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Mouse Begone: Use Head Movements And IR Instead

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.

5 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: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.

  4. 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.