Surfing the Web Haptically

Chakat sent us a story about Haptic feedback, a buzzword ready technology where the mouse provides tactile feedback in addition to letting you click on your porn. Seriously I would love a bit of feedback when my mouse moves over a button or a link: Sorta like how modern window managers can snap borders to edges of other windows or the screen when moving or resizing... I think that a similar tactile thing for buttons would ease mouse navigation. Or else I can just continue binding ridiculous things like Ctrl-Alt-Shift-Meta-F8 to every little action.

Comments

Re:again.. WTF

[big.ears]

There are two problems with thiis:

(1) It doesn't do much good, aside from annoying the user. Haptic sensory information must travel much further than visual info, and the sensory transducers are not really low-latency, so by the time you feel the icon, its too late--You have already used your visual system to hone in on the target, and so you already know you are there (cf. Fitts's Law). I know that some people think these force-feedback mice are cool, but whenever I have used one, I just feel like some gunk is stuck on my mouse ball.

(2) Its not available for Linux--which is why CT might be unaware of it.

What about the"Immersion: Technology

[FirstNoel]

I've tried the whole "Immersion" Tech with those Logitech Mice. It kind of feels like a gummed up mouse (rollerball style, not Laser), almost like some forgot to clean the rollers. It get's annoying real fast.

I hope this is more than that, otherwise count me out.

Sean D.

Re:UNC's use of haptic interfaces

[LeftHanded]

And here is the URL for the research: http://www.cs.unc.edu/Research/force/

Re:again.. WTF

[pergamon]

write your own:
http://moore.cx/dan/out/ifeel/

I haven an iFeel

[Lord Ender]

"Seriously I would love a bit of feedback when my mouse moves over a button or a link."

Well taco, the Logitech iFeel mouse has been out for several months and is already able to do that. I have one. It is usb-only (which is a pain to set up sometimes even with the latest kernel) and there are no drivers for linux that allow it to use the vibration, though. With the windows drivers, it vibrates whenever you move it over a link in IE, but it is not that helpful, because it doesn't keep vibrating. You feel the same then whether you move it past the link or not. Not very helpful. And it only works in Internet Explorer, not Netscape or Opera (which is by far the best-engineered browser of them all). All in all the mouse is neat but the tactile feedback is not useful. So, in my opinion, this "feedback" techonology is not the next big thing, and will be almost unheard of in a few years except in specialized tasks.