Joystick elements: 1. Stick 2. Base 3. Trigger 4. Extra buttons 5. Autofire switch 6. Throttle 7. Hat Switch (POV Hat) 8. Suction Cup

A joystick is a personal computer peripheral or general control device consisting of a handheld stick that pivots about one end and transmits its angle in two or three dimensions to a computer. Joysticks are often used to control video games, and usually have one or more push-buttons whose state can also be read by the computer.

The joystick has been the principal flight control in the cockpit of many aircraft, particularly military fast jets, where centre stick or side-stick location may be employed (see also Centre stick vs side-stick). A cockpit is the area usually near the front of an Aircraft, from which a pilot controls the aircraft An aircraft Cockpit arrangement where the control column (or Joystick) is located conventionally in the centre of the cockpit between the pilot 's legs An aircraft Cockpit arrangement where the control column (or Joystick) is located to the side of the pilot, usually at the right (or outboard on a two seat flightdeck History Most early aircraft like the motor cars and more especially the boats from which they developed were steered using a wheel

Joysticks are also used for controlling machines such as cranes, trucks, underwater unmanned vehicles and zero turning radius lawn mowers. Miniature finger-operated joysticks have been adopted as input devices for smaller electronic equipment such as mobile phones.

There has a been a drop in joystick popularity in the gaming industry. This is primarily due to the shrinkage of the flight simulator genre, and the almost complete disappearance of space-based simulators. A flight simulator is a system that tries to copy or simulate, the experience of flying an aircraft

Joysticks can be used within first-person shooter games, but generally provide less accurate control than a combination of mouse and keyboard input. A first-person shooter ( FPS) is an action Video game from the Shooter game The initial development of Maze War

Technical details

1980s one-button game joystick

Most joysticks are two-dimensional, having two axes of movement (similar to a mouse), but three-dimensional joysticks do exist. In Computing, a mouse (plural mice, mouse devices, or mouses) A joystick is generally configured so that moving the stick left or right signals movement along the X axis, and moving it forward (up) or back (down) signals movement along the Y axis. In joysticks that are configured for three-dimensional movement, twisting the stick left (counter-clockwise) or right (clockwise) signals movement along the Z axis. These three axes - X Y and Z - are, in relation to an aircraft, roll, pitch, and yaw.

An analog joystick is a joystick which has continuous states, i. e. returns an angle measure of the movement in any direction in the plane or the space (usually using potentiometers) and a digital joystick gives only on/off signals for four different directions, and mechanically possible combinations (such as up-right, down-left, etc. A potentiometer is a three-terminal Resistor with a sliding contact that forms an adjustable Voltage divider. ). (Digital joysticks were very common as game controllers for the video game consoles, arcade machines, and home computers of the 1980s. A game controller is an Input device used to control a Video game. An arcade cabinet, also known as an arcade machine or coin-op, is the housing within which an Arcade game 's Hardware resides A home computer was a class of Personal computer entering the market in 1977 and becoming common during the 1980s )

Additionally joysticks often have one or more fire buttons, used to trigger some kind of action. These are simple on/off switches.

Some joysticks have force feedback capability. These are thus active devices, not just input devices. The computer can return a signal to the joystick that causes it to resist the movement with a returning force or make the joystick vibrate.

Most I/O interface cards for PCs have a joystick (game control) port. A personal computer ( PC) is any Computer whose original sales price size and capabilities make it useful for individuals and which is intended to be operated The game port is the traditional connector for Video game input devices on X86 -based PCs. Modern joysticks (as of 2007) mostly use a USB interface for connection to the PC. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century.

History

Computer port view of the Atari standard connector:

1. up
2. down
3. left
4. right
5. reserved
6. fire button
7. +5VDC
8. ground
9. not connected

Joysticks were originally controls for an aircraft's ailerons and elevators. For the band with a similar name see The Ailerons Ailerons are hinged control surfaces attached to the Trailing edge of the Wing of a Fixed-wing Elevators are control surfaces usually at the rear of an Aircraft, which control the aircraft's orientation by changing the pitch of the aircraft and so also

The name "joystick" is thought to originate with early 20th century French pilot Robert Esnault-Pelterie. This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. Robert Albert Charles Esnault-Pelterie ( November 8, 1881 &ndash December 6, 1957) was a pioneering French Aircraft designer ^[1] There are also competing claims on behalf of fellow pilots Robert Loraine, James Henry Joyce and Mr A. E. George. The latter was a pioneer aviator who with his colleague Mr. Jobling built and flew a biplane at Newcastle, England in 1910. He is alleged to have invented the "George Stick" which became more popularly known as the joystick. The George and Jobling aircraft control column is in the collection of the Discovery Museum in Newcastle Upon Tyne, England. The joystick itself was present in early planes, though the mechanical origins themselves are uncertain. ^[2]

The first electrical 2-axis joystick was probably invented around 1944 in Germany. Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. The device was developed for targeting the glide bomb Henschel Hs 293 against ship targets. The Henschel Hs 293 was a World War II German anti-shipping Guided missile: a radio-controlled Glide bomb with a rocket engine slung underneath Here, the joystick was used by an operator to steer the missile towards its target. This joystick had on-off switches rather than analogue sensors, i. e. a digital joystick. The signal was transmitted from the joystick to the missile by a thin wire.

This invention was picked up by someone in the team of scientists assembled at the Heeresversuchsanstalt in Peenemünde. Peenemünde (peːnəˈmʏndə is a village in the northeast of the German (Western part of the Usedom island Here a part of the team on the German rocket program was developing the Wasserfall missile, a variant of the V-2 rocket, the first ground-to-air missile. A rocket or rocket vehicle is a Missile, Aircraft or other Vehicle which obtains Thrust by the reaction of the The Wasserfall Ferngelenkte Flakrakete ( Waterfall Remote-Controlled A-A Rocket, also known as Aggregat 5) was a World War II guided See also Vergeltungswaffe The V-2 rocket ( Vergeltungswaffe 2 was the first Ballistic missile and first man-made object to achieve A missile (see also pronunciation differences) is a self-propelled explosive Projectile used as a weapon towards a target The Wasserfall steering equipment converted the electrical signal to radio signals and transmitted these to the missile.

Ralph H. Baer, inventor of television video games and the Magnavox Odyssey console, created the first video game joysticks in 1967. Ralph H Baer (born March 8, 1922) is a German -born American Inventor, noted for his many contributions to Games and the A video game is a Game that involves interaction with a User interface to generate visual feedback on a video device. The Magnavox Odyssey is the world's first Video game console. They were analog, using two potentiometers to measure position. A potentiometer is a three-terminal Resistor with a sliding contact that forms an adjustable Voltage divider. ^[3]

The Atari standard joystick, developed for the Atari 2600 was a digital joystick, with a single 'fire' button, and connected via a DE-9 connector, the electrical specifications for which was for many years the 'standard' digital joystick specification. The Atari 2600 is a Video game console released in October 1977 The D-subminiature or D-sub is a common type of Electrical connector used particularly in Computers Calling them "subminiature" was appropriate Joysticks were commonly used as controllers in first and second generation game consoles, but then gave way to the familiar Game pad with the Nintendo Entertainment System and Sega Master System in 1985 and 86, though joysticks - especially arcade-style ones - were and are popular after-market add-ons for any console. A gamepad, also called joypad or control pad, is a type of Game controller held in the hand where the digits (especially thumbs are used to provide input The Nintendo Entertainment System (often abbreviated as NES or simply Nintendo) is an 8-bit Video game console that was released by The Sega Master System is an 8-bit cartridge-based Video game console that was manufactured by Sega and was first released in 1986.

More recently, analog sticks (or thumbsticks, due to their being controlled by one's thumbs) have become standard on video game consoles and have the ability to indicate the stick's displacement from its neutral position. An analog stick, sometimes called a thumbstick, control stick, or occasionally This means that the software does not have to keep track of the position or estimate the speed at which the controls are moved. These devices are usually using a magnetic flux detector to determine the position of the stick.

The joystick has found a new lease of life for flight control in the form of a 'sidestick' - a controller similar to a games joystick but which is used to control the electronics of the latest aircraft. Almost the entire family of Airbus aircraft up to the A380, the largest commercial aircraft in aviation, use the 'sidestick' which saves weight, improves movement and visibility in the cockpit and is said to be safer in the event of an accident than the traditional 'control yoke'.

Industrial applications

In recent times, the employment of joysticks has become common place in many industrial and manufacturing applications, such as; cranes, assembly lines, forestry equipment, mining trucks, and excavators. In fact, the use of such joysticks is in such high demand, that it has virtually replaced the traditional mechanical control lever in nearly all modern hydraulic control systems.

Due to the abusive nature of such applications, the industrial joystick tends to be more robust than the typical video-game controller, and able to function over a high cycle life. This led to the development and employment of Hall Effect sensing to such applications in the 1980s as a means of contactless sensing. The Hall effect refers to the Potential difference ( Hall voltage) on the opposite sides of an Electrical conductor through which there is an Electric The leading manufacturer of Industrial Hall Effect Joysticks is P-Q Controls, Inc.,which was one of the first companies to expand the use of Hall Effect sensing to such applications in the 1980s, and in fact holds exclusive patents for contactless sensing.

Assistive technology

Specialist joysticks, classed as an assistive technology pointing device, are used to replace the computer mouse for people with fairly severe physical disabilities. Assistive technology (AT is a generic term that includes assistive adaptive and rehabilitative devices for people with disabilities and includes the process used in selecting A pointing device is an Input interface (specifically a Human interface device) that allows a user to input spatial (ie continuous and multi-dimensional data In Computing, a mouse (plural mice, mouse devices, or mouses) Rather than controlling games these joysticks plug into the USB port and control the mouse pointer. In computing a cursor is an indicator used to show the position on a Computer monitor or other Display device that will respond to input from a text input or They are often useful to people with athetoid conditions, such as cerebral palsy, who find them easier to grasp than a standard mouse. Athetosis is a continuous stream of slow sinuous writhing movements typically of the Hands and feet. Cerebral palsy ( CP) is an Umbrella term encompassing a group of non-progressive, non- contagious conditions that cause Physical disability Miniature joysticks are also available for people with conditions involving muscular weakness such as muscular dystrophy or motor neurone disease. Muscular dystrophy (MD refers to a group of genetic, Hereditary Muscle diseases that cause progressive muscle weakness The motor neurone diseases (or motor neuron diseases) (MND are a group of progressive neurological disorders that destroy Motor neurones the cells that control voluntary They are also used on electric powered wheelchairs for control since they are simple and effective to use as a control method. A wheelchair is a wheeled Mobility device in which the user sits

References

See also

• Joypad
• Gravis PC GamePad
• Game controller
• Flight controls
• Kempston joystick
• TAC-2
• The Arcade
• Flight simulator

External links

• AtomicWarrior - Joysticks on Windows
• Whatever happened to the joystick?

This article was originally based on material from the Free On-line Dictionary of Computing, which is licensed under the GFDL. A gamepad, also called joypad or control pad, is a type of Game controller held in the hand where the digits (especially thumbs are used to provide input The Gravis PC GamePad is a Game port Game controller produced by Advanced Gravis Computer Technology. A game controller is an Input device used to control a Video game. Kempston Micro Electronics was an electronics company specialising in computer Joysticks and related Home computer peripherals during the 1980s The Totally Accurate Controller MK2 (TAC-2 manufactured by Suncom Technologies, is an Atari 2600 compatible game controller commonly used with the Commodore The Arcade was a very popular and appreciated Joystick produced by Suzo International on the European market A flight simulator is a system that tries to copy or simulate, the experience of flying an aircraft The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing ( FOLDOC) is an online searchable encyclopedic Dictionary of Computing subjects The GNU Free Documentation License ( GNU FDL or simply GFDL) is a Copyleft License for free documentation designed by the Free Software