1. The touch screen panel which is completely separate from your monitor assembly, and
2. The touch screen driver software which allows the touch screen to work with your application software.

The touch screen is actually secured to the faceplate of the CRT so that when the monitor is reassembled and put back into its plastic casings, the touch screen will be invisible to anyone looking at the monitor.

The second essential part of a touch screen solution is the touch screen driver software. Trident's touch screen software processes all data coming from the touch screen when it is touched. Trident's drivers convert the touch data (x + y positional data) packets into mouse event packets and direct the converted packets to the mouse handler code which is a module contained within the host server software. The mouse handler in the host server passes mouse events to whatever software is being run on the host. As far as application software is concerned, all it is seeing is a mouse transaction coming from the host. It has no way of knowing whether it came from a mouse or from a touch screen. This means that any software that uses a mouse can immediately use touch screen input. Moreover, both mouse and touch are supported at the same time.

How our drivers work

The touch screen controller accepts the raw touch event generated by a touch on the touch screen surface and sends this data to the host serial port. Our touch driver software intercepts this data from the host serial port and converts this data to Mouse events and passes the converted mouse-like events to the mouse handler code. The mouse handler code on the host interacts with your application software. Mouse events are normally cursor movements, drags, button clicks, window movement, resizing, etc. Any application written for one button mouse interactions can utilize a touch screen without any code modification. Our UNIX drivers also support multiple mouse button events using the keyboard buttons and touch.

These are the most application-independent touch solutions available today. For specific UNIX host information on driver functionality, please [Forward to Supported Platforms and Technologies] [Home to Trident Touch Screen Home Page]