Learn More About Alternative Mouse Technology

Although the mouse is by far the most popular pointing device, some people prefer alternative devices, such as trackballs, pointing sticks, or touch pads. In fact, technology that allows a computer to respond to your actual thoughts or certain actions such as arm movement or eye blinking are in early stages and show great promise. These alternatives are especially attractive when desktop space is limited or nonexistent. Additional input devices such as joysticks, touch screens, styluses and light pens are also available for special purposes such as playing games, managing a PDA or even using ATMs.

A trackball is basically a mouse flipped on its back. Instead of moving the mouse around the mouse pad you simply moved the ball in the mouse stays in place. Trackballs usually come with one or two buttons that function in the exact same manner as the buttons found on a traditional mouse.

A pointing stick is a small and stubby nub that protrudes from the computer's keyboard. Pointing sticks are pressure sensitive; you use pointing sticks to navigate around your computer screen's display by pushing it in the desired direction with your finger. Separate buttons on pointing sticks initiate clicking and dragging motions in conjunction with the pressure motion that you apply.

Most people are already familiar with touchpad or trackpad technology. This is a flat surface found on nearly every laptop and notebook computer on the market. It has a surface which responds to pressure which you apply with a finger and it allows you to navigate around your computer monitor's display just like a mouse.

A touch screen is a pressure sensitive panel that detects where a user has tapped the display screen with a fingertip. This sort of technology is most commonly found on ATMs, at kiosks and where you wipe your credit or debit card in line at stores. The only real disadvantage to touch screen technology as an alternative to a mouse is that human fingers are far larger than a traditional pointer; this means that a touch screen must display fewer options and make them a larger size to accommodate a fingertip.

While these are the most common alternative forms of technology to circumvent the use of a standard mouse and mouse pad there are more and more new technologies being developed and coming into the mainstream on an almost regular basis. The most notable new advance an alternative mouse technology is the ability to control computer functions through the pointing of the eye with a neural monitor. Although this technology is not yet widely or publicly available it could revolutionize the computer experience.