Pointing device

A pointing device to operate a portable electronic device using a finger is disclosed. The pointing device comprises a light emitting means for illuminating a subject; a hole through which light from the light emitting means is transmitted; an image-acquisition area for talking an image of the subject from the transmitted light; an image-formation means for forming an image by focusing the light reflected from the image-acquisition area; a conversion means for converting the image formed by the image-formation means into an electric signal; and an operation means for detecting the change of the image and calculating the amount of the change using the electric signal output from the conversion means. The subject is preferably the surface of a finger, a lattice, or any perceivable pattern. The pointing device can be embodied on portable electronic devices such as cellular phones and PDAs because it is small in size.