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Input Devices: Sometimes Clever, Sometimes Strange

High-resolution trackball

Trackballs are useful for people with limited hand control, and for applications that require high speed and accuracy in placing the cursor.

Input Cabinet of Curiosities

Designers have been playfully creative in finding ways for humans to talk to machines. They've given us keyboards, mice, trackballs, joysticks, tablets, switches, gloves, light pens, microphones, cameras, and more. Each is best for a particular application.

It is still an active area for innovation, so watch for even more creative ideas in the future. Brain wave analysis, maybe?

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The RAND Tablet

This was among the earliest devices for capturing handwriting and drawings. A grid of wires under the surface transmitted coordinates to the stylus above.

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MyTobii P10 non-target eye tracking system

The MyTobii P10, made for people with physical disabilities, is a computer that receives input by tracking the user’s eye movements.

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KoalaPad Touch Tablet

The Touch Tablet was designed for the Apple II. Koala also marketed consumer-oriented graphics software.

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LPS II light pen

Some personal computer users want all the gadgets that are offered for professional systems. Light pens were available for personal computers such as the Apple II.

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“Crystal Ball” graphical-display controller

The “Crystal Ball,” or “3-dimensional, rate-control joy stick,” controlled the rotation of solid objects rendered by MIT’s early graphics system.

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Industrial-duty trackball

This rugged trackball is typical of units designed for severe industrial and military applications, such as controlling tanks.

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Joystick for gaming applications

TG Products, founded in 1980, claimed to have 70 percent of the joystick market for Apple computers by 1983.

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Joystick for gaming applications

Atari produced this joystick for use with its own computers.

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Joystick for gaming applications

WICO had decades of experience making heavy-duty arcade game controllers when it entered the computer game business in 1982.

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CueCat barcode scanner

CueCat was a personal barcode scanner that linked product UPC, EAN, ISBN and proprietary bar codes to related web sites. Radio Shack briefly published parts catalogs with CueCat bar codes for every item.

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TRACKMAN trackball

This early personal computer-era trackball was designed for thumb scrolling and using fingers to operate the buttons.

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Industrial joystick

Industrial and military joysticks have to be rugged, and simple to manufacture and service.

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Altair 8800

The basic Altair 8800 had only toggle switches and binary lights for input/output. Yet it was the first microcomputer to sell in large numbers: more than 5,000 in the first year. Most customers were hobbyists, who tolerated a primitive interface.

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The RAND Stylus

This was among the earliest devices for capturing handwriting and drawings. A grid of wires under the surface transmitted coordinates to the stylus above.

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Data tablet

David Evans and Ivan Sutherland formed the first commercial computer graphics company in 1968. This digitizing tablet for their Picture System interactive drawing machine used a stylus to enter graphical data.

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Cyberpad Digital Notepad & Graphic Tablet

This pad records text and drawings handwritten on paper placed over the graphic-input surface. It includes software that converts written text into word processing text.

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Focusing light pen

Early light pens were not accurate enough for graphics. John Ward designed a pen with a focusing lens for the ESL Display Console (“The Kludge”). It was used for some of the earliest computer graphics research.

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Speech synthesizer module

This speech synthesizer module from Texas Instruments was developed for the TI-99/4 and TI-99/4A home computers.

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Joystick for graphics applications (prototype)

This prototype was used in a system for digitizing particle-track images created by high-energy physics experiments.

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Un-Roller controllers

With this device, users rest their hands on the soft dome and rock it in one of eight directions. It may have been inspired by the MIT “Crystal Ball” controller.

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Trackball for gaming applications

This early mass-market trackball was aimed at game players.

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Scanman II rolling scanner

This portable scanner produced an image of any surface over which it was rolled. Documents wider than the device had to be scanned in consecutive bands.

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Spaceball controller

The Spaceball controller allows you to move and rotate a simulated object as if you were holding it in your hand.

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Joystick for graphics applications

This joystick controlled the cursor on Tektronix’s groundbreaking graphics terminals.

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Virtual reality gloves

These prototype gloves contain sensors that allow the computer to read hand and finger positions.

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