Reference Information
Adaptive Mouse: A Deformable Computer Mouse Achieving Form-Function Synchronization
- Sheng Kai Tang, and Wen Yen Tang
- CHI 2010, Atlanta, Georgia
Adaptive Mouse: A Deformable Computer Mouse Achieving Form-Function Synchronization
- Sheng Kai Tang, and Wen Yen Tang
- CHI 2010, Atlanta, Georgia
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| The general appearance of Adaptive Mouse. |
Summary
The Adaptive Mouse is a mouse venturing away from the shape and function of the conventional mouse. It is instead a smooth and rounded blob of sorts without any buttons. It is able to sense the user’s hand position (right or left-handed) and from this, know where the fore finger and middle finger should be placed for the left and right-click functions. In order to achieve this, they tested the device on a group of 30 people (15 male and 15 female ranging from age 20-35) to calibrate their software.
The Adaptive Mouse is a mouse venturing away from the shape and function of the conventional mouse. It is instead a smooth and rounded blob of sorts without any buttons. It is able to sense the user’s hand position (right or left-handed) and from this, know where the fore finger and middle finger should be placed for the left and right-click functions. In order to achieve this, they tested the device on a group of 30 people (15 male and 15 female ranging from age 20-35) to calibrate their software.
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| This is how a button press is registered. |
Their findings were that the participants generally enjoyed the Adaptive Mouse, but with one downfall. If the users did not fully apply their palms, the mouse would have trouble tracking the cursor and the buttons did not always behave as expected. After mentioning other similar mouse research projects, the designers noted that they plan on addressing these issues as they conduct more research in the future.
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| The makeup of Adaptive Mouse. |
Discussion
Seeing as the mouse has gone relatively unchanged over the years, I welcome these new research ideas into its design. This might not be a problem for most, but I have had the buttons on a mouse wear out before. Sure, this might have been from too much gaming, or not enough, but it can still happen from other prolonged heavy uses. This blob-like design without buttons at all would eliminate this problem altogether. I also liked the idea presented about using a mouse in a dark conference room. This situation directly addressed some of the ideas brought up in The Design of Everyday Things with contextual uses of devices and how they can be designed differently for easier use. I look forward to hopefully seeing these new and intriguing mouse ideas develop and appear in the market.
Seeing as the mouse has gone relatively unchanged over the years, I welcome these new research ideas into its design. This might not be a problem for most, but I have had the buttons on a mouse wear out before. Sure, this might have been from too much gaming, or not enough, but it can still happen from other prolonged heavy uses. This blob-like design without buttons at all would eliminate this problem altogether. I also liked the idea presented about using a mouse in a dark conference room. This situation directly addressed some of the ideas brought up in The Design of Everyday Things with contextual uses of devices and how they can be designed differently for easier use. I look forward to hopefully seeing these new and intriguing mouse ideas develop and appear in the market.
This is an interesting idea, and as you pointed out it could make the mouse last longer since there are no buttons to wear out. However, I'm not sure I like the idea of it being more like a "rounded blob." I guess it would just take a little getting used to, but I haven't liked the round mice I've used in the past.
ReplyDeleteThis is a really neat idea. However, I wonder how difficult it would be to add more "buttons" to sense, since many mice have 4-5 buttons these days. Also, I wonder if you can "scroll" the middle mouse through a swipe motion.
ReplyDeleteEither way, as a concept this sounds quite good, as long as they shift it to a more elliptical outline over a circular one. The circular shape seems like it wouldn't be very ergonomic.
Yeah, you both raise good points. I think they plan on refining the blob design, and I'm sure they could use the thumb as an interaction for navigation buttons or something. They would just have to do another study to see where the overall finger placements would be for different buttons.
ReplyDeleteThis idea seems like it could be ergonomic enough. I'm sure it will take a little getting used to but if it fits my hand perfectly, then I'm sold!
ReplyDeleteI think the public would have a hard time switching because like you said, the mouse has remained mostly unchanged for awhile. This sounds like a cool idea though and I'm interested to see if it's developed further.
ReplyDeleteBy what the reading stated, there is still a long way in research to have, at least this specific mouse, become marketable. About the buttons and their functionality, I agree with you, it would certainly be a good idea to add a sensed area for the thumb. I would really like to see a prototype of this mouse in a smaller size!
ReplyDeleteWhile I agree that this is an interesting area of research, one of the questions I had while reading was what makes this mouse more effective in a dark conference room than a standard mouse? The typical mouse is easy enough to hold correctly in any amount of light, so I wonder if the only advantage the Adaptive Mouse gives is shaving half a second off the time it takes to correctly position the hand on the mouse.
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