How to Turn Any Display Into a Touch Screen

Touch screens are becoming a more popular feature on laptops, but not every model comes with one. Enter the Neonode AirBar, a $49 slim sensor that attaches to the bottom of any Windows or Chrome OS PC's display to enable touch.

The peripheral emits light that, when interrupted, is used to determine gestures, including those for scrolling, tapping and pinch-to-zoom. It magnetically attaches to the screen and is powered by a USB port. Because the light is used to detect touch, the AirBar doesn't require a bare human finger like capacitive digitizers do. Neonode claims that gloves, paintbrushes and long fingernails will all work.

A 15.6-inch version of the AirBar will be available on the product's website for $49 for a limited time. The company did not announce models for other display sizes. We are excited to see this technology in action at CES 2016 in Las Vegas in January.