Bugs and Your Touch Screen

Posted by | 05/15/2009 | 14 Comments

Scanning Friendfeed this morning I ran across this from Layne Heiny.

[Touch Screen Problem]: A huge issue is trying to work late at night or early morning. I keep the lights off so others can sleep. Unfortunately, this means the light from the computer attracts bugs. The bugs land and change the page I am on – or open applications – or make annoying changes.

Not having a touch screen device at the moment I obviously haven’t seen this. Has anyone else? If so, chime in and let us know your insect experiences.

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Category: Hardware

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Warner Crocker is a professional theatre director, producer and playwright and also a Tablet PC enthusiast. He is also a Microsoft MVP for Tablet PCs. Send email to Warner.
  • http://www.gottabemobile.com Rob Bushway

    never experienced that before…

  • LPH

    It’s the HP TouchSmart … and I fight it all the time.

  • sbtablet

    Ahhhh, The Touchsmart. That makes more sense. I think if you are actually holding the computer, the bugs would be more wary of getting that close to swatting territory. Weird problem. Never had bugs bug me when using my computer on the deck at night.

  • John in Norway

    But do the bugs have vectoring issues as well?

  • http://sumocat.blogspot.com Sumocat

    That’s the TouchSmart desktop, right? (The tx2 is also part of the Touchsmart line.) If so, I know why you’re having that problem. I was puzzled by how a bug could trigger either a resistive or capacitive touchscreen. But it makes perfect sense on a TouchSmart desktop because it uses IR sensors for “touch” input. IR detects proximity, not physical contact, so technically it’s not touch input (can function without a surface), but a practical facsimile. Because the TouchSmart is calibrated to react to the point of a stylus, even the feather-light touch of an insect (or feather) could break the infrared beams and trigger a command, as long as it’s bigger than a pen point.

    Mystery solved, and no need for us non-TouchSmart owners to worry about this. Not sure about Microsoft Surface though, but since it also uses optical input, I’d assume a large enough bug would be recognized. Might need “insect recognition” or something.

  • http://www.gottabemobile.com Rob Bushway

    sounds like a bug to me…;-)

  • SAM

    Add a 120v charge to the screen and your computer will double as a bg zapper—

    They didn’t state how large the bugs were. We have pine beetles that are almost 3.5″ long and they are heavy for
    no larger than they are…

  • http://www.segal.org/tablet/ Mickey Segal

    Can you use a dead bug as a pen?

  • Sara Fauzia

    This definitely happens. It used to happen more with my Sony Vaio than my ThinkPad, but the Vaio wasn’t even touchscreen-enabled (rather, an old model from 2006), so it was just the computer light attracting the insects. I suppose it happens more often when you live nearby a lot of trees and wildlife, like I do.

  • DaveTN

    LOL… I posted on touchsmartcommunity.com about how my touchsmart is “bugging me”. On a couple occasions, flying bugs as small as a gnat have landed on my screen and opened my browser and several web pages.
    Apparently the touchsmarts touch input is quite sensitive.

    David

  • DaveTN

    BTW, Mickey, nope, the bugs dont work as pens…unless you train them. Hmmm, sounds like a neat experiment to test bug intelligence. Something like finding its way through a maze or solving a puzzle.

    As far as getting squished bugs off the screen, HP provides a nice microfiber cloth except you have to shut it down to use it.

    And yes, I’m talking about the Touchsmart all in one, not the laptop.

    David

  • Patti

    Having the same problem on my Dell Inspiron One Touchscreen. I finally stopped using it last evening when the little flying guys were making blips all over the screen and changing my pages. I left it on overnight and when I got up this morning there were 10 new screens opened, my toolbar was moved to the left side of the screen, my sounds were changed, and my wallpaper was changed! It sure puts a new slant on the computer term “bug”!

    • Jim Brown

      Hello Patti,
                   I have a Dell Inspiron One 2310 and the tiny insects that are even small enough to get through the insect screen on my window at night are driving me crazy by opening new windows and triggering commands on my touch screen. I’ve spoken to Dell technicians about this and there are apparently no settings to adjust the touch sensitivity of the screen which is an absolute bummer.
      (Come on Dell let’s have a solution to this dilemma) Actually the screen is so sensitive that you dont even have to touch it, you just have to put the tip of your finger near the surface of the screen!
      Sorry but we dont need the smart arse comments such as “training the bugs”, this is a serious issue to the affected.
      Regards
      Jim in Oz

  • Anonymous

    I’m happy to have found these posts.  I have a new Sony all-in-one and was beginning to develop some serious paranoia.  Finding my screen rearranged in the morning – mail opened, calendar  ready for new entries, screen settings changed and so forth.  Thoughts of HAL were beginning to take shape.  Virus scans were unproductive; the kids have been out on their own for 10 years.  The cat can’t type worth a damn.

    Insomnia ensues so hitting the computer a few minutes ago, I notice screen activity – Outlook is opening calendar items, my AVG virus program is looking to download something and my Chrome screens have gone east a few hundred pixels.

    Diagnosis was immediate –  Drosophila melanogaster.  The brute must have been wearing combat boots.  No virus, just a bug.  Good bug = dead bug; goodbye fruit fly.

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