Lots More Input Device Concepts

Elliptic Labs have designed a touchless 3D user interface: it detects finger movement in 3D without you touching the screen.

While the hows and whys are not explained, there seems to be a black pyramid that I am guessing does some sort of radar-like tracking of the finger tip. I wonder if we'd have to paint our fingernail?

In any case, the concpet suffers the same problem of all touch (or touchless, in this case) interfaces: the need to have your hand in the air, which gets tiring. There's a reason the keyboard and mouse remain popular -- gravity. (Probably the same reason TabletPCs are never popular.)

Moldable Mice

Meanwhile, Engaget reports on two new designs of mice:

-- Lite-On's Moldable Mouse takes whatever shape you want. I'd like that, because I find all mice to be too narrow for my liking. It uses lightweight modeling clay covered by nylon-polyurethane fabric.

-- Jelly Click is an inflatable mouse. Deflated, it's flat for travel; inflate it for use.

Comments

[Jim L]

To Quote: "(Probably the same reason TabletPCs are never popular.)" -
And so... that's why you now have a Tablet PC, because its not popular??? :)

Jim

[ralphg]

Jim:

I bought it to test out tablet-based software. Having used it, I would never buy another one because it is hard to use: I need to hit the screen hard (not just touch, as on a PalmPilot) with the stylus or finger for the taps to register.

Last summer, I had numerous reasons to buy this particular model:

1. My daughter needed a notebook computer for school, so I gave her mine.
2. I wanted a smaller notebook computer for travel (this one has a 12" screen).
3. I needed Vista for the next generation of books I'm writing (and wanted Vista "for free").
4. And at the time, this HP notebook had a touch screen, excellent specs, and was about $1000 less than the usual price for a touchscreen.

But given all the hassles of Vista and the touchscreen, I would not recommend the pair to anyone else. I am taking on the pain for my readership!