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A DIY Mid-Air Pointing Device
Werner Heuser
writes with an article in Linuxdevices on building your own handheld
pointing device that works in mid-air. There is a YouTube video
showing the Soap in action and detailed instructions to make your own
Soap. From the article: "'Soap,' which resembles a bar of soap,
is based on hardware found in a common wireless optical mouse, and is
relatively easy to make, according to its inventors. Imagine numerous
situations in which one might wish to control an appliance while
standing or walking, for example, when giving a slide presentation or
interacting with a wall-sized display."
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...you can try an Air Mouse from Gryration. I know we're all really excited about the Wii and all, but, honestly, it wasn't the first, and isn't the only, device that does motion sensing.
I know it's not home made, but it does the job pretty well.
TW
Sounds like a alwsome idea, kinda reminds me of the opical mouse scanner
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Except that the stubby thing is attached to a computer.
I believe that
Simple Unexpected Concrete Credible Emotional Stories
This pretty much looks like the optical equivalent of picking up a ball mouse and rolling the ball.
It doesn't have any sort of motion-sensing features, nor any pointing features (that is, it's not like a laser pointer with feedback).
All in all: slow news day.
- RG>
Hey pal, this isn't a pleasantforest, so don't waste my time with pleasantries!
I like the joystick functionality, but I find it hard to believe the "belt" actions are as versitile as my mouse on a desktop. I think a better design might use a flattened oval-shaped device (no 90 degree corners), as it would allow free-er transition between directions. Is this design strictly limited to one type of click, it seems so to me...
Yeah, most of FPS gamers I know could use some soap...
I left my wallet in El Sigundo!
WARNING: Dropping Soap and bending over to pick it up can result in severe bowel obstruction, rectal wall damage, and debilitating anal pain. Please use caution when picking up soap, always scan the area you are picking Soap up in. As always, bend over at your own risk.
Yeah, my karma sucks....but so do the mods.
It is extremely useful for my current setup though where I have my 40" hidef LCD hooked up via DVI->HDMI to my computer. Once I get a wireless keyboard I'll be able to play WoW from my couch!
The other cool thing is that you can have multiple mice plugged in at the same time, and both will work. They just both control the same cursor.
These are no Lawnmower man mice, but they're close.
Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
...it launches a powerpoint presentation featuring the latest statistics on prison rape.
And then you have to completely rebuild the thing when you need to replace the batteries. No thanks.
It would be nice to build a squashed sphere version of this device with two mouse buttons and a scroll wheel. If the scroll wheel was moved just a bit deeper into the shell, you could perform belt actions without accidentally triggering the wheel, and the location of the wheel would provide a nice tactile reference to mouse orientation.
It's an interesting new method of cursor control, but I doubt it's all that accurate or useful for playing games(or anything else requiring much for clicking on specific targets). Since you're spinning the inards of the device around, and the button/s with it, that could make quickly clicking to fire your gun a problem. You'll need to 1: know if your on the top or bottom of the mouse to know which side the button is on(though this could be resolved by some sort of bumps on the inards to signify which side is which), and 2: moving your finger or thumb to the button would probably result in more movement of the cursor.
It looks like the dude controlling the mouse onscreen to click folders and other small targets is having a bit of hard time with accurate clicking.
But to be fair, its just the guts of a mouse in a hunk of fabric... not some device designed with two million dollars of R&D and a 20 man team. It is cool for what it is. Its a good concept piece or just a bit of fun. Perhaps it will lead to more functional devices based on the same methods of movement. So with all that said, I do think its rather cool.
Microsoft Researchers invent something...And then giving it away?
:D
Since when have Microsoft given anything for free (without an agenda...probably an evil agenda...very evil), much less a DIY guide?
And did anyone else notice the irony of getting it posted on _linux_devices?
Just my 0.50Kronor
...by turning my mouse over and rolling the ball with my thumb. I'm doing it right now with my laser mouse. They call this an invention?...it's on the same level as Mentos in Diet Coke as near as I tell.
You can tell someone hasn't played much UT2k4 before by the fact that they never doubletap and run everywhere... n00bs!
...I believe. The motion sensing is actually from an ADI 6DOF accelerometer sensor.
I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the State of Texas
You know that this is probably violating someone's patent. Probably MULTIPLE patents!
I think the big news is that, contrary to popular /. thought, MS does innovate ; )
It looks like they are trying to re-invent the wheel...by making it a triangle.
Besides, the moment you stop applying the proper pressure, the cursor resets back to it's starting position(or close to it), making accurate clicking difficult.
Tip: When demonstrating how easy it is to use a tool, do not include a video showing how difficult it is to said tool.
The "experts" decided that OK on the right, while not natural for left-to-right readers, was optimal for a mouse.
With other pointer devices (touch screen, touch pad, wiii-controller, bar-of-soap), such an optimization is not helpful.
So can we now put the OK CANCEL back to left-to-right ordering?
I'm sure there are some uses where being able to point "in mid air" is a great feature.
But unless we get to the point where people write code, check e-mail, etc, at something other than a desk sitting at a screen, the $20 mouse on my desktop works fine.
Also, I question the utility of this for most purposes. One of the reasons why current mice work on a table top is because THAT'S WHERE YOUR HAND IS. I spend a lot of time with a mouse in my hand, and if I was holding an object "floating in space," my arm would get VERY VERY tired.
For most purposes other than gaming (and, I suppose, giving a presentation, but I consider even that generous), this is a solution to a problem you probably don't have.
why are those guys still pointing the damn thing at the monitor, as if it needed line of sight to work? Doesn't that just annoy you? I mean, the whole benefit of this thing is I could move the cursor around while my hand is stuffed down my pants...
There exists no way of exchanging information without making judgments. --Bene Gesserit Axiom
good jokes all.. /clap clap
Nonsense aside, where is my power glove for PC? I should be able to navigate 3d environments by moving both my hands, one for motion the other for grabbing/moving data/files. Go download Tactile3d and play with it for a minute to better understand the concept. then imagine a device similar to the Wii's for navigation. It would make such systems faster to navigate & therefore useful!
I think it's absurd that a console should have something my PC does not.
Glad to see other people are thinking along the same lines...
side note: i bet the power glove is reintroduced on the Wii..
Kill your TV
...can I write a driver for Soap using SOAP?
Chris Mattern
Here's the link. The guy who conceived it works at Microsoft Research. See his resume (WARNING! PDF!)
I think he even did it as part of his job, but for some reason I can't find where I've seen it...
4Z5TX
Not to mention that, but this is about three months old. Its only when it gets reported on the FOSS news-o-sphere (or whatever the fuck you'd call it) that it gets on /.
one points over there. one points up. both mean something else when viewed by others.
(points)
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
...which sells in europe for abt. 40 EURs. The wii remote uses ordinary bluetooth, drivers exist for ALL common OSes (win, osx, linux, see http://wiihacks.blogspot.com/ and http://www.wiili.org/ for further infos) and you got:
...and you're done!
- a precise mouse-like pointing device (you've got to build yourself a simple "sensor bar" which consists only of a couple of IR LEDs as wii (hoho) all know)
- 3 dimensional acceleration/motion sensors
- couple of buttons
Still like my trackball better and it doesn't require a desk either. It looked like there were precision issues.
What happens if you are playing an FPS and you drop it? Or, worse yet, Fido gets ahold of it and, if he, like my dog, doesn't chew his 'food' before swallowing it, eats the damn thing?
Pretty interesting device, though. However, I still think a mouse with an inertia-driven sensing device, as is already currently available, would be a better choice, since you could provide more features on the device, rather than a singe button. I would still prefer my now ancient wireless multibutton mouse, especially for gaming. Would LOVE to get the inertia-driven mouse, but I didn't have the $$ to buy it at the time was building my system.
Knowing Google's lust for data collection, the Soviet Union is still alive and well inside the psyche of Sergey Brin....
A DIY mid air pointing device? They're called "fingers". Shit! Is Bill Gates gonna patent those now?
How do they levitate it? Does it stop working if I hold it in my hand, preventing it from being in mid-air?
... and then they built the supercollider.
fondling a Fraggle.
If you do what you always did, you get what you always got.
'handheld pointing device that works in mid-air.'
:-)
I use a stick for that. Can wave it about all over the mid air space. Also helps wake people up when you bash it against a desk or white board.
Sure enough, the cow costume was hanging up next to the superhero outfit and sailors uniform. (S,Spud)