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

FOR GAMING?

[way2trivial]

my hands shake enough in two dimensions thank you very much....

seriously, if it moves based on tilting, that would suck for games.

Re:FOR GAMING?

[Metallic Matty]

seriously, if it moves based on tilting, that would suck for games.

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

Re:FOR GAMING?

[DigitaLunatiC]

Not if you could actually hold the thing like a gun. If you were to jump around a corner in CS and actually point and aim like a real gun, that would be pretty helpful.

Re:FOR GAMING?

[nacturation]

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

Does this mean you already have the monitor strapped to your head?

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.

Re:FOR GAMING?

[takshaka]

In fact, I used to practice just such a thing: shooting bottles out of the air with pistols. It's a bit harder to do now that I'm in the city, I understand the cops don't like that.

Those damn recycling laws get more strict every day.

iXMicro?

[BWJones]

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?

Re:iXMicro?

[n0nsensical]

So, why has it taken so long to get these out to a wider audience?

Uh, because they cost $100-200?! Nah, that couldn't be it...

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.

hehehehe....

[Tsali]

So if I tip my TV tray/laptop stand, my mouse position would stay in place? Sweet!

Great for airplanes!

Re:hehehehe....

[nacturation]

Well, you could write some software which, given the starting direction, will take the mouse movements, convert them to the correct acceleration vectors, and try to plot the airplane's course on a map. With any luck, by the end of the flight you might get it within 1000 miles of where you should be landing.

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.

Lag time?

[wedding]

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.

Re:Lag time?

[c4Ff3In3 4ddiC]

I sucked at Enemy Territory with a wired optical. Then, I bought (for $60) a Logitech MX 700 wireless optical mouse.

... I still suck.

Cool, but you still need to type...

[gringo_john]

Looking at the photo of the guy in the ad. It looks like he's pretty happy using the mouse.

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.

Excellent

[Kelz]

Now I can have a purpose for waving my hands in the air for no apparent reason!

And they said I was mad....

Re:Excellent

[exp(pi*sqrt(163))]

What? Looking like Tom Cruise in Minority Report wasn't reason enough?

Just like all the other one of a kind gyra-mice.

[Kenja]

This has been done before. In fact its still being done for less. However, I wonder if these things are good for RSI.

Difficult

[deputydink]

I have one of these i use with a big plasma in my boardroom. Its great for powerpoint but utterly useless for much else unless you've gotten accustomed to it. However, its a great toy and a better conversation piece.

In my mind the best thing about it watching my partners try to navigate their hotmail inboxes during presentation with it.

He's not kidding =)

[Andorion]

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

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.

Re:He's not kidding =)

[wankledot]

Which is nearly impossible. Supporting your entire arm in the air with just your fingertips on the mouse is not realistic, and nearly impossible for any extended period of time. It's perfectly acceptable to rest part of your arm/wrist/hand on the desk, the angle at which it rests, and making sure you are not bending your wrist excessively from side to side is more important.

Re:He's not kidding =)

[Tackhead]

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

Any decent occupational health and safety professional will also tell you stuff like "go outside and exercise, rather than spend all night gaming."

...so now you know why we're not about to take gaming advice from one.

Re:He's not kidding =)

[photonX]

I've had extensive cervical spine surgery, and find it impossible to work on a desktop that doesn't have room to rest my entire arm, never mind the wrist. So as far as ergonomics go, individual user requirements can vary.

On the other hand, raving schizophrenic maniacs can now look perfectly normal! All they have to do is strap on a headset and carry a cordless mouse around, and they'll look like they are hard at work.

Mice are so 20th Century

[Proneax]

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.

For Example:

1. Grab an icon and crush it to delete
2. Twist an icon to open it
3. Flick my finger to minimize the window
4. Like mouse gestures in mozilla? Try hand gestures
5. Think two handed manipulation
6. Possibly integrate keyboard function into them for mobile apps
7. Think application-specific like photoshop functions, word processing etc.
8. Think 3d cad manipulation with your hands
9. Drawback: probably not good for gaming, but as the technology matures who knows? /me runs to USPTO to file.

Use ducktape

[after]

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.

Line of Sight?

[theraccoon]

Extra long 30 foot radio range. Line of sight not required!

Cause you just know that's a useful feature for your mouse!

And..

[kgayer]

you get to look like your whackin off... Great!

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.

Wireless Mice for gaming

[Anonymous Coward]

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

Mouse Accuracy is a Big Issue

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

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.

Emotive computing

[tjwhaynes]

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:

1. Bunch your fist and that error message goes away.
2. Bang your palm on the keyboard to fix that compilation problem.
3. Raise your middle finger to the sky and watch your machine shutdown.

Finally - a computer that responds to your emotions! :-)

Cheers,

Toby Haynes

Prior art

[Carnildo]

/me runs to USPTO to file.

Fakespace beat you to it

God no...

[Cyno01]

I'd end up with neckstrain worse than when i started playing descent...

Works with Linux

[rjamestaylor]

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!

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.