light pen

American  

noun

Computers.

1. a handheld light-sensitive device used for pointing at characters or objects on a CRT in order to make or modify drawings or to indicate functions to be performed.

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light pen British  

noun

1. computing

   1. a rodlike device which, when applied to the screen of a cathode-ray tube, can detect the time of passage of the illuminated spot across that point thus enabling a computer to determine the position on the screen being pointed at

   2. a penlike device, used to read bar codes, that emits light and determines the intensity of that light as reflected from a small area of an adjacent surface

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Etymology

Origin of light pen

First recorded in 1955–60

Example Sentences

Do you prefer the feel of a light pen or a heavy one?

From Washington Post • Mar. 14, 2023

By contrast, the picture telephone and a demonstration of a light pen captured my imagination.

From Seattle Times • Oct. 1, 2021

With Sketchpad, users created graphics with a light pen and could then manipulate lengths and angles in their designs.

From Scientific American • Jun. 22, 2012

Then, for example, the computer's taped voice asks the student to touch the word ran on the screen with a "light pen."

From Time Magazine Archive

These truths being granted, remark the progress which the colonies had made in sciences and arts, and this truth which escaped from the light pen of the censor Beristain, will be confirmed.

From Life in Mexico by Calderón de la Barca, Madame (Frances Erskine Inglis)