Review of Hands Free Mouse 250
SLDave wrote in to
plug his review of
NaturalPoint's hands free mouse that
covered by Slashdot some time ago.
It seems to work as advertised, using a camera to track your head and replace
your mouse, but with a lot of caveats. Definitely worth a look for us truly
lazy folks.
Just use your eyes (Score:5, Interesting)
Stride and The Nod (Score:2, Interesting)
Biometrics and a regular WebCam (Score:3, Interesting)
The human head isn't THAT iregular of a shape(ok some people).
couldn't you also track the movement of key color groupings as the head moves?
This seems cool but:
1) how do you click the mouse? (it would be cool to do it by blinking one eye or the other)
2) I am not sticking a dot to my head. I can barely remember to take my head phones off before I leave my desk (CHOKE!!) I dread the idea of going all afternoon not remembering to take that stupid dot off.
I reviewed it too... (Score:3, Interesting)
http://www.dansdata.com/trackir.htm [dansdata.com]
Un-resisted motion (Score:2, Interesting)
People have tried to make "button-less keyboards" and mice before, and they don't work, because pushing a button, or a mouse is actually easier than moving nothing.
Try this. Hold your hands apart, and as fast as you can, move one to the other. Try to get very close, but don't hit them. When you stop your hands, do it abruptly, without slowing down. Repeat.
Now try it with your hand on something smooth, sliding on a desk. (like a mouse). This simulates the action of moving a mouse cursor to a target on screen.
While this device is used for the head, not hands, the principle is the same. Resistance may make the quantity of a motion harder, it does make control easier.
Humans have been manipulating things with their hands for ages. That is what they are for. Why should we go against nature?