Microsoft Research Shows Off Multi-Touch Mouse Prototypes 137
Engadget has snagged some of the details behind a bunch of multi-touch mouse prototypes from Microsoft Research. The prototypes range from the wacky to the extreme, but at least they are thinking outside the mouse trap. "Each one uses a different touch detection method, and at first glance all five seem to fly in the face of regular ergonomics. The craziest two are probably "Arty," which has two articulated arms to cradle your thumb and index finger, with each pad housing its own optical sensor for mission-critical pinching gestures, and "Side Mouse" which is button free and actually detects finger touches in the table immediately in front of the palm rest. Of course, there's plenty of crazy in the FTIR, Orb Mouse and Cap Mouse (pictured), which rely on an internal camera, orb-housed IR camera and capacitive detection, respectively. Of course, there's no word on when these might actually see the light of day"
Finally (Score:5, Insightful)
You are just used to that (Score:1, Insightful)
Well, I guess that a big part of why you hold the mouse as you do is that you are used to that because mice have worked in such a way for a good while. It might be that some other system than that has a bit of a learning curve for us who have used to the current system but - after the curve - is more efficient.
That said... I think those presented systems are now patented very throughly. Aside from Microsoft (which has sold pretty decent mice before, I got to admit) there will not be companies using any of those in decades.
Less tactile (Score:3, Insightful)
I really prefer to feel a response from the mouse (well trackball) and keyboard. I'm sure people'd get used to whatever mouse was available so selection is good.
I do like the ability on the iPhone where I can expand or contract a web browser window with two fingers. I tried it on my Mac's touchpad and it didn't work (maybe I need to enable it). I don't like the lack of response, or at times too light a touch of the keyboard aspect of the iPhone. It's so light that I'll double enter letters and it's hard to tell if I have the right character unless I'm looking right at the text. Since there's no tactile feel, I can't touch type which means I have to look at the keyboard to make sure I'm in the right place and look at the input field to make sure I'm typing in what I want to type.
Interesting ideas though. The pinch one might be cool for porn :)
[John]
I don't know ... (Score:5, Insightful)
Modernize the mouse maybe - but what about our hands? Every single one of those looked like a carpal tunnel nightmare.
Multiple interfaces, MULTIPLE METHODS! (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm not sure a mouse needs to be "multi-touch", in the same way that I don't think a mouse should respond to voice commands (sorry, Cmdr. Scott....).
Multi-touch makes sense for touch screens or track pads, as it changes them from a "cave-man" interface where the only real choices you have is "grunt" (tap), "grunt-grunt" (double-tap), and "uuuuuuugh!" (drag), into an interface where you have a few more choices (multi-finger drag, pinch, etc.).
The mouse already underwent such a change, when multiple buttons were added. I don't know if trying to map things you do on a flat panel onto things you do to a mouse makes any more sense than trying to make a joystick "multi-touch".
What is wrong with different interfaces having different semantics? I don't expect to drive my car with a touchpad, use a mouse to control my stove, or do word-processing with a steering wheel.
Ergonomics? (Score:2, Insightful)
You overlook his analyses (Score:4, Insightful)
Well, I guess that a big part of why you hold the mouse as you do is that you are used to that because mice have worked in such a way for a good while.
No. He said he holds it like this for a very good reason - because when manipulating a mouse using the fingers gives you much finer control than simply using the palm of your hand.
That's why any "improvement" that moves the fingers off the mouse is an inherently worse design. It's not "what he is used to", it's how our bodies are actually built. Within those parameters sure, you can come up with different shapes that seem worse at first but are actually better - as long as the fingers are responsible for controlling mouse movement.
Mice the same, keyboards to change (Score:5, Insightful)
I think for Desktops the design that will win out is keyboards with trackpads, like a laptop keyboard separated from a laptop. Most people would simply use those alone, gamers or people with more need for fine control would attach a traditional mouse for specific uses.
But fewer and fewer people will be using them, since laptop use is dramatically increasing.
Perhaps mice will even go away altogether, replaced by more task specific controls, like game controllers and Wacom tablets for artists.
Re:Leave it to Microsoft... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:This looks VERY bad. (Score:4, Insightful)
Not true. Put your finger on a touchpad and hold it there. Does the mouse move continuously? Does it continually click from the double-tap function?
No, because it works on a differential. So resting your fingers on the mouse as normal is fine. There may be a bit of an issue about registering clicks, which will take either pressure sensitivity at a basic (binary) level, or a change in user habits to lift the mouse and put it down again as the click action instead of the reverse.
But I think most likely some smart manufacturer will just put the capacitive surface over existing mouse buttons, which are wired to their normal function. People will still want the tactile click feedback, and this does not impair the functionality of the capacitive surface.
If there's no reason the choice must be exclusive, then the choice will be both.
Re:I don't know ... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:I don't know ... (Score:3, Insightful)
Funny you should mention that, since Microsoft already sold the ultimate pointing device: the Trackball Explorer [google.co.uk]. Now out of production, and edging towards $200 per unit on eBay.
They killed that, they'll kill this too.