The 3style Mouse is like a cross between a wireless mouse and a jog wheel. As well as working in the normal ‘X’ and ‘Y’ directions, the whole mouse can be rotated, spinning freely and smoothly on its ball bearing pad.
Using robust sensing technology unique to this product, the mouse can sense when it is being rotated and sends this rotational data to the computer as ‘Z’ or scroll data. This ‘Z’ data, which is a third degree of freedom, can be applied to many tasks in the computer software being used with the mouse.
The sensing technology is also used to make sure the mouse always ‘knows where it is going’. That is, unlike a normal mouse which must be held in a certain direction so that ‘up is up’, the 3style Mouse will know that ‘up is up’ no matter which way it is rotated. Because of this, it can be used to simultaneously control three dimensions.
How is the 3style Mouse used?
The 3style Mouse works on the desktop or a mouse pad just like a normal mouse, except that you can spin it and use it an any angle.
The small white arrow shaped button is the orientate button. Pressing this button while the arrow points forwards on your desktop sets that as the ‘up’ direction for pointer movement on screen no matter how the mouse is rotated. This only needs to be done once for any particular desk or working environment.
The mouse can be rotated with one finger like a video or audio ‘jog wheel’ or you can ‘flick’ it and it will spin freely. You can continuously rotate the mouse this way, unlike with a scroll wheel. Rotating the mouse needs only a very light touch.
Because the mouse can be used at any angle you can also use the buttons at any angle. There is one ‘push’ button which can be operated from any part of the top of the mouse, and a series of ’squeeze’ buttons which also work from any angle to give a ‘right click’.
What are the applications of the 3style Mouse?
For video and audio editing applications, the cursor can be positioned over an on-screen knob such as on a virtual mixing panel, and the knob can be operated directly by rotating the mouse. Many current applications already support scroll wheel control of on-screen knobs and sliders, and can work easily with the 3style Mouse.
The 3style Mouse can be used as a jog wheel to navigate through linear sequences such as audio waveforms and video timelines. If multiple timelines are present on-screen, the mouse can be pointed directly at a particular timeline then used to control that timeline.
As compared to typical physical control surfaces, the 3style Mouse has the advantage that there is no need to map hardware controls to on-screen software controls, since mapping occurs by moving the mouse pointer on the screen.
Applications in colour correction also have potential to leverage the additional input dimension.
Similar usage may apply in industrial simulation and control environments including medical and military applications.
The third ‘Jog dimple’ button can be used like the dimple on a jog wheel to rotate the mouse. This button can work like the scroll wheel button on a standard mouse or switch to left-right scrolling when pressed.
For 3D applications, an object, scene or camera viewpoint can be rotated in three dimensions simultaneously. This is useful for examining objects while modelling, and for setting up camera angles prior to rendering. Simultaneous panning and zooming is also possible.
For gaming applications, a major advantage is the ability to quickly change point of view in a first person shooter environment. That is, look to the side or behind then back again, while maintaining the use of the ‘Y’ mouse movement for vertical aim. The ‘X’ mouse movement remains free for strafing or weapon changing, for example. There are however many other possibilities that might arise in the gaming area from providing an extra dimension of input.
For general applications such as web browsing and word processing, the rotation of the mouse is used for scrolling, replacing the need for a finger operated scroll wheel. This has ergonomic advantages, since the movement involves the whole hand and arm instead of just one finger, reducing strain and increasing blood flow. In addition, the rotational motion of the mouse is more fluid and continuous than with a finger operated scroll wheel.
By pressing the ‘jog dimple’ button the mouse can scroll left-right as well as up-down.
source:http://www.cylo.com.au/products.html
