Trackpad

Gone are the days when one could pride oneself on embarking on a voyage, equipped with his geeky seeming slim and flat panel, to unveil the mysteries cloaked in the uncharted back-waters of the GUIs and CUIs! Peripherals have ever since bred in the warmth of ingenious imagination and relentless development. Touchpads these days are no less common than the standard desktop mice are. The traditional belief that touchpads are only found in a laptop must be dispelled in the light of new technology. Mp3 players, smartphones and desktop alike make use of touchpads as their prominent input device.

Working principle of device:

A touchpad is a replacement for external mice. It is primarily used to move the cursor around the screen and select various options. The touchpad detects the finger movements and the applied pressure. This physical gestures are converted to digital signals that are interpreted by the computer software.  

The touchpad consists of various layers. The topmost layer is the one which we can touch. The layers underneath that layer are separated by thin insulation and contain a tabular grid of electrodes. The electrodes are charged with AC power. These layers rest on a circuit board. As we touch the pad the current flow stops. The place where the current first stopped is registered. Also the location where the current starts to flow again is noted. This allows for the exact tracking of the cursor on the screen by the corresponding motion of the finger that was registered.

Taps on a touchpad are equivalent to clicks on a traditional mouse.  

Device installation and standard configuration: Touchpads are usually detected by the operating system but in case if that does not happen one needs to resort to the driver provided by its manufacturer. The installation is pretty straightforward once we have the driver handy. Certain touchpads are completely flat panels while others have two buttons in the bottom of the pad. These buttons are for right and left mouse clicks. In flat panel touchpad you simply tap the pad once or twice to simulate clicks (single/double click can be configured via control panel in windows)

Manufacturer of device and its models (there aren’t any manufacturers as such. Most of the laptop touchpads are made by a company named Synaptic):

1.     Apple - Apple Magic Trackpad 2 MJ2R2ZM/A Wireless Touchpad (Rs.10,640)

2.     Logitech - Logitech Rechargeable Touchpad T650 (Rs. 10,400)

 

Cost: Touchpads are usually very costly compared to traditional mice. However, certain trackpads are included in keyboards nowadays. These keyboards can cost anywhere from Rs. 2,000 to 3,000. But if high ends devices are needed the price too will escalate accordingly.

Market share of different models (Standard companies only):

l  Apple

l  Logitech