How Do Touch Screens Work?

Can you count how many touch screens you encounter on a single trip?

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Can you count how many touch screens you encounter on a single trip? Frequent travelers probably use touch screens more than most — smartphones, airport check-in or Global Entry kiosks, seatback entertainment systems are just a few.

Did you ever wonder how they work? The infographic below (from Visual.ly) provides an interesting look at the two primary types of touch screens: Capacitive screens (like on our smartphones) use electric fields to detect our fingers.

Resistive screens (like we use on most airline seatback systems) rely on pressure from our fingers to work– which regrettably leads to that irritating tap-tap-tap on the seatback which we’ve mentioned before.