An article written by Jessica Twentyman titled 'Gestures will force the mouse into retirement' (which I first saw through an ixda.org posting) got me thinking on how the mouse as it was in 2008 could be expanded using multi-touch sensitive technology and accelerometers into a more effective 'application control device.'

Application benefits of a mouse with a multi-touch sensitive surface

Personally, I would like to use my finger to move the cursor around the screen in addition to moving the entire mouse. For that to happen, a mouse with a multi-touch sensitive surface (on the area where the index finger and middle finger of a human hand rests) on a computer mouse is required.

There are two benefits which I can immediately recognize (not to say there won't be more benefits) for a mouse with a multi-touch sensitive surface:

• The ability to control more than one cursor
• The ability to control a single cursor with minimized wrist, elbow, arm and shoulder movements.

Fan art of a multi-touch enabled mouse:

Controlling more than one cursor using a touch sensitive mouse

In a first person shooting game (a la Doom, Quake, Halo, etc...) physically moving the mouse moves the viewpoint of the player. With a touch sensitive surface on the mouse, the index finger could also be used for controlling the movement of an additional targeting reticle.

Controllers on game consoles such as the Playstation series have dual analog sticks where (generally in a first person shooter) one analog thumb stick controls character movement and an identical second analogue stick controls movement of targeting reticles.  A computer mouse with a multi-touch sensitive surface could emulate similar functionality of dual analog sticks on game controllers where two cursors can be comfortably controlled using a single device.

A multi-touch surface desktop mouse could also emulate finger gestures used in ipod touch/iphone applications. While portable notebooks began to receive multi-touch sensitive trackpads in 2008, general computer application developers would reap more benefits from producing multi-touch gesture enabled applications when a desktop mouse with a multi-touch sensitive upper surface enters the mainstream market.

Controlling a cursor using a single device while minimizing stress on the end user.

Industrial applications where a user scrolls over extremely high resolution images whose resolution is significatnly larger than the resolution of their screen-based display devices (such as high resolution X-ray scans or telescopic images) would benefit having the ability for 'finer' screen cursor movement without increasing wrist strain could be an advantage.

While moving the mouse physically can be used to traverse large distances over the image, a touch sensitive track pad on a mouse could track the forefinger for cursor movements that traverse smaller distances over  the image thereby reducing overall wrist movements to control an onscreen cursor. Users also would not have to endure physical stresses caused by traditionally moving the mouse rapidly to allow the screen cursor to travel large distances over and images and then suddenly switch over to finer mouse movements to travel smaller distances.

While I don't have any biometric information available, I assume constant physical movement of the mouse in poor ergonomic settings causes stress to not only the wrist but also to the elbow joines, shoulder joints and possibly neck joints on the end user of the mouse. Having a multi-touch enabled trackpad could reduce the stress on joints if the majority of desktop cursor movements where done on a touch enabled surface on a desktop mouse.

Additional advantages of turning the upper front surface of the mouse (where the index and middle finger rests) into a multi-touch sensitive surface

As partially stated earlier, if the top surface of the mouse is entirely touch sensitive, the index finger could be used to move the mouse cursor (or a secondary cursor) and tapping the surface of the mouse would resemble a click. In addition, the right half of the mouse where the middle finger usually rests can be sensitive to scrolling though a window and finger tapping that part of the mouse would resemble a right click.

Essentially, the upper part of the mouse (where the forefinger and middle finger rest can be turned into a multi-touch track pad that can distinguish between finger movements, taps and  long term finger pressure (similar to holding the right or left button of a mouse)  for additional application control functionality.

The upper front surface of a mouse need not be the only surface of a mouse that can receive a touch sensitive surface, the sides of the mouse may receive track pads even though it is unlikely they would be of much use to the general population of computer users.

Adding an accelerometer to a mouse

 If an accelerometer was used in a device, mouse movements in all 3 dimensions could be recognized by applications and additional functionality that was unavailable (or cumbersome) with only 2-D mouse movement would be available.

How does moving the mouse about in 3-D add to interaction with a computer application?

Think about it, if you squeeze the side of your mouse and shake it up and down, you could activate a screen saver, or you squeezed the side of your mouse and swayed your mouse side to side, you could tell the computer to switch user accounts or cycle between applications.

While 3-D mouse movement won't entirely replace 2-D mouse gestures in applications such as Opera the web browser, 3-D mouse movement opens up a new dimension on ways for an end user to interact with an application and adds to currently available methods of shortcuts such as keyboards and mouse movements.

As the number of available shortcuts increase or a larger number of shortcuts are accessed faster, the overall amount of task-oriented goals that can be accomplished in a given time frame can be arguably increased with the availability of more quickly excuted shortcuts.

Avoiding capturing undesired mouse movements in 3D

To avoid capturing/registering accidental mouse movements, the mouse and the application would need to know when a user wished the application to register mouse movements. The mighty mouse by Apple currently can identify when a user is gripping the sides of the mouse . The usage of a mouse grip to activate  sensing mouse movement 3-D would be one way of avoiding accidentally capturing unwanted 3-D mouse movements.

In Conclusion

Ultimately a mouse with multi-touch sensitive surfaces and a built in accelerometer enables applications to have additional interactive functionality thereby leading to a richer end user experience of an application/computing environment. Physical stresses on the end user also reduces when applications allow on-screen cursor movements to be controlled by finger gestures which tend to be less stressful than physically moving the entire mouse for extended periods of time. With the addition of functional features such as finger gestures and 3-D gestures, the number of quickly executed shortcuts increases which in turn enables speedier task execution by the end user.

Footnote

The article you have read, barely scratches the surface of what can be done with a mouse that integrates multi-touch surfaces and accelerometers.

Sources:

Some of the contents of the article you are reading with relation to finger gestures on the mouse have been derived from:

http://www.macblogz.com/2008/12/19/one-more-thing-apples-new-multi-touch...