Trackball
pointing device
A trackball is a pointing device consisting of a ball held by a socket containing sensors to detect a rotation of the ball about two axes—like an upside-down ball mouse with an exposed protruding ball. Users roll the ball to position the on-screen pointer, using their thumb, fingers, or the palm of the hand, while using the fingertips to press the buttons.
With most trackballs, operators have to lift their finger, thumb or hand and reposition it on the ball to continue rolling, whereas a mouse would have to be lifted itself and re-positioned. Some trackballs have notably low friction, as well as being made of a dense material such as phenolic resin, so they can be spun to make them coast. The trackball's buttons may be in similar positions to those of a mouse, or configured to suit the user.
Large trackballs are common on CAD workstations for easy precision. Before the advent of the touchpad, small trackballs were common on portable computers and smartphones (such as a BlackBerry) where there may be no desk space on which to run a mouse. Some small "thumballs" are designed to clip onto the side of the keyboard and have integral buttons with the same function as mouse buttons.
History
The trackball was invented as part of a post-World War II-era radar plotting system named Comprehensive Display System (CDS) by Ralph Benjamin when working for the British Royal Navy Scientific Service. Benjamin's project used analog computers to calculate the future position of target aircraft based on several initial input points provided by a user with a joystick.
The public source identifies “Trackball” as pointing device. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Trackball, pointing and device.
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This entry incorporates text from “Trackball” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.