A Pistol Mouse for Your Fragging Pleasure

ErgoSeating writes "In my search for an ergonomic mouse I stumbled upon something called the PistolMouse. This mouse is shaped like a pistol and uses a trigger as the left button but tracks with an optical sensor on the bottom, not the sight or barrel. In a twist of irony, the mouse is ergonomically shaped because the pistol grip alleviates stress on your carpal tunnel-ridden wrist. Its Linux compatible and looks like it could be just the thing to brighten up my desk. Here is a review of the item with some good pictures." Not sure how it's ironic -- the modern handgun reflects hundreds of years of user testing -- but it looks fun, and a hoot to travel with by air.

Comments

All that testing...

[Amiga Lover]

Not sure how it's ironic -- the modern handgun reflects hundreds of years of user testing

And it's one button. Apple must be onto something...

Re:All that testing...

[winkydink]

And it's one button.

Um, what about the safety?

Re:All that testing...

[Anonymous Coward]

What kind of pansy uses a safety?

Re:All that testing...

[winkydink]

A pansy with all his toes, Hopalong.

Re:All that testing...

[rsrsharma]

No, actually, it has a right click on the trigger guard and a scroll wheel (which I'm assuming also acts like a 3rd button).

Re:All that testing...

[Spy der Mann]

And it's one button. Apple must be onto something...

Wait a minute. If you want apple, shouldn't it be a CROSSBOW mouse? ^_^

Re:All that testing...

[anagama]

It's a funny joke. Let me be a wet blanket.

Some pistols don't have an additional safety beyond those that are built-in. Some incorporate the safety into the trigger itself -- i.e., when you pull on the trigger you automatically deactivate the safety. Revolvers typically don't have an external safety button but are considered safe with the hammer down. If you are paranoid about accidental discharge, you would keep the hammer down over an empty cylinder -- 100% impossibility of firing without pulling the trigger. Newer revolvers usually use a bar between the firing pin and hammer. The bar rises during the trigger pull. In this way, the hammer can be down over a full cylinder and still be completely safe because the hammer physically can't contact the firing pin. Scroll down to page 11 for a nice mechanical diagram.

Re:All that testing...

[Master of Transhuman]

Correct. Glocks have three safeties which means you cannot discharge the firearm by dropping it, but they are all released when you pull the trigger.

This is why Glocks are a favorite of law enforcement whose buffoons tend to drop their weapons (thus injuring their fellow officers) as well as forget to take off external safeties in firefights (thus getting themselves killed.)

However, you DO need to practice trigger finger control with a Glock - keep it OUT of the trigger guard until you need to fire.

Imagine one of those things

[Bananatree3]

in a fight with a PistolCat. I can't bare to think about it....

[Shudders]

ThinkGeek

[LukeTurner]

Been on Think Geek for ages... http://www.thinkgeek.com/computing/input/6e04/

Re:ThinkGeek

[Anonymous Coward]

Thank God, I was afraid I wasn't going to see a single "I've known about this forever!" post. I almost had to scroll off the front page to find this one! LukeTurner, you're the coolest!

faster than a speeding bullet

[Rooked_One]

not this new mouse... the slashdot effect. I was really wanting to see those images also.

Oops...

[rsrsharma]

Looks like the XYZ server got shot. That's what you get for playing with guns kids. :P

Firearms the original point and click interface

[arete]

Firearms: the original point and click interface.

Apparently that's all I have to say, but amazingly it's on topic in this story.

Re:Firearms the original point and click interface

[Speare]

Crossbows were made before firearms. Firearms may be merely an evolution of crossbows, where an explosion of powder was used instead of the release of a tense string. Crossbows themselves are merely bows which store your arm power until released, by, um, pointing and clicking.

Re:Firearms the original point and click interface

[arete]

While the firing of crossbows is certainly point and click, the loading and preparation is not. And my understanding is it's not reasonable to leave cocked crossbows lying around.

I usually take "point and click interface" to mean "interface that somebody probably smart put a lot of work into so that any unqualified moron can make do more or less what they want to great effect, although the user may not have considered or understand the ramifications of their actions"

That is why I usually consider cartidge firearms to be the original point and click interface. Sometimes I limit it to semiautomatic weapons and dual action revolvers, because you can click over and over with effect and without thought.

I respect your opinion, though, even though I think you're on a little bit of a slippery slope. Of course, the most effective point and click device is always a well-trained underling... but I was limited myself to technology.

Proving once again that I am a nerd.

Re:Firearms the original point and click interface

[Dun Malg]

I usually take "point and click interface" to mean "interface that somebody probably smart put a lot of work into so that any unqualified moron can make do more or less what they want to great effect, although the user may not have considered or understand the ramifications of their actions"

Funny you should phrase it this way, because this is exactly the reason the crossbow was developed. Archers with regular bows required years of training, while even a particularly thickheaded soldier could be taught to use a crossbow in about a week.

Re:Firearms the original point and click interface

[arete]

I'd accept that the crossbow might've been the first ranged weapon designed with that idea in mind, but I sustain the technology wasn't there to accomplish the goal of untrained killing until the cartidge.

As someone else pointed out, the amount of effort to cock a crossbow isn't necessarily tremendous - but it's definitely there. As I pointed out, using an underling isn't a technological P&C.

And as you point out, it only takes about a week of training for a thickheaded soldier to use a crossbow. To use a firearm at close range only requires watching TV - people successfully kill all the time with only that much training.

(This is not to dismiss the very real skills someone with mastery of firearms has, but they aren't required to be very deadly - at least at short range.)

To address another nit somebody might pick, I'd agree that both crossbows and bows were easier and more effective than early firearms. That was not true for an untrained user by the time of common cartidges.

To answer another uncle-post, with a dual action cartidge revolver, if you put the cartidges in the little holes and close it, all you need to do is pull the trigger.

And when you see somebody cock a gun in a movie, it's almost always stupid. Practicing proper gun safety generally means not having a round in the chamber. So you have to cock a semiautomatic or automatic weapon. Once. And you'd do this well before you entered combat, if you knew it was coming. If you cock your weapon after that, you're ejecting a good round from the chamber - wasting ammunition and making a fool of yourself. If a character walks up to another character and cocks his gun, either the director or the character is a fool.

Re:Firearms the original point and click interface

[roseblood]

Teaser: The advice given at the bottom of this comment should be read followed by anyone who has a FIREARM, a CAR, A COMPUTER, A CREDIT LINE/CARD, or a CHILD.

And as you point out, it only takes about a week of training for a thickheaded soldier to use a crossbow. To use a firearm at close range only requires watching TV - people successfully kill all the time with only that much training.

Okay, so having watched on TV a firearm being used, I can SAFELY defend my home and cause no risk to myself, my family, or my neighbors.

BULLSHIT.

You never see the people on TV learn how to even load the bloody firearm (yes, people do have to learn this, magazines don't come from the factory fully loaded, and many folks don't understand why you have to pull the slide back, nor where to find the button to press that lets the slide fall closed again... see my response to the next quote.)

You never see people on TV conern themselves with the corect selection of amunition. They never pick a bird-shot round when using a shotgun to defend themselves in a high-density urban setting (think apartments) you never see them choose frangible bullets to prevent over-penetration of any missed-rounds. Rounds that would othsewise transit through MANY walls before coming to rest. You never see them worry about the kids room being down the same hall that they're now using as a shooting gallery. Of course that'd make for damned boring TV.

PS: 12 Gua Remington Pump with 8 round magazine, first 3 shots are #8 bird shot, next 5 rounds are #4 shot. If three painful blasts of birdshot dosen't thwart someones intentions to do my family harm the #4 shot will most defenitely cause fatal harm to them (assuming the #8 wasn't fired at extremely close range.) My husband uses a Colt M1911 clone with "glass bullets" that will not penetrate more than 2 layers of sheetrock, but will carry a good deal of energy into a person who intends to do him or his family harm.

So you have to cock a semiautomatic or automatic weapon. Once. And you'd do this well before you entered combat, if you knew it was coming. If you cock your weapon after that, you're ejecting a good round from the chamber - wasting ammunition and making a fool of yourself. If a character walks up to another character and cocks his gun, either the director or the character is a fool.

You sir hve been watching ALOT of TV for your Firearms operation lessons.

COCKING a weapon means bringing the hammer (or hammer replacement) into position to strike the fireing pin (as opposed to being in a "rest" or "lowered" position.)

Weapons with external hamers often have this done automaticly when a round is chambered via the operation of a slide or lever.

Weapons with internal hammers are cocked ONLY by the cycling of the fireing action (cycle the bolt, slide, break-open the action, raise the falling block, etc.)

For example, you can not just "cock" a Glock sidearm. They have internal hammers that are set into the fireing position by retracting the slide fully reward and allowing the slide to fall into the battery position.

I've yet to see a movie where someone with an self-loading weapon (covers automatics and semi-automatics) cock a hammer. Often you see REVOLVERS getting cocked. Sometimes a slide is pulled back and is allowed to fall into battery (one assumes the weapon was carried with a full magazine but no round in the chamber.) But, I've yet to see someone cock a Glock on tv (by far the most popular gun on the TV shows I've watched.) Why don't people use old M1911s on TV? You CAN cock those, they have an external hammer.

But, point being, COCKING a firearm does NOT eject a good round for the chamber. Cycling the action may well do so, but setting an external hammer into a firing position will NOT do so.

I truely hope you do not have a firearm in your home as you appear to be lacking in some basic knowlege of firearms operation. If you own a firearm please seek some profesional instruction on the safe use of them. If you don't have one then don't get one till you get some saftey instruction.

PS: I think this advise just given should be followed by EVERYONE with a FIREARM, a CAR, a COMPUTER, a CREDIT CARD, or a CHILD.

they are ok

[ImTheDarkcyde]

i myself purchased one of these pistolmouses around christmas for 40 bucks, it is a very neat design, but i caution those with little desk space, as its about 2 inches longer than the standard mouse

it is also a very sensitive mouse, you'll find yourself turning down mouse sensitivity in some games (max payne, most noticibly)

my game performance hasnt increased at all, but there are a few games i just cannot play with it, games that rely on alot of scroll wheel usage

which brings me to the final point, the scroll wheel, if you use firefox (of course you do) chances are you are constantly middle clicking, well doing it horizontally lets you mess up and scroll/click instead at the same time, it gets annoying, but its not a big turn off

9/10

Mirror

[winkydink]

here

Article slashdotted - repost

[Anonymous Coward]

Posted anonymously - I'm no Karma whore :-)

Monster Gecko PistolMouse FPS

Every so often you get a chance to play with something that just brings out the inner Geek. This is that product. Designed for the hard core FPS player, the PistolMouse replicates the look and feel of a real pistol in a high resolution 800 DPI optical mouse. The PistolMouse FPS uses a high performance optical sensor that tracks surfaces by sampling an image up to 3400 times every second with a high accuracy of 800 dpi (dots per inch). The PistolMouse FPS responds to any movement in 10.9 milliseconds (1/100 of a second) and can sustain the full 800 dpi capture rate at speeds of 12.75 inches per second over a surface. It all sounds good on paper, but let's test this thing in the real world...

The First thing I noticed about the PistolMouse FPS is the high quality packaging. This box jumps out at you. Monster Gecko has really put together an attractive product in a stunning box.

The Pistol itself looks a lot like a replica Air Soft pistol. The design is ergometric with your hand naturally gripping the trigger and resting on the secondary button. The scroll wheel is always in easy reach of your thumb. The design allows the PistolMouse to be used with equal precision both left and right handed.

Pictures don't do this product justice. The PistolMouse is sturdy without feeling heavy or unresponsive at all. The triggers are crafted from color matched aluminum. Even after several days of twitch gaming it still feels as solid as day one.

All that aside, the real thrill is gripping the pistol and dishing out frags with a vengeance. The feel of a real pistol in your hand brings a new level of immersion to your favorite FPS. It's also a great attention getter; I can only begin to describe the constant stream of friends that want to try it out, even my wife had to try it! And who hasn't taken liberties with those crazy arcade pistols?

I put the PistolMouse through its paces using the latest Microsoft Drivers and my favorite twitch games, PainKiller and Battlefield: 1942. For prolonged testing I ran it through a marathon PlanetSide session. My mouse pad of choice was the EverGlide Giganta and the new XTrac Ripper XL. No driver is needed; the USB plug and play was painless.

There is a bit of a learning curve to the PistolMouse FPS. The most immediate change is the trigger function. Your Trigger acts as the primary fire and will both single and double click. This allows you to hold down the fire button for some nice automatic action. The secondary trigger is tucked under the trigger guard and after a few misfires was pretty easy to use. The scroll wheel is easy to find without looking down and very responsive. Once you get the feel down you notice the natural ergometric design makes your left to right motions much faster than with a traditional mouse. Even after nearly 4 hours of play I felt no wrist strain.

The larger size foot print over whelmed my Giganta at 6 ½" by 3" but worked nicely on the Ripper XL. Motion was fluid and responsive even during high speed play. The only drawback over my regular mouse is the PistolMouse only supports the functions of a traditional 3 button Scroll mouse. This 3 button limitation means my trusty old mouse won't be replaced yet. $69.95 may be a bit pricy for a FPS specialty mouse but with the level of quality Monster Gecko has put into the PistolMouse FPS, this might just put that smile on your face.

Right now Monster Gecko is offering a 30 Day money back Guarantee on the Pistol Mouse FPS through www.monstergecko.com. What have you got to loose?

Club Overclocker Rating

Innovation:
10 out of 10

Performance:
9.0 out of 10

Quality:
9.0 out of 10

Stability:
N/A

Compatibility:
7.5 out of 10

Overclocking:
N/A

Software Pack:
N/A

Precision

[HoaryCripple]

As a "fast twitch" player who's been playing first person shooters for longer than I care to admit, I highly doubt I would ever use this product. It forces you to use the much less precise muscles of the shoulder and upper arm as opposed to the muscles of the forearm. I'll take my carpal tunnel syndrome thank you.

Re:Precision

[iPodUser]

I'm with you, man. You spend your whole life learnig another system, then you have to learn something new.

Re:Precision

[jackbird]

Your left hand is busy with the movement keys, and foot pedals are too slow. Check out Belkin's Nostromo n52, though.

Irony

[UserChrisCanter4]

Since (situational) irony is the opposite of what's expected, I would say that the submitter was probably correct in his or her use of "ironic." If I were to encounter something like this, I would immediately assume that it was a lame gimmick built to cheesily cash in on the novelty market, which would probably make me doubt the mouse's ergonomics.

Re:Irony

[geeber]

I believe the real irony hear is in the notion of a Slashdot editor trying to correct someone else's grammar usage.

safety warning

[Stephen Samuel]

Just remember: If your company, for some reason, gets raided keep your hand away from the mouse or carpal tunnel syndrome may be the least of your medical problems. Slashdot can safely wait until the cops have gone home.

Re:safety warning

[eis271828]

This also is not the ideal mouse to use with a laptop on a plane.

Re:Not new

[Bones3D_mac]

It surprises me that light guns haven't been brought back due to the popularity of First Person Shooters. How difficult could it be to add motion sensors to one... so you could tilt the gun to strafe/move, rotate to turn and lift/drop for jump and crouch?

Ancient light pen/mice and true vector displays

[G4from128k]

Back in the day (1983), I used a CAD system that had a light pen pointer and a true vector display. The CAD software drew the picture by plotting the electron beam on a circular CRT screen (i.e., it did not use a raster scan). The base of the desk-sized console had a massive rack of boards that converted the line list into vector scan deflections. The pen (you touched the pen directly to the screen) had a small hole and photodiode that monitored the timing of the trace to determine what you were pointing at.

Re:Not new

[Kesh]

Especially with the advent of Bluetooth. Cuts the need for a cord or IR sensor, so you can wave the light gun around more freely.

Hundreds of Years?

[serutan]

the modern handgun reflects hundreds of years of user testing

Obviously more than the Federation did when they came up with the "dust buster" phasers.

Used one, didn't like it

[Matimus]

The company that makes these pistol mice sponsored PDXLAN 5.05 in March, which I attended. At first they seemed kind of neat, but everyone pretty much figured out that they they were only nice to look at after only a few minutes. For starters the lever arm on the trigger to 'click' the mouse is big, every time you want to 'click' you are moving your index finger nearly 1 cm. 1 cm doesn't seem like much, untill you figure that a regular mouse only takes about 1mm (or less). Also your wrist rests on the table in a strange position and you end up rubbing the bone on your wrist against the table, and it becomes very uncomfortable. Third, you can elevate your arm above the table so as not to rub your wrist, but then you are actually putting quite a bit of work into your arm, which is definitely not ergonomic. Lastly, most of the fine control that you do with your mouse is via your finger tips, with this mouse all of the control is done via your whole arm. Needless to say, by the end of PDXLAN they were giving these away as raffle prizes, and some of the winners wouldn't even come up to claim their prize!

Oh, and remember what I said about them being nice to look at, that is only the first time you see it, after about a minute the novelty wears off and you realize how dumb looking it really is.

Re:Not new

[Mr.Zong]

Like everything in life, it has to do with the muscle composition of your average geek.

Holding a 1.5 lbs light gun up for 20 minute intervals makes girly arms tired.

I'll wait until the next version...

[Karl Tacheron]

I hear that's when they implement the sideways "gangsta grip" feature.

Re:Not new

[Lisandro]

Because it's not simple. The same movement you would need to steer around is the movement needed to aim at certain parts of the screen - which is what you'd use the gun for, otherwise it becomes a fancy mouse, letting you only shoot at the center of the screen. A lot of the "immersiveness" of FPSs comes from the fact you're pretty much free to move and look/aim arround.

I remember the Time Crisis series at the arcades used a lightgun and a pedal to take cover / reload the gun. I think that's pretty much as far as you can go without having to actually physically move.

Chances of getting this into Australia?

[B747SP]

Australian Customs are pretty strict on guns, and things that look like guns. Even the Old Namco Gun-Con for the original Playstation wasn't allowed in until the importers/manufacturers put flourescent orange tape up the sides. I wonder how we'll go with this one.

Having said that, one does see obviously illegal-import gaming 'guns' for sale at markets and stuff from time to time, and at least one online store in Australia claims to have stock of this PistolMouse, so some folks are sneaking under the radar.

Vertical mice aren't anything new though. I've been using the 3M 'Renaissance Mouse' for years now - I've got four of them in various places at home and work. A couple of random images courtesy google image search here.

A key point I've found with the 3M mice is that they're pretty hard to control for a few days, and you never really regain the fine control that you have with a regular horizontal mouse. I can't help but wonder if the relative lack of control will be a problem for gamers. Remember, this 'gun' must slide around on the surface of a table, so it's going to operate like a vertical mouse, not a free-moving gun. I often keep two mice plugged into my computers - one of these for long-term comfort, and a regular mouse for when I need fine control, say with photoshop or the Gimp.

Innovative designs

[chrism238]

I use a mouse shaped like a steering wheel, with two foot pedals attached - well, that's what I tell my boss it's for, anyway.

Re:Not new

[khrtt]

It doesn't function like a gun, and it doesn't have to look like one, either. There are lots of other artefacts with a pistol grip that don't look like guns at all - from old 8mm film cameras to hairdriers.

Heck, there are even guns that don't look like guns.

Besides, the classical light pen/gun design relies on the scanning of the electron beam in the CRT display to detect where the thing is pointed, so it won't work with LCD displays. And bluetooth has too much latency for the type of sync required to detect the exact moment when the electron beam crosses the spot on the screen where the pen/gun is pointed - you'd neen some means of feeding the video sync pulses to the gun electronics in real time. Or, an alternative design based on a different principle, possibly with some gizmo installed at the edge of your monitor.

comfy but counterintuitive.

[gojrocknyc]

got one as a gift; its comfy but counterintuitive. not recommended.

would work great for mame

[Hohlraum]

most/all MAME emulated games that support a light gun also support a mouse but not visa versa. So this means that games like Terminator 2 will work great.

and a hoot to travel with by air.

[jlowery]

Oh yeah, those TSA guys are well known for their sense of humor. Why not really laugh it up with:

1) batteries wrapped together with duct tape
2) biohazard stickers on your carry-on
3) a fuse taped to the heel of your shoe
4) a snazzy tinfoil hat
5) fond rememberances of the time you met Osama

Re:Need sign if getting one of these...

[Mskpath3]

Technical note : While their technically is a .45 magnum cartridge (.45 Winchester Magnum), it is an exceedingly rare/exotic cartridge.

You're probably thinking of the venerable .44 magnum which is the gold standard "hand cannon" round. It was also Dirty Harry's cartridge of choice (fired from a S&W model 29).

Also, the common ".45" is the .45 ACP cartridge, which while hugely popular in the shooting community, is significantly less powerful than the .44 magnum (roughly 50% the muzzle energy).

Re:Over-sized?

[Farmer Tim]

You raise a good safety issue: its a very bad idea getting people used to holding gun-shaped objects in Clippy's presence.

Perific. More buttons and more options.

[richie2000]

The Perific Dual Mouse already does this, except it can also be used as a regular mouse, two-handed, pistol-grip, you name it. It's probably even better ergonimically speaking, since it allows for more varied usage. And, it has more buttons and a trackball. Win-win!

Re:Not new

[Tim C]

My guess is that it simply wouldn't work. If raising and lowering the gun is jump/crouch, how do you aim up and down? Not to mention the sheer physicality of holding it up and waggling it about for extended periods - maybe it would be ok for a few minutes at a time, but an hour or two? That's before we get on to the technical problems, of course, like that it simply won't work with an LCD.

Quite often, if you're sat wondering "how come no-one has done $foo?", it's becuse someone tried $foo and it just didn't work out. (That shouldn't necessarily stop you from trying yourself, of course)