 Low resolution close up of a touchpad with a locking button. Horizontal and vertical scroll bars are clearly visible near the bottom and right sides of the touchpad. A touchpad is an input device commonly used in laptop computers. They are used to move the cursor, using motions of the user’s finger. They are a substitute for a computer mouse. Touchpads vary in size but are rarely made larger than 20 square centimeters (about 3 square inches). They can also be found in PDAs. Touchpads were originally known as trackpads. Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ...
Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ...
This article is about a computer input device. ...
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Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 800 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (2272 × 1704 pixel, file size: 1. ...
A blinking text cursor. ...
Operating a mechanical 1: Pulling the mouse turns the ball. ...
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Mid-19th century tool for converting between different standards of the inch An inch is an Imperial unit of length. ...
Touchpads operate by sensing the capacitance of a finger, or the capacitance between sensors. Capacitive sensors are laid out along the horizontal and vertical axes of the touchpad. The location of the finger is determined from the pattern of capacitance from these sensors. This is why they will not sense the tip of a pencil or other similar implement. Gloved fingers may be problematic (such as in a cleanroom environment) but can sometimes work. Moist, sweaty, or calloused fingers can be problematic for those touchpads that rely on measuring the capacitance between the sensors. Capacitance is a measure of the amount of electric charge stored (or separated) for a given electric potential. ...
Touchpads are relative motion devices. That is, there is no isomorphism from the screen to the touchpad. Instead, relative motion of the user’s fingers causes relative motion of the cursor. The buttons below or above the pad serve as standard mouse buttons. Depending on the model of touchpad and drivers behind it, you may also click by tapping your finger on the touchpad, and drag with a tap following by a continuous pointing motion (a ‘click-and-a-half’). Touchpad drivers can also allow the use of multiple fingers to facilitate the other mouse buttons (commonly two-finger tapping for the center button). In mathematics, an isomorphism (in Greek isos = equal and morphe = shape) is a kind of mapping between objects, devised by Eilhard Mitscherlich, which shows a relation between two properties or operations. ...
A contemporary computer mouse, with the most common standard features: two buttons and a scroll wheel. ...
Some touchpads also have “hotspots”: locations on the touchpad that indicate user intentions other than pointing. For example, on certain touchpads, moving your finger along the right edge of the touch pad will control the scrollbar and scroll the window that has the focus vertically. Moving the finger on the bottom of the touchpad often scrolls in horizontal direction. A scrollbar, or slider, is a graphical widget in a GUI with which continuous text, pictures or anything else can be scrolled including time in video applications, i. ...
An example of a graphical user interface in Windows XP, with the My Music window displayed In computing, a window is a visual area, usually rectangular in shape, containing some kind of user interface, displaying the output of and allowing input for one of a number of simultaneously running computer...
In computing, the focus is the component of the graphical user interface which is currently selected. ...
Some touchpads can emulate multiple mouse buttons by either tapping in a special corner of the pad, or by tapping with two or more fingers.
Touchpads in devices
Early Apollo desktop computers were equipped with a touchpad on the right side of the keyboard.[1] This article does not cite its references or sources. ...
Touchpads are primarily used in portable laptop computers, because the usual mouse device requires a flat table adjacent to the keyboard not always available away from the office. But touchpads have some advantages over the mouse, particularly that the pad's position is fixed relative to the keyboard, and very short finger movements are required to move the cursor across the display screen. Some computer users prefer them for such reasons, and desktop keyboards with built-in touchpads are available from specialist manufacturers. For the band, see Laptop (band). ...
Touchpads have also recently appeared in Apple’s iPod, where they are referred to as “click wheels”. The main control interface for menu navigation in all of the currently produced iPods (except the Shuffle) is a touchpad (at first by Synaptics; Apple now manufactures that component itself). Creative Labs also uses a touchpad for their Zen line of MP3 players, beginning with the Zen Touch and most recently featured in the Zen Vision:M. Apple Inc. ...
iPod is a brand of portable media player designed and marketed by Apple and launched in October 2001. ...
iPod is a brand of portable media player designed and marketed by Apple and launched in October 2001. ...
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Creative Technology Ltd. ...
The ZEN is an award-winning line of digital audio players and portable media players made by Creative Technology. ...
A digital audio player (DAP) is a device that stores, organizes and plays digital music files. ...
The “trackpad” is Apple’s name for the touchpad. It was introduced in 1994 in the PowerBook 500 series, the first laptop ever to carry such a device, and replaced the trackball of previous PowerBook models. Late generation PowerBooks and iBooks have two-finger sensing capabilities, as do the current MacBook and MacBook Pro model lines. These capabilities include the ability to right-click by tapping two fingers and the ability to scroll both vertically and horizontally at the same time by dragging two fingers (which is very useful when looking at a large photo, webpage, etc). In Mac OS X Tiger, the settings of the trackpad can be changed. Horizontal and vertical scrolling are available as an option. Apple Inc. ...
Year 1994 (MCMXCIV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display full 1994 Gregorian calendar). ...
The PowerBook 500 (codenamed Blackbird) series was a range of Apple Macintosh PowerBook portable computers first introduced by Apple Computer with the 520 model on 16th May, 1994. ...
Logitech TrackMan A trackball is a pointing device consisting of a ball housed in a socket containing sensors to detect rotation of the ball about two axes—like an upside-down mouse with an exposed protruding ball. ...
The PowerBook was a line of Macintosh laptop computers that was designed, manufactured and sold by Apple Computer, Inc. ...
The PowerBook was a line of Macintosh laptop computers that was designed, manufactured and sold by Apple Computer, Inc. ...
The original Blueberry iBook Clamshell The iBook is a now discontinued line of laptop computers that was developed and sold by Apple Inc. ...
The MacBook is a line of Macintosh notebook computers by Apple, which replaced the iBook G4 series as well as the 12 PowerBook G4. ...
The MacBook Pro is a line of Macintosh notebook computers by Apple for the professional market. ...
Mac OS X version 10. ...
In 1989 Psion introduced their first full size series (Psion MC 200/400/600/WORD Series[2]) with a new mouse-replacing touchpad[3]. Although the Psion’s was a tap-to-point design that did not catch on, the Apple stroke-to-point design did, so the Psion’s system was not really a touchpad as we think of them today. Psion PLC is a consumer hardware company mostly known for developing the Psion Organiser as well as a whole range of more advanced, clamshell-design Personal Digital Assistants. ...
Theory of operation There are two principal means by which touchpads work. In the ‘matrix approach’, a series of conductors are arranged in an array of parallel lines in two layers, separated by an insulator. The conductors in these layers are oriented orthogonally to one another. A high frequency signal is applied sequentially between pairs in the two dimensional matrix created by the conductor array. The current that passes between the nodes is proportional to the capacitance. When a virtual ground, such as the finger, is placed over one of the intersections between the conductive layer some of the electrical field lines are shunted to this ground point, resulting in a change in the apparent capacitance at that location. This method received U.S. Patent 5,305,017 awarded to George Gerpheide in April 1994.
The ‘capacitive shunt method’, described well in an application note by Analog Devices[4], senses the change in capacitance between a transmitter and receiver that are on opposite sides of the sensor. The transmitter creates an electric field which oscillates at 200-300 kHz. If a ground point, such as the finger, is placed between the transmitter and receiver, some of the field lines are shunted away, decreasing the apparent capacitance. Analog Devices (NYSE: ADI) is an American multinational producer of semiconductor devices. ...
References and notes - ^ (1983) Getting Started With Your DOMAIN System. Apollo Computer.
- ^ GUIdebook Psion MC Series brochure.
- ^ GUIdebook Psion MC Series brochure, page 4.
- ^ Analog Devices’ Capacitive Shunt Method.
Major manufacturers To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...
Alps Electric Co. ...
Cirque Corporation is a United States based company which developed and commercialized the first successful touchpad, now widely used in notebook computers. ...
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