is there a way to turn a laptop into touchscreen?

[mmace]

can you buy anything to put over the screen like you can for the Eee PC?

I have a 15.4" widescreen laptop, can you buy anything that goes over the screen and plugs into the USB or anythign like that?

never had a laptop before and I HATE the pad compared to a mouse. I only use it for web browsing and connecting to my main PC but would be good to add touchscreen to it if it's possible

[andyhello23]

here (http://www.ministryoftech.com/2007/03/24/turn-any-laptop-or-lcd-into-touchscreen/)
here (http://www.hometouchsystems.com/TouchScreen/15-inch-touch-screens.asp)
here (http://digg.com/gadgets/Turn_any_laptop_into_a_touchscreen)

theres 3 things

[Van Nugent]

Nope, you can't modify a regular laptop into a touchscreen laptop because not only the screen of a touchscreen laptop must be built to detect the touches on all the spots in the effective display area but also, the mobo and its BIOS must be made to accept the "touching" signals to communicate with the touching devices (pens, fingers, etc.). Touchscreen is not new. In fact, the screens of many of my (semiconductor) photolithography and thin-films equipment are touchscreens and they were made as early as 1983/85.

If you don't like the touchpad and the small keyboard on the laptop, you can use either wireless bluetooth or wireless USB keyboard/mouse. Most laptops have built-in bluetooth so bluetooth keyboards and mice are preferable but they're more expensive than USB ones.

Edit: You can check out the ones from Andy's links but I do not think they'll work as well.

[polarstar]

or you could buy a small mouse like i did but i'm getting used to the touch pad now.

[Van Nugent]

Yep, and don't need to worry about battery.

[andyhello23]

The second one in my list reckons they have a touch screen adapter. Have you guys looked at my links?

[mmace]

cheers andy, thought there'd be something like that