Like other tablet devices, the iPad relies on a specially designed touchscreen for input. You can activate programs and enter data by typing on a virtual keyboard, touching on-screen programs and making certain gestures. Understanding the iPad's touch-screen capabilities can help you get the most out of your hardware.
Design The iPad screen is a 9.7-inch LCD display protected by a scratch-resistant sheet of glass. Apple coats this screen with an oleophobic substance designed to repel the oils left by your fingertips, allowing you to wipe the screen clean easily. The key to the screen is a thin layer of capacitive material embedded in the surface that serves as the heart of the iPad input system. The material is transparent to the user, but it allows the system to detect a touch anywhere on the surface of the screen.
Capacitive Touch Screens Early touch screens relied on pressure, forcing users to depress the screen to connect two layers of conductive material to signal a touch. Capacitive screens work by constantly monitoring the electrical field of the screen. Since your body conducts electricity, touching the screen alters this field, and the system can detect that change and use it to determine where you touched. The iPad screen also features multi-touch technology, which allows the system to interpret multiple contacts, such as those when you zoom pictures by pinching or moving your fingers apart.
Advantage The advantage of capacitive design is ease of use. Less force required to produce a touch signal means more wear and comfort on the screen. In addition, the capacitive display can detect contacts even with some types of screen protectors, allowing you to add a layer of protection to the iPad screen without significantly reducing sensitivity. Disadvantages The main drawback of capacitive screens is that they require direct skin contact or a similar change in the screen's electric field to work. Most styluses don't display on the iPad screen, and you can't use the iPad while wearing gloves. There are third-party solutions to this problem, as some manufacturers make conductive pens that transmit your body's electric field to the device, and sewing a small section of conductive wire to the tip of a winter glove allows you to use your iPad in cold weather without sacrificing temperature.
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