| 摘要 |
<p>A general-purpose computer (10) has a compartment (12) for storing a pointer device (14), such as a mouse (20, 22) or a trackball (28, 32), such that the pointer (14) may be removed from the compartment (12) and deployed for use. The pointer (14) may be a mouse (20, 22), a trackball (28, 32), or other type, and may communicate with the host computer by a cable (22, 30), an infrared system (24), or by an inductively coupled system (70, 72). In one embodiment the pointer (14) is a trackball device (28, 32), in another a mouse device (20, 22), and in another a combination device (34, 38) that may be used as either a mouse or a trackball. Other embodiments provide a polar input pointer device (99) and a broadcast pointer device (321).</p> |
