Mouseless Mouse-The new Computer Hardware that Doesn’t Exist July 30, 2010
Posted by martin in : General , trackbackA Mouseless-mouse?
Wireless, optical mouses arrived in the 1980s but didn’t hit the market until the end of the 1990s. Now designers from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have developed a new mouse component that doesn’t exist.
One of the oldest bits of computer hardware, the mouse, was developed in the 1960s under a secret US government project. A decade later we got the roller-ball mouse. Wireless, optical mouses arrived in the 1980s but didn’t hit the market until the end of the 1990s. Now designers from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have developed a new mouse that doesn’t have a mouse.
Mouseless-mouse: New components for your computer
Known as the Mouseless Program, the technology uses an arrangement of lasers and cameras to track the user’s hand movements in lieu of a mouse. The interface is nearly the same only minus the actual mouse. Cupping your hand, as you would when holding a mouse, triggers the computer’s componentsand then the computer begins tracking the user’s hand movements. To perform a right or left click simply tap your finger on the surface you are working on. Pinching with your thumb and forefinger allows you to drag items while a scooping motion with your four fingers results in a scrolling action.
Mouseless-mouse:
Why do we need invisible components?
But the existence of the Mouseless Mouse begs the question, ‘why do we need it?’ It’s not as if our current mouses are impractical, expensive or perform poorly. In fact, most computer engineers will agree with that the mouse and other computer hardware components such as the keyboard are here to stay. As with the touch screen and motion sensitive hardware and voice recognition software, the Mouseless Mouse just represents one step on the path toward greater human integration with the technology we use on a daily basis.
MIT’s Media Lab and the Mouseless Mouse:The birthplace of new computer hardware and software
With a yearly budget of nearly $30 million (USD) MIT’s , Media Lab focuses on “human adaptability” by employing unorthodox approaches to technological solutions. MIT’s Media Lab’s designers, engineers and scientists work together to lead the way in developing technologies such as bio mechanics, robotics and artificial intelligence. For example, the Media Lab has just released a computerized wallet that is connected to your bank account, becoming harder to open as your funds decrease. They have also brought us, surround vision, and Slurp, a prototype bit of hardware that allows a user to transfer data directly from one computer desktop to another.
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