How Do Touchscreens Work?

Ever wonder how your finger can magically control your smartphone screen? We explain in this episode of SciShow.

Hosted by: Michael Aranda

----------
----------
Dooblydoo thanks go to the following Patreon supporters -- we couldn't make SciShow without them! Shout out to Justin Ove, Accalia Elementia, Kathy & Tim Philip, Kevin Bealer, Justin Lentz, Fatima Iqbal, Thomas J., Chris Peters, Tim Curwick, Lucy McGlasson, Andreas Heydeck, Will and Sonja Marple, Mark Terrio-Cameron, Charles George, Christopher Collins, and Patrick D. Ashmore.
----------
----------
Looking for SciShow elsewhere on the internet?
----------
Sources:

[Azzarinne]

I was taking a picture of a rose yesterday with my phone, and had to wind my arm through the branches to reach it. I touched the shutter button once, and it proceeded to take a frantic series of pictures as if I were holding my finger on it. It had captured 13 identical shots by the time my surprise wore off and I realized what was going on. Because I had my phone behind a few branches, a leaf had the opportunity to lay on the shutter button.

The rose bush was taking selfies.

[LordDragox]

Tears can also affect how touchscreens work. It makes it really hard to disconnect from a phone call after your girlfriend dumps you... #Kappa

[rileybrock]

awesome show! thanks for providing all this awesome content for free on your channel for us! will always support in anyway I can, keep up the good work SciShow

[amywhelan]

Cool!! I wish more people understood the intricacies of the technology they use on a daily basis. You explained it very well!

[kingdomheartsfan]

I'm an 19 year old electrical engineering major, as well as an enthusiast of the natural sciences, so this was very informative and entertaining. Additionally, I do love of the compressive scientific information about electric fields and the polymer, polyethylene, used. This is also coupled an engineering understanding on how electromagnetic theory, polymer, as well the information about the body's own electromagnetic input can be synthesized to create a practical technology.

Not to mention, I posed this very question, internally, yesterday so this video satisfied that questioning. Good job Scishow, keep it up with similarly compressive videos and relatively short videos. 👍

[RainbowEssence-cw]

When I was a child, back when touch screens were just starting to be used I suppose, I remember going to this one pizzeria with my parents. They had a monitor/TV with a touchscreen there, and you could play gambling games on it. My father played a game on it, and he let me play too. It was a lot of fun, I remember being so impressed and thinking it was like magic haha! Nowadays every which way you turn there are touchscreens, it's kind of surreal to think about it. It's incredible how quickly the world can change, I'm only 23 years old and already in my lifetime I have witnessed the birth and spread of a new technology lol. I feel lucky to have been there to see it! Thank you for explaining touch screens! P. S. Could you maybe explain why my phone sometimes freaks out and acts like its possessed, even when I'm not touching anything? Like why does it suddenly start opening random apps and sliding stuff around lol.

[Moongo]

I used to hate this guy and his voice but I kept watching cause I loved the info and learning. Now I love his voice and how he hosts along with the info provided!! Time really does a lot.

[NightcoreLabOfficial]

For some reason, , why all of a sudden "how touch screens works" videos are popping up!! THIS IS THE 4TH VIDEO I SEE TODAY TALKING ABOUT TOUCH SCRREN

[hellioringos]

You're so direct to the point, just as how I would explain it, I subscribed and liked it 😊

[paulconway]

Why is it that I can still use my touch screen with a screen protector on?

[thegearspinner]

I KNEW it!! I figured that that's how touchscreens worked, because my earbud wires can use the touchscreen every inch as well as my fingers can. Nice vid!

[PlayMoGame]

Why are some rain drops bigger than others? And what determines how hard/much it will rain in a particular area, even within the same cloud?

[fredflintstone]

Very interesting and informative; thank you so very much! I was an aviation electronics tech in the Navy back in the 80s, and touchscreens had not been invented yet. Now I use a touchscreen many times a day, not only on my phone, but on the CNC equipment I am tasked with repairing (no aircraft unfortunately). Foolishly, I have not kept up with technological advances, so this is one of those things that has eluded me.

[amanuelyohannes]

Why does helium make your voice go high pitched.

[SilverMiraii]

My lumia 520 has a setting called "high sensitivity" which is turned on by default, what this feature does is it allows you to use the touchscreen with gloves on, no matter the material, rubber, cloth, anything. Furthermore it works with your fingernail, it works with any kind of metal, even covered by isolator such as rubber or plastic.

[SurmaSampo]

The university of Notthingham has developed a highly accurate resistive touch screen method using quantum tunnelling through graphene giving point accuracy, multitouch capacity and tiny pressure variation needed to make it work since only a tiny movement is needed. This could be adapted to using an exterior glass composite screen rather than a flexible plastic layer.

[YFtouchscreen]

wonderful show.Thanks for providing this video.Really useful and practical.

[jaxoncroydon]

man, the amount of ingenuity of the first person who had to make one of those things without directions to follow

[blueskull]

Who got to this video with a touch screen

[johntucker]

Finally, a real explanation! When I typed that question in on YouTube, they didn't explain the touchscreens , only the motion sensor