touchpad

(hardware)(Or "trackpad") A stationary pointing device usedmainly on laptop computers. Touchpads provide a small, flatsurface that you slide your finger over using the samemovements as you would a mouse. They were originallydeveloped to provide a more natural and intuitive connectionfor the computer user than the mouse.

Touchpads use a principle called coupling capacitance, andrequires a conductive pointer such as a finger. Theycontain a two-layer grid of electrodes which are connectedto an integrated circuit (IC) mounted under the pad. Theupper layer contains vertical electrode strips while the lowerlayer is composed of horizontal electrode strips. Capacitancefrom each of the horizontal electrodes to each of the verticalelectrodes is measured by the IC. A finger near theintersection of two electrodes modifies the capacitancebetween them, since a finger has very different dielectricproperties than air. The position of the finger is preciselydetermined based on these changes at various locations.

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Synaptics.

touchpad

(1) See HP TouchPad.

(2) The built-in pointing device on all laptop and netbook computers. Also called a "trackpad," the touchpad provides a small, flat surface to slide one's finger over. Residing below most touchpads, two physical buttons emulate the left and right mouse buttons; however, the touchpad surface can often be tapped as a substitute for pressing the left button. In addition, either the entire touchpad area or only one side of the surface may be used to emulate the mouse's scroll wheel.

Multitouch Touchpads
Popularized by Apple's Magic Trackpad, newer multitouch devices accept gestures from two or more fingers to activate common functions such as scrolling, next page, previous page and zoom. See mouse, trackball, pointing stick and Magic Trackpad.

Touchpads

The touchpad became standard on laptops, but external units for desktop computers are also available (see Magic Trackpad).

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