New Scientist
Image: chadmiller
Your fingers take time to engage in full contact with a touchscreen. In some cases, even 30 seconds or more after placing a dry finger on the glass, your skin is still adjusting. This can lead to problems using fingerprints to access phones and getting screens to respond to your touch.
Michael Adams and Brygida Dzidek at the University of Birmingham, UK, and their team had two volunteers press a washed and dried index finger against a glass surface with increasing force. After 2 seconds, very little of the fingerprint was actually in direct contact with the glass. After a while, more of the fingerprint made contact. In most cases, the entire fingerprint was visible on the glass after about 30 seconds. Read more on newscientist.com…
