line Real-time Character Recognition", Information Processing in Japan, Volumes 11-14, Information Processing Society of Japan
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Nanette Gottlieb, Word-Processing Technology in Japan: Kanji and the Keyboard, Routledge
- ↑ JPS52115627A patent: Input device
- ↑ JPS5459830A patent: General-purpose input device
- ↑ 【Sharp】 WD-3000, Information Processing Society of Japan
- ↑ US4389711A patent: Touch sensitive tablet using force detection
- ↑ Japanese PCs (1984) (12:21), Computer Chronicles
- ↑ "Terebi Oekaki / Sega Graphic Board - Articles - SMS Power!". Retrieved 29 July 2015.
- ↑ New Scientist (March 26, 1987), page 34
- ↑ Technology Trends: 2nd Quarter 1986, Japanese Semiconductor Industry Service - Volume II: Technology & Government
External links[]
- Howstuffworks - How do touchscreen monitors know where you're touching?
- What are the different types of touchscreen technology
- From touch displays to the surface: A brief history of touchscreen technology
- Annotated bibliography of references to touchscreens, gestures and pen computing
- Part 1: Fundamentals of Projected-Capacitive Touch Technology, Geoff Walker, June 2014