[Eug-lug] iPhone expanded: to (NOT MS Milan!) cool input devices & methods

[Ben Barrett]

Right -- they're apples and ... orange farm machinery.
The gyro mouse offers little more to the computer than any other mouse,
AFAIK, unless maybe you mess with the winders drivows, :)
The more advanced input devices offer much more, but then of course
tend to rely on app-specific drivers.

In related news, I had the input-device fever about a year ago, and acquired
both a small graphire tablet, and also a Contour jog/shuttle dial.  YMMV,
but
I've found the jog/shuttle to be the best accomplice to the mouse, so far,
for most general use.  It also has app-specific drivers, but AFAICT the
jog/shuttle
maps to scrolling by default, which can be helpful to be able to scroll a
little or a
lot, separate from the mouse....
this kind of setup might best be cheaply emulated by using a 2nd
dual-scrolling
mouse, in Xwindows, and using just those two scroll wheels (remove ball or
tape
over optical sensor), with the "other hand" (aside from regular mouse
use)...
although the jog/shuttle has 5 buttons of its own, this allows for finer
control as
you might imagine.  I forget how many weeks ago, but we had a recent
discussion
of using a 2nd or 3rd mouse just to have a button (or maybe scroll wheel)
available
to ones *feet*... :)

ciao,

ben


On 6/15/07, larry price <laprice at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> something like this
>
> http://www.mpb-technologies.ca/mpbt/haptics/hand_controllers/cubic/cubic.=
html
>
>
> On 6/15/07, Brian Gallagher <bilbobaggab at gmail.com> wrote:
> > The SpaceNavigator from 3dconnexion was what I was going to buy before I
> saw
> > the in-air mouse from Gyration.  I've got a bad feeling about the
> mouse's
> > performance for CAD (based on price,) but I got to try.
> >
> >  I did see this Praying Mantis looking input device (pen mounted to a
> > parallelogram armature that swiveled on a base) that a guy was using in
> the
> > bonus materials of some CGI movie, (Incredibles?) I can't remember.  It
> > looked one of a kind and very expensive.
> >
> >
> >
> > On 6/15/07, Bob Miller <kbob at jogger-egg.com> wrote:
> > > Ben Barrett wrote:
> > >
> > > > So, Xwindows experts:  Anyone care to comment on how deeply X would
> have
> > > > to be re-engineered to handle multiple points of input?
> > >
> > > Oooh, ooh, I get to pretend I'm an expert! (-:
> > >
> > > X already handles multiple input devices.  At this very moment my
> > > laptop has a trackpad, a trackpoint, and a USB mouse, and I can use
> > > any/all of them to push the cursor around.  (When I'm at home, I use
> > > all those PLUS synergy to push it around from another computer's
> > > mouse.)
> > >
> > > But I think you're asking for multiple cursors.  That's harder.
> > > There's a deep relationship between the cursor focus and the keyboard
> > > focus, and if you added more cursors, you'd have to define how
> > > they all affect keyboard focus.  Among other things.
> > >
> > > I've worked with applications that used separate pointer input
> > > devices, but they didn't access the device through X.  For example,
> > > AVS (Advanced Visualization System, www.avs.com) could use a Spaceball
> > > (a 6-axis input device, www.3dconnexion.com) in addition to a mouse.
> > > The mouse went through X, and the Spaceball always went directly to a
> > > 3D viewport.
> > >
> > > I've seen CAD systems with similar things (mouse plus pen input), and
> > > I've seen experienced users work them in both hands very productively.
> > > Sorry, I can't remember the name of the CAD system.  It was an
> > > integrated HW/SW product from the 1980s.
> > >
> > > But those are both specialized apps that bypass X for at least one of
> > > their inputs.
> > >
> > > --
> > > Bob Miller                              K<bob>
> > >
> > kbob at jogger-egg.com
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