Replacement wireless mouse input device shaped like a thimble.
Pop it over your index finger, and move it around the table - Its motion is detected in the same way as ball-less mice (with an LED and a CCD device).-- Dub, Jan 09 2006 Sonar Touchpad http://www.halfbake...ea/Sonar_20TouchpadKinda similar thing I just found [Dub, Jan 09 2006] OOPS ! [shaggysin] got there first - The Finger Mouse Finger_20MouseDamn, I looked to thimble and mouse and didn't find anything [Dub, Jan 09 2006] Finger Mouse project http://www.cs.techn...mouse.sav/fimo.htmlUses a video camera. Not the same, but interesting. [half, Jan 09 2006] Mouse Glove Patent http://www.freshpat...ptan20060033710.php [Dub, Feb 22 2006] Teeny-tiny mouses http://uk.gizmodo.c...lds_tiniest_mo.html [Dub, May 01 2006] Finger Mouse http://uk.gizmodo.c...s_finger_mouse.htmlNot quite the same thing... [Dub, Nov 19 2007] Hmm...interesting thought. The first implementation hurdle that pops in to my head is that when you raise your bethimbled finger to tap it, the mouse will probably see movement and not register the double-click.
Maybe the motion sensor on one finger and the clicking sensor on another? Not nearly as slick as the one finger thing. How about if you somehow tap on the side of the "thimble" with an adjacent finger to click? Or, tap on the surface beside the thimble an have the tap be detected sonically?
Would you somehow disable the thimble mouse when you're typing?-- half, Jan 09 2006 Hmm, the thumb-tap idea's interesting, but I'm sure CCD mice //know// when they're on or off the surface (either by focusing or by a method similar to what the dam-busters parallax used - e.g. 2 LEDs pointing where the surface should be - Then it's not difficult to establish when the surface is in focus, and when you've tapped/double tapped.-- Dub, Jan 09 2006 I still think it would be difficult not to register motion at the instants that your finger is lifting from and approaching the surface during tapping, but I'm not an expert on mice, optics or kinesiology. Heck, I don't even know how to spell kinesiology.-- half, Jan 09 2006 If you get a chance try one of those optical mice. The moment you lift them off the surface they stop moving the pointer. When they're put down again, the pointer follows the movement.
[BTW I don't know how they know they're off the surface, I'm guessing focusing or the amount of reflected light or something.]
Thinking about it, it's very similar to how the stylus works on palm PCs.
Ah, typing - that's the Half Baked bit.-- Dub, Jan 09 2006 Actually, my optical mouse continues to move the cursor with the mouse raised a couple of mm above the surface. Hence, my concern.
I always assumed that they knew they were off the surface due to a lack of reflected light of the specific frequency that they emit (and expect to detect).-- half, Jan 09 2006 I think this is brilliant, a kind of reverse laptop style touchpad, everywhere. I think it's brilliant. Can't you get the motion detected using a pressure/drag sensor ?-- neilp, Jan 09 2006 hmm, I think your implementation of it's better [dub], the clicking is sorted. None of the examples are remotely baked by the looks of things.-- neilp, Jan 09 2006 Well heck, this is doughy indeed. Typing wouldn't really be a problem provided you can stand typing with a device on one finger - it could be disabled when over the keyboard via RF, perhaps, or, dare I say it in conjunction with computer equipment, a magnet in each key in a specially designed keyboard.-- roleohibachi, Jan 09 2006 Hoe about a 3 finger approach-forefinger has a thimble that when tapped is left-click, middle figner is right click, but neitehr of those detect motion-jsut being tapped. Then, one on the thumb that you slide around. Deosn't detect tapping.-- Ohiojoe, Jan 09 2006 [half]Nice link... but it's a bit more unwieldy than a thimble? Perhaps the equipment could be installed into a hat of some-kind?
[Ohiojoe] That's quite cunning. If I understand you correctly, have 2 additional thimbles (on the thumb and middle finger) and 'click' them together.... Yes, Very nice :) If none of them detect tapping (except when 2 clickers are tapped together) then they'd be more keyboard safe.-- Dub, Jan 09 2006 Yeah, just a wee bit.-- half, Jan 09 2006 You could have 2 thimbles, and when both are down you click / drag.-- Parmenides, Jan 09 2006 "no place like home" <clicks thimbles>-- po, Jan 10 2006 I think most annotations are hung up on the OLD way of doing things - clicking a mouse is done because it has switches on the top.
A thimball [sic] affords a different technique - pressing with a force (no need to lift).
Extended menu? Press the second finger onto the top of the thimball and push it down.
Scrolling could be done by rolling the finger.
A keyboard with a coded backlight between the keys could turn off the function.-- Ling, Jan 10 2006 Pressure sensitve... Nice - and easy to detect with some cheap piezo mechanism.-- Dub, Jan 10 2006 //I always assumed that they knew they were off the surface due to a lack of reflected light of the specific frequency that they emit (and expect to detect)//Nope - in the interests of science, I have just laid my Logitech optical mouse on its back and shone my keyring maglight at it - the cursor went crazy.-- coprocephalous, Jan 10 2006 //some cheap piezo mechanism// Uh-oh, there go my weekends... ;-)-- AbsintheWithoutLeave, Jan 10 2006 I'd be concerned about requiring the user to repeatedly press against a non-yielding surface.
If it has a certain amount of motion range and resistance before activating a "click" that could work. Possibly the same old mouse microswitches could do the job.-- half, Jan 10 2006 [CopPro]//due to a lack of reflected light // Not any light or it'd go mad if you pointed it at a fluorescent tube?
[AWOL]Shhhh!
[half]Very light for motion, slightly harder for 'click' - [ The pressure setting would (:)) in the Control Panel->Settings-> Mouse-> Thimble -> Pressure-> Calibration-> Sensitivity window]. But that should go without saying.-- Dub, Jan 10 2006 If you say so.-- half, Jan 10 2006 halfbakery