Can Zombies Use Touch Screens? A Science Project Idea

Spooky Spencer · 09-07-2011, 02:19 PM

Found out today I am required to enter something into a science fair for school, but if I have to do it (it gets graded), I want to be interesting to me.

After putting updates on Gnet all day, something occurred to me: can dead things work a touch screen? Only fingers and those $20 styluses seem to work on them, and if not, couldn't you make the world zombie apocalypse-proof by using them for door locks?

I think I'm onto something here...!

Ami · 09-07-2011, 03:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Spooky Spencer

I want to be interesting to me.

I hope you find yourself interesting

Spooky Spencer · 09-07-2011, 03:58 PM

Crap. There seems to be an "it" missing there somewhere.

Ami · 09-07-2011, 04:00 PM

I am here to help

Ben Lahnger · 09-07-2011, 07:31 PM

I believe zombies can use touch screens, but I'm not sure about all touch screen technologies.

Wikipedia

For instance, a capacitive touchscreen panel relies on the human body being an electrical conductor; touching the surface of the screen results in a distortion of the screen's electrostatic field, measurable as a change in capacitance. Does zombie flesh still act as an electrical conductor? I would hazard a guess yes, except that I am not certain what method would be used to animate your zombies ... and don't have one to experiment on!

Finding that Wikipedia article was also fascinating for me, as I learned the technical term "Gorilla Arm" and what it means! LOL! (BTW, this informs me that vertical touch screens might be an area where zombies would excel over humans, as their already-dead arms probably wouldn't suffer from "Gorilla Arm" fatigue.)