The Mouse Vanishes

countertrolling sends in a clip from Wired that begins "...researchers at MIT have found a method to let users click and scroll exactly the same way they would with a computer mouse, without the device actually being there. Cup your palm, move it around on a table and a cursor on the screen hovers. Tap on the table like you would click a real mouse, and the computer responds. It's one step beyond cordless. It's an invisible mouse. The project, called 'Mouseless,' uses an infrared laser beam and camera to track the movements of the palm and fingers and translate them into computer commands... A working prototype of the Mouseless system costs approximately $20 to build, says Pranav Mistry, who is leading the project."

Comments

Interesting applications

[dreamchaser]

Once you have technology like this up and running why limit it to the X-Y axis? Being able to manipulate the interface with various gestures in three dimensions has long been a dream of science fiction. This kind of thing just brings it closer to reality.

Re:Interesting applications

[cjkyroua]

This is the same guy that demoed Sixth Sense at the TED conference awhile back...http://www.pranavmistry.com/ This project seems like a good idea to ease the public into hardware free interaction with computers. I'm eagerly anticipating Pranav to release his Sixth Sense code and let us start playing with it. That project takes this idea into three dimensions.

Re:Interesting applications

[yanyan]

G-Speak is also amazing. http://oblong.com/

Mmmmmm..... no KISS here?

[courteaudotbiz]

Keep It Simple Stupid... I love my mouse, I love my trackball. It's simple, it can easily be replaced, requires almost no processing power and can be knocked on the table when it does not work, just for anger relief.

This kind of device, I guess, would require a lot more computing power to use, would eventually be integrated, and at 20 bucks for the thing, would break in the blink of an eye. Also, what about lag? I hate this 2ms - 5ms lag in the iPhone...

Please, I want to keep my hardware, plastic optical mouse.

Re:Mmmmmm..... no KISS here?

[ctsupafly]

As someone who maintains laser equipment for a living, yes, lasers will give maintenance & hardware problems... I'd starve if they didn't.

Re:forget mouseless

[Monkeedude1212]

Would you settle for translucent?

Or perhaps you meant holographic (still in pre alpha stages)

Dragging

[Conspiracy_Of_Doves]

It looks like your fingers have to normally stay in contact with the table. So how does dragging work and how do you keep from dragging the mouse all the time?

Re:I like holding the mouse over fake holding one!

[thePig]

This will be a boon for laptops though. I felt that trackpad is not as useful as mouse - this can alleviate that issue

Re:I like holding the mouse over fake holding one!

[neanderslob]

My thoughts exactly! I'm not saying that it couldn't have future applications that are more useful but seriously MIT. We've got a record oil spill in the gulf, global warming, an energy and water crisis and you guys are figuring out how to build a trackpad without the trackpad? Fer goodness sake, we in the scientific world have really gotta get off this proverbial hard on for consumer electronics for a generation or so. There are better things to do.

Re:Tappin to the music...

[smi.james.th]

>

I have a Toshiba Satellite S25-L119 (which is a 3+ year old budget laptop) and I can do the 2-finger scroll with its touchpad. Well, in Linux anyways... not in Windows (go figure)

Yes, all of the laptops that I've got (even old ones) running linux can do a two finger scroll thing. The setting to turn it on is tricky to find, though, I can never remember where it is.