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The monitor casing has been opened and a touch sensor - a thin sheet of glass or plastic (see Touch Screen Kits) - has been fitted over the LCD screen. This is connected to a touchscreen controller (see Touch Screen Kits: Controllers), which is a small processor within the monitor that calculates the position of your finger and then sends a signal via a cable to the serial or USB port of the PC. Apart from this additional cable at the rear, the touch screen monitor looks the same as any other computer display. |
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Yes, the touchscreen connects to any PC with a standard VGA video port and a serial (RS-232) or USB port. Some later model touch screens also support Digital Video Input (DVI) in addition to VGA. |
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No. All touch screens are ready to plug and play straight from the box. Each touch screen is supplied with a VGA or DVI video cable, serial or USB cable, power supply unit, AC power cable, driver CD and full installation instructions. |
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Yes. Included with each touch screen is a driver CD that supports Microsoft Windows 2000 and XP. If you are using an older Windows operating system, or Linux, you may download the drivers from
http://www.3m.com/3MTouchSystems/downloads/TSdrivers.jhtml. If you are using any other operating system, such as MacIntosh or Silicon Graphics, 3rd party drivers are available from http://www.touch-base.com.
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It ensures the PC finds and recognizes the touch screen, in the same way as any other input device such as a mouse or keyboard. It also allows you to calibrate the touch screen and perform basic diagnostics. In addition, the user can customise functions such as right-click enable and fine tune settings for clicking and dragging. |
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The latest Windows touch screen drivers from all manufacturers are available in Support. All Microsoft operating systems are supported right back to MS-DOS. |
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After loading the software driver the touch screen control panel will automatically detect which port the touchscreen is connected to. It will then show a screen with a target in each corner, each of which you will be required to touch in turn to tell the driver the extent of the screen. The software saves these settings and quits. That’s it! |
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Only once! Unless you change the output resolution from the PC to the monitor, (e.g. from 1024 x 768 to 800 x 600), after the first calibration of the touch screen the settings are locked. The cursor can drift over time and may need re-calibrating, but this is over years, not months. |
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Because, as when using a mouse, with the touch screen you can click and drag to move a window, or double-click on an icon to open an application. All these settings are user definable through the touch screen control panel. Because there is no right button, an additional icon can be shown on the screen that is used to toggle this function. |
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Yes. The mouse, keyboard and track-pad will all work as normal and there is no conflict of drivers. The only restriction to the number of input devices you can connect is the number of USB or serial ports on the PC. |
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Only the first signal registered by the PC will be processed. The PC cannot accept two input signals at the same time as there would be a conflict, in the same way as pressing two keys simultaneously on a keyboard sends the two key-strokes one after the other, not together. |
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Yes. There are two ways of doing this. One is to employ a touch screen with a Resistive sensor (see Technologies comparison) and use a blunt stylus, as found with PDAs, to write on the screen. However, there is usually some “lag” in that the signature on the screen will appear slower than the writing speed. If hand-writing input is a primary function of the touch screen, a better solution is to use a hard-wired touch pen (see TouchPen).
Alternatively, the large format touch panels use an optical technology that also supports input from a stylus. (see Large Format Touch Screens).
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This depends on the technology used. For instance, Resistive technology works with a gloved hand while Capacitive won´t. To choose the best technology for your purposes look at Technologies Comparison. |
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Please refer to the comparison guide in Technologies Comparison. If you are still not sure then Contact Us and we will make a recommendation based on your requirements. |
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Yes. There is no conflict between the touch screen drivers and your applications. However, these applications are designed to be use with a cursor, which is much smaller than a human finger. You may find it difficult to click on smaller icons such as the window close button. Consequently a touch screen interface is often written for point-of-information applications using bigger buttons. |
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There are on-screen keyboards available that the user can call up using 3rd party software should they need to enter text. One system we recommend is available from http://www.netkey.com/. Alternatively you may opt for a wall-hung or floor-standing kiosk with integrated English/Arabic keyboard (see Touch Screen Kiosks). |
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Yes. The driver supports multiple touch screens, but you will require a separate VGA (video) card and USB or serial port for each touchscreen. |
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It depends on the monitor model. Some manufacturers, for example NEC, design some of their LCD monitors with the space to retro-fit a touch sensor and controller. In other monitors there is not enough space to install the touch sensor. If you contact us with the manufacturer and model no. of the display you wish to convert, we can advise if it can have a touch sensor integrated and, if so, the correct part no. of the sensor. However, we recommend the installation is done by an experienced electrical engineer who is familiar with screen technology. Also, because you need to open the monitor casing you may void your display´s warranty. To read further about the procedure look at the Touch Sensor Installation Guide in Touch Screen Kits.
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No. You will need to write the programme yourself, usually using an authoring programme such as Adobe Macromedia Director, or employ a multimedia production company to write it for you. When designing the programme you will need to consider ease of navigation and the use of large buttons, spaced apart and not too close to the edge of the screen. There are on-line guides available for designing and authoring multimedia programmes. |
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Yes, and this is commonly used by companies for their intranets. However, remember that you may need to create larger buttons to aid navigation and, if possible, you will want to avoid scroll-bars, dragging and double-clicking. |
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Yes. We supply a touch-system that clips on to large LCD and plasma flat panels up to 65”. |
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Yes, the Desktop LCD Touch screens have standard VESA mounting points on the rear and when their stand is removed can be fitted to any industry standard monitor wall-bracket or arm.
The Touch Screen PCs (see Touch Screen PCs) and Large Touch Screens (see Large Format Touch Screens) have wall mount brackets included.
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You require a Chassis Touch Screen, which is designed to be easily integrated within any housing. Refer to Chassis LCD Touch Screens for full details. |
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No. For outdoor use you will require a daylight viewable LCD display with integrated touch screen. We custom-build these to your specific requirement. For further details please Specialists Touch Screens. |
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Yes. Depending on the environment you can use a touch screen monitor fitted with either a ToughTouch or NFI sensor. Refer to Specialist Touch Screens for details. |
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Yes, although this depends on the manufacturer and the monitor model. Some manufacturers design their displays with enough space inside so a touch sensor and controller can be fitted later. However some monitors are too slim and cannot be converted. We also impose a minimum order quantity for custom built touch screens. For further details please Contact Us.
Alternatively, you may consider integrating touch equipment in your own monitors (see Touch Screen Kits).
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Touchscreen-ME is based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. We have 10 years experience supplying and supporting touch screen technology throughout the Middle East.
We are the manufacturer´s authorized agent for all products we carry and offer full after-sales support locally. In the rare event of equipment malfunction the item is returned to Dubai for repair or replacement. Details are available on Support.
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Warranty is 5 years for most touch screen components. Terms are available on Support. |
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A kiosk is a self-contained unit that may be wall mounted or floor standing that contains the touch screen, the PC and other peripherals in a secure metal housing with lockable doors.
A kiosk is usually employed in a public area where it can be left unattended and used by the general public. In addition the kiosk can securely house other peripherals such as printers, credit card readers, barcode readers and currency acceptors.
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VESA is an abbreviation for Video Electronics Standards Association, a group founded to establish standards for video displays.
When we refer to VESA mounting points these are the four M4 size holes in the rear of a display, used to attach it to a wall bracket or desk arm. The industry standard for smaller monitors is that the mounting holes are at either 100 mm x 100 mm or 75 mm x 75 mm centres. For larger displays, for example 32“, there are 16 mounting holes, 600 mm x 200 mm at 100 mm centres.
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The OSD is the On Screen Display which allows the user to change contrast, brightness and other settings, usually accessed from the Menu button on the monitor. |
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The bezel is the frame around the front of a display. For Chassis Touch Screens there is a choice of bezels depending on how and where the display is going to be mounted. |
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The touch sensor is a sheet of glass or plastic that is designed to respond to touch, either through pressure or using light, static or acoustic sensors (for more information on the different touch technologies available, please refer to the comparison guide in Technologies comparison). The information, i.e. the position of the finger, is passed to the touch controller, which is connected to the host PC. |
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The touch controller converts the electronic signal sent from the touch sensor and sends this information, as an X/Y position, to the host PC through a serial or USB port. |
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There is no difference in the display technology - both use TFT LCD panels - but the "LED monitor" uses a white LED backlight to illuminate the TFT LCD panel, while traditional LCD monitors use cold cathode fluorescent lamps (CCFL). The advantages of LED backlighting include higher brightness and dynamic contrast, lower power consumption, longer backlight lifetime and a slimmer monitor housing. Further reference can be found at LED Backlit LCD Television.
At the time of writing LED backlit LCD displays are more expensive than their CCFL counterparts, but in the future it is expected that all LCD displays will move to white LED backlighting, so the price will drop. LED backlit monitors should not be confused with OLED which stands for Organic Light Emitting Diode and is a totally new ultra-thin screen technology using organic compounds that do not require any backlight - the compounds emit light when a current is passed through them.
It is anticipated that OLED will be the screen technology of the future, but at the moment there is limited commercial availability due to technical issues, including display size and lifetime, that have yet to be overcome. Further reference can be found at OLED Technology. |
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