touch screen

Repa,

I believe in the past you have said you are not a hardware person, so do not know if you can answer this.

My tablet says it supports 5-points multi touch. What does it mean by 5-points?

If you do not know that is ok, just a bit curious.

Thanks

Multi point touch screens sense multiple points of contact on the tablet PC allowing for better accuracy and the zooming option. The more points the better the response from the LCD screen. Most tablets come in a range of multi touch depending on the price. The most basic is a 2 point touch. Other common multi touch screens are 5 point touch and 10 point touch used in the iPad for example, which my wife has. As an example, you can put your fingers close together on a small image on the screen and expand it to a larger size or full screen by spreading your fingers apart, and vice-versa. The higher the touch points, the better the accuracy and response for the user. I was using a kind of touch screen in the late 60's and 70's when I was in the military, although it wasn't a finger touch, it was with a device called a light pen. Here's an article on the history of touch screens and some of their uses if you are interested:  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-touch

Repa,

Thanks for the link on the multi-touch. I just glanced at it and need to go back and spend some more time. I had not idea what it was.
And I do not really get the point thing, I understand the more the better - but I not know what the 2 and 5 refer to. Guess I can do some research if I really want to know, but do not guess it is really that important.

I have never had any dealings with a touch screen before. Thanks for the information.

Fay

Repa,


How do I know if my winbook 801 has a capacitive or restive screen?
I would sort of like to get a stylus to use with my winbook 801 - seems some of the ones I found said they were for capacitive screens. Guess I could just get one and try it.

Fay

Below is an excerpt from an article on touch screens describing the characteristics of each that may help you decide which type of screen you have. You could also contact the manufacturer on their website or by phone and give them the model number to find out what you have. My wife has the Ipad 3 with a Retina display and it works fine with either fingers or a stylus. I buy the styluses at Walmart and/or Sam's Club. They have a rubber tip and work very well for a while, then seem to wear out and stop working unless you apply extra pressure. After a while (3 or 4 months or so) they become very annoying to use and will hardly work at all, especially if swiping (the tip seems to stick to the screen rather than smoothly dragging), and I have to get her a new one.


Article I found:
Capacitive Touchscreens
Capacitive touchscreens register a touch whenever it comes in contact with a conductive object—such as human fingers. As such, capacitive touchscreens are highly responsive, as they do not require any pressure to register a touch. Even the slightest touch will activate the screen. Capacitive touchscreens can use glass as the front panel, which makes them highly durable, easy to clean and resistant to scratches. Capacitive touchscreens can also implement multi-touch gestures. In general, capacitive touchscreens are considered to be capable of faster typing speeds. However, given the sensitivity of a touchscreen, you may have difficulty with typos. The size of the keyboard and the amount of space between keys will deeply affected typing accuracy as well. Capacitive touchscreens can be used with a screen protector to keep them clean and scratch-free.

The disadvantages of capactive touchscreen come with accuracy. Most capacitive touchscreens do not respond to objects other than naked human fingers, and thus do not work with a stylus or a fingernail or a gloved hand. Because fingers are far wider than a stylus, this makes handwriting and other precise actions rather difficult. Capacitive screens are also more expensive.

Devices with capacitive touchscreens include the fourth generation iPhone, the iPad and iPod Touch and the HTC HD2.

Resistive Touchscreens
Resistive touchscreens are constructed from two layers of material with a space between them. When you push on the outer screen, the two layers are pressed into contact, thus registering a touch. Because the system works on pressure, it can be activated using inanimate objects such as a stylus, fingernail or a gloved finger. This makes resistive touchscreens useful for handwriting and other high precision functions. Resistive touchscreens are also preferable in colder climates, where smartphone and tablet users often wear gloves. Resistive touchscreens are considerably less expensive than capacitive screens.

The drawbacks of resistive touchscreens include its inability to support multi-touch gestures, its poor visibility in direct sunlight and its lesser durability. The top layer on a resistive touchscreen is made of soft, flexible material which can be damaged much more easily than glass. It also may need recalibrating from time to time.

Devices with resistive touchscreens include many Nokia phones, the Sony Reader and the Archos 9.

Which is Better?
It’s difficult to say whether resistive or capacitive touchscreens are better. Capacitive touchscreen technology is newer, and is thus more expensive. While many state-of-the-art devices tout the multi-touch gestures and glass screen as must-have features on their high-end tablets with capacitive touchscreens, if you prefer to use a stylus or wear gloves, a capacitive touchscreen won’t provide as many benefits over the resistive screen. Consider your needs before deciding on a capacitive or resistive touchscreen.

Mine is multi touch so sounds like make means it is capacitive. Also seems that barely touching it wit with my finger does work, so that sounds like capacitive.
Confusing is the information above says that a stylus does not work on a capacitive screen, but the ones I found online for WalMart says they do work on a capacitive screen.
I checked the availability at our local store and according to the website they only have it. I plan on going to WalMart today for other things , I may take a look while there and if they really do have it , go ahead and get one.
I do not need it for swiping so much. I need it for touching some of the smaller areas. Since I do not use the tablet often, hopefully mine will last longer.

Thanks
Fay

I got a stylus at WalMart today.  It does work though I do have a little bit of trouble with it.  Not unsure if the trouble is in the stylus, the way I handle it , or the touchscreen itself.  I did read some reviews that complained about the responsiveness of the screen on this particular tablet.

One of the problems is there are some things I can not figure out how to do without the mouse.  If I have to have the mouse attached anyway.  If I am using the mouse , I can right click on the button at the bottom left and it will bring me up a drop down screen  with a number of selection - including but not limited to:  disk management, command prompt,  task manager, control panel  etc.
I do not know how to do that with out  the mouse -  with out having to research, do you have any idea?

****** never mind - I just found out found these insturcions
1.Touch the item with your finger or stylus, and keep the finger or stylus pressed down gently. In a moment, a square or circle will appear, shown in the top, left figure.
2.Lift your finger or stylus, and the right-click menu appears, listing all the things you can do with that item.




Thanks
Fay

If you haven't found this before, you may find these links useful:

http://www.microcentertech.com/winbook/index.html

http://www.microcentertech.com/tech_center/DB/search_summary.php?textfield=winbook+tw801+user+guide

Thanks Repa

Fay

No question this time - just comment

8.1 and especially trying to use without mouse   ugghhhhh

I can not figure out how to do things by just trying things.  Have to spend time research with google - can't find what I am looking for,   give up , go back again later - sometimes multiple times,  then sometimes finally find out how.  But then my memory is so  bad and sometimes so long between times doing it, that by next time I have forgotten again.   sigh.....
Had a hard time figuring out how to close a window - did not have the bar with the X to close - found out how to get it with a mouse but then did not know how to get it without - by using the touch screen.   To close a window using the touch screen you do it a different way.

At times I wonder if I will always have to keep  a mouse handy, in case I can not figure out how to do things with out it and then hope I can figure out how to do do things with it.
And to make it worse , sometimes the touch screen does not respond.

Seems like things just keep getting more complicated  

Fay

I'm sorry.... That's why I don't care for the new gadgets. I don't like my wife's Ipad at all and when she asks me a question about it, I have to spend time figuring it out. It's a real pain! I'll never get one of those new phones! I'll stick with my laptop and desktop as long as I can. At least I know what I am doing with those.

Yeah, my phone is pretty much a plain phone, at pain as I could get when I needed a new one because I lot the charger for my old one. It was so old a charger was not longer available. Do not have a data plan on it.
I guess it kind of makes me feel a little bad I have so much trouble with this new stuff because it seems people with no real computer background can get them and use them, not talking about kids either.
My win 7 desktop is already 6 years old wow. I dread the thought of one day having to get another one.

I thought maybe my getting a tablet with 8.1 that I could kind of was into a different OS. Not sure what will be on a new desktop when I get one. Hope can put it off a while. Even if it had win 7 , which it will not, just getting everything re-loaded and set up is a real pain.
Plus I keep worrying that at some point I will not longer be able to run Visual FoxPro, which is what my check keeping system is written in and I have data back to 1993 on it , plus I like the little system that I wrote for myself. Hate to think of when I will not be able to use it. Microsoft no longer support VFP but hopefully their OS will continue to run it.

Also hate it that about everyone left this forum. But, I joined a few forums at mdjuncion.com for amputees, one for melanoma and a couple of others. They are kind of the same way. They get very little action. We really hate a great board here for a while. Glad you are keeping it alive though, cause you still help me out once in a while.

Thanks
Fay