Research - App Game Platforms and Touch-Screen Technology

In order for an app game to be playable on a mobile device, it has to be compatible with the operating system that the device
runs on. My game is no different. If i was to make it into a commercial game, I'd need it first to be able to work on the smartphone, with its touch-screen orientated operating system.

In order for that to happen, research into the different kinds of smartphone Operating Systems (OS), and the way that touch-screen technology works is in order. This will help in deciding what platforms I might produce the game on, and give some useful facts if I ever need to answer how I'd release the game commercially.

I think you know by now the style that my research posts take. I find relevant sources, take any useful information and perhaps include some of my own notation as well. As usual the disclaimer as well. None of the information from the sources chosen is my own. Credit goes to the source's original posters. I'm only using it for research purposes.

Mobile Operating Systems (OS)

Sources:

Webopedia - What is a Mobile Operating System?

Wikipedia - Mobile Operating Systems

USwitch - Mobile Operating Systems

TechAdvisor - What’s the Best Mobile OS?

As usual let's first get into the picture of it with a definition. Definitions are always good, and a website called Webopedia had this description of what a Mobile OS is:

"An operating system that is specifically designed to run on mobile devices such as mobile phones, smartphones, PDAs, tablet computers and other handheld devices. The mobile operating system is the software platform on top of which other programs, called application programs, can run on mobile devices."

The website for USwitch also has an understandable article on what OS's are, as well as the main types of OS that exist out there. It also describes what exactly the Operating Systems do on and for your phone:

"We have operating systems to run our desktop computers and laptops, and smartphones use them too, to introduce advanced functions to a mobile phone that were only available on our computers before."

- I personally think a single desktop computer is more than enough, but I can understand how handy it is to have a perpetual computer in your pocket to look things up, when you can't get to your desktop computer.

"There were more than 400 million smartphones worldwide and it's their operating systems that define what functions they can carry out and how the phone manages its memory. It is also a platform so developers can create applications or 'apps'"

- Commonly companies will make different versions of the same application, that are compatible with each of the main different Operating Systems. That way they can maximise profit by not limiting it to any individual OS.

"Because operating systems are so integrated with the look, feel and function of a mobile phone, many people base their choice of device around which operating system it uses."

- If you look at different types of smartphone their interfaces are very different and have different styles depending on the smartphone.

So an OS is the interface that you get on mobile devices. All mobile devices have one on them that varies from phone to phone. So what different types of OS are out there, and what mobile devices do they correspond to? 

Both USwitch and Wikipedia list what are currently the main commercially successful OS systems, and there is also another site called techAdvisor that compares the different OSs to each other to determine the best one. The following notes are the key points about each system that I compiled from reading all three of them.

Android -

- Owned by Google inc., and the interface can link up to a google account that you may have.
- Samsung, Sony and HTC smartphones all use Android OS
- Open source, meaning it's both easy and cheap for developers to access and develop software for. Because of this however it does pose a danger to the user by allowing shady apps to be available, if the phone hasn't any security. If not its possible to receive viruses, and lose money on buying fake apps.
- As of currently, it's the most popular and fastest growing OS out there. 
- The interface is customisable, and user friendly.
- Its store, the Android market, has more than 600,000 different apps available to download, all of which are linked to the google account, which enables the apps to be automatically installed into any other Android smartphone you own
- Suffers considerably from app quality issues due to its leniency with allowing apps.

iOS -

- Owned by Apple inc. and distributed for all Apple's technology.
- This is the interface for the Ipod Touch, the IPhone and the IPad
- Takes pride in its vast amount of different apps available on its App Store; the largest variety of any OS.
- Utilizes touch screen technology to its fullest with its touch-screen based interface.
- Closed source, iron-fisted security wise, and curates every app it has available
- User friendly, and possesses excellent communication functions
- Is considered by some to be rather overstocked in terms of apps, making people feel overwhelmed.

Windows Phone -

- Owned by Microsoft, and as such can be found as the interface for their consoles as well as for smartphones.
- Nokia, Samsung and HTC have smartphones that use this interface
- Incorporates a tile based interface, very synthesised and each is designed to do a certain task.
- Can think on its feet to an extent; it can find entertainment, restaurants or businesses within your area, and also direct you to them.
- It's app store holds over 100,000 apps, but pales in comparison to the variety of other OSs. It itself is still lacking in apps.
- Made to be helpful to its user, which it does well.
- Well suited for someone who has a windows PC or an Xbox

Blackberry 10

- The OS used for all Blackberry smartphones.
- Known originally as a keyboard based phone, although Blackberry Z10 has rectified this and given the smartphone brand a touch screen.
- Closed source like iOS and proprietary
- Made for messaging, which it does superbly, and emphasises the seamless connectivity between all of its functions.
- Very good media management
- High profile apps on its app store, although in comparison to other OSs the quantity of apps is minuscule.
- No particularly outstanding features to put it ahead of its rivals

Touch-Screen Technology

In this day and age, almost every portable mobile device uses a touch-screen as its primary way to use the device. I've used them before, although I haven't a clue how they work.

Wikipedia - Touchscreen
HowStuffWorks - How do touch screen monitors know where you're touching?
ComputerWorld - How it works: The technology of touch screens

To clarify quickly, I'm trying to understand how the technology works by doing this research. Knowing the limits of the technology that the product will be put on is, from my awareness, the first thing to consider and take note of before creating the product. No matter how good a digital product is, it can't be used if the platform/device can't run it. Therefore its wise to understand the way your target technology works.

Let's start off really quickly and standardly with an outline of what a touchscreen is, and what it's commonly used on.

"An electronic visual display that the user can control through simple or multi-touch gestures by touching the screen with one or more fingers."

- Not to be confused with a touchpad. That's the sensor pad that that you find on laptops that turns your finger into the mouse for the screen. It's also what I'm using to write this post, although in my case it's a drawing tablet that I'm using instead of a mouse. That uses a pen rather than your finger.

"The touchscreen enables the user to interact directly with what is displayed, rather than using a mouse, touchpad, or any other intermediate device. Some touchscreens can also detect objects such as a stylus or ordinary or specially coated gloves."

- So touch-screens can use a pen as the control too, although the interface for a lot of smartphones doesn't allow this. Stylus' are largely popular on Nintendo's Wii U console and 3DS handheld, both of which use touch-screens as part of the interface. It's possible for them to also be played with your fingers as well.

"Touch-screens are common in devices such as game consoles, all-in-one computers, tablet computers, and smartphones. They also play a prominent role in the design of digital appliances."

- Like I said, knowing your target technology is key, and it's especially true in this day and age. How many different types of digital media now implement a touchscreen into their device. It's understandable  that being able to operate a system with your dextrous fingers rather than a comparably clunky mouse would be desirable. Technology's purpose is to make everyday tasks easier for us after all.

"The popularity of smartphones, tablets, and many types of information appliances is driving the demand and acceptance of common touch-screens for portable and functional electronics. Display manufacturers and chip manufacturers worldwide have acknowledged the trend toward acceptance of touch-screens as a highly desirable user interface component and have begun to integrate touchscreens into the fundamental design of their products."

Now then, let's get to the knitty-gritty. Touch-screens are the common interface component of smartphones, but how do they work? How does it know where it's being touched, and how does it know how to respond? I've got three different sources that I used to find the information for these questions: good old wikipedia, along with HowStuffWorks and ComputerWorld, both of which had articles on the mechanics of the touch-screen.  The following are the condensed facts I got from the articles. Not my own information, although it is for the most part written in my own words.

"Touch-screen monitors have become more and more commonplace as their price has steadily dropped over the past decade."

• Resistive
• Capacitive

This was the common theme for all of the sources. For Resistive touch and Capacitive sensing in particular, all three sources went into detail about them. As it seems, they are the main varieties of touchscreen technology on the market currently.

Resistive Touchscreen:

How it works:

- The older of the two main touchscreen systems.

- Used to be the most popular touchscreen technology, but is being outcompeted by the newer capacitive touchscreen.  

- The screen works using two electrically conductive layers, (a bottom glass layer, and another  top layer of plastic film) separated by a thin space, on top of the LCD screen. Pressing down on the screen whilst it's activated causes the layers to connect and pass a current to the device's computer. It then determines the X and Y coordinates of where the screen has been touched and translates the touch into something the system understands, such as opening a file through tapping it.

Benefits:

- Low cost to make.

- Requires very little pressure to respond, and as such can be controlled using virtually anything with a smooth tip.

- Resistive to liquids and contaminants, and commonly used in restaurants, hospitals and factories.

Problems:

- The system tends to drift, causing the screen to register coordinates that are askew from where you touch, leading to regular recalibration of the system.

- The material is rather brittle and is prone to crack, leading to inability to operate the device.

- With the increasing demand for thinner and sleeker devices, the extra layer and space required in-between serves as additional and unwanted width for the device.
- Thanks to the space in between the two conducting layers, which is basically air, this causes unwanted refractions of light in-between the layer, making the contrast of the screen very poor.
- The biggest problem however is with it's inability to sense more than one point of pressure on its screen, meaning that the system is single-touch only and not multi-touch.Whilst it's not impossible to do, it's expensive and complicated.

Capacitive Sensing:

How it works:
- The new, more modern and more efficient alternative of Resistive, and is quickly overtaking it as the dominant touchscreen technology.
- Relies on the science that the human body is a conductor of electricity.
- The mechanism involved is to have a layer underneath a glass film, that has electrical charge stored in a transparent conductor. When you touch the screen with your finger, some of the charge is transferred over to you, causing a decrease in the change in the conductor's electrical field. The device's computer then picks up on this change and determines where on the screen was touched, afterwards sending back an appropriate signal to generate a response from the device.

Benefits:
- It can detect multiple points of decrease in charge on the screen, enabling multi-touch usage.
- Transmits more light from the monitor than a resistive system does, enabling brighter and clearer images
- Ergonomically better, due there being more need for a second layer or space in between. As technology develops it also enables thinner insulators to be used, thinning the distance between the conductor and your finger, and allowing for better accuracy.

Problems:
- The dependence on electrical conduction means that the point being used must be a conductor. As such it can't be used with a stylus or pen, your fingernail, or whilst wearing insulating gloves.
- The processing power to do all of this is significantly high, which makes it expensive and also power consuming, hence the short battery life of smartphones, and the continuous need to charge them. 
- Exterior electrical interference can cause the system to become confused, and makes it have trouble determining the signals sent to it.

I'm glad this post is finally finished. It was fast becoming a real hassle for me to complete, but it's done finally. The other reason for this post being delayed is that I've also been working on creating some future posts on the practical side. They should both be coming up shortly, along with one more research post, and then we'll be into the knitty-gritty of the project. As usual thanks for reading, I hope it's been factual and relevant for you and stay updated.

Android Phone Image
iOS Interface Image
Windows Phone Image
Blackberry 10 OS Image
Resistive Touch Diagram