Oh! Gizmo

By Evan Ackerman

I was very impressed by Novint’s haptic controller when I tried it out last month. I seriously think haptics (force feedback) is one of the next big things when it comes to input devices. One of the other next big things is going to be more degrees of freedom, i.e. being able to do more than just mouse around in the x - y plane. This maglev joystick, from Butterfly Haptics, combines these two big things into an even bigger thing, since the joystick floats in midair through carefully controlled magnetic fields. The user grips a “flotor” that hovers in an electromagnetic bowl. Optical sensors track the position of the flotor as you move it through six degrees of freedom, including up/down, left/right, forward/backward, and pitch, yaw, and roll. The system can track 2 micron movements (that’s 1/5 of the diameter of a hair) and dish out up 40 newtons (something like 4 pounds) of resistance, which is easily enough to simulate the feel of a solid virtual surface. It’s also able to emulate extremely fine textures and friction coefficients.

Video of some dual-fisted haptic maglev action, after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

By Evan Ackerman

I don’t know about your laptop, but the heat mine gives off could power a small industrial nation. Okay, maybe not, but it does a damn good job of toasting my pop tarts and rendering me sterile. The DORmino mouse takes all of that wasted heat and uses it to power a wireless mouse, utilizing silicon nanowires embedded in a pad that sits underneath your laptop, a thermoelectric converter, and an induction coil inside the mouse to transfer power up from the pad. The mouse itself has a touchscreen scroller and a bluetooth interface, and the pad rolls up for easy portability. The design has been entered in the 2008 Greener Gadgets Design Competition, and if it wins, it looks complicated enough that it still probably won’t be produced, unfortunately.

[ Greener Gadgets Competition ] VIA [ Ecofriend ]

By Evan Ackerman

The Novint Falcon haptic controller has been out for a little while now, and from what I’ve seen, many people have a difficult time telling what it is at all, much less how it works or why on earth you’d want one. I may, in fact, have been one of those people. But slap a pistol grip on the thing and wire it up to a quality first-person shooter, and suddenly it all becomes clear. A haptic controller is a controller that provides some form of force feedback to the user: things like the PlayStation DualShock controllers qualify as haptic… drive over something bumpy, for example, and the controller shakes. It’s neat, but it’s one dimensional, in that all you get is different intensities of the same kind of shaking motion. The Falcon takes that concept and makes it three dimensional, allowing feedback to push or pull the controller in any direction. What does that mean? Recoil, baby. Once you’ve tried the Falcon, pretty much any other FPS controller seems tame by comparison. Hands-on impressions, pics, and a vid, all after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

By Evan Ackerman

Anything squishy gets major points with me. Especially if it’s useful at the same time. The Lite-On Moldable Mouse has guts made out of soft modeling clay encased in a nylon polyurethane fabric cover. With a little bit of effort, you can rework the mouse into whatever shape feels most comfortable. Although the optical sensor is static in the bottom (along with the batteries), the click buttons and touch sensitive scroll well are stuck onto the cover and communicate with the rest of the mouse via RFID, so you can un-stick them and get creative. It’s a concept, but how hard could it possibly be to stuff a mouse with clay? Probably harder than it seems like it should be.

[ Red Dot Design Awards ] VIA [ DVICE ]

By Evan Ackerman

If you’re the type of gamer who blames your low Counterstrike ROF on your mouse not being enough like a ‘real gun,’ you might be interested in this FPS Gun Mouse, which features dual triggers in an ergonomic, gun-like grip. The thing at the front end is a 2000dpi, 1000hz USB optical mouse, so you’re not losing any functionality, and may in fact be gaining some with the 5 programmable buttons and thumb scroll wheel. My only worry would be getting overexcited and picking the whole thing up… How awesome would it be to combine it with one of these? The other problem is, it’s another right-handed conspiracy gadget. Sigh. Yours for $73 from Korea.

[ FPS Gun Mouse ] VIA [ DVICE ]

By Evan Ackerman

Yes, it’s the Optimus Keyboard. If anything, it’s more beautiful in person than in all of the press releases (or maybe that’s just because we’re now sure that it actually exists). It works exactly as advertised. And believe it or not, Art Lebedev Studios had several 100% working versions in their booth at CES. Not vaporware anymore, baby… According to the booth dudes, they’ve got about 2,000 keyboards ready to go and are working on producing more.

If you’re not familiar with this keyboard, every single key (in its most expensive configuration) contains a little 48×48 color OLED screen, which you can customize to show a letter, a picture, a movie, or even a widget that updates itself. The keyboard includes configuration software that lets you tweak each key to your heart’s content, and save custom configurations for different programs. We learned a little bit more about the keyboard itself, besides how eye-shatteringly cool and beautiful it is… It stores custom configs on an SD card, sucks down enough juice that it needs it own DC jack, and has 2 additional USB 2.0 ports in the back. The keys should last about 20,000 hours before they start to dim and are not susceptible to stuck pixels like conventional LCDs. Each keyboard includes a 1 year warranty (which extends to the keys themselves) and will come with 3 spare keys.

It’ll be available in gloss black or gloss white with anywhere from one OLED on the spacebar ($460) to a full 113 OLEDs (nearly $1600). But the good news is that the OLED keys are only 10 bucks each and you can plug them in yourself, so just get the base version, and then find 112 friends who’d each be willing to give you a $10 b-day present. They should (should) start shipping by the end of February, and I think it’s actually halfway likely to happen.

Pics of the retail packaging (if you’re interested), after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

By Luke Anderson

LCD monitors have really come down in price over the last few years. This is why more people are not only switching to them, but they’re also springing for more than one. It’s also very likely that this has to with the increasing amount of time the average person spends on their PC. If you’re someone that’s been thinking about adding a second screen to your setup, here’s something that might make it a little easier for you. It’s a USB adapter that allows you to hook up an extra monitor.

Why wouldn’t someone just buy a brand new video card instead of a USB device? Honestly, those that aren’t tech-savvy are almost terrified of opening up their case to add memory or an extra PCI card. It’d be like asking me to change my own brakes, it might be easy (according to some) but there’s no way I’m going to even attempt it. What’s really cool is that it is based on the DisplayLink technology which has come a long way. You can use some 3D programs like Google Earth and even Windows Vista Aero without issues. Don’t go trying to play any graphic-intensive games on it though, you’ll be sadly disappointed. For the $99 price you could get a halfway decent video card, but if you’re looking for ease of installation this little guy is for you.

[ Kensington ] VIA [ Pocket Lint ]

By Evan Ackerman

I’ve never cared for trackball mice (to put it mildly), but I can understand their advantages: they offer high precision in a small space with little or no hand movement necessary. In other words, they’re perfect for traveling, since you can practically use them in your pocket. It’s kinda funny, then, that most trackball mice are giant sculptural behemoths, not fit to be taken anywhere, by anyone, at any time. The Genius Traveler 350 is a tiny little USB optical trackball with a retracting cord, integrated hotkeys, and a scroll wheel. It measures about 23cm x 13cm x 7cm, and looks to be about $30. It’s so practical I’d get one, except then I might be seen in public using a trackball, and we certainly can’t have that, can we?

[ Genius ] VIA [ PCLaunches ]

By Evan Ackerman

If you’ve got a laptop, odds are you’ve got a card slot in one side. For those of us who are stuck with older PC Card slots (as opposed to the newer and sexier ExpressCards), there are still some worthwhile things you can use to fill that slot, besides boring port replicators and modems.

1.) Hide Stuff

If your computer has a PC Card slot like mine does, it’s probably old enough and useless enough to serve as effective camouflage for more valuable items, like 128mb SD cards. The StashCard is nothing more (and nothing less) than a little drawer for you to put things in. The StashCard website suggests it might be useful for stickers (huh?), stamps (what are those?), or “emergency hardware” (with a picture of a tongue piercing). If it was a little bigger, I’d put a Pop-Tart in there, and let my computer heat it up. Slightly overpriced at $10, if you ask me.

Four more PCMCIA gadgets (plus some extra super bonus PC Slot uses), after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

By Andrew Liszewski

Let’s face it, the Qwerty keyboard isn’t exactly a marvel of ergonomic design. And those who spend all day mashing away on one could find themselves with something like Carpal Tunnel Syndrome one day. But what are the alternatives? Voice recognition? Not in its current state, that’s for sure. Teaching a monkey to do the typing for you? It seemed like a good idea at the time, until he got access to my email account… So many swears…

Enter the orbiTouch, which is a very unique looking device that uses a couple of sliding domes to replace both your keyboard and mouse. Now the domes don’t twist, but can be moved in any direction kind of like the small trackpoint nubs that laptops use. Moving the domes at the same time in varied directions allows you to recreate keystrokes and actually type letters. While I can’t see this ever being as fast as typing away on a traditional keyboard, for those with limited mobility or hand injuries it actually seems like a viable solution.

Of course the orbiTouch probably won’t appeal to everyone, and I’m sure that’s part of the reason it currently sells for $399 on the company’s website. But it does make me wonder if something like this would be covered by a health plan or insurance.

[ orbiTouch Keyboard ] VIA [ DVICE ]