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The arrow on my computerscreen that I control with the mouse always points north-north west. Well I want one that points in the directien the mouse points in.
Variations on a compass theme spring to mind.
Halfbakery: Directional Cursors
Directional_20Cursors Similar. [jutta, May 25 2007]
Scanner Mouse
http://www.engadget...ner-mouse-hands-on/ Contains dual lasers to detect orientation [iaoth, Jan 31 2011]
[link]
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Nice, although it should point in the direction of movement, rather than the direction the mouse is facing. |
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Why would this be helpful? |
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i agree with the cat. why? how would it
work for trackpads? do you really want
an
extra program running in the
background
all the time dynamically changing the
direction your pointer points in? would
it
require a special mouse pad so it could
detect the direction your mouse is
facing? |
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assuming rsi means repetitive stress
injury, how would this help? |
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BTW: the arrow on your computer
screen you control with your mouse is
simply called a pointer. |
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//Why would this be helpful?// |
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The real question is why the hell are you asking this question? |
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This is the half bakery for goodness sake. By its very definition a half baked idea is one that simply doesnt have a good answer to that question. ITs about fun or interesting ideas. |
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Its not called the Goodreasonbakery, the Helpfulbakery or the practicalbakery for a reason. |
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point taken, my apologies. |
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In Word, placing the pointer in the left margin changes the direction to N-NE. |
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I'd like this, and it's certainly possible (you'd have to have hardware in the mouse and driver support). If nothing else, it would be *really* funny if a viewer doesn't expect it. |
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See the link for a very similar idea that gives more of a practical justification for wanting this. |
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I like this. I want this. I want it right now. |
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I want this for those times when I lose the pointer against the right-hand side of the screen. |
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You could do this with OS/2. Can you not do it with Winders? |
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No matter where the pointer (thank you [Bleh]) is on your screen it could always point to the quassoint or somewhere else or on demand directions. |
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Why? Just for fun and indeed an unsuspecting user might be baffled. |
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Good for or against rsi because suppose if you are clicking a lot and pointing the pointer all over, imagine you also try to point the pointer in the direction you are going. My guess is that people will automatically react to this. Anyway, your wrist will get a lot of soothing action and excercise instead of being held rigid which causes the pain. |
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If you could combine this with an applet that generated a geometric increase in the mouse sensitivity you could have great fun with your colleagues' PCs. It would be like watching a very small person trying to take a boisterous Great Dane for a walk on a frozen lake. |
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The game Breakquest has this. It's cool-looking but does make it slightly harder to click on things. |
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If it points in the direction of movement, and if it looks cool, then you get a bun. |
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P.S. Somebody with a little programming skill could probably make this, as long as the Windows source code allows it to. |
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P.P.S. And I'm pretty sure the 'arrow thingy' is called a cursor, not a pointer. |
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I thought the cursor was the blinky line
thingy when you're typing in a form. |
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A quick google and wikipedia search
later: |
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A pointer is a type of cursor. A cursor is
simply an indicator of where input is
being entered on the screen. While
wikipedia directed "mouse pointer" to
cursor, a google definition search
turned up many results which
substantiated my initial claim. |
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Id like to see the butt end of the pointer always point to the center of the screen, so when at the extreme edges of the screen the point is flush with the corner. |
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Just this would mean less mouse movement to get to buttons at the egdes. |
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So if you forget what you previously clicked on, just follow the arrow backwards and you can refresh your memory. |
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Isn't the arrow point to indicate an accurate pixel
position for clicking? |
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If the pointer was really smart, the arrow would
change direction indicating the closest
button/link/element that can take a clicking. |
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The cursor is implemented as a small pixel-matrix, that can be any combination of white, black or translucent pixels. It can be altered at any time, though i guess not constantly. The cursor mods that produce sparks or vapor trails behind the cursor usually do not touch the matrix thingy, so i am not sure whether this could be done simply. But i like the idea. |
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How would you detect the direction the mouse is facing? |
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according to the direction of the arrow... |
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A Scanner Mouse (see link) can detect orientation
because it has two lasers. In other words, it's like
two mice in one. It needs this because it also
functions as a hand scanner, but a fun tech demo for
the Scanner Mouse would indeed be a mouse pointer
that changes orientation with the mouse. |
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Mmmm... the mouse could be used as a steering wheel of sorts. |
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Other side advantages (if two laser systems are used to implement the rotation sensing): |
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They could vote so that tracking is more consistent: discard the temporarily stupid input. |
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Great for skiing games, with turning and sliding. |
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On a document, rotation left/right might be used for scrolling |
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