A light pen is a computer input device in the form of a light-sensitive wand used in conjunction with a cathode-ray tube display.
Photo of the Hypertext Editing System (HES) console in use at Brown University, circa October 1969. The photo shows HES on an IBM 2250 Mod 4 display station, including lightpen and programmed function keyboard, channel coupled to Brown's IBM 360 mainframe.
Photo of a "Warp Speed" light pen interacting with a graphics program running on a Tandy 1000 computer.
A touchscreen is a type of display that can detect touch input from a user to do a specific task. It consists of both an input device and an output device. The touch panel is typically layered on the
Light pen
…A light pen is a computer input device in the form of a light-sensitive wand used in conjunction with a cathode-ray tube (CRT) display. Like a touchscreen, a light pen allows the user to point to displayed graphic elements such as menus or buttons, or even draw directly on the screen. However, while a…
A user operating a touchscreen
Smart thermostat with touchscreen
The prototype x-y mutual capacitance touchscreen (left) developed at CERN in 1977 by Frank Beck, a British electronics engineer, for the control room of CERN's accelerator SPS (Super Proton Synchrotron). This was a further development of the self-capacitance screen (right), also developed by Stumpe at CERN in 1972.
Capacitive touchscreen of a mobile phone