Science behind that swipe: how touch phones work

Between 2007 when Apple launched the first iPhone and now, smartphones have invaded our lives like nothing else. A seven-country survey released in July this year by Motorola found that 74% users in India slept holding their phones. Globally, more than half of users surveyed said they will reach for their phones before saving their pet cat in case of a fire.

“Who wants a stylus… you have to get ’em, put ’em away… lose them… yuck! ...We will use the best pointing device in the world… we will use our fingers,” Steve Jobs said in 2007 while introducing the iPhone. The fingers have taken over since then. Seen the cartoon on touch phones where an old hat in heaven cannot fathom why new entrants keep staring blankly at their hands? Or met a child who tries swiping household items as if they were widgets on a touch screen?

Humans, it is clear, have embraced smartphones. But how do smartphones and other electronic devices respond to the human touch? After all, the most one can get with a swipe on a piece of ordinary glass is a smudge.

For starters, the touch screen is electrically charged and works on the principle that human beings are good conductors of electricity. That’s the reason touch screens don’t work if you have gloves on.

Here’s more on the science behind touch screens: