A DIY Mid-Air Pointing Device

Werner Heuser writes with an article in Linuxdevices on building your own handheld pointing device that works in mid-air. There is a YouTube video showing the Soap in action and detailed instructions to make your own Soap. From the article: "'Soap,' which resembles a bar of soap, is based on hardware found in a common wireless optical mouse, and is relatively easy to make, according to its inventors. Imagine numerous situations in which one might wish to control an appliance while standing or walking, for example, when giving a slide presentation or interacting with a wall-sized display."

Ugh..

and detailed instructions to make your own Soap.

I've already seen "Fight Club," thanks.

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Just don't drop it.

Don't feel like reinventing the wheel?

...you can try an Air Mouse [gyration.com] from Gryration [gyration.com]. I know we're all really excited about the Wii and all, but, honestly, it wasn't the first, and isn't the only, device that does motion sensing.

I know it's not home made, but it does the job pretty well.

TW

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rtfa... this isnt a motion-sensing device. This is a Do It Yourself (hence the DIY tag) project to basically make a wireless mouse operable in mid air by changing its enclosure and sticking it in a sock.

Tm

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Read the article. In air device may not technically be motion sensing, but the effect is the same. Read the second and third paragraphs of TFA and you will see that they're intended use is equivalent.

TW

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Similar, but only in the manner that they can be used without a surface to press against.
Tilt sensing is fundamentally different than this or a flying trackball. For one thing, if you set this down, your control point won't go careening to one side or ano

The sensor beam's for position in space...

...I believe. The motion sensing is actually from an ADI 6DOF accelerometer sensor.

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Mousing with the Wiimote using IR pointing is actually fundamentally different from mousing with the Wiimote using the accelerometer. (The Wii itself uses IR pointing.) To get a better idea of the difference, check out these videos:

Wiimousing on Linux with [youtube.com]

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If you own a Wii (and a computer with Blue Tooth) you can check out WiiLi.org and use your Wiimote on your PC ...

On top of that, I think most people know the Wiimote isn't the first motion sensing device (or free hand moust); it is just one of the most com

So...

... you put a sock around a stubby thing and kinda rub it with your hand, and it makes you happy.

Except that the stubby thing is attached to a computer.

I believe that ./ers are uniquely qualified to operate this device.

Yep...

Three researchers at Microsoft Research have created an innovative handheld pointing device that works in mid-air. "Soap" -- which resembles a bar of soap -- is based on hardware found in a common wireless optical mouse...

Yeah, most of FPS gamers I know could use some soap...

I have

I have a similar mouse from years ago actually that is a gyroscopic wireless mouse. Problem is even with tweaking the sensitivity its still hard to use which is why it has a button on there you have to hold when you want to use it so that the cursor doesn

Batteries

And then you have to completely rebuild the thing when you need to replace the batteries. No thanks.

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T: A handheld homemade pointing device. I'll call it the finger.
G: Does it fing?

-1 obvious

Interesting concept, lacking functionality

It's an interesting new method of cursor control, but I doubt it's all that accurate or useful for playing games(or anything else requiring much for clicking on specific targets). Since you're spinning the inards of the device around, and the button/s with

I guess GTK needs to put the OK back on the left

The "experts" decided that OK on the right, while not natural for left-to-right readers, was optimal for a mouse.

With other pointer devices (touch screen, touch pad, wiii-controller, bar-of-soap), such an optimization is not helpful.

So can we now put the O

Neat, but...

why are those guys still pointing the damn thing at the monitor, as if it needed line of sight to work? Doesn't that just annoy you? I mean, the whole benefit of this thing is I could move the cursor around while my hand is stuffed down my pants...

So then...

...can I write a driver for Soap using SOAP?

Chris Mattern

already have an in-air pointing device, thanks

one points over there. one points up. both mean something else when viewed by others.

(points)

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But hey, this came from some million dollar salaried Microsoft "Researcher", ooooowwwww.

I've got a better idea, stick a wireless mouse under a remote control car and drive your way around your FPS game.

I can't believe this got posted on /., it's a mouse in

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I can't believe this got posted on /.

Yeh, but it mentiones YouTube and Digg has had its daily quota of YouTube postings soaked up by all the viral crap, so it's JUST GOTTA be posted somewhere else.

Cool^H^H^H^HKewl A+++ will buy again.
In Soviet Russia the H

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"But hey, this came from some million dollar salaried Microsoft "Researcher", ooooowwwww."

That explains why they take a few moments to mention how well it works with Windows Media Center. No doubt the game they are playing is Halo and the wireless mouse

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You didn't think of it. The fact that it's a mouse in a sock is WHY it's so f'n clever. Geez, take your meds.

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Nope, didn't think of it and wasn't paid to think of it. But I have used a wireless optical mouse on my leg, shirt sleeve, hand and a few other things when I wanted a mouse without a flat surface. And if for some reason I wanted to use a 'mouse' while hold

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You know that this is probably violating someone's patent. Probably MULTIPLE patents!

The article is about manipulating items you bought to make something new, that's like saying making a ball of rubber bands out of rubber bands is violating patent. It's