Who invented the touchpad and when?
The invention of laptop computers brought with it a problem. How would computer users navigate the mouse cursor displayed in the operating system used on their portable computers without a physical computer mouse?
Here is the solution to this problem, an American inventor Dr. Provided by George Gerpheide. This touchpad, known as the touchpad and invented in 1988, had the ability to detect the user's finger movements and transmit it to the mouse cursor displayed on the computer screen. Interestingly, point-and-click interfaces weren't that popular yet when Gerpheide invented the touchpad technology. This explains why Apple applied for a license to use this technology in 1994. This technology was used for the first time in the Powerbook 520 computer, which Apple released that year.
Cirque Corporation is an American company which developed and commercialized the first successful capacitive touchpad, now widely used in notebook computers. Cirque develops and sells a variety of touch input products, both in OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) and end-user retail form. Cirque was founded in 1991 by George E. Gerpheide, PhD, and James L. O'Callaghan, to commercialize the GlidePoint technology invented in the 1980s by Dr. Gerpheide.
The touchpad that Gerpheide invented uses a material made up of several layers. The upper layer is the surface that the user touches and acts as a protection for the lower layers. In the layers below this layer, there are electrodes arranged in vertical and horizontal rows and separated by a thin insulating layer. All of these electrodes are connected to a circuit board, which continuously sends alternating current to the electrodes. When the user's finger touches this touchpad, it blocks this current and the circuit board records the location of the point where the current is blocked. Other touches following the first touch are compared with the first touched point, and the difference between them is reflected in the position of the cursor on the screen, and the movement of the finger is reflected in the movement of the cursor on the screen.
Today, touchpads are widely used, especially in smartphones. The reason behind Gerpheide's invention of the touchpad is actually very simple, and he explained it with these words:
"Using a computer mouse on portable devices is not appropriate. No one wants to see a computer mouse cable dangling from an Internet-connected cell phone."