light pen
noun Computers.
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.
Also called
light pencil.
Origin of light pen
First recorded in 1955–60
Words nearby light pen
British Dictionary definitions for light pen
light pen
noun
computing
- 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
- 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