A two-ball mouse affords three degrees of freedom

  • Authors:
  • I. Scott MacKenzie;R. William Soukoreff;Chris Pal

  • Affiliations:
  • University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada;University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada;University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada

  • Venue:
  • CHI EA '97 CHI '97 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems
  • Year:
  • 1997

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Abstract

We describe a prototype two-ball mouse containing the electronics and mechanics of two mice in a single chassis. Unlike a conventional mouse, which senses x-axis and y-axis displacement only, our mouse also senses z-axis angular motion. This is accomplished through simple calculations on the two sets of x-y displacement data. Our mouse looks and feels like a standard mouse, however certain primitive operations are performed with much greater ease. The rotate tool -- common in most drawing programs -- becomes redundant as objects are easily moved with three degrees of freedom. Mechanisms to engage the added degree of freedom and different interaction techniques are discussed.