Two mice could be connected to USB ports and used for a lot of combinations for input.
combinations of movements by the two mice could produce characters, such as moving them both together and down in a V shape to produce, duh, a V.
the right mouse would work as a normal mouse if the left mouse's left button was held, or had been double clicked to lock in mouse mode. the left mouse would also have a limited character input mode during this time.
in character input mode, the right mouse's left button would be held for shift, middle for control, and right for alt.
also, programs could identify such a device set up and provide their own special forms of input, such as for games you could use one to move around and jump and duck and another to aim and change weapons.
also, its a hell of a lot cheaper than some of those new uber-ergo input devices!-- ironfroggy, May 30 2003 Two-fisted mice http://www.halfbake...a/Two-fisted_20miceposted by [rmutt] March 2000 [Laughs Last, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004] KeyBowl Keyless Keyboard http://web.archive....http://keybowl.com/Culled from Slashdot in November 2000. Ancient history. [darksasami, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004] Cursor Wars Cursor_20WarsRelated idea [csea, Aug 03 2008] I believe the voteless status of yer idea speaks for us all. I dunno...-- galukalock, May 31 2003 buttons alone have lots of combinations. 512 to be exact, counting left, middle, right, and mouse wheel.-- ironfroggy, May 31 2003 If I wanted to produce characters with mouse input (which I don't), I would only use one mouse.
Game wise, while a mouse seems to be the best device for aiming in a FPS at the moment, I don't see it working too well for movement. If you want some sort of analogue control for movement, I'd recommend a joystick, it works well.-- RoboBust, Jun 01 2003 rub your belly and pat your head at the same time-- calculust, Jun 01 2003 I've got one of those mice with a scrolly-wheel in between the left and right buttons. 1st finger goes on left button, 2nd on wheel, 3rd on right button. It might take a bit of getting used to, but I don't see why you couldn't replace the wheel with a tiny joystick. I've done a little scientific testing on this (well, I've waggled my index finger about in thin air while moving the mouse around) and it seems possible, if a little tricky - a bit like trying to rub your stomach and pat your head at the same time. Still, could be of use to conjurors, concert pianists and other master fingersmiths.-- lostdog, Jun 01 2003 No thanks, not for me; at least not as a text input device. That's not to say someone won't find it useful, though.
The problem is that the idea violates my three guiding principles for computer technology prediction.
(1) My first guiding principle is "Training is for l-users (loosers)". I.e. computers should become more and more ergonomic, intuitive and natural. The computer will become more an extension of self than a tool to be operated.
(2) My second principle is "Software programmers should learn, not users" - in order to meet the requirements of the first principle, activities will be achieved by actions similar to real world activities, where such an analogue exists. For example, navigation of presence would be done primarily through body or head posture, pointing and text selection through eye movement, grasping and manipulation through both left and right hands and text input through voice.
(3) The third guiding principle is "Evolution moves in quanta" - eventually, all input and output methods will reach an industry standard, once a certain level of conceptualization has been reached. The direction will follow principles 1 and 2.
For one generation, it was (i) binary, the next it was (ii) assembler, then (iii) command line, then (iv) GUI. The next will be (v) real-world mimicking (as described above), and beyond that (vi) seamless integration with the real world.
A possible example of a level (vi) RUI (real-world user interface) would be an imaginary friend that sits weightlessly on your shoulder (combination Clippit and Monkey-Bone) and you can send to do tasks like "Write me a report based on the following key points {blah blah}, using moderate intuition and an academic style".
A possible offshoot is conceptual representations not experienced in the real world. These might include highly conceptualized multi-dimensional or transform representations and manipulations, but they will be limited to niche applications and less used for day-to-day computing.-- FloridaManatee, Jun 02 2003 //"... and avoid using Americanisms."//
<BZZZT!> DOES NOT COMPUTE. VIOLATES PRIME DIRECTIVE: ENSURE SUCCESS OF AMERICAN LANGUAGE IMPERIALISM <BZZT!> ERROR# FAili.n..g ....-- FloridaManatee, Jun 02 2003 Avoid Americans? You could be on to something...-- MikeOliver, Jun 02 2003 <RUI>Email received, written with moderate intuition and an academic style, with the following key points {blah, blah}.</RUI>
Seems to me that none of this would be needed if people removed the flowery bits of communication in the first place. <daydream>Ah, if world was filled with engineers...<realization>Life would be efficient yet ugly.</realization></daydream>-- Worldgineer, Jun 05 2003 I'd like an input device shaped like Jennifer Anniston.
I could pose her with a finger up the nose for a mouse click, move her head around for a pointing device and flick both her earlobes as the essential ctrl-alt-del.
Sure, it would be less efficient, but far more entertaining.-- FloridaManatee, Jun 05 2003 Wow, I thought of such an idea the other day but never thought of this, this truly is a good idea.-- JoeLounsbury, Nov 09 2003 My idea was to just have 2 cursors, this is really a remarkable idea! You could use a special format of writting much like PDAs have and you could input the commands like that.-- JoeLounsbury, Nov 09 2003 But with my left hand on a mouse to the left of my keyboard, and my right hand on a mouse to the right of my keyboard, what am I left with for hitting the keys? Hang on, I've got an idea....<zip>....zxcfghjiop[]-- dobtabulous, Nov 10 2003 Simply, human brain can't handle operating two mice efficiently together. You'd end up realizing that you do less work with 2 mice than the single one. Negative, unless made for a cyborg!-- AliCo, Mar 01 2004 The touchstream keyboard can track each of your fingers independently, one of the novel uses is to treat each hand as a different pointer and resize/move windows by having your left hand grab the upper left corner of a window and have your right hand grab the lower right and wigle them independently to the desired spots.
I imagine the same might be possible with two mice, but probably not nearly as handy as with the touchstream.-- johnmeacham, Mar 01 2004 That could be easy made by software like the guys that make mouse drivers do. the hardware is already done. accept a secondary input device (the secondary mouse) as a joystick because I read somewhere that windows block the possibility for 2 mouses, but if youre on a game in a window you still can move the joystick and the mouse at the same time.
the interface of the JoyMouse will go always on top, or using a way like desktopx uses to be above everything possibly just under the main cursor level, it can mimic your cursor to match, reading the Cursor Files of the cursor your using and mirror them.
specific functions would be applied to the joymouse: just like any other joystick configuration software, assign buttons to the joymouse, the buttons of the joymouse could be also "mouse right-click", "mouse left-click", "mouse center click", etc...
the case in question is to simulate a secondary mouse as a joystick. an "Assign this mouse [your mouse driver] as secondary mouse." will make it. (if you dont have a secondary mouse you could use that software to switch your favorite cursor to left handed version)
well.. another possibility is to make a joystick shaped as a mouse as "the secondary mouse". with that software. "the JoyMouse".-- canoro, Dec 15 2006 I think its a fabulous idea, I remember my disappointment when I discovered that dispite having two mice my Amiga 500 wouldnt let me use them both at the same time in Deluxe paint. Most users may not see the usefulness of it. But for some creative tasks it would be a boon. For example in 3D modeling having one mouse to control rotation as you move points with the other, would be great, and something I have longed for for quite a while.-- McDoodle, Aug 03 2008 [+] This would be a very interesting way to compute because you are actually integrating the human with the computer. Rather than translating thoughts into words and then translating these words into keystrokes, the user can can translate his thoughts directly into ideas on the screen whether text, visual, musical, etc. This could even be a useful concept for autistic children.-- Jscotty, Aug 04 2008 Sorry to haul out the old geekiness here, but I think there'd be genuine uses for dual-mouse input.
What I want is someone to make a computer game based on hand-to hand unarmed or armed combat. Anything you do with one mouse+keyboard or a gamepad is going to be a poor approximation. I think two mice (probably multi-buttoned), probably some foot-pedals and maybe even a head-position sensor to determine your character's or the "camera" 's view. It'd take a lot of tweaking, but I'd like to see a decent attempt. One above this would be 3d-position-sensing input devices, like mice but with a third axis.-- Custardguts, Aug 04 2008 Oh, and [Floridamanatee], don't you mean "IMPERIALIZM" - I swear that'd probably get past MS word's spelling check.
[UnaBubba] makes a good point - de-selecting US english and selecting Australian English should make americanisms come up as misspelt, which currently, it doesn't. I mean if you set your laguage as ancient prussian, can you still mistype and enter the word aluminum, and have word not recognise it as a misspelling?-- Custardguts, Aug 04 2008 random, halfbakery