Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Mouse Begone: Use Head Movements And IR Instead

Posted by timothy on from the invest-in-3m-reflectors dept.

Gonzodoggy writes: "Saw this on my local news last night. There's a company in Oregon that is trying to eliminate the mouse as we know it. The company is called Naturalpoint. Basically, you place a reflective dot on your forehead or, for laptop users, a plastic ring on your finger. Then when you move your head or your finger, the mouse goes where you point. The demo on the news showed a gamer making the game look where he looked, allowing him to keep both hands on the keyboard" Looks like a cool idea, but very Windows only for now. So I guess I'll have to rig up a trackball underfoot, and just fool my housemates into thinking I was controlling the cursor with my changing glances.

7 of 185 comments (clear)

  1. Ooops... by mholve · · Score: 5

    I sneezed and deleted my C:\WINDOWS directory!

  2. Bad for business by Aggrazel · · Score: 5

    This is not going to make it easy to click off the window downloading pr0n right as the boss walks in...

    "No really honey, I wasn't looking at her, it just popped on the screen by a virus."

    "uh huh"

    1. Re:Bad for business by flynt · · Score: 5

      You call your boss honey?

  3. Re:This could be cool.. by Nidhogg · · Score: 4
    Heh. I had the same concern with sniping in Half-life TFC.

    To make things worse imagine having the hiccups while playing with this thing responding to your forehead.

    "Dude. What the hell are you shooting at?"
    "Shut up! I've got the fscking hiccups!"

  4. Many rapid head movements? by NineNine · · Score: 4

    I don't think that this would be very useful. The head/neck wasn't designed for many, rapid, precise movements all day long (say, at work). The hand/wrist/arm was. Besides, I'd much rather have repetitive stress in my write than in my neck.

    1. Re:Many rapid head movements? by Eoli · · Score: 5

      There are other systems out there that can do similar things with eye movement, so you can save your neck.

      Some good research from Stanford.

      A practical demonstration.

      Some people have no choice but to use such devices unfortunately.

  5. Double-clicking is fun by Eoli · · Score: 5

    Just bang your head on the desk twice in rapid succession. Most computer users do this a few times a day anyway.