Unit 2

c
~ktop,
programming language
called BASIC. Their newly

formed company was called
MicroSoft which was later
changed to Microsoft. In the
same year, Apple Computers
was founded by Steve Jobs
and Steve Wozniac. In 1977
Apple created the "home/
personal
computer"
that
The Altair 8800
could be used by anybody,
called Apple Il, which was an immediate successo The computer
was sealed in a neat plastic case, and came complete with
display, built-in keyboard, and used removable floppy discs.
Later came a day, when the personal computer became more like
a necessity and was termed desktop.
Soon a household name, it was accepted worldwide not just by
individuals but also by companies, government offices, and every
other piace which required technology, and the computer industry
turned into a billion dollar industry changing people's lives.
In 19811BM launched its own
personal computer for which
Microsoft won the contract
to write the operating
system. This was called
MS-DOS.
That wasn't the end, though
- it was just the beginning.
The desktop was not
designed for portability as
it depended on an outlet power source. The expectations with it
was that it had to be set up in a permanent location.
Living in a ubiquitous world required changes in computing.
Technology moved to the next level: desktops were replaced with
laptops. These had every feature of a normal desktop, but were
smaller, more convenient and more easily portable fram piace
to piace. Laptops, olso colled notebooks, integroted the disploy,
keyboard, o pointing device or trackball, lIater reploced by o
touchpadl processor ond memory in o bottery-operated
package slightly larger than a hardcover book which could be
TECHNICAL
ENGLlSH
.
keyboard tastiera
-..
touchscreen.
Some scientists have even gone so far as to suggest computers

directly embedded into people, fusing man and machine to
create cyborgs3. These dreams may sound imprabable today
but they are slowly turning into reality thanks to research and
technological advances.
And the evolution of computers continues ....
1
far-fetched: very difficult to believe

cyborg: a human who has certain physiological processes aided ~
or controlled by mechanical or electronic devices~
_..__._...
monitor / display / screen schermo
operating system sistema operativo
satellite-navigation
fiip: turn quickly
programming language linguaggio di programmazione
processor processore
I\)
folded and carri ed anywhere, anytime.

Things were looking good, but could people have imagined that
they would witness another big leap soon? The advent of the
tablet, a single screen device which could be used either with
fingers, or by a stylus.
However, it was not until 2010 that Steve Jobs once again had
a vision, a device fitting somewhere belween laptops and
smartphones, called iPad. Jobs tablet computer took the world
by stormo
The tablet PC has now
become popular and a
much sought after device.
The obvious difference
with the laptop is that the
tablet has a flat screen
with a virtual keyboard
which appears on il. Most
tablets are hand-enabled
devices, allowing you to "flip"1 pages, enlarge, reduce, and move
around the screen. The ones which use a stylus to write often
recognize handwriting. Moreover, with a stylus or a finger, digital
painting and drawing is much easier than with a mouse, which
adds enjoyments for artists of ali types.
There's little debate that the trendiest touch-enabled device
today is the smartphone, which is becoming more and
more sophisticated due to advanced hardware. Beyond basic
phone and text communication, smartphones offer many other
computing functions such os. far example, email, web brawsing,
audio/video playback, and satellite-navigation systems
IGPSsl.
As things stand, multi-touch technology is definitively here to stavo
The future promises bold innovations. Some of the technologies
envisioned to be in mass use in the near future are far-fetched2,
but others aren't: support for five-fingered multi-touch gestures,
reduction in the delay belween fingers touching the screen
and the display reacting to the command flexible, transparent
n the early 1970s personal computers were used only by

hobbyists. The first 'hobby' personal computer was the Altair
8800.
.
There was neither a keyboard nor a monitor; programs and
data were both entered by clicking switches on the front of the
Altair. In 1975, Bill Gates and Paul Allen developed a program for
the Altair that allowed people
to write their own programs in
--l
laptop, and Tablet - The Evoluflon of Compu1ers
tablet
laptop
floppy disc dischetto
trackball
stylus stilo
system sistema di navigazione satellitare
desktop scrivania
touchpad
smartphone
touchscreen
schermo tattile
19
c
Z
PC tablets and the touchscreen revolution
-1
1'0
hough it might seem like we've been using

keyboards and mice to control our computers
forever, the advent of touchscreen phones
and tablets has shown us a third way to take
control, one that requires no tools but fingers.
Touchscreens have developed over 50 years since
their invention and now deliver a feature-rich
environment in which to work.
The future of computing will definitely be touchenabled, but just how does it work?
Of the dozen or so ways to
design touchscreens, the three
most recent implementations
of this technology are: the
resistNesystem, the capacitNe
systemand optical imaging.
The screen on a tablet PC
using the resistive system
includes a glasspanel covered
with a thin metallic layer'
made of a substance, such
as indium tin oxide, which
conducts electricity. Spacers"
on the layer support a
metallic layer that resists the
flow of electricity. When you touch the screen with
your finger or a stylus, the two layers make contact,
changing the electrical field produced by them. This
permits the computer to calcolate the coordinates
of the contact. The biggest drawback with the
resistivescreen isthat it isfar lessaccurate than other
technologies, and most don't support multi-touch.
Capacitive touchscreens use glass displays insulated
with a conductive layer. When you touch the screen,
some of the charge is transferred to your finger, and
the capacitive layer's charge decreases. Circuits at
each corner of the screen constantly measure the
change reaching them. From those measurements,
the computer calculates where the touch occurred.
Capacitive screens are more accurate than the
resistive ones but have their disadvantages, too: they

register only touches from objects that have their
own electromagnetic fields. These can be your finger
or a stylusthat picks up an electrical charge from your
hand, so they won't work with gloves.
In optical touchscreens, two optical sensors are
placed in opposite corners at the top of the display,
where they register your touches, swipes, and
gestures. Opposite the sensors are infrared backlights
positioned in a way to allow sensors to detect the
infrared lights. A touch on
the screen is detected as a
shadow by the sensors. .By
coordinating the position of
the shadow detected by each
sensor, a signal processor built
inside the screen determines
where the touch took piace.
The optical touch technology
has a number of advantages
over the other systems. As
the monitor is made from
the same glass found in nontouch screens, it is not only
more robust than treated
capacitive models but also cheaper to manufacture.
It has also the advantage that no light-absorbing
layers are embedded in the screen, which makes the
display's image brighter and incredibly accurate. Like
capacitive screens, optical touch displaysare designed
for multi-touch use, making them perfect for ali the
taps, f1icksand swipes" which are the most natural
way to interact directly with our computer. Finally,
they cost less to manufacture and produce brilliant
results, making them increasingly popular.
layer: a quantity or thickness that lies over a surface
spacer: a piece of material used to create or maintain a space
between two things (distanziatore)
3 tap, flick and swipe: movements of fingers on the touchscreen
(tocco, panoramica, velocissimo tocco in movimento)
1
Read the text quickly and find the English equivalent for the following words and phrases:
campo elettrico
sensore
campi elettromagnetici
luci a raggi infrarossi
carica elettrica
strati che assorbono la luce
Read the text again, then answer the following questions.
What are the three main types of today's touchscreen technology?
Which type of touchscreen comprises two separate layers with a small gap between them?
What happens when you press down on the top layer of that screen?
Why can't you wear gloves when you use a capacitive screen?
e
-f
What are the main advantages of optical touch technology?

Which system(s) support(s) multi-touch?
21

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c

called BASIC. Their newly

Some scientists have even gone so far as to suggest computers

far-fetched: very difficult to believe

monitor / display / screen schermo

operating system sistema operativo

fiip: turn quickly

programming language linguaggio di programmazione

folded and carri ed anywhere, anytime.

n the early 1970s personal computers were used only by

laptop, and Tablet - The Evoluflon of Compu1ers

floppy disc dischetto

system sistema di navigazione satellitare

PC tablets and the touchscreen revolution

hough it might seem like we've been using

resistive ones but have their disadvantages, too: they

luci a raggi infrarossi

strati che assorbono la luce

Read the text again, then answer the following questions.

What are the three main types of today's touchscreen technology?

What are the main advantages of optical touch technology?

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