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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."
If you own a Wii (and a computer with Blue Tooth) you can check out WiiLi.org and use your Wiimote on your PC ...
On top of that, I think most people know the Wiimote isn't the first motion sensing device (or free hand moust); it is just one of the most complete devices and the only one being pushed by a major coporation. If it wasn't for Nintendo ensuring hundreds of games were being produced for the Wii, it would mostly just end up being a novelty and a piece of triva 10 years from now.
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.
Similar, but only in the manner that they can be used without a surface to press against.
Tilt sensing is fundamentally different than this or a flying trackball. For one thing, if you set this down, your control point won't go careening to one side or another. Tilt sensitive devices are inherently joysticks. A mouse is a mouse. The Wiimote may bridge that gap, but only if you have an IR sensor beam to provide a position reference.
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.
The article is about manipulating items you bought to make something new, that's like saying making a ball of rubber bands out of rubber bands is violating patent. It's not a commercially marketed device yet, so patents are a non-issue.
But thanks for playing.
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