A type of electronic display that senses physical touch by a person s hands or fingers, or by a device such as a stylus, and then performs actions based on the location of the touch as well as the number of touches. A touchscreen display is useful for interacting directly with a computer or electronic device, partially or even completely eliminating the need for intermediate input devices such as computer mice, trackpads or keyboards.
Touchscreen, or touch screen, support by mobile operating systems like Apple s iOS have made touchscreens pervasive on smartphones and tablet devices, and they re also becoming more popular on laptops and even desktop computers. Microsoft Windows 7 employs Windows Touch, and Windows 8 is expected to be designed from the ground up with touchscreens in mind. Apple s Mac OS X has offered touchscreen support for quite some time, and the new Mac OS X Lion release provides enhanced support for multi-touch gestures and animations.
