Slashdot Mirror
Mouse May be Replaced by "Nouse"
mteichrob writes "A Canadian inventor has designed a computer mouse steered by movements of the nose and eyelids. The invention, dubbed a "Nouse," is meant to help people with a disability use a computer.
I think this could also be quite useful for the average office lackey like me! As good as my ergonomic mouse/keyboard combo is, less body movement is still a better replacement."
A mouse that can be moved by the nose and eyelids? I think the most obvious question is, "What happens when you sneeze?" I'd hate to accidentally send a reboot command during a sneeze.
I'd also be curious to see how it would affect twitch gaming where quick reflexes with a mouse are paramount.
Hooray for less body movement! Let's give this technology a test drive:
Me: Twitches nose left
Computer: Moves cursor left
Me: Neat! Blinks
Computer: Opens folder
Me: Excellent! Hey, who put all this black pepper in my sandwich? Aaaaachoooo!
Computer: Reformats hard drive
Oh, and the Nouse has already been covered on Slashdot. Come on, a simple Slashdot search of "nouse" turns this one up.
no - really, I just sneezed!
"Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity." - Hanlon's Razor
What? I like to eat soup while I surf the web.. ya' perv.
;)
"A witty saying proves nothing." ~Voltaire
"d'Oh!" ~Homer
I can just see it now!
*Wiggle*
*Sniff*
HEADSHOT!
Without a proper flamewar, Anonymous was undecided on what shell to run.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Perhaps if your goal is to become as fit as Stephen Hawking, but through lack of exercise rather than disease.
http://alternatives.rzero.com/
The porn browsing possibilities seem endless!
Fap fap fap...
If it's the same one (I couldn't access the CBC report linked to so I googled it) then it's much more than just using your nose and eyelids for a mouse- it's full face tracking software at a subpixel resolution.
Which is a really cool idea- it means that a webcam can replace the mouse.
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
Great for people with disabilities, but...
But how the hell will we, as IT people, make it look like we are frantically busy without lots of keyboard mashing and mouse piloting?!?!?!
http://www.atarimuseum.com/videogames/consoles/260 0/mindlink.html
--- Ban humanity.
When office politics, job stress, insane deadlines, an IT support from hell drive you insane, you might just well find it impossible to use your nouse due to all the nervous twitching.
... in only few simple steps it can transform into a noose!
That's when a wired mouse is still handy
As good as my ergonomic mouse/keyboard combo is, less body movement is still a better replacement.
I don't know about you, but this seems like it would get very tiring. I mean I can't flare my nostrils all day, the muscles in my nose start to get sore. What about people that have twitches, tics, or whatever you like to call it. Not to mention the sneezes (I know somebody already mentioned it in an earlier thread).
The geek in me does really want to try this though, unless you have a disablility though it's definitely a novelty.
Anyone besides me read this as "No Use"?
That'll also make it more fun when Windows crashes, because I'll have something more cuddly/furry to bang on instead of the keyboard.
An Indian-American Hindu committed to non-violent thought/speech/action alarmed by the global explosion of radical Islam
What about a pouse? Kill two birds with one stone.
hi
Somewhere in the world, bathed in the light of a monitor displaying this Slashdot article, someone with their nose resting on their mouse is smiling...
--
Was it the sheep climbing onto the altar, or the cattle lowing to be slain,
or the Son of God hanging dead and bloodied on a cross that told me this was a world condemned, but loved and bought with blood.
or, perhaps it'll be replaced by keyboard
I made something like this before - You could control things with your lips. I called it "Louse".
:(
It never caught on
We all understand that this will never replace the mouse and keyboard. Hands are just, well, more dextrous.
But for some disabled it will be a godsend. High spinal cord injuries and other conditions can make it difficult to use or control the hands to the degree required by mouse and keyboard. The ability to use the face will make life a lot easier for these people.
The man who never alters his opinion is like the stagnant water and breeds Reptiles of the Mind -- William Blake
You can't expect the average user to never blink when using a computer. I mean, I wouldn't want to have to click on something every 15 seconds just to keep my eyes from drying out. I guess they could have it only activate with a wink, and then it would only mess up when you got something in your eye. Playing a first person shooter would be kind of hard though...
-You're only as clean as your towel.
Release: Microsoft Windows(TM) has a small issue with the nouse drivers.
Issue: The system appears to crash often Solution: This is not really an issue this is due to the auto memory clean which is designed to fix the memory leaks in Windows and the applications and force the user to reboot once a day
Issue: No I mean *really* often
Solution: This is due to a small problem with the Nouse drivers. The problem is due to Nouse inc. and is not by MS, though we wrote and certified the drivers. The OS accidently thnks that the eye blink to be Crt+Alt+Del. The original intention was Crtl+Alt+Del = left eye half blink, right eye full blink and simultaneous nose left twitch. However a simple fix is available , download this 1GB patch and do not blink your eyes. NO you can not blink you eyes when u run Windows, we mentioned that in the EULA didnt we ?
As good as my ergonomic mouse/keyboard combo is, less body movement is still a better replacement.
How lazy can you get?
If you think the exercise you're getting from moving a mouse around is keeping you in shape, you're probably a hopeless case anyway.
Don't blame me; I'm never given mod points.
You can find Dmitry (the inventor's) webpage here. Lots of interesting stuff, including some interesting facial recognition and tracking work.
...until you get a bad case of carpal nasal syndrome.
When working with a Nouse, consider taking a break of 15 minutes every hour or you might experience Nousea that will prevent further work for the next 24 hours.
I would be quite happy if just the window focus would follow to wherever I was looking. Can't say how many times I have typed important things like "reboot" or "rm -rf foo" in the wrong window just because my window focus didn't magically follow where I was looking. If they could get around to just doing that then maybe the days of "focus follows mouse" would be over.
On the other hand, the creamy filling from twinkies wouldn't clog up my optical mouse every day...
Here
I don't have a web-cam handy, so if someone could give this a spin a let us know how well it works, that would be very much appreciated.
If it works well enough, I would definitely use something like this to replace my mouse for everyday tasks. It wouldn't replace the keyboard, but it's always been the mouse that's caused most of my RSI-like symptoms.
Please mod this post only if you think others should/n't read this. I have enough ego^H^H^Hkarma. Thanks!
What would a device called "house" be like? A hand-drive mouse, perhaps?
Oh, wait...
is the fact that you don't have a nose?
Prof. Tom Hutchinson at the University of Virginia has been researching this subject for decades. His system lets you control the cursor with the movement of your eyes and can track & record your eyes as you look across the screen. It's been in use for years for a great deal of UI research in addition to it's potential for handicapped users.
As good as my ergonomic mouse/keyboard combo is, less body movement is still a better replacement.
Just because you're moving less doesn't mean you'll be under less strain. It's the naturalness of the movement (however big or small) that's important.
Now, like any good Slashdottie, I haven't read the f...ing article, but if this "nouse" requires you to hold your head perfectly still, I can guarantee you that your neck muscles will be weeping by the end of the day.
Accountability on the heads of the powerful.
Power in the hands of the accountable.
I know the eye movements get be tracked, but I think for a good interaction with a gui toolkit it needs
to be really acurate to hit a button without hitting the other one right next to it.
Or selecting/high-lighting text.
I think that can be tricky.
I'm no longer current on the research on pointing and control devices, and I don't recall reading any of Gorodnichy's papers, so for what it's worth:
This approach, at it's best, could work as a secondary pointing and control device. I primary device requires a very high degree of control. The hands and fingers are excellent for manipulating a primary device because they are very good at precise, controlled movement and manipulation of other objects through tactile feedback alone and especially well in coordination with vision.
The nose and eyelids, in contrast, are not capable of such movement and coordination. People don't have the necessary muscular control and coordination in their neck and facial muscles.
The human body does have some alternatives to the hands that can be good alternatives to those who cannot use their hands and fingers: feet, toes, tongue, and breath are the most promising.
What's going to happen to a nouse user? All that extra activity is going to make very strong neck muscles. Wouldn't want to piss the bloke off and get head-butted.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
The pretty girl in the cubicle across from me-- is she winking at me, or just right-clicking?
"The first rule of intelligent tinkering is to save all the pieces." --Aldo Leopold (Paraphrased)