Alps Electric Co., Ltd. is a Japanese multinational corporation, headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, producing electronic devices, including switches, potentiometers, sensors, encoders and touchpads.
A Motorized potentiometer from Alps Electric used in a music center
Alps Amber switch in an Apple IIc keyboard
Alps SKBM Grey switch
Alps SKBM Grey switch backside with old logo
A touchpad or trackpad is a type of pointing device. Its largest component is a tactile sensor: an electronic device with a flat surface, that detects the motion and position of a user's fingers, and translates them to 2D motion, to control a pointer in a graphical user interface on a computer screen. Touchpads are common on laptop computers, contrasted with desktop computers, where mice are more prevalent. Trackpads are sometimes used on desktops, where desk space is scarce. Because trackpads can be made small, they can be found on personal digital assistants (PDAs) and some portable media players. Wireless touchpads are also available, as detached accessories.
Closeup of a touchpad on an Acer CB5-311 laptop
Closeup of a touchpad on a MacBook 2015 laptop
Optical trackpad of the BlackBerry Curve 8520 in the red circle
A Microsoft Surface tablet. The touchpad is the rectangle near the bottom of the keyboard.