allaboutsymbian
December 18th, 2009, 18:50
http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2009/12/rim-optical-trackpad-diagram.jpg (http://blogs.blackberry.com/2009/12/inside-the-trackpad-a-blackberry-science-lesson.html)
Thinking about how your phone's touchscreen operates, you might assume that the so-called optical pads that have been making appearances on recent (http://www.engadget.com/tag/8520) BlackBerrys (http://engadget.com/tag/bold9700) (among other devices (http://www.engadgetmobile.com/tag/epix)) operate in a similar fashion -- but you'd be wrong. RIM's official BlackBerry blog is chiming in today to drop some knowledge on us dullards, and it turns out that "optical" isn't just a cute nickname -- the pads do actually operate in much the same way as modern desktop mice, using a low-res infrared camera to capture movement across the surface and translate it into movement. In practical terms, what this means is that you don't need a conductive surface to operate the pad -- you can use pretty much anything that the sensor can see, so a gloved hand (for instance) is theoretically good to go. That being said, don't expect to be snapping photos with your "camera" any time soon -- we're literally talking about a handful of grayscale pixels here, which should make it only marginally better than the Droid's (http://www.engadget.com/tag/droid) cam.RIM's optical trackpads: they weren't joking about the 'optical' part (http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/18/rims-optical-trackpads-they-werent-joking-about-the-optical/) originally appeared on Engadget (http://www.engadget.com) on Fri, 18 Dec 2009 13:43:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds (http://www.weblogsinc.com/feed-terms/).
Permalink (http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/18/rims-optical-trackpads-they-werent-joking-about-the-optical/) | http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.engadget.com/media/post_label_source.gifInside BlackBerry (http://blogs.blackberry.com/2009/12/inside-the-trackpad-a-blackberry-science-lesson.html) | Email this (http://www.engadget.com/forward/19287078/) | Comments (http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/18/rims-optical-trackpads-they-werent-joking-about-the-optical/#comments)
More... (http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/18/rims-optical-trackpads-they-werent-joking-about-the-optical/)
Thinking about how your phone's touchscreen operates, you might assume that the so-called optical pads that have been making appearances on recent (http://www.engadget.com/tag/8520) BlackBerrys (http://engadget.com/tag/bold9700) (among other devices (http://www.engadgetmobile.com/tag/epix)) operate in a similar fashion -- but you'd be wrong. RIM's official BlackBerry blog is chiming in today to drop some knowledge on us dullards, and it turns out that "optical" isn't just a cute nickname -- the pads do actually operate in much the same way as modern desktop mice, using a low-res infrared camera to capture movement across the surface and translate it into movement. In practical terms, what this means is that you don't need a conductive surface to operate the pad -- you can use pretty much anything that the sensor can see, so a gloved hand (for instance) is theoretically good to go. That being said, don't expect to be snapping photos with your "camera" any time soon -- we're literally talking about a handful of grayscale pixels here, which should make it only marginally better than the Droid's (http://www.engadget.com/tag/droid) cam.RIM's optical trackpads: they weren't joking about the 'optical' part (http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/18/rims-optical-trackpads-they-werent-joking-about-the-optical/) originally appeared on Engadget (http://www.engadget.com) on Fri, 18 Dec 2009 13:43:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds (http://www.weblogsinc.com/feed-terms/).
Permalink (http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/18/rims-optical-trackpads-they-werent-joking-about-the-optical/) | http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.engadget.com/media/post_label_source.gifInside BlackBerry (http://blogs.blackberry.com/2009/12/inside-the-trackpad-a-blackberry-science-lesson.html) | Email this (http://www.engadget.com/forward/19287078/) | Comments (http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/18/rims-optical-trackpads-they-werent-joking-about-the-optical/#comments)
More... (http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/18/rims-optical-trackpads-they-werent-joking-about-the-optical/)