-
E.A Johnson Creates the 1st Finger-driven TouchScreen
In 1965, E.A Johnson created the first finger-driven touchscreen at the Royal Radar Establishment in Malvern, UK. He descibed his work in an article called "Touch display - a novel input/output device for computers". This idea was adopted by air traffick controlles in the UK and was used like this until the 1990s. -
Dr. G Samuel Hurst Creates the First Resistive Touchscreen
Dr. G. Samuel Hurst invented the first resistive touchscreen. He worked with a research group and the group called the invention Elographics. They discovered that a touchscreen on a computer monitor was an excellent and easy method of interaction. -
University of Toronto Invents the Human-Controlled Multitouch Device
In 1982, Nimish Mehta invented the first human-controlled multi-touch device. It was really a touch-tablet. The Input Research Group at the university found out that a frosted-glass panel could pick up action if it had a camer behind it. The image attatched is one of the first diagrams depicting a multitouch input. -
First Touchscreen Phone
In 1993, the Simon Personal Communicator, was invented, and it was the first touchscreen phone, and was launched by BellSouth and IBM. I featured a calculator, an e-mail and calendar application, an adress book, and a pen-based sketchpad. -
Apple Releases its Touch-Capable Newton PDA
Apple launched a touchscreen PDA (personal digital assistant) in 1993, even though they began working on it in 1987. It was called the MessagePad, and was the first in the series of devies from Apple in the platform. The device feautured a handwriting software and was controlled with a stylus. The image attatched it the first MessagePad. -
SmartSkin is Introduced
In 2002, Sony introduced a flat input surface that could touch multiple points at the same time and recognize multiple hand positions. The ultimate goal of the project was to make surfaces like a wall or table into an interactive one with the use of a PC nearby. -
PixelSense is Released
In 2011, Microsoft teamed up with Samsung and introduced SUR40 PixelSense. It consists of four main components: it doesn't require a mouse or keyboard to work, it can recognize certain objects placed on the glass, multiple people can use it at the same time, and features multiple points of contact. Each pixel can actually sense if something made contact with it or not, hence the name PixelSense.
