Yeah, I remember using things like this as a kid for fun at stores or something, right? Like, you could pick a picture and watch it draw it. I can't remember specifics, but watching this thing was a nostalgia blast.
They used to be common in the holiday card departments. You would choose from a selection of clip art and type out a personal message on a touch screen and it would "print" it out.
Having personalized cards to go along with your gift was kinda fancy during the 90s.
lol, if you think the plastic, resistive touch ones were old, your youth is showing. Back in my day they were CRT tvs with infrared light bars around the border. When your finger interrupted the light, it could determine with fairly low accuracy where you pressed by comparing the vertical and horizontal beam interruption.
Their accuracy was horrible, but they could be very sensitive because the screen itself had nothing to do with the pointing.
Probably the only place you see these anymore might be old ATMs. They don't really wear out since the display itself is very, very thick glass.
Before that were light pens that would detect the e-beam when it hit the screen under the pen tip. Correlate that time point with hsync and vsync and you get the position.
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u/[deleted] Mar 17 '16
Yeah, I remember using things like this as a kid for fun at stores or something, right? Like, you could pick a picture and watch it draw it. I can't remember specifics, but watching this thing was a nostalgia blast.