A touchless input device has image sensors on the side of a surface to capture the positions and movement of fingers or any visible objects working near or on the surface. Embodiments include touchless data entry keyboards, touchless pointing devices, and touchless screens. It provides better performance, finer resolution, and more clearly defined action space than infrared beam based touchless input devices. In particular, one embodiment merges the space for data entry and the space for cursor movement into one and reduces the number of devices and working space needed by users.