1. An apparatus comprising: a transparent touchpad positioned over a visual display, the transparent touchpad configured to sense a contiguous region of contact from at least a portion of a human hand on a surface of the transparent touchpad, the transparent touch pad comprising a sensor array having a plurality of sensors, each sensor having a unique spatial location and an associated unique address, wherein the transparent touch pad is configured to sense the contiguous region of contact by a generation of sensor measurement values associated with each of the plurality of sensors; a plurality of sensor spatial locations having associated sensor measurement values responsive to the contiguous region of contact; a value of at least one control parameter for the contiguous region of contact responsive to a measured change in at least one of the associated sensor measurement values, the value obtained by performing a calculation on the associated sensor measurement values and interpreting the results as signifying a finger flick gesture, wherein the at least one control parameter is associated with the finger flick gesture; and at least one derived control parameter assigned to a specific control signal; wherein the finger flick gesture is recognized from specific dynamic variations among a combination of one or more hand contact patterns from a first hand contact pattern on the transparent touchpad to a second hand contact pattern on the transparent touchpad.