Logitech Bluetooth Cordless Presenter Review

securitas writes "Many Bluetooth devices have (deservedly) received dismal reviews and we were prepared for the phaser-like Bluetooth Logitech Cordless Presenter to be another toy headed for the trash-heap of history. Instead we were surprised (some might say stunned :) ) at how well it performed. The Presenter combines a laser pointer, an electronic presentation remote control and a wireless optical mouse in one elegantly designed package."

Comments

$200!!!

[kwerle]

Damn, the keyspan USB remote is just $79.

Re:$200!!!

[ivan256]

The review says that the reciever is keyed to the device and the device to the reciever. In other words, you need to use a USB port for this thing even if you already have bluetooth support.

Hmmm...

[MarcoAtWork]

for a second I thought that this device was able to function as a mouse while being held by the presenter (via some sort of inertial sensor presumably) but it seems that the mouse function is just a standard 'put it on the desk and move it' type of thing...

Pity, because if you're in the middle of a stage giving a presentation, I doubt you'd want to have to trek to the sides if/when you have to move the mouse pointer on the screen.

Re:Hmmm...

[JUSTONEMORELATTE]

But it's an optical, so you can move the mouse on any surface around (pants leg, lecturn, your other hand, forhead of audience member, you get the idea)
--

From the article...

[Hayzeus]

One often-overlooked part of a battery-operated device is the design of the battery compartment door. On most devices, the door is secured at only one point. Invariably, that part of the device breaks and one is forced to resort to other methods of keeping the batteries secured.

"Other methods" indeed. What the hell to these people have against duct tape? It's both stylish AND waterproof! No real geek should ever be without at least three rolls.

Re:From the article...

[plover]

"If the women don't find you +1 Interesting, they should at least find you +1 Informative."

Through floors??

[DraconicFae]

"In our tests, the Presenter was able to send a consistent signal through two floors until substantial metalwork began to interfere with the signal." So, what.. one guy is in an empty room, moving the cordless mouse around, and two floors up, another guy is talking to him on the phone saying "yes, it's moving up.. try left now! Woo! That works too!"

Re:Through floors??

[iabervon]

One guy is testing the mouse in a lecture hall, using VNC to export the display to the overhead projector. Meanwhile, a second guy is stealing his laptop and fleeing the building.

Do not let consultants use this mind device on you

[airrage]

If ever, I repeat ever, see a consultant/vendor/salesperson enter the room with this device I know I am in for a 30+ powerpoint presentation; if only the laser were powerful enough to stun me to minimize the pain...

Do you really call it a review

[jukal]

At first glance, the device looks like something out of a science fiction movie. Its ovoid, finely flecked metallic blue body, encased in a colorless, transparent shell and accented by matt silver buttons is reminiscent of one of Star Trek's handheld phaser guns. The blinking LED lights atop the device and the embedded red laser -- activated when you press a trigger on the Presenter's blue-smoked translucent plastic underside -- reinforce the futuristic impression

I think the "reviewer" just may have succeeded even better than the original market-droids of Logitech.

Let me see if I understand..

[Anonvmous Coward]

My cat loves laser pointers. And now there's a mouse built in? Whoah... I wonder if I can torpedo her into a wall again.

Joy. Another "custom" blue tooth adapter.

[blowdart]

So, this little toy comes with a blue tooth adapter to plug into the USB port. The Microsoft bluetooh keyboard and mouse also have their own adapter.... except some of us have laptops with bluetooth built in, or seperate cards. Why are we ending up with a seperate USB adapter for every piece of hardware?

How it worked.

[wowbagger]

The zapper worked exactly like a light pen works.

Oh, you don't know how a lightpen works.

A CRT based screen "paints" the image by scanning an electron beam over the display surface. The graphics chip that generates the display knows where the beam is at any time (it has to, since it has to know what pixels to be sending out.)

The light pen (or gun) is a lens that focuses the display down to a point on a fast image sensor (typically a phototransistor). So, when the electron beam paints the part of the screen that the pen/gun is focuses on, the photosensor fires.

This signal is tied back to the graphics controller, which says "AHA! the electron beam is at 234x421 when the sensor fires. I'll record that into these registers".

After that, it is simplicity itself to set up a cursor.

Now, that technique won't work for a liquid crystal display, since they aren't "scanned" in the conventional sense - there is no pulse of light as the system writes the data to the LCD. Therefor, there is no way a light pen or light gun could work on an LCD display like a modern projector.

Now, in theory you could use a camera to sense a laser pointer's spot, and then move the pointer there. But then you would need a fairly high resolution camera, plus a calibration proceedure so the system would know what points on the camera corrisponded to what points on the display. You would also need a fairly narrow band filter to allow the camera (once calibrated) to see only the laser pointer spot - otherwise it might respond to other objects on the display.