Back كرية تعقب Arabic Trekbol Azerbaijani Ratolí de bola Catalan Trackball Czech Trackball German Trackball Spanish Juhtkuul Estonian توپک Persian Trackball Finnish Trackball French
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.[1] 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.[2]
With most trackballs, operators have to lift their finger, thumb or hand and reposition in 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.[citation needed] Before the advent of the touchpad, small trackballs were common on portable computers (such as the BlackBerry Tour) 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.[2]
- ^ "The Next Generation 1996 Lexicon A to Z: Track Ball". Next Generation. No. 15. Imagine Media. March 1996. p. 42.
- ^ a b This article is based on material taken from tracker+ball at the Free On-line Dictionary of Computing prior to 1 November 2008 and incorporated under the "relicensing" terms of the GFDL, version 1.3 or later.