ExclusiveHow Does a Touchscreen Work?

How does the screen know where I touch? Magic? Not magic. Electricity! Under the glass is a net of tiny wires with a weak electric field. Your body conducts electricity. Your finger changes the field right where it touches. I bet tiny hamsters live under the glass and make the electricity. No hamsters, Ollie. Just electricity. Poor hamsters. Try using a pencil and see what happens No Let me try Wood and feathers don't conduct electricity Try using a sausage A sausage works, but I don't Leo, Ollie, sausages have water and salt, just like fingers Oh, now I get it I can touch screens too Ollie, those are my snacks Miss Ellie, this glove isn't responding at all Leo, gloves block the field. Special gloves have conductive thread. The phone finds which row and column changed. Where they cross is your touch. Like Battleship. It checks hundreds of times a second and tracks many fingers. I look majestic. It wasn't me. It was the rain. Water conducts too. The screen thinks drops are fingers. So my finger completes the circuit. Exactly. All right, let's recap. A touchscreen has an electric field. Fingers change it, and the phone finds the spot. Pencil don't. Sausages do. See you next time. Keep exploring, everyone. Bring sausage.