Pointing device
A
pointing device is any
computer hardware component (specifically
human interface device) that allows a user to input spatial (ie, continuous and multi-dimensional) data to a
computer.
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 the screen by movements of the mouse pointer (or
cursor) and other visual changes.
While the most common pointing device by far is the
mouse, other kinds include
trackball,
touchpad,
pointing stick,
lightpen, joystick, head pointer, eye tracking devices, various kinds of
digitizing tablets which use a
stylus, and even a special "
data glove" that translates the user's movements to computer gestures.
See also
list of input devices.
Pointing device can also refer to a special "stick" (sometimes telescopic, to reduce the length when not in use), or a lamp with a narrow light beam that is pointed at a map, blackboard, slide screen, movie screen, etc.; sometimes the light is in the form of an arrow.
PhaseSpace produces a 3D pointing device consisting of multiple linear detectors triangulating the position of a light source. This provides a spatial resolution of 3,600 x 3,600 at 480 frames per second. By modulating the Light Source, multiple sources can be identified and tracked simultaneously. This can be used for Virtual Reality, Augmented reality, Training and other applications where a three dimensional input device is needed, or the interface is designed to be by pointing and gesturing rather than operating on a button or joystick.
*
Performance Capture and Optical Motion Capture - Active Marker LED based real time motion tracking hardware and software for VR, AR, Telerobotics, medical and entertainment applications.
