Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!decwrl!claris!krazy
From: krazy@claris.com (Jeff Erickson)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: Mouse Feats
Message-ID: <9955@claris.com>
Date: 24 Apr 89 06:20:50 GMT
References: <30064@tiger.oxy.edu>
Organization: Claris Corporation, Santa Clara CA
Lines: 34

From article <30064@tiger.oxy.edu>, by bagpiper@oxy.edu (Michael Paul Hunter):
> In article <9642@claris.com> I write:
>>There is a solution which I actually use if I have to do a lot of typing.
>>I put something hard (like a book) on the floor, stick the mouse down there
>>and use my feet.  Admittedly, you have to be barefoot to get the most use
>>out of this idea, and the fewer buttons the better.
> 
> A better solution is to use a head mouse.  A head mouse is an optical device
> that has a component on the monitor and one on your head...by detecting
> head movement it controls the mouse.  You can control the buttons through
> a blow tube or thumb buttons.  disclaimer: I have never used one...just
> thought they were neat.
> 
> I think I originally saw them in an apple film about hardware and software
> for disabled people.
> 
> The military is also using a similar idea for a night flying aparatus.	The
> head gear can be used to target objects on the ground....  I think that
> there was an article in avionics in the last few months.

I have played with these on occasion.  They're hard to get used to.  The
one I saw had a button which mounted under the space bar on a Mac keyboard.

I've talked to one person who used a retinal tracker for a few months.  (You
look at a position on the screen and the cursor goes there.)  His biggest
complaint was that it blurred the line between what was real and what was on
the screen.  More than once, he tried to move papers on his desk with just
his eyes.

-- 
Jeff Erickson       Claris Corporation  | Birdie, birdie, in the sky,
408/987-7309      Applelink: Erickson4  |   Why'd you do that in my eye?
krazy@claris.com     ames!claris!krazy  | I won't fret, and I won't cry.
       "I'm a heppy, heppy ket!"        |   I'm just glad that cows don't fly.