Chwang Yi has announced the availability of The Ball, the industry's first Bluetooth wireless trackball.

The Ball is the result of a two-year design effort, according to the company, and represents an entirely new approach to the concept of a 'trackball.' Promising a robust wireless system based on Bluetooth v1.2 standards, elegantly small physical size and design, and a basic two-button plus scrollwheel control layout, The Ball should set a new standard for simplicity and ease of use for trackballs.

The Ball should easily pair with any Bluetooth wireless-enabled Mac or PC running OS X 10.2.3 or higher, or Win XP SP2 or higher. The Ball includes rechargeable AAA batteries, a USB-powered mini docking/charging cradle, and has an on-off switch for power conservation. Priced at $69, the Ball is available now for pre-order, and will begin shipping on 5 December.

A trackball is a pointing device consisting of a ball housed in a socket containing sensors to detect rotation of the ball about two axes - like an upside-down mouse, but with the ball sticking out more. You roll the ball with your thumb, fingers, or the palm of your hand to move a cursor. Tracker balls are common on CAD workstations for ease of use and, before the advent of the trackpad, on laptops, where there may be no desk space on which to use a mouse.

Some clip onto the side of the keyboard and have integral buttons which have the same function as mouse buttons. Trackballs are sometimes seen on computerised special-purpose workstations, such as the radar consoles in an air-traffic control room or sonar equipment on a ship or submarine. Modern installations of such equipment may use mice instead, since most people now already know how to use one. However, military mobile anti-aircraft radars and submarine sonars tend to continue using trackballs, since they can be made much more durable and are better fit for fast emergency use.

Trackballs have had some limited use in computer and video games, particularly early arcade games. One of the more famous games to use one is Centipede. 'Football', by Atari, was the first game to use a trackball, released in 1978 for the arcade. Console trackballs, meanwhile, are fairly uncommon. The Bandai Atmark, a Japanese console, had a trackball as standard for its gamepad, and the Atari 2600 had one as a peripheral, with a joystick as standard. As of today, trackballs are often in use in pub golf machines to simulate club hits.

Trackballs are provided as the pointing device in some public internet access terminals. Unlike a mouse, a trackball can easily be built into the console - and, as such, cannot be ripped away or otherwise vandalised. Two examples are the Internet browsing consoles provided in some UK McDonalds outlets, and the BT Broadband Internet public phone boxes.

BIOS, Nov 21, 05 | Print | Send | Comments (0) | Posted In Input device