ATM touchscreen wear failure

Used as a pedagogical example for project scoping ("don't take something as complex as a display; just take the coating"). Tom notes ITO is the only material he knows that's both electrically conductive and transparent, that wear is the failure mode at ATM touchscreens, and that vapor deposition is the processing route.

Questions people have? One student emailed me and he wanted to do his project on touchscreen displays. Wednesday is when you're supposed to tell me what your project is about — you don't have to write up a whole thing, you just scratch out in pencil on that little form I gave you what you want to do. I just want you to know that you thought about it. The whole touchscreen display is too complex; it would be a superficial presentation to talk about the lighting and the LEDs. If he wanted to talk about the coating on the touchscreen display, that would be fine. What's the coating, anybody know? It's indium tin oxide. And what's unique about indium tin oxide? It's transparent. It's a transparent conductor — it conducts electricity and it's transparent, and usually those two things don't go together.