What The Tech?! Touchscreen Technology

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19 Jan 2025

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Touchscreen technology would help kick off the era of smartphones
In today’s world, with smartphones, smart vehicles iPads and even touchscreens on aircraft, it’s easy to take the simplicity of the touchscreen interface for granted. For a long time though, the touchscreen interface would be perceived as slightly futuristic. The early versions of Star Trek, for instance, would infer that the touch screen systems displayed on the USS Enterprise were in fact, the cutting edge of technology.
In today’s What the Tech, we’ll be exploring the development and evolution of this system, from its early concept as seen in the 60s, right through to the sensitive, AMOLED displays that we’d end up seeing on the modern smartphone. Let's take a look!
  This early prototype was introduced by CERN in the late 70’s. Source: Wikipedia.

Concept
In comparison to much of our other technology, the touchscreen would be developed relatively late all things considered. It would be 1965 when researcher Samual Hurst first came up with the theory. Hurst, a fellow at the American University of Kentucky would come up with, and eventually build the first, resistive touchscreen device.
  American researcher Dr Samuel Hurst would be remembered for his work on the touchscreen. Source: Wikipedia.

As you‘d imagine, the technology at the time made it somewhat large and cumbersome, and its efficiency would be even worse however the prototype would prove that the theory would end up being more than viable.

Eventually forming a company known as Elographics, Hurst would use this company to bring the first touchscreen devices to the commercial market.

Have we hit the big time with touchscreens yet? Not at this point, but we’re now well and truly heading in the right direction.

Mainstream Development
To understand just how big a deal this was, it’s important to get a grasp of how different things were at the time. While computers existed, these were the early days and commercial machines would be large, unwieldy and more importantly, expensive devices. And, rather than using things like Graphical Interfaces (like a modern operating system would) for the moment, we’d still be using two colour terminal interfaces that used text-based inputs.

Despite this though, many saw the potential in the touchscreen almost immediately. While the early devices weren’t without their issues more than one person would realise early that this had the potential to turn electronics, and more importantly, the world of consumer electronics upside down.

As such, large amounts of research dollars were poured into the development of the touch screen as a usable, functional device that would integrate with, and allow the operation of, electronic devices the world over.

Because of this, the resistive method would also be joined by capacitive touchscreens (electrical), optical touchscreens (light-based) and even projective touchscreens.
The era of the touchscreen had most certainly arrived.


Modern World
Looking back, we know the 80s was seen as the start of the modern electrical craze and the peak of technology research coming out of the 70s, and research around the touchscreen and all its variants would be no different. Because of this, large amounts of research (read, money) was carried out aiming to optimise it as a system.

By the time the 1990s would arrive, we’d have spent plenty of time finding the best system to work with and while early mobile phones would not be fitted with a touch screen, they’d be an essential part in helping to put together the modern smartphone.

It wasn’t just mobile phones that exploded in popularity when fitted with touchscreen systems. Eventually, they’d be fitted to all manner of devices however it was in the field of transportation that they'd eventually prove to be most useful.

Railway locomotives, automobiles and even ships would be fitted with touchscreen systems, increasing productivity and laying the foundations for automation. It was aviation though, that would really see the discovery shine. As the 90’s would roll around we’d eventually see modern “glass” cockpits be fitted to civilian and general aviation aircraft.

These glass cockpits would still use manual switches and buttons to some extent, however, it’s no lie to say that without functional and reliable touchscreen systems the concept would have been much harder to implement.

  Touchscreens would be an essential part of the modern “glass cockpit”. This is the Lockheed, C-5M Galaxy. Source: Wikipedia

Future Designs
It’s no exaggeration to say that modern touchscreen technology would help humans develop other kinds of technologies as well. For instance, the iPad and tablet computers in general simply wouldn’t work in the same way that they do if the touchscreen was not present. So, the touchscreen would eventually unlock an entirely new sector of computing and entertainment.
Because of this, we’ve seen ongoing research around implementing the touchscreen in small consumer devices and it’s fair to say that at this point we haven’t been disappointed. Now, we have folding touchscreens, waterproof touchscreens and even screens that feature haptic feedback, aiming to provide a more complete and immersive experience.

In the future, it’s reasonable to assume that touchscreens will sport more resolution, a lower power draw and the ability to use improved material coatings to reduce the risk of damage.
With the iPhone 16 looking very very different to its original 3gs relative, it makes you wonder what type of things we might expect to see when Apple releases an iPhone 32.

We said it before, and we’ll keep saying it. Technology is damn cool.

What The Tech is our recurring, twice-monthly piece that looks at the technology that was essential in shaping our modern world.

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