Abstract: A digital input device has a thimble worn on a finger and operated as a mouse for displacement encoding or as a pointer for angular encoding, using a base unit. The thimble can also be attached to a stylus to form a tracing pen or joystick handle. A sensor preferably includes a contact roller at an end of the thimble that rotates with movement over a surface. The sensor emits a signal as a function of incremental displacement of the sensor over a surface, in X and Y directions. The sensor couples to the base unit at a universal joint and the base unit has a cup-shaped contact surface for encoding angular displacement around the universal joint, using displacement of the sensor over the cup-shaped surface. The contact roller is mechanically arranged to pass a coding strip having reflective, transmissive or magnetic stripes before a sensing element. The sensor can be pivoted back on the finger to enable typing.