Building A Better Mouse not just reinventing the wheel

[BuffaloHelp 24]

Microsoft has one of the largest Research and Development department in the world. A prototype mice were debuted at the UIST conference, showing a typical mouse with multi-touch sensor/technology. Who here can say, influenced by Apple, anyone?Although multi-touch technology is nothing new but this gears up for something new to come--especially in the operating system(s) in the future. Microsoft thinks that new mice technologies can set new standards for the future. One of which mouse senses user's finger movements by tracking camera. Very similar to laser projected keyboards we talked about in our forum, imagine controlling your mouse cursor just by waving your hand? And multi-touch sensor means perhaps mouse is no longer a 2 dimensional (X and Y) device. A 3 dimensional mouse that can understand spacial grid, making unlimited possibilities for operating systems to be interacted. What about future software that can tap into multi-touch and multi-gesture input device?This is one of few moments where reinventing the wheel is a good thing.

[bluedragon 0]

hmm.. 3 dimensional mouse :PI believe theres also a research going on where people need not even touch the screen and just by performing gestures they can move objects on the screen. Three cameras track the movement in 3 directions - x,y & z.Microsoft should make something like that.I am too lazy to even hold the mouse and move it :Por better - just look at the screen and the mouse moves.

[akira550 0]

no wonder.. microsoft is proving the Quantum Shift.. :Pwell everyday technolgy was evolving hope it won't ruined our daily life.. and our naturethat mice would become great if ever it release... they are still under researching about that but i knowthey can do it

[rpgsearcherz 5]

I'm not really understanding the description here. What is the difference overall?And in terms of the 3d, does this also insenuate that we will at some point have a 3d OS?

[rvalkass 5]

Engadget have got the run down and a video of all the mice in action: https://www.engadget.com/

I disagree that Microsoft have been influenced by Apple. Plenty of people have had multitouch technology for years - Apple just brought it to the masses. Microsoft seem to be attempting to find a way to bring multitouch to the desktop, which currently requires pricey touch-sensitive or capacitive screens, for a low cost available to most people. Looking at Apple's latest patent, they don't seem to be doing anything radical in the mouse department at the moment.

I see two problems, however. None of the mice are that 'traditional' - none have physical buttons you can click, or a scroll wheel. I know that I would certainly miss that tactile feedback, which you simply don't get from touching a solid plastic shell. On a surface with the image behind it, this isn't so much of a problem - the feedback is on the screen right below your fingertips. But moving the technology to a separate device removes you somewhat from that response, and no replacement for it is offered.

The second is one of coding. Most multitouch gestures would presumably have to be manually coded into each application - there are only a few actions that could be considered universal across pretty much all applications. Only a few applications really lend themselves to using multitouch inputs (anyone see a real use for it in a spreadsheet, for example?) and I don't think that would be compelling enough to buy one of those 'mice'.

Still, the technology is great

[inverse_bloom 0]

I don't know if a device like that will be as "great" as people would imagine, for instance using some thing like a Wacom tablet would be something much more speedier and efficient at doing tasks. To me thats the ultimate tool, anyone who has used a decent one would probably know what i mean (they are very quick to use).