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‘I never expected them to take off’ says inventor of the touchscreen display

With a touchscreen panel on the majority of modern gadgets, the creator of the first LCD touchscreen display has revealed he “never expected them to take off.”

Claiming that the recent rise of touchscreen toting smartphones and tablets has come as a surprise, James Tagg, who invented the first LCD touchscreen display and who still owns a selection of touchscreen based patents, has revealed that he didn’t expect the engaging input option “to go mainstream.”

“I never expected touchscreen displays to take off to the extent that they have,” Tagg said speaking exclusively with TrustedReviews.

Discussing where he believed the new displays would take the technology industry when he created them, he added: “I thought that they would be on computers everywhere, but I didn’t appreciate that they would appear on all the tablet devices and that they would go mainstream.

“I wasn’t prescient enough to predict the iPhone and I could never envision something like a smartphone or the fact that it would become the sole device for so many.

Although surprised by the extent to which LCD touchscreens have become an integral aspect of many current devices, from smartphones and tablets, to laptops, PC and, more recently, wearable technologies such as the I’m Watch, Tagg has suggested the jump from dated touch display to current LCD touchscreens has allowed the technology industry to create a wide range of “beautiful” gadgets.

“Ten years ago when we were going LCD touchscreens, all the pads and palm pilots had touch displays on them so you could see that was a pretty dominant thing from a long, long time ago,” He said.

“That they’ve become such a beautiful device to work with, I didn’t realise just how nice they could be.”

Despite the current dominance of LCD touchscreen displays as the lead in a large portion of device, Tagg has hinted that the technology’s days could be numbered, with even more immersive options, such as Google Glass style augmented experiences and heads-up virtual displays set to become the new norm over the coming years.

“The future of the touchscreen phone is that they are going to go away and the reason is that the vast majority of light that they give off is wasted.”

Is the LCD touchscreen the great gadget enabling advancement of the modern era? Share your thoughts on the matter with us via the TrustedReviews Twitter and Facebook feeds or through the comment boxes below.

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