Gyroscopic Wireless Mouse

An anonymous reader writes "This is a must for any game player. Gyration has introduced a working wireless gyroscopic mouse. The $119.95 price tag is a little steep but it works with Linux and it doubles for an optical mouse if placed on the desktop. There is an article about it at Linux Journal." We mentioned an earlier version a year or two ago.

Comments

old ?

[upil]

I tought this is an old product. Friend of mine has it. Fry's electronics carries it.

Re:old ?

[El Pollo Loco]

This is a newer version. Apparently the older version had a range of 25 ft. Although this version only had a 30 ft range, but hey, that extra 5 feet could be good. Also, there's a 100 ft version as well. It'll set ya back $180 bucks though.

Re:old ?

[fleener]

Ya, I own one of these mice. I'm not clear on why this story is appearing again, or how this "new" mouse is new. For what it's worth, I cannot use the mouse for day-to-day use because the mouse is not wide enough for me. I quickly got hand cramps clutching it.

my job has one

[sTalking_Goat]

people use it for presentations. Steady and accurate it is not. I can't think of a gamer who would use this.

Re:He's not kidding =)

[Trejkaz]

Of course any decent Occ. Health and Safety expert will tell you not to rest your wrist on the table when using a mouse.

6 degrees of freedom?

[Atario]

Up/down
Left/right
Forward/backward
Pitch
Roll
Yaw

Could do it, but it doesn't sound like it. Would be pretty neat for 3-D model design work, I'd think.

Re:6 degrees of freedom?

[Jaysyn]

This had 6 degrees of freedom waaaay back in `98. Didn't sell real well, bout the only game I could actually sit thru the learning curve on was Mechwarrior III. It could have been nice for another input device (3D CAD) but I could never get it working how I thought it should, & there was very little support for Win2k & up.

Jaysyn

Re:6 degrees of freedom?

[Carnildo]

Up/down
Left/right
Forward/backward
Pitch
Roll
Yaw

Could do it, but it doesn't sound like it. Would be pretty neat for 3-D model design work, I'd think.

There are a number of devices that do this, usually called wands or space mice.

Yes, they are nice for 3D model design, especially when used with something like an Immersive Workbench or CAVE display system.

Re:6 degrees of freedom?

[paradesign]

Youve seen these right?

Spaceballs

The CAD guys i used to work with swear by them. A spaceball for their left hand and a mouse for their right. I found them a lil twitchy though, but i guess thats something you can adjust to or just adjust.

multiple mice

[forevermore]

You'd think that someone who writes for linux journal who can manually tweak an XF86Config file would know that it's pretty easy to set up and use two mice instead of "simply switch[ing] the # character on the two lines"

I just set up my always-connected mouse "CorePointer" and my sometimes-connected one as "AlwaysCore"... Then they both work.

Prior art

[Carnildo]

/me runs to USPTO to file.

Fakespace beat you to it

Just bought one of each...

[Goldenhawk]

Just bought one of each of these (Gyration Ultra) for our church - for remote presentation. Bought the 100 foot "Pro" version and the 30 foot version, for two differently sized rooms. Basically, they work exactly as advertised - tilt and yaw motions control the cursor. If you don't hold down the "trigger" on the bottom, nothing happens when in midair. That is good, because you can release the trigger and use just the buttons for forward/back slide control in PowerPoint, without moving the cursor around.

You can also use it on a desk as an optical. Shape's a little ackward for that - rather a tall but narrow mouse to accomodate the recess for the trigger underneath. Otherwise, works great. Even has a scrollwheel.

Surprisingly, it takes very little getting used to - as they state in the ads, you just move your hand naturally and the cursor follows your motions. But it is prone to overcontrol because moving your hand in midair is less precise than the tiny motions on the desktop (in my case, I move the desktop mouse about 3" for full left/right tracking).

Another couple points - it's got a recharging stand, so it doesn't eat batteries; both versions come with a second battery pack; the Pro version also has a separate charger for the backup battery, and the Pro version also includes a AA-battery pack for emergencies. And both include a USB-powered receiver. Finally, the things worked out of the box with WinXP - no drivers to install. Really a pleasure to hook up and use in seconds.

So really, it works like it's advertised - perhaps even better - which is a rarity these days!

Strap It To A Headset

[DynaSoar]

and put the buttons in the hand or on the table, better yet tie button press in with a command to voice recognition softare, and you've got a decent head pointer. Most other head pointers cost more (some far more) and require a reflective dot on your head and a camera to track it. There is a cheap hack of one at www.mousevision.com. But a good, cheap gyro head pointer would be greatly welcomed by the disabled.

Re:FOR GAMING?

[FrenZon]

Unless you attached it to your head and used mouse-look in a first-person shooter.

Doesn't work - I have a Gyration mouse, and I tried this when I was researching headtrackers - the problem is that the gyro is 2-axis, so it doesn't take into account rotation of your head around the z-axis (the one from your nose to the monitor). This wouldn't be a problem if users didn't tilt their head to the left or right when turning their head, as it results in vertical motion on the screen.

This motion is not cancelled out when the user turns their head back, as they usually tilt their head in the opposite direction before turning, and so the vertical motion continues in the same direction.

Therefore, turning your head left then right usually results in your viewpoint zig-zagging up or down the screen. In in the end, I wrote freelook, to accomodate my head-tracking needs.