Mouse 2.0: Multi-touch Meets the Mouse

Mouse 2.0: Multi-touch Meets the Mouse
Nicolas Villar, Shahram Izadi, Dan Rosenfeld, Hrvoje Benko, John Helmes, Jonathan Westhues, Steve Hodges, Eyal Ofek, Alex Butler, Xiang Cao1, Billy Chen

This paper discussed various new ideas to implement into a mouse to add additional adjustable controls instead of the class 2 dimensions with buttons. The designers tried several different methods, such as movable arms, capacitance, and light as methods of detecting unconventional input. They built sensors to experiment with other movements, such as hand position on the mouse and rotating the mouse.

I find that more than 2 dimensional controls on mice (not counting buttons and scrolling) is probably unnecessary for most day to day activities. However with more advanced things like 3D design or gaming additional controls could prove very useful. For example, I recall playing flight simulator ages ago and was thrilled when I realized that the joy stick also had a third axis which could control power. There is no reason that a mouse should be restricted to only 2D sensing.