What is a good touchpanel solution for me?

Question

I need a transparent, basic touchpanel solution. The panel need not be more than six inches square, and must be close to square. It only needs to maintain input for 16 squares, aligned four by four. There will be five such sides, and they will be hooked up to (a) microcontroller(s). I need to know if I should use transparent panels or something else. I could even use the same type of switches from a keyboard, I would just need to get them special ordered for my purposes. They need to either be fully transparent or have thin wires running away from the center, so that it is relatively easy to see through them, with your view unobstructed (for the most part). They also need to be able to applied to a plexiglass surface, or mounted on a clear substrate. This is for a nice display case, so minimal to normal wear and tear is to be expected, and they need to respond to the touch of a finger. It needs to look presentable and clean, as I am being judged on the final product.

Answer 1

You could get touchscreens designed for LCD applications, but they won't be square and it will be challenging to resize them.  Probably resistive touch will be easier if you want to try.  If you can get an IR touchscreen (which are much more uncommon especially in small size) you may be able to hack it and resize it.  However, these require a bezel profile above the display surface.