Encyclopedia > Pointing device

  Article Content

Pointing device

A pointing device is any hardware component that allows a user to input spatial data to a computer as part of a WIMP interface. CAD systems[?] and Graphical User Interfaces (GUI) allow the user to control and provide data to the computer using physical "gestures" - point, click, and drag - typically by moving a hand-held mouse across the surface of the physical desktop and activating switches on the mouse. Movements of the pointing device are echoed on a graphical representation of a desktop on the screen by movements of the mouse pointer and other visual changes.

While the most common pointing device by far is a mouse, other kinds include trackball, trackpad[?], lightpen[?], various kinds of digitising tablets[?] which use a stylus, and even a special "data glove" that translates the user's movements to computer gestures.


This article (or an earlier version of it) contains material from FOLDOC, used with permission.



All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License

 
  Search Encyclopedia

Search over one million articles, find something about almost anything!
 
 
  
  Featured Article
Jordanes

... Italy. At the time of Justinian, he was a Christian and possibly bishop of Croton. In approximately 580, he wrote "De origine actibusque Getarum[?]" (The origin and deeds ...

 
 
 
This page was created in 38.8 ms