No matter how hard you press your fingers on the smartphone screen, it flatly refuses to respond. Your laptop’s touchpad also periodically goes on strike. Developers of new technologies explain what it’s all about and give simple tips on how we can improve our relationship with sensors.
Why does the touch of some users cause an adequate reaction, while the touch screen is indifferent to others? To do this, you need to understand the device itself. Unlike a resistive sensor that responds to mechanical pressure, a capacitive sensor on a smartphone or laptop touchpad generates a small electrical field.
The human body conducts electricity, so that a fingertip in close proximity to the glass absorbs an electric charge and causes interference in the electric field. The network of electrodes on the screen reacts to this interference and allows the phone to register the command. Capacitive sensors must be sensitive enough to pick up the touch of a tiny two-year-old finger, a bony old finger, or a sumo wrestler’s fleshy finger.
If your phone’s sensor is not responding to touch, try dampening your hands with water
Moreover, the program’s algorithms must filter out the «noise» created by grease and dirt on the glass surface. Not to mention the overlapping electric fields that generate fluorescent lighting, chargers, or even components within the gadget itself.
“This is one of the reasons why a mobile phone has a more powerful processor than computers, used in preparation for a manned flight to the moon,” explains Stanford University neuroscientist Andrew Hsu.
Touch screens have a lot of advantages. They wear out slowly, do not reduce image quality and can be used by several people at the same time. The sensors are sensitive to the touch of both hot and cold fingers, contrary to speculation.
However, there are no rules without exceptions.
Users with calloused hands, such as carpenters or guitarists, often experience problems with touch screens, because the keratinized skin on their fingertips blocks the flow of electricity. As well as gloves. As well as too dry skin of the hands. Women with very long nails also face this problem.
If you are one of the «lucky» owners of the so-called «zombie fingers», to which the sensor does not react in any way, try moistening them. Better yet, apply a water-based moisturizer on them. If that doesn’t help and you’re not ready to part with your favorite calluses or extended nails, just get a stylus, recommends Andrew Hsyu.
For more information, Consumer Reports.