Monitoring the status of a touchscreen

A system for monitoring the status of a touchscreen comprising:

• a housing for the touchscreen;
• a touchscreen controller in electronic communication with the touchscreen and comprising one or more electronic storage devices:
• a network communication device configured to facilitate electronic communication between the touchscreen controller and one or more remote electronic devices;
• and
• executable software instructions located at the one or more electronic storage devices, which when executed configure one or more processors to:
• determine that surface level damage has occurred where signals interruptions consistent with persistent touch input are received for more than a predetermined amount of time for a location;
• determine that physical damage has occurred where signal interruptions in the form of weakened, missing, or erroneous signals are experience for the location more than the predetermined amount of time;
• determine that a failure event has occurred where signal interruptions in the form of weakened, missing, or erroneous signals are experience for the entire touchscreen for more than the predetermined amount of time;
• and
• transmit data, by way of the network communication device to the one or more electronic devices, sufficient to generate, at the one or more electronic devices, a visual representation comprising one or more graphical representations of a type of damage and a location of damage.

A method for monitoring the status of touchscreens at display assemblies and automatically initiating repair efforts, said method comprising the steps of:

• providing a number of display assemblies in electronic communication with a network operations center, wherein each of said display assemblies comprise:
• a touchscreen;
• a housing for the touchscreen;
• an ambient air pathway through said housing;
• a network communication device configured to facilitate electronic communication to said network operations center;
• and
• a touchscreen controller in electronic communication with said touchscreen;
• energizing an entire array for each touchscreen during operation of the touchscreen;
• monitoring each touchscreen for an initial period to establish steady-state behavior;
• determining that damage has occurred to a particular one of the touchscreens based on the receipt of signal input that varies from the established steady-state behavior for said particular one of the touchscreens, wherein a type of damage is determined to be:
• surface level damage where the received signal input indicates persistent touch input for a single area for more than a predetermined amount of time;
• physical damage where the received signal input indicates complete signal interruptions for the single area for more than the predetermined amount of time;
• and
• a failure event where the received signal input indicates complete signal interruptions for the entire touchscreen for more than the predetermined amount of time;
• generating, at the network operations center, a visual representation indicating the type and location of the damage;
• and
• transmitting a request for repair comprising identifying information for the particular one of the display assemblies associated with the particular one of the touchscreens, the type of damage, the location of the damage, and repair instructions.