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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.
seriously, if it moves based on tilting, that would suck for games.
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
iXMicro had a wireless gyroscopic mouse, what, about seven or eight years ago? It was called the Gyropoint and was absolutely perfect for presentations on my Powerbook. Unfortunately it ran about $200 as I recall, but was well worth it if you presented often allowing one to stand away from the laptop. It also had the additional benefit of working out well for RSI issues, but ate batteries too quick to use it routinely. However, this version doubling as an optical mouse is pretty cool. So, why has it taken so long to get these out to a wider audience?
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I tought this is an old product. Friend of mine has it. Fry's electronics carries it.
So if I tip my TV tray/laptop stand, my mouse position would stay in place? Sweet!
Great for airplanes!
This space for rent.
Is it just me, or is this unastounding. This mouse has been around (with a ball) for over 4 years. Now they've replaced the ball with an optical mechanism. Wow. Never would have seen that one coming.
people use it for presentations. Steady and accurate it is not. I can't think of a gamer who would use this.
My days of not taking you seriously are certainly coming to a middle...
I thought one of the main complaints of hardcore gamers was the millisecond lag in wireless would get them killed.
Did I miss something that changes all this? Every rig from Alien, etc all use wired mice.
But he'll still have to put his feet down before he can type, unless of course he can type with his keyboard in his lap.
He's got pretty good eyes too because the monitor is far enough away that the text on the page could be difficult to read.
As a bonus, it looks like he'll get a good forearm workout using the mouse.
Now I can have a purpose for waving my hands in the air for no apparent reason!
And they said I was mad....
This has been done before. In fact its still being done for less. However, I wonder if these things are good for RSI.
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
In my mind the best thing about it watching my partners try to navigate their hotmail inboxes during presentation with it.
I've tried gyroscopic mice and havn't been impressed, a handheld wireless trackball is just as good, but would it be possible to make an optical mouse that didn't need any surface. A sensor with a focus of more than 2mm that could make it work like a normal mouse, but in the air... Is this possible or would some sort of auto focus introduce to much lag to make it usable for normal circumstances (not gaming).
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
You don't realize how much the edges of your palm resting on the desktop help you move your mouse where you want to move it - a little downward pressure and your hand stops immediately, a little anchored rotation and you can navigate pixel by pixel. The muscle memory is in many joints in your hand, wrist, and arm.
Holding the mouse in the air eliminates the benefits of resting your hand on the table.
~Berj
For Example:
Unless you attached it to your head and used mouse-look in a first-person shooter.
Uh... you move your head to turn? What is the point of that? It doesnt make anything more real... I mean, its still you sitting there in your underwear playing games on your computer all day/night.
If do that kind of crazy shit, then you might as well make yourself a portable computer to enchance your gaming expereance.
Extra long 30 foot radio range. Line of sight not required!
Cause you just know that's a useful feature for your mouse!
Is this just an actual case of, you get what you pay for? Does a good ~100ft. wireless keyboard/mouse need components that costs over 50% of that price ($80) assuming 50% for mark-up, etc.,.? That's hard to believe.
BTW, the mouse/keyboard combo noted in the article appear to have only a 30ft. range (which means MAYBE 15ft on a good moonless night).
'He was a dreamer, a thinker, a speculative philosopher... or, as his wife would have it, an idiot.' - Douglas Adams
you get to look like your whackin off... Great!
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Who decided that we should all be using mice to control our computer pointers? I believe (if tv doesnt lie) that it was AT&T or someone-or-rather in the late 60's, but why a mouse?
HowStuffWorks says Mice first broke onto the public stage with the introduction of the Apple Macintosh in 1984, but there were heaps of video game consoles out before that, I would have thought that a joystick style controller would have been a logical choice. Mouses are really odd.
Up/downl
Left/right
Forward/backward
Pitch
Rol
Yaw
Could do it, but it doesn't sound like it. Would be pretty neat for 3-D model design work, I'd think.
"A great democracy must be progressive or it will soon cease to be a great democracy." --Theodore Roosevelt
For the most part, wireless mice have sucked for gaming because of their sample rate.the technologies exsist now that lets then be just as fast as any usb/ps2 mouse on the market. the Logitech Mx700 is a perfect example of this. it has the exact same sample rate of its wired counterpart the mx500. i use one everyday for gameing, and there is no one who could convince me its not the best gaming mouse out now
I have used one of these for the "gaming" that the poster spoke of, and personally, I found the mouse to be extremly inaccurate when using the gyroscopic method, and wasn't all that great when on the desktop using the optical sensor. The mouse just doesn't seem to be that responsive: blame it on the fact that it isn't wired, or the design isn't great, or whatever. Furthermore, the ergonomics of the mouse are absolutely horrible: I couldn't stomach using the thing on my own computer for much more than basic desktop use, let alone when playing a game that requires repeated motions and accuracy. It looks kind of cool, but the design really doesn't conform well to the hand of the user, although YMMV.
I just set up my always-connected mouse "CorePointer" and my sometimes-connected one as "AlwaysCore"... Then they both work.
Do you really need reason for beer? Wingman Brewers
From the review:
I want to see a 'pointer' device that is a glove with a gyroscope, and it has sensors on each finger as well so you can map complex hand and finger movements to different operations.
Of course, you could also get your computer to recognise other important gestures and map them to some appropriate function.
For example:
Finally - a computer that responds to your emotions! :-)
Cheers,
Toby Haynes
Anything I post is strictly my own thoughts and doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the opinions of IBM.
Serious gamers don't even use optical mice (with the exception of Logitech's dual-sensor models), to say nothing of gyroscopic wireless hoo-ha. Optical mice don't track well when you make lots of fast twitch movements.
No, this thing is targeted squarely at the PowerPoint set. (Not that I'd turn one down; it'd be perfect for an HTPC setup.)
-Isaac
I am not a lawyer, and this is not legal advice. For Entertainment Purposes Only.
/me runs to USPTO to file.
Fakespace beat you to it
"They redundantly repeated themselves over and over again incessantly without end ad infinitum" -- ibid.
I'd end up with neckstrain worse than when i started playing descent...
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
Why shouldn't a mouse work with Linux? Or would it not use a standard mouse interface?
move_mouse(x,y)
Wooo works with Linux.
Almost as amazing as ads that proclaim their TouchScreens "work with Linux!!" -- er, a touchscreen is a mouse, or so thinks your computer. Or "Our keyboard wedge barcode scanner works with Linux!!!"; its a hardware trick that mimics keyboard input, so of course it does.
Be sure to pay extra for Linux compatibility!
-- @rjamestaylor on Ello
2) This is a stupid device to use with games. Phear me, I wield the Gyroscope!!! .... MOMOMOMONSTER KILL!!!!!! Give me a break. This is good basically for presentations, not for any sort of extended use. Certainly not for gaming. The best gaming input device is a trackball, period. No RSI and perfect motion control. Especially for FPS.
Didn't someone mod a powerglove to do something like this a while back, i remember something about it on here. Also a sibling post mentioned it, pair this with a projector and a piece of treated glass (i remember someone figuring out how to do this, but i cant find a link, anybody?) for a minority report like interface... found the /. link to the powerglove thing...
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
I have the unfortunate pleasure of working for a company that has a fair number of these things (~20) In the past year, we have had to return every single one of them due to some problem or another. Usually it is the batteries (ridiculous since they're less than a year old), but there have been other problems. Additionally, they are horridly inaccurate. Okay, to be fair, my hand is horribly inaccurate when it's not supported by something, but that doesn't make them any more useful.
Linux support should be fine; to the OS the base station looks like a USB hub with a plain-vanilla 3-button USB wheelmouse. If you have the wireless keyboard that appears to be hooked to the hub too.
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!
--Brandon / Split Infinity Music
Now what i am suprised i havent seen yet is one of these mice chopped up and put on a toy gun. The end of the toy gun would have a laser pointer on the end to help you line up with your cross hairs initialy. Coupled with a projector you could have a lot of fun!
-- botsex is {grep;touch;strip;unzip;head;mount}
Our university has had those for about 6 months now. Pretty cool I'd say, but not perfect, sometimes its difficult to get the pointer quite in the right spots. Great for pointing to things in presentations, not much else. Also, its really easy to hit the clicker by accident when you're holding down the button on the bottom for the gyro thing. Kinda annoying in powerpoints. However if I remember correctly it works just fine on flat surface like a normal mouse. Thats my .02
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.
"I may be synthetic, but I'm not stupid." -- Bishop 341-B
Is it just the Linux drivers that are new? Because I have owned this mouse for like 4 months now (and the keyboard) and I don't see a newer one on the site. And it's 99.99, not 119.95, and you can get just the mouse for 79.99 from CC. Oh, and it's an awesome mouse, but I can't use it for games. I need the control a regular optical mouse offers. The rechargable batteries work really well, too. Now that there are Linux drivers, I guess I'll try it on my new box, too!
I tried to contact Gyration for support with my Ultra GT mouse. Their web-based live chat was never available during the hours they claim. I e-mailed them twice, but they ignored me. I called, was unable to reach a person, left a message. They ignored me. Finally I e-mailed them via the web chat link. After a few days I did receive a reply.
I've had one of these for a year. Love it. Works great, the rechargeable battery is great, the range is great. But for gaming, you need to put it on a mousepad. Waving it around in the air actually works pretty good for normal mousing, but you don't have enough control for a game. I just sit back on the couch and put a mouse pad on the cushion beside me ... the ultimate in laziness!
It doesn't have a 3rd button. No way I'm gonna buy it.
How can people live without the 3rd button in X ???
(and no, the wheel doesn't count. try clicking it repeatedly and reliably and you'll know why.)
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
I've got a dozen of this exact model in classrooms across the campus- I put them there last summer. We've had older versions (ball mouse) in place for ~3 years. Those are more expensive and have a much longer (~100 foot) range, but this isn't exactly a new product.
"Seven Deadly Sins? I thought it was a to-do list!"
Every few years we hear of another nifty free-space manual input. Again and again folks learn: GUI's and the human body aren't well suited for these, at least not within the contraints of a high efficiency/low physical labor/space constrained way.
Light pens, touch screens, ultrasonic rangefinders, tracker cameras, gyroscopic whatevers - all ignore the fundamental issue of "Gorilla Arm". Simply put nobody wants to be holding out their arms making little precise motions for any length of time.
Keyboards, as awfully designed as they usually are, at least allow one's arms to hang down. The same for mice - there's a reason your typing and mousing surfaces are typically 2' lower then your worktop. Ask any craftsperson - they use worbenches precisely to avoid their arms stretched out in front of them all day.
So unless you're into interpretive dance and don't mind the slowness of big gestures (and are up for the cardio) this whole category of technology is innapropriate for extended use. Particularly for the sedentary cubed masses. Invest in some good ergo furniture and input devices, get some decent lighting, and leave the hand-waving to the PHB's.
I don't read ACs: If a post isn't worth so much as a nom de plume to its author then I wont bother either.