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108-581: The Fairphone 3 and 3+ are touchscreen -based smartphones made by Fairphone . The phone has a modular , repairable design and is "constructed out of responsibly-sourced, conflict-free , and recycled materials where possible". It went on sale on 3 September 2019. It comes with Android 9 "Pie" installed. The phone has a FullHD+ screen (2160 × 1080 pixels) with Gorilla Glass , 12 MP rear camera, 3,000 mAh battery, 64 GB storage with microSD, Qualcomm Snapdragon 632 processor, 4 GB RAM, 8 MP front camera (16 MP on Fairphone 3+), NFC and dual SIM . At launch

216-442: A TV set or an appropriately sized computer display , and is often used as a digital photo viewer, music and video player, TV receiver, and digital video recorder. HTPCs are also referred to as media center systems or media servers . The goal is to combine many or all components of a home theater setup into one box. HTPCs can also connect to services providing on-demand movies and TV shows. HTPCs can be purchased pre-configured with

324-401: A kit form and in limited volumes, and were of interest mostly to hobbyists and technicians. Minimal programming was done with toggle switches to enter instructions, and output was provided by front panel lamps. Practical use required adding peripherals such as keyboards, computer displays , disk drives , and printers . Micral N was the earliest commercial, non-kit microcomputer based on

432-418: A monochrome CRT touchscreen that functioned both as display and sole method of input. The ECC replaced the traditional mechanical stereo , fan, heater and air conditioner controls and displays, and was capable of providing very detailed and specific information about the vehicle's cumulative and current operating status in real time . The ECC was standard equipment on the 1985–1989 Buick Riviera and later

540-511: A multitasking operating system . Eventually, due to the influence of the IBM PC on the personal computer market , personal computers and home computers lost any technical distinction. Business computers acquired color graphics capability and sound, and home computers and game systems users used the same processors and operating systems as office workers. Mass-market computers had graphics capabilities and memory comparable to dedicated workstations of

648-553: A portable computer prototype called SCAMP (Special Computer APL Machine Portable) based on the IBM PALM processor with a Philips compact cassette drive, small CRT , and full function keyboard. SCAMP emulated an IBM 1130 minicomputer in order to run APL/1130. In 1973, APL was generally available only on mainframe computers, and most desktop sized microcomputers such as the Wang 2200 or HP 9800 offered only BASIC . Because SCAMP

756-469: A touchscreen display, which can be controlled using either a stylus pen or finger. Some tablets may use a hybrid or convertible design, offering a keyboard that can either be removed as an attachment, or a screen that can be rotated and folded directly over top the keyboard. Some tablets may use desktop-PC operating system such as Windows or Linux, or may run an operating system designed primarily for tablets. Many tablet computers have USB ports, to which

864-485: A 20 MB hard drive. In order to keep up-to-date information during the event, the database of visitor information was updated and remotely transferred to the computer terminals each night. Using the touch screens, visitors were able to find information about the exposition’s rides, attractions, performances, facilities, and the surrounding areas. Visitors could also select between information displayed in English and Japanese;

972-835: A 4096-color palette, stereo sound, Motorola 68000 CPU, 256 KB RAM, and 880 KB 3.5-inch disk drive, for US$ 1,295. IBM's first PC was introduced on 12 August 1981 setting what became a mass market standard for PC architecture. In 1982 The Computer was named Machine of the Year by Time magazine. Somewhat larger and more expensive systems were aimed at office and small business use. These often featured 80-column text displays but might not have had graphics or sound capabilities. These microprocessor-based systems were still less costly than time-shared mainframes or minicomputers. Workstations were characterized by high-performance processors and graphics displays, with large-capacity local disk storage, networking capability, and running under

1080-446: A bad reputation of being imprecise until 1988. Most user-interface books would state that touchscreen selections were limited to targets larger than the average finger. At the time, selections were done in such a way that a target was selected as soon as the finger came over it, and the corresponding action was performed immediately. Errors were common, due to parallax or calibration problems, leading to user frustration. "Lift-off strategy"

1188-427: A computer expert or technician . Unlike large, costly minicomputers and mainframes , time-sharing by many people at the same time is not used with personal computers. The term home computer has also been used, primarily in the late 1970s and 1980s. The advent of personal computers and the concurrent Digital Revolution have significantly affected the lives of people. Institutional or corporate computer owners in

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1296-410: A computer that could fit on a desk was remarkably small, leading to the desktop nomenclature. More recently, the phrase usually indicates a particular style of computer case . Desktop computers come in a variety of styles ranging from large vertical tower cases to small models which can be tucked behind or rest directly beneath (and support) LCD monitors . While the term desktop often refers to

1404-557: A computer with a vertically aligned computer tower case , these varieties often rest on the ground or underneath desks. Despite this seeming contradiction, the term desktop does typically refer to these vertical tower cases as well as the horizontally aligned models which are designed to literally rest on top of desks and are therefore more appropriate to the desktop term, although both types qualify for this desktop label in most practical situations aside from certain physical arrangement differences. Both styles of these computer cases hold

1512-510: A desk, including a keyboard, a small one-line display, and printer. The Wang 2200 microcomputer of 1973 had a full-size cathode ray tube (CRT) and cassette tape storage. These were generally expensive specialized computers sold for business or scientific uses. 1974 saw the introduction of what is considered by many to be the first true personal computer, the Altair 8800 created by Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS) . Based on

1620-427: A factory that pays the local living wage ". "The tin and tungsten used in its construction is conflict free, the gold is Fairtrade , and the copper and plastics are recycled." The phone's modular design is constructed out of seven modules, making it easier to repair than most smartphones. The rear of the phone can be removed without using tools. Having removed the rear, the battery can be lifted out and replaced. Using

1728-415: A few years before. Even local area networking, originally a way to allow business computers to share expensive mass storage and peripherals, became a standard feature of personal computers used at home. An increasingly important set of uses for personal computers relied on the ability of the computer to communicate with other computer systems, allowing interchange of information. Experimental public access to

1836-432: A graphics card installed. For this reason, desktop computers are usually preferred over laptops for gaming purposes. Unlike desktop computers, only minor internal upgrades (such as memory and hard disk drive) are feasible owing to the limited space and power available. Laptops have the same input and output ports as desktops, for connecting to external displays, mice, cameras, storage devices and keyboards. Laptops are also

1944-487: A hinged second panel containing a flat display screen. Closing the laptop protects the screen and keyboard during transportation. Laptops generally have a rechargeable battery , enhancing their portability. To save power, weight and space, laptop graphics chips are in many cases integrated into the CPU or chipset and use system RAM, resulting in reduced graphics performance when compared to desktop machines, that more typically have

2052-408: A keyboard or mouse can be connected. Smartphones are often similar to tablet computers , the difference being that smartphones always have cellular integration. They are generally smaller than tablets, and may not have a slate form factor. The ultra-mobile PC (UMPC) is a small tablet computer . It was developed by Microsoft , Intel and Samsung , among others. Current UMPCs typically feature

2160-423: A keyboard. An effective integration of this technology was aimed at helping flight crews maintain a high level of situational awareness of all major aspects of the vehicle operations including the flight path, the functioning of various aircraft systems, and moment-to-moment human interactions. EARLY 80s EVALUATATION FOR CARS - also, in the early 1980s, General Motors tasked its Delco Electronics division with

2268-540: A larger screen or use with video projectors. IBM PC-compatible suitcase format computers became available soon after the introduction of the PC, with the Compaq Portable being a leading example of the type. Later models included a hard drive to give roughly equivalent performance to contemporary desktop computers. The development of thin plasma display and LCD screens permitted a somewhat smaller form factor, called

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2376-401: A larger sensor, intelligent scene detection, and a higher dynamic range . The front camera has a bigger sensor and a higher dynamic range. The new cameras and speaker are alternatively available as modules that can be swapped in the original Fairphone 3. The audio improvements cannot be achieved purely by a speaker module upgrade. The speaker module is only for the rear/side speaker, and output

2484-465: A little more expensive compared to desktops, as the miniaturized components for laptops themselves are expensive. Notebook computers such as the TRS-80 Model 100 and Epson HX-20 had roughly the plan dimensions of a sheet of typing paper ( ANSI A or ISO A4 ). These machines had a keyboard with slightly reduced dimensions compared to a desktop system, and a fixed LCD display screen coplanar with

2592-416: A matrix of collimated lights shining orthogonally across the touch surface. When a beam is interrupted by a stylus, the photodetectors which no longer are receiving a signal can be used to determine where the interruption is. Later iterations of matrix based touchscreens built upon this by adding more emitters and detectors to improve resolution, pulsing emitters to improve optical signal to noise ratio , and

2700-739: A microprocessor, the Intel 8008 . It was built starting in 1972, and a few hundred units were sold. This had been preceded by the Datapoint 2200 in 1970, for which the Intel 8008 had been commissioned, though not accepted for use. The CPU design implemented in the Datapoint 2200 became the basis for x86 architecture used in the original IBM PC and its descendants. In 1973, the IBM Los Gatos Scientific Center developed

2808-481: A new naming scheme: devices without an integrated phone are called Windows Mobile Classic instead of Pocket PC, while devices with an integrated phone and a touch screen are called Windows Mobile Professional. Palmtop PCs were miniature pocket-sized computers running DOS that first came about in the late 1980s, typically in a clamshell form factor with a keyboard. Non-x86 based devices were often called palmtop computers, examples being Psion Series 3 . In later years

2916-461: A nonorthogonal matrix to remove shadow readings when using multi-touch. 1963 INDIRECT LIGHT PEN - Later inventions built upon this system to free telewriting styli from their mechanical bindings. By transcribing what a user draws onto a computer, it could be saved for future use. See US 3089918A , Graham, Robert E, "Telewriting apparatus", issued 1963-05-14   . 1965 CAPACITANCE AND RESISTANCE - The first finger driven touchscreen

3024-486: A plastic pen and a plastic board with a transparent window where pen presses are detected. It was used primarily with a drawing software application. 1985 MULTI-TOUCH CAPACITANCE - The University of Toronto group, including Bill Buxton, developed a multi-touch tablet that used capacitance rather than bulky camera-based optical sensing systems (see History of multi-touch ). 1985 USED FOR POINT OF SALE - The first commercially available graphical point-of-sale (POS) software

3132-406: A preview of features that would later become staples of personal computers: e-mail , hypertext , word processing , video conferencing , and the mouse . The demonstration required technical support staff and a mainframe time-sharing computer that were far too costly for individual business use at the time. Early personal computers‍—‌generally called microcomputers‍—‌were often sold in

3240-500: A project aimed at replacing an automobile's non-essential functions (i.e. other than throttle , transmission , braking , and steering ) from mechanical or electro-mechanical systems with solid state alternatives wherever possible. The finished device was dubbed the ECC for "Electronic Control Center", a digital computer and software control system hardwired to various peripheral sensors , servomechanisms , solenoids , antenna and

3348-426: A prominent role in the design of digital appliances such as personal digital assistants (PDAs) and some e-readers . Touchscreens are important in educational settings such as classrooms or on college campuses. The popularity of smartphones, tablets, and many types of information appliances has driven the demand and acceptance of common touchscreens for portable and functional electronics. Touchscreens are found in

Fairphone 3 - Misplaced Pages Continue

3456-492: A reflection of Australia’s overseas tourist market in the 1980s. It is worth noting that Telecom’s Expo Info system was based on an earlier system employed at Expo 86 in Vancouver , Canada . 1990 SINGLE AND MULTI-TOUCH GESTURES - Sears et al. (1990) gave a review of academic research on single and multi-touch human–computer interaction of the time, describing gestures such as rotating knobs, adjusting sliders, and swiping

3564-466: A regular Phillips #00 screwdriver, the display is easily removed, and the modules are held in using only press fit sockets. The motherboard , containing the system on a chip , RAM and storage , can also be easily removed. Still, the motherboard's individual components can not be easily replaced. Sophie Charara , writing in Wired , said that the phone's technical specification is "almost identical to

3672-421: A rugged multi-touch capacitive touchscreen, that could sense through a rigid, protective overlay - the sort later required for a mobile phone, was ever developed or patented by Boie. Many of these citations rely on anecdotal evidence from Bill Buxton of Bell Labs. However, Bill Buxton did not have much luck getting his hands on this technology. As he states in the citation: "Our assumption (false, as it turned out)

3780-615: A shared mainframe computer system was demonstrated as early as 1973 in the Community Memory project, but bulletin board systems and online service providers became more commonly available after 1978. Commercial Internet service providers emerged in the late 1980s, giving public access to the rapidly growing network. In 1991, the World Wide Web was made available for public use. The combination of powerful personal computers with high-resolution graphics and sound, with

3888-506: A simple mouse or keypad that capacitively sensed just one finger through a thin insulator. Although not claimed or even mentioned in the patent, this technology could potentially have been used as a capacitance touchscreen. 1993 FIRST RESISTIVE TOUCHSCREEN PHONE - IBM released the IBM Simon , which is the first touchscreen phone. EARLY 90s ABANDONED GAME CONTROLLER - An early attempt at a handheld game console with touchscreen controls

3996-580: A simple x/y pen plotter, eliminating the need for expensive and complicated sputter coating, laser ablation, screen printing or etching. The resulting, incredibly flexible, touchscreen film, less than 100 microns thick, could be attached by static or non-setting weak adhesive to one side of a sheet of glass, for sensing through that glass. Early versions of this device were controlled by the PIC16C54 microchip. 1994 FIRST PUB GAME WITH TOUCHSCREEN - Appearing in pubs in 1994, JPM's Monopoly SWP (skill with prizes)

4104-503: A team around Rainer Mallebrein  [ de ] at Telefunken Konstanz for an air traffic control system. In 1970, this evolved into a device named "Touchinput- Einrichtung " ("touch input facility") for the SIG ;50 terminal utilizing a conductively coated glass screen in front of the display. This was patented in 1971 and the patent was granted a couple of years later. The same team had already invented and marketed

4212-655: A television already in the home as the computer display, with low-detail blocky graphics and a limited color range, and text about 40 characters wide by 25 characters tall. Sinclair Research , a UK company, produced the ZX Series‍—;‌the ZX80 (1980), ZX81 (1981), and the ZX Spectrum ; the latter was introduced in 1982, and totaled 8 million unit sold. Following came the Commodore 64 , totaled 17 million units sold,

4320-620: A television factory in the early 1960s. Then manufactured by CERN, and shortly after by industry partners, it was put to use in 1973. 1972 OPTICAL - A group at the University of Illinois filed for a patent on an optical touchscreen that became a standard part of the Magnavox Plato IV Student Terminal and thousands were built for this purpose. These touchscreens had a crossed array of 16×16 infrared position sensors, each composed of an LED on one edge of

4428-572: A time, and few have had the capability to sense how hard one is touching. This has changed with the commercialization of multi-touch technology, and the Apple Watch being released with a force-sensitive display in April 2015. 2015 BISTATE PROJECTED CAPACITANCE - When used as a Projected Capacitance touchscreen, in mutual capacitance mode, diagonal wiring requires each I/O line to be capable of switching between two states (bistate), an output some of

Fairphone 3 - Misplaced Pages Continue

4536-406: A time, they are commonly connected to a local area network and run multi-user operating systems . Workstations are used for tasks such as computer-aided design , drafting and modeling, computation-intensive scientific and engineering calculations, image processing, architectural modeling, and computer graphics for animation and motion picture visual effects. Before the widespread use of PCs,

4644-464: A touchscreen slider, which was later cited as prior art in the lock screen patent litigation between Apple and other touchscreen mobile phone vendors (in relation to U.S. patent 7,657,849 ). 1991 INERTIAL CONTROL - From 1991 to 1992, the Sun Star7 prototype PDA implemented a touchscreen with inertial scrolling . 1993 CAPACITANCE MOUSE / KEYPAD - Bob Boie of AT&T Bell Labs, patented

4752-493: A transparent implementation of an existing opaque touchpad technology, U.S. patent No.  3,911,215, October 7, 1975, which had been developed by Elographics' founder George Samuel Hurst . The resulting resistive technology touch screen was first shown on the World's Fair at Knoxville in 1982. 1982 MULTI-TOUCH CAMERA - Multi-touch technology began in 1982, when the University of Toronto 's Input Research Group developed

4860-601: A wide range of users, not just experienced electronics hobbyists who had the soldering skills to assemble a computer kit. The Apple I as delivered was still technically a kit computer, as it did not have a power supply, case, or keyboard when it was delivered to the Byte Shop. The first successfully mass-marketed personal computer to be announced was the Commodore PET after being revealed in January 1977. However, it

4968-542: Is a desktop computer that generally comprises a high-performance video card , processor and RAM, to improve the speed and responsiveness of demanding video games . An all-in-one computer (also known as single-unit PCs) is a desktop computer that combines the monitor and processor within a single unit. A separate keyboard and mouse are standard input devices, with some monitors including touchscreen capability. The processor and other working components are typically reduced in size relative to standard desktops, located behind

5076-495: Is a portable computer that provides the full capabilities of a desktop computer . Such computers are currently large laptops. This class of computers usually includes more powerful components and a larger display than generally found in smaller portable computers, and may have limited battery capacity or no battery. Netbooks , also called mini notebooks or subnotebooks , were a subgroup of laptops suited for general computing tasks and accessing web-based applications . Initially,

5184-456: Is only improved if the new core module for the FP3+ is used. Touchscreen A user can give input or control the information processing system through simple or multi-touch gestures by touching the screen with a special stylus or one or more fingers. Some touchscreens use ordinary or specially coated gloves to work, while others may only work using a special stylus or pen. The user can use

5292-585: Is speculation and there is no sign of it so far. In the history of computing , early experimental machines could be operated by a single attendant. For example, ENIAC which became operational in 1946 could be run by a single, albeit highly trained, person. This mode pre-dated the batch programming, or time-sharing modes with multiple users connected through terminals to mainframe computers. Computers intended for laboratory, instrumentation, or engineering purposes were built, and could be operated by one person in an interactive fashion. Examples include such systems as

5400-478: Is used to contrast with Mac, an Apple Macintosh computer. Since none of these Apple products were mainframes or time-sharing systems, they were all personal computers but not PC (brand) computers. In 1995, a CBS segment on the growing popularity of PC reported: "For many newcomers PC stands for Pain and Confusion." The "brain" [computer] may one day come down to our level [of the common people] and help with our income-tax and book-keeping calculations. But this

5508-459: The Rollkugel mouse RKS 100-86 for the SIG 100-86 a couple of years earlier. 1968 CAPACITANCE - The application of touch technology for air traffic control was described in an article published in 1968. Frank Beck and Bent Stumpe , engineers from CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research), developed a transparent touchscreen in the early 1970s, based on Stumpe's work at

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5616-536: The Apple I computer circuit board, which was fully prepared and contained about 30 chips. The Apple I computer differed from the other kit-style hobby computers of era. At the request of Paul Terrell , owner of the Byte Shop , Jobs and Wozniak were given their first purchase order, for 50 Apple I computers, only if the computers were assembled and tested and not a kit computer. Terrell wanted to have computers to sell to

5724-590: The Bendix G15 and LGP-30 of 1956, and the Soviet MIR series of computers developed from 1965 to 1969. By the early 1970s, people in academic or research institutions had the opportunity for single-person use of a computer system in interactive mode for extended durations, although these systems would still have been too expensive to be owned by a single person. The personal computer was made possible by major advances in semiconductor technology. In 1959,

5832-656: The Galaksija (1983) introduced in Yugoslavia and the Amstrad CPC series (464–6128). In the same year, the NEC PC-98 was introduced, which was a very popular personal computer that sold in more than 18 million units. Another famous personal computer, the revolutionary Amiga 1000 , was unveiled by Commodore on 23 July 1985. The Amiga 1000 featured a multitasking, windowing operating system, color graphics with

5940-604: The Moto G7 , our current recommendation for the best budget phone." She considered it "important" that "the premium for choosing an ethical phone had dropped to below £200" "for the first time". iFixit gave it a 10 out of 10 repairability score; 10 is easiest to repair. The Fairphone 3+ was launched in August 2020. It has upgraded front and rear cameras, improved audio, an increase in the amount of recycled plastic it contains (40% rather than 9%) and Android 10 . The rear camera has

6048-405: The lunchbox computer. The screen formed one side of the enclosure, with a detachable keyboard and one or two half-height floppy disk drives, mounted facing the ends of the computer. Some variations included a battery, allowing operation away from AC outlets. A laptop computer is designed for portability with clamshell design, where the keyboard and computer components are on one panel, with

6156-607: The macOS operating system), and free and open-source , Unix-like operating systems, such as Linux . Other notable platforms until the 1990s were the Amiga from Commodore , and the PC-98 from NEC . The term PC is an initialism for personal computer. While the IBM Personal Computer incorporated the designation into its model name, the term originally described personal computers of any brand. In some contexts, PC

6264-460: The silicon integrated circuit (IC) chip was developed by Robert Noyce at Fairchild Semiconductor , and the metal–oxide–semiconductor (MOS) transistor was developed by Mohamed Atalla and Dawon Kahng at Bell Labs . The MOS integrated circuit was commercialized by RCA in 1964, and then the silicon-gate MOS integrated circuit was developed by Federico Faggin at Fairchild in 1968. Faggin later used silicon-gate MOS technology to develop

6372-661: The "1977 trinity". Mass-market, ready-assembled computers had arrived, and allowed a wider range of people to use computers, focusing more on software applications and less on development of the processor hardware. In 1977 the Heath company introduced personal computer kits known as Heathkits , starting with the Heathkit H8 , followed by the Heathkit H89 in late 1979. With the purchase of the Heathkit H8 you would obtain

6480-444: The 1960s had to write their own programs to do any useful work with computers. While personal computer users may develop their applications, usually these systems run commercial software , free-of-charge software (" freeware "), which is most often proprietary, or free and open-source software , which is provided in ready-to-run , or binary form. Software for personal computers is typically developed and distributed independently from

6588-653: The 1988–1989 Buick Reatta , but was unpopular with consumers—partly due to the technophobia of some traditional Buick customers, but mostly because of costly technical problems suffered by the ECC's touchscreen which would render climate control or stereo operation impossible. 1985 GRAPHIC TABLET - Sega released the Terebi Oekaki, also known as the Sega Graphic Board, for the SG-1000 video game console and SC-3000 home computer . It consisted of

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6696-555: The 8-bit Intel 8080 Microprocessor, the Altair is widely recognized as the spark that ignited the microcomputer revolution as the first commercially successful personal computer. The computer bus designed for the Altair was to become a de facto standard in the form of the S-100 bus , and the first programming language for the machine was Microsoft's founding product, Altair BASIC . In 1976, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak sold

6804-574: The Fairphone 3 retailed at £408. The Fairphone 3+, launched in August 2020, has upgraded front and rear cameras and speaker modules. The camera modules are compatible with the FP3. However, the improved audio primarily comes from the new core module in the FP3+ and is not upgradable as this is IMEI related. The Fairphone 3+ shipped with Android 10 and an increase in the amount of recycled plastic it contains, now 40%. Fairphone 3 "has been manufactured in

6912-549: The Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, or Linux operating system , and low-voltage Intel Atom or VIA C7-M processors. A pocket PC is a hardware specification for a handheld-sized computer ( personal digital assistant , PDA) that runs the Microsoft Windows Mobile operating system . It may have the capability to run an alternative operating system like NetBSD or Linux . Pocket PCs have many of

7020-473: The ability to be programmed in both APL and BASIC for engineers, analysts, statisticians, and other business problem-solvers. In the late 1960s such a machine would have been nearly as large as two desks and would have weighed about half a ton. Another desktop portable APL machine, the MCM/70 , was demonstrated in 1973 and shipped in 1974. It used the Intel 8008 processor. A seminal step in personal computing

7128-477: The capabilities of desktop PCs . Numerous applications are available for handhelds adhering to the Microsoft Pocket PC specification, many of which are freeware . Microsoft-compliant Pocket PCs can also be used with many other add-ons like GPS receivers , barcode readers, RFID readers and cameras. In 2007, with the release of Windows Mobile 6, Microsoft dropped the name Pocket PC in favor of

7236-577: The chassis and CPU card to assemble yourself, additional hardware such as the H8-1 memory board that contained 4k of RAM could also be purchased in order to run software. The Heathkit H11 model was released in 1978 and was one of the first 16-bit personal computers; however, due to its high retail cost of $ 1,295 was discontinued in 1982. During the early 1980s, home computers were further developed for household use, with software for personal productivity, programming and games. They typically could be used with

7344-420: The city of Brisbane , Australia hosted Expo 88 , whose theme was “leisure in the age of technology”. To support the event and provide information to expo visitors, Telecom Australia (now Telstra ) erected 8 kiosks around the expo site with a total of 56 touch screen information consoles, being specially modified Sony Videotex Workstations. Each system was also equipped with a videodisc player, speakers, and

7452-445: The diagram. There are a number of touchscreen technologies, with different methods of sensing touch. Personal computer A personal computer , often referred to as a PC , is a computer designed for individual use. It is typically used for tasks such as word processing , internet browsing , email , multimedia playback, and gaming . Personal computers are intended to be operated directly by an end user , rather than by

7560-543: The first human-input multi-touch system, using a frosted-glass panel with a camera placed behind the glass. 1983 OPTICAL - An optical touchscreen was used on the HP-150 starting in 1983. The HP 150 was one of the world's earliest commercial touchscreen computers. HP mounted their infrared transmitters and receivers around the bezel of a 9-inch Sony cathode ray tube (CRT). 1983 MULTI-TOUCH FORCE SENSING TOUCHSCREEN - Bob Boie of AT&T Bell Labs, used capacitance to track

7668-479: The first single-chip microprocessor , the Intel 4004 , in 1971. The first microcomputers , based on microprocessors, were developed during the early 1970s. Widespread commercial availability of microprocessors, from the mid-1970s onwards, made computers cheap enough for small businesses and individuals to own. In what was later to be called the Mother of All Demos , SRI researcher Douglas Engelbart in 1968 gave

7776-559: The front of the screen. Stumpe and Beck developed a self-capacitance touchscreen in 1972, and a mutual capacitance touchscreen in 1977. Both these devices could only sense the finger by direct touch or through a thin insulating film. This was 11 microns thick according to Stumpe's 1977 report. 1984 TOUCHPAD - Fujitsu released a touch pad for the Micro 16 to accommodate the complexity of kanji characters, which were stored as tiled graphics. 1986 GRAPHIC TABLET - A graphic touch tablet

7884-399: The hardware or operating system manufacturers. Many personal computer users no longer need to write their programs to make any use of a personal computer, although end-user programming is still feasible. This contrasts with mobile systems, where software is often available only through a manufacturer-supported channel, and end-user program development may be discouraged by lack of support by

7992-556: The infrastructure provided by the Internet, and the standardization of access methods of the Web browsers , established the foundation for a significant fraction of modern life, from bus time tables through unlimited distribution of free videos through to online user-edited encyclopedias. A workstation is a high-end personal computer designed for technical, mathematical, or scientific applications. Intended primarily to be used by one person at

8100-519: The introduction of the IBM PC, portable computers consisting of a processor, display, disk drives and keyboard, in a suit-case style portable housing, allowed users to bring a computer home from the office or to take notes at a classroom. Examples include the Osborne 1 and Kaypro ; and the Commodore SX-64 . These machines were AC-powered and included a small CRT display screen. The form factor

8208-429: The invention of a wire based touchscreen in 1994, where one 25 micron diameter, insulation coated wire replaced about 30 of these 80 micron wide tracks, and could also accurately sense fingers through thick glass. Screen masking, caused by the copper, was reduced from 50% to less than 0.5%. The use of fine wire meant that very large touchscreens, several meters wide, could be plotted onto a thin polyester support film with

8316-549: The keyboard. These displays were usually small, with 8 to 16 lines of text, sometimes only 40 columns line length. However, these machines could operate for extended times on disposable or rechargeable batteries. Although they did not usually include internal disk drives, this form factor often included a modem for telephone communication and often had provisions for external cassette or disk storage. Later, clamshell format laptop computers with similar small plan dimensions were also called notebooks . A desktop replacement computer

8424-475: The length of the horizontal sensing elements increases as the width of the touchscreen increases. Eventually, a limit is hit where the resistance gets so great that the touchscreen can no longer function properly. The patent describes how the use of diagonal elements ensures that the length of any element never exceeds 1.414 times the height ⌈ H 2 ⌋ {\textstyle \left\lceil H{\sqrt {2}}\right\rfloor } of

8532-458: The manufacturer. Since the early 1990s, Microsoft operating systems (first with MS-DOS and then with Windows ) and Intel hardware – collectively called Wintel – have dominated the personal computer market, and today the term PC normally refers to the ubiquitous Wintel platform. Alternatives to Windows occupy a minority share of the market; these include the Mac platform from Apple (running

8640-446: The mechanical changes in thickness of a soft, deformable overlay membrane when one or more physical objects interact with it; the flexible surface being easily replaced, if damaged by these objects. The patent states "the tactile sensor arrangements may be utilized as a touch screen". Many derivative sources retrospectively describe Boie as making a major advancement with his touchscreen technology; but no evidence has been found that

8748-560: The medical field, heavy industry , automated teller machines (ATMs), and kiosks such as museum displays or room automation , where keyboard and mouse systems do not allow a suitably intuitive, rapid, or accurate interaction by the user with the display's content. Historically, the touchscreen sensor and its accompanying controller-based firmware have been made available by a wide array of after-market system integrators , and not by display, chip, or motherboard manufacturers. Display manufacturers and chip manufacturers have acknowledged

8856-403: The monitor line scans. About 600 of these were sold for this purpose, retailing at £50 apiece, which was very cheap for the time. Working through very thick glass made it ideal for operation in a "hostile" environment, such as a pub. Although reflected light from the copper wires was noticeable under certain lighting conditions, this problem was eliminated by using tinted glass. The reflection issue

8964-455: The monitor, and configured similarly to laptops. A nettop computer was introduced by Intel in February 2008, characterized by low cost and lean functionality. These were intended to be used with an Internet connection to run Web browsers and Internet applications. A Home theater PC (HTPC) combines the functions of a personal computer and a digital video recorder . It is connected to

9072-592: The original signal. Effectively, this was used for temporarily drawing arrows or circles onto a live television broadcast, as described in US 2487641A , Denk, William E, "Electronic pointer for television images", issued 1949-11-08   . 1962 OPTICAL - The first version of a touchscreen which operated independently of the light produced from the screen was patented by AT&T Corporation US 3016421A , Harmon, Leon D, "Electrographic transmitter", issued 1962-01-09   . This touchscreen utilized

9180-503: The primary defining characteristic of netbooks was the lack of an optical disc drive, smaller size, and lower performance than full-size laptops. By mid-2009 netbooks had been offered to users "free of charge", with an extended service contract purchase of a cellular data plan. Ultrabooks and Chromebooks have since filled the gap left by Netbooks. Unlike the generic Netbook name, Ultrabook and Chromebook are technically both specifications by Intel and Google respectively. A tablet uses

9288-967: The release of the Nintendo DS in 2004. 2007 MOBILE PHONE WITH CAPACITANCE - The first mobile phone with a capacitive touchscreen was LG Prada , released in May 2007 (which was before the first iPhone released). By 2009, touchscreen-enabled mobile phones were becoming trendy and quickly gaining popularity in both basic and advanced devices. In Quarter-4 2009 for the first time, a majority of smartphones (i.e. not all mobile phones) shipped with touchscreens over non-touch. 2013 RESISTIVE VERSUS PROJECTED CAPACITANCE SALES - In 2007, 93% of touchscreens shipped were resistive and only 4% were projected capacitance. In 2013, 3% of touchscreens shipped were resistive and 96% were projected capacitance (see page 5). 2015 FORCE SENSING TOUCHSCREENS - Until recently, most consumer touchscreens could only sense one point of contact at

9396-498: The required hardware and software needed to add television programming to the PC, or can be assembled from components. Keyboard computers are computers inside of keyboards, generally still designed to be connected to an external computer monitor or television . Examples include the Atari ST , Amstrad CPC , BBC Micro , Commodore 64 , MSX , Raspberry Pi 400 , and the ZX Spectrum . The potential utility of portable computers

9504-411: The screen and a matched phototransistor on the other edge, all mounted in front of a monochrome plasma display panel. This arrangement could sense any fingertip-sized opaque object in close proximity to the screen. 1973 MULTI-TOUCH CAPACITANCE - In 1973, Beck and Stumpe published another article describing their capacitive touchscreen. This indicated that it was capable of multi-touch but this feature

9612-538: The screen to activate a switch (or a U-shaped gesture for a toggle switch). The HCIL team developed and studied small touchscreen keyboards (including a study that showed users could type at 25 wpm on a touchscreen keyboard), aiding their introduction on mobile devices. They also designed and implemented multi-touch gestures such as selecting a range of a line, connecting objects, and a "tap-click" gesture to select while maintaining location with another finger. 1990 TOUCHSCREEN SLIDER AND TOGGLE SWITCHES - HCIL demonstrated

9720-418: The systems hardware components such as the motherboard , processor chip and other internal operating parts. Desktop computers have an external monitor with a display screen and an external keyboard, which are plugged into ports on the back of the computer case. Desktop computers are popular for home and business computing applications as they leave space on the desk for multiple monitors . A gaming computer

9828-521: The time and an input at other times. I/Os are inputs most of the time, but, once every scan, one of the I/Os has to take its turn at being an output, the remaining input I/Os sensing any signals it generates. The I/O lines, therefore, may have to change from input to output, and vice versa, many times a second. This new design won an Electronics Weekly Elektra Award in 2017. 2021 FIRST "INFINITELY WIDE" TOUCHSCREEN PATENT - With standard x/y array touchscreens,

9936-728: The touchscreen to react to what is displayed and, if the software allows, to control how it is displayed; for example, zooming to increase the text size. A touchscreen enables the user to interact directly with what is displayed, instead of using a mouse , touchpad , or other such devices (other than a stylus, which is optional for most modern touchscreens). Touchscreens are common in devices such as smartphones , handheld game consoles , and personal computers . They are common in point-of-sale (POS) systems, automated teller machines (ATMs), electronic voting machines , and automobile infotainment systems and controls. They can also be attached to computers or, as terminals, to networks. They play

10044-538: The touchscreen, no matter how wide it is. This could be reduced to 1.15 times the height, if opposing diagonal elements intersect at 60 degrees instead of 90 degrees. The elongated touchscreen could be controlled by a single processor, or the distant ends could be controlled totally independently by different processors, linked by a synchronizing processor in the overlapping middle section. The number of unique intersections could be increased by allowing individual sensing elements to run in two opposing directions - as shown in

10152-449: The trend toward acceptance of touchscreens as a user interface component and have begun to integrate touchscreens into the fundamental design of their products. One predecessor of the modern touchscreen includes stylus based systems. 1946 DIRECT LIGHT PEN - A patent was filed by Philco Company for a stylus designed for sports telecasting which, when placed against an intermediate cathode-ray tube (CRT) display would amplify and add to

10260-641: Was Sega 's intended successor to the Game Gear , though the device was ultimately shelved and never released due to the expensive cost of touchscreen technology in the early 1990s. 1994 FIRST WIRE BASED PROJECTED CAPACITANCE - Stumpe and Beck's touchscreens (1972/1977 - already cited), used opaque conductive copper tracks that obscured about 50% of the screen (80 micron track / 80 micron space). The advent of projected capacitance in 1984, however, with its improved sensing capability, indicated that most of these tracks could be eliminated. This proved to be so, and led to

10368-508: Was apparent early on. Alan Kay described the Dynabook in 1972, but no hardware was developed. The Xerox NoteTaker was produced in a very small experimental batch around 1978. In 1975, the IBM 5100 could be fit into a transport case, making it a portable computer, but it weighed about 50 pounds. Such early portable computers were termed luggables by journalists owing to their heft. Before

10476-652: Was back-ordered and not available until later that year. Three months later (April), the Apple II (usually referred to as the Apple) was announced with the first units being shipped 10 June 1977, and the TRS-80 from Tandy Corporation / Tandy Radio Shack following in August 1977, which sold over 100,000 units during its lifetime. Together, especially in the North American market, these 3 machines were referred to as

10584-694: Was demonstrated on the 16-bit Atari 520ST color computer. It featured a color touchscreen widget-driven interface. The ViewTouch POS software was first shown by its developer, Gene Mosher, at the Atari Computer demonstration area of the Fall COMDEX expo in 1986. 1987 CAPACITANCE TOUCH KEYS - Casio launched the Casio PB-1000 pocket computer with a touchscreen consisting of a 4×4 matrix, resulting in 16 touch areas in its small LCD graphic screen. 1988 SELECT ON "LIFT-OFF" - Touchscreens had

10692-566: Was developed by Eric Johnson, of the Royal Radar Establishment located in Malvern , England, who described his work on capacitive touchscreens in a short article published in 1965 and then more fully—with photographs and diagrams—in an article published in 1967. MID-60s ULTRASONIC CURTAIN - Another precursor of touchscreens, an ultrasonic-curtain-based pointing device in front of a terminal display, had been developed by

10800-401: Was intended to allow these systems to be taken on board an airplane as carry-on baggage, though their high power demand meant that they could not be used in flight. The integrated CRT display made for a relatively heavy package, but these machines were more portable than their contemporary desktop equals. Some models had standard or optional connections to drive an external video monitor, allowing

10908-488: Was introduced by researchers at the University of Maryland Human–Computer Interaction Lab (HCIL). As users touch the screen, feedback is provided as to what will be selected: users can adjust the position of the finger, and the action takes place only when the finger is lifted off the screen. This allowed the selection of small targets, down to a single pixel on a 640×480 Video Graphics Array (VGA) screen (a standard of that time). 1988 WORLD EXPO - From April to October 1988,

11016-639: Was later resolved by using finer (10 micron diameter), dark coated wires. Throughout the following decade JPM continued to use touchscreens for many other games such as "Cluedo" and "Who wants to be a Millionaire". 1998 PROJECTED CAPACITANCE LICENSES - This technology was licensed four years later to Romag Glass Products - later to become Zytronic Displays, and Visual Planet in 2003 (see page 4). 2004 MOBILE MULTI-TOUCH PROJECTED CAPACITANCE PATENT - Apple patents its multi-touch capacitive touchscreen for mobile devices. 2004 VIDEO GAMES WITH TOUCHSCREENS - Touchscreens were not be popularly used for video games until

11124-590: Was purposely inhibited, presumably as this was not considered useful at the time ("A...variable...called BUT changes value from zero to five when a button is touched. The touching of other buttons would give other non-zero values of BUT but this is protected against by software" (Page 6, section 2.6). "Actual contact between a finger and the capacitor is prevented by a thin sheet of plastic" (Page 3, section 2.3). At that time Projected capacitance had not yet been invented. 1977 RESISTIVE - An American company, Elographics – in partnership with Siemens – began work on developing

11232-483: Was released for the Sega AI Computer . EARLY 80s EVALUATION FOR AIRCRAFT - Touch-sensitive control-display units (CDUs) were evaluated for commercial aircraft flight decks in the early 1980s. Initial research showed that a touch interface would reduce pilot workload as the crew could then select waypoints, functions and actions, rather than be "head down" typing latitudes, longitudes, and waypoint codes on

11340-533: Was that the Boie technology would become available to us in the near future. Around 1990 I took a group from Xerox to see this technology it [sic] since I felt that it would be appropriate for the user interface of our large document processors. This did not work out". UP TO 1984 CAPACITANCE - Although, as cited earlier, Johnson is credited with developing the first finger operated capacitive and resistive touchscreens in 1965, these worked by directly touching wires across

11448-453: Was the 1973 Xerox Alto , developed at Xerox 's Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) . It had a graphical user interface ( GUI ) which later served as inspiration for Apple's Macintosh , and Microsoft's Windows operating system. The Alto was a demonstration project, not commercialized, as the parts were too expensive to be affordable. Also in 1973 Hewlett Packard introduced fully BASIC programmable microcomputers that fit entirely on top of

11556-412: Was the first machine to use touch screen technology instead of buttons (see Quiz machine / History). It used a 14 inch version of this newly invented wire based projected capacitance touchscreen and had 64 sensing areas - the wiring pattern being similar to that shown in the lower diagram. The zig-zag pattern was introduced to minimize visual reflections and prevent Moire interference between the wires and

11664-500: Was the first to emulate APL/1130 performance on a portable, single user computer, PC Magazine in 1983 designated SCAMP a "revolutionary concept" and "the world's first personal computer". This seminal, single user portable computer now resides in the Smithsonian Institution , Washington, D.C.. Successful demonstrations of the 1973 SCAMP prototype led to the IBM 5100 portable microcomputer launched in 1975 with

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