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Microsoft Reveals ''Mouse 2.0'' Prototypes


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Isn't it about time our trusty mouse gets a facelift? Microsoft Research seems to think so, and has developed five peculiar prototypes deemed as "Mouse 2.0." Of course, the prototype designs aren't final, and they rather look like dirty old droids pulled out of the Sandcrawler trunk by local Jawas (that's a Star Wars: ANH reference). But the company's intentions are clear: it's moving into multi-touch computing land using various touch sensing techniques, form factors, and "interactive affordances."

The first mouse, dubbed as Frustrated Total Internal Reflection (FTIR), uses a curved sheet of acrylic "edge-lit" with infrared light. The light scatters at the touch of a finger, and is recorded by an IR camera. The Orb Mouse, on the other hand, looks a bit more "mousy," facilitating multi-touch sensing on its hemispherical surface. This mouse uses an IR-sensitive camera and an internal source of IR illumination. Rather than sensing movement via scattered light, the camera picks up on light reflected back from finger tips.

The third prototype, the Capacitive Mouse, takes a different route and incorporates capacitive-sensing electrodes that track the location of the user's touch. This device looks even more "mousy" than the Orb version, providing the typical sleek design currently used with many popular mice. The Side Mouse, protocol #4, virtually takes the hand off the device instead and senses the user's fingers as they touch the table surface. "The key interaction possibility that we explore with Side Mouse is the ability to create a multi-touch area that is not restricted to the physical surface of the device," Microsoft said.

The fifth and final mouse is probably the oddest of the bunch, the Arty Mouse, appearing as a crab and providing mouse buttons on each "claw" or "extension." With the palm resting on the main body, each extension resides under the index finer and thumb, and tracks their movement. Microsoft said that it plans to refine the Arty Mouse--in addition to the other four prototypes-- to "deeper explore the interaction techniques that are specific to these new class of input devices." In the meantime, to get more details on each prototype, read the official study and take a peek at the demonstration video here.

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More than just ugly. But yea lets hope to see better designs. ;)

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The ideas are great, and they said that the prototype designs aren't final... It would be cool if they could pull out something innovative.

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You know what I want .. is to be able to wave my hand in the air and navigate.. through web pages.. on screen w/e...I say kill peripherals.. complete next gen.. No chips .. just sensors of some sort.. but you know...there would probably be something .. some element in nature that would stand in the way..LOL

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Same here. It would be great if somethin like that happens. :)

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You know what I want .. is to be able to wave my hand in the air and navigate.. through web pages.. on screen w/e...I say kill peripherals.. complete next gen.. No chips .. just sensors of some sort.. but you know...there would probably be something .. some element in nature that would stand in the way..LOL

That would be really nice to see and it would make a heck of a difference and it would be so GOOD!

But something will stand in the way like it always does. :(

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What's wrong with the good old mouse, I still love it :D And it still gets the job done, and with a Laser (instead of Optical) mouse you'll get all the accuracy you'll ever need, if not then go get a trackball or something hehe

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Nah. Laser is best. :P

But yea I like the current mouses. They are easy to catch. If they upgrade themselves they would be more intelligent to not to come in the mouse trap. :D

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You know what I want .. is to be able to wave my hand in the air and navigate.. through web pages.. on screen w/e...I say kill peripherals.. complete next gen.. No chips .. just sensors of some sort.. but you know...there would probably be something .. some element in nature that would stand in the way..LOL

Something like this :

microsoft wearable mouse

microsoftwearablemouse.jpg

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Now that's great. How much for one? :D

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Here are some more informations about it :

Microsoft came up with a very cool “wearable pointing device” that looks somewhat like a hybrid between the gloves in Minority Report and the Nintendo Wiimote. Their patent filed in October 2006 was just recently published.

Besides looking pretty cool, the design actually takes into account a lot of practicality which is something more than a fancy research demo. For example by wearing the device it does not prevent you from doing other tasks such as typing on a keyboard. The cursor movements are activated by a “switch” (110) that can be activated by closing your hands, grasping the device like a joystick, and then turning the yaw and pitch to control the X and Y positions respectively. There are also left (114) and right click (116) buttons which can be pressed by the thumb.

microsoftwearmouse2.jpg

The patent actually goes into a lot of technicalities even as far as to name the specific gyroscope modules that can be used, Analog Devices’ ADXRS150 for those of you playing at home, we guess they might have a working prototype somewhere.

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Looks like a nice step in the general direction...I wuld be willing to road test this one..

How about functioning in 3D space....Oops one more gyro..LOL..Have to have a nice system for that..and probably five-ten years development on an OS, with changes on the way we look at or systems and computing..

Really what I was thinking off is something that could be as small as a web camera in a laptop.. that could pick up or sense movements of the hand.. maybe with a glove, or something..a material that would be read by the sensor..and possibly could even be used in conjunction with a touch screen..

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Looks like a nice step in the general direction...I wuld be willing to road test this one..

How about functioning in 3D space....Oops one more gyro..LOL..Have to have a nice system for that..and probably five-ten years development on an OS, with changes on the way we look at or systems and computing..

Really what I was thinking off is something that could be as small as a web camera in a laptop.. that could pick up or sense movements of the hand.. maybe with a glove, or something..a material that would be read by the sensor..and possibly could even be used in conjunction with a touch screen..

Here is another concept:

EYE-CONTROLLED MOUSE SYSTEMS   (using the motion of your eyeballs)

eyeballpc.jpg

The "eye mouse" is an ocular prosthetic that allows the cursor to be positioned by looking and hands-free pointing. 

eyetracking.gif

Two methods could be used :

1. Video-based

2. Electrode interface

The eyes act like a dipole in space and create an electrochemical field in the surrounding extra cellular fluid (see the figure below). With a look upward, the region above the eyes becomes more positively charged than the region below the eyes. The opposite is true if the person looks down. If the person looks right, the region to the right of the eyes becomes more positive, and vice versa if the person looks left. These differences around the eyes can be transduced by scalp electrodes and detected by an instrumentation amplifier.

image3dr.jpg

the Eye Mouse can be applied to Virtual Reality. It could also be a tool for tracking the position of a real world object, such as a head or a hand.

Generally speaking, the video-based version is more expensive than the electrode-interface version.

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Cool.. that I would be willing to do.. The eye prosthetic I might do after the tech has been test proven and something that would be supported for awhile..

Both very cool though.. I could see myself as an operator years from now.. doing nothing more that looking at where I want to go..

That would so give the illusion of being physically jacked in.. LOL.. cool though

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Man... you think we've hit the technological summit when in fact there are still so many possible ways how to improve. Once the computers like we know today are replaced with touchscreens and wearable mouses, then it won't be long until we have holographic virtuality right in front of us and navigate with our eyes.

It's all still far from today, but one can still imagine :)

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Thanx for the info tonyblair. :) . But will it have more strain on eyes?

I'm waitin for holographic computerization. ^_^

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Big companies are working on eye control system and the head mouse systems. not only for PC consumer. In fact the need for this technology is huge.

The first need come from helping disabled people.

So not only prototypes exist but also final product are available in the market. As an example EyeTech Digital Systems provide a system for the disabled people :

Quick Glance Eye Gaze Tracker for Computer Access. Place the mouse pointer simply by looking at the desired location. Click with an eye blink, a hardware switch, or by staring (dwell). Combine with an on-screen keyboard for text or speech output

Price Ranges from $6,480 up to $14,280

http://www.eyetechds.com/

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@DKT27:

It's the other way around.

When your gaze at the monitor for long hours, sometimes you don't blink and not move your eyes like this :rolleyes:

It's a bad habit that damages the eyes slowly but surely. The only intervention is to rest your eyes every couple of minutes.

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Yea I know that but forgot about it. :mellow:

Thanx for remindin me. To blink my eyes. :blink: ;)

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Well if we keep up the pollution there will be enough particles in the air to bounce light off of to do that..Of course we will all be dead or dying at that point.. So it wont matter.. I would be happy with some very nice see through screens which have or serve as a dual purpose.. think it would be a more attainable goal.. Holographic studies and process already exist.. yet their portability and practicality are still yet to evolve.. for instance being portable with the individual.. Other tech would need to evolve to be able to correct emulate the variables needed for it to exist.. so its not just its own development that it may be waiting on.

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@DKT27:

It's the other way around.

When your gaze at the monitor for long hours, sometimes you don't blink and not move your eyes like this :rolleyes:

It's a bad habit that damages the eyes slowly but surely. The only intervention is to rest your eyes every couple of minutes.

I suggest to rest our eyes during lunch time :

blindmen.jpg

or during some exercise to learn what is an elephant (no microsoft mouse here please, the elephant do not like that) :

anitakunz400.jpg

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