Touchscreens Advances in History

A touchscreen is an electric visual display that the user can control through touching the screen with a finger. Many people believe that Apple was the inventor of touch screens after releasing the worldwide phenomenon the iPhone, however Apple didn’t invent the touchscreen but they did greatly help to evolve it.  Touchscreens have been around for almost 50 years and they are still improving. The  touchscreen was invented in the mid 1960's by a man named E.A Johnson. Johnson’s touchscreen could only read one touch at a time and was used for air traffic control in the U.K. until the mid 1990’s. In 1976 the University of Illinois’ PLATO IV terminal was a touch panel that permitted students to answer questions by touching the screen, this invention was the next step into perfecting the touchscreen. In 1982, a man by the name of Nimish Mehta made a touch tablet that could read multiple touches allowed by a video camera that could communicate with a computer. In 1984 Bob Boie developed the first multi touch screen that allows the user to operate graphics with their fingers. In the year 1993 the Simon Personal Communicator Phone combined touchscreen technology with a telephone for the first time. Two men, John Elias and Wayne Westerman, invented FingerWorks in 1998, it was a gesture operated keyboard that Apple later bought to help them construct the iPhone and the iPad. In 2003 another breakthrough was made, the Lemur. The Lemur was a multitouch screen that could track any amount of fingers. Their company JazzMutant is the first company to make a digital display that can be directly touched to operate. In 2007 the iPhone is finally released. Apple is the first company to effectively issue a touchscreen smartphone into the market world. The iPhone is a worldwide sensation and will continue to grow throughout the years. In 2010 Apple releases the iPad. This advance brings touchscreen technology into a simple day-to-day computer. Touchscreen technology will continue to advance as long as computers and phones are advancing,