Thread: different touchscreen question

touchscreens are nothing more than a sandwich of 2 clear panels with a thin electrically conductive layer in the middle. they are designed to be placed over a display. the flat panel lcd displays are very easy to do this on since they are flat, and you dont have to worry about the touchscreen overlay curving to match the screen.

to hook them up, you need some controll circuitry. this *can* be done by you, however you will need the proper control chips and the proper control programming skills to pull it off.

more common, however, are touchscreen controller cards. basically a more detailed version of what is inside your mouse. it takes the electrical signal generated by the touchscreen overlay panel, and converts it into a position on the screen. the controller card is usually hooked up via the serial port, so the info is relayed to the computer, like a mouse and it interprets the signal as an input at that point...

so the quick and dirty answer to your questions is... you can use a touchscreen overlay with almost any monitor, they work better with flat screens or lcds. and to interface it with the computer you need a touchscreen controller card.

~Mike

Another cool thing is the ELO intellitouch. Instead of having a grid over the screen, it has a transmitter and reciever on each side. These can detect when there is something between the two sides of the screen. This way, the middle is just a clear sheet of glass, and lets 100% of the light through

Some touchscreens are built into the screen, but most of the time it is a clear overlay that goes over the screen.

Also, touchscreens can have a serial or usb interface with the computer.