iFeel your pane

August 22, 2000 12:21 PM

iFeel your pane
Logitech comes out with a mouse that has a sense of touch. Called the iFeel mouse, it has the potential to do some interesting things with games, but does anyone see the use it could potentially have in UI usage? Would it be easier to navigate GUIs if you got a subtle bump when you hit certain clickable spots?
posted by daveadams (18 comments total)

Xerox, I think it was. Someone has certainly already done the design work on the 'feelable' desktop. Perhaps it was in POET. I *know* I've seen this; if I find out they filed for a patent, I'm goin' a'huntin.

And *yes*, it would make it easier to hit the button if you could feel it.
posted by baylink at 12:39 PM on August 22, 2000

I like the idea of it. I'd buy one if it worked well.

OTOH, anyone willing to lay odds on how the iSmell is going to go over (reasonable price if you're into that kind of thing, and just in time for Xmas!)?
posted by chicobangs at 12:52 PM on August 22, 2000

(I just have to say it before several-dozen-somebody-elses do...)

So how's it gonna work on pr0n sites?
posted by wendell at 1:01 PM on August 22, 2000

And hey, actually, in that light, is the next step those senso-glove bodysuit things that we see in movies and whatnot, not to mention pilot-simulations & other high-end areas? Are they going to come down in price with this newfangled stuff enough to drive mice & balls (mheh heh) to the antiques shelf?
posted by chicobangs at 2:01 PM on August 22, 2000

I think this is really cool, and I'd bet it will aid in design and modeling as-well-as in games, but personally I would hope that any GUI enhancements would be optional. I tend to turn off GUI-sound effects, which annoy the heck out of me. So I'm not really into feeling bumps.
posted by grumblebee at 4:21 PM on August 22, 2000

I really hate force-feedback stuff, it gets annoying after awhile.
this has been out for awhile now, the logitech forcefeedback mouse, at least a few months.
posted by starduck at 4:50 PM on August 22, 2000

I really hate force-feedback stuff, it gets annoying after awhile.
this has been out for awhile now, the logitech forcefeedback mouse, at least a few months.
posted by starduck at 4:50 PM on August 22, 2000

It might work great for blind people. It could automatically convert text to Braille and you could just feel the little Braille bumps.
posted by PaperCut at 8:23 PM on August 22, 2000

My favorite part is the title. "iFeel your pane" just kicks my ass five ways from Sunday.
posted by daveadams at 9:37 PM on August 22, 2000

I see this as yet another novelty, that seems useful in certain contexts, but turns out to be really, really annoying in others. Like snap-pointer-to-button, or activate-window-on-hover. I honestly don't truck with those who say that the desktop metaphor, folders & all, is inherently broken. It's fine.

I have an intellimouse (with the wheel), but I only use that damned wheel about once a week. The rest of the time I'm going "how did I get that compass icon? oh yeah".
posted by dhartung at 9:41 PM on August 22, 2000

I have the intellimouse with the wheel and I find it completely indispensable. It's the most useful feature when surfing web pages. Nothing bothers me more now than having to click and drag that scroll bar now. The wheel is a wonderful innovation
posted by PWA_BadBoy at 2:05 AM on August 23, 2000

My middle finger waves aimlessly in the air when I have to use mice with no wheel. I rarely use the auto-scroll compass thingy, but I agree that when I'm reading down a long page, the wheel is much handier for me.

"The wheel!" "Even the Royal House of Hanover had the wheel."
posted by stefnet at 6:07 AM on August 23, 2000

Ifeel? I have this habbit of highlighting text on webpages as I read, I bet it would feel cool if the text had a texture to it.... how pleasing a vibration would that be.
www.handmassage.com.

...I couldn't imagine using a mouse with 1 button to do serious work (I have 5 fingers on that hand, lets use them). The wheel and 3 buttons are necessary for me. ..even a monkey with no fingers can use a mac.
posted by jamescblack at 6:36 AM on August 23, 2000

I only use that damned wheel about once a week.

OMIGOSH, you're INSANE. The wheel on the mouse is the GREATEST INVENTION since oxygen! :) I can't live without it. My productivity is cut in half without it!!! Of course, all I do is read websites all day... Hmmm...

I do agree, though that the compass feature (when you click the wheel) is not all that useful; except when you're scrolling through exceptionally long Metafilter threads.
posted by daveadams at 7:28 AM on August 23, 2000

I use the wheel both to scroll and to access the compass doohickey often. There's still legacy apps that don't like the wheel scroll (either not scrolling at all, or scrolling veeeerrrrryyyy veeeeerrrrryyyyy slowly), despite the drivers' best attempts, and the compass can scroll wicked-quick.
posted by cCranium at 11:48 AM on August 23, 2000

The wheel is nice indeed, but for CAD or GIS jobs, the trusty scroll stick is very nice.

I wonder if any work has been done on a tactile screen for reading braille. You know, something akin to those pin-boxes that you use to make impressions of your face or certain hand gestures.
posted by Avogadro at 12:19 PM on August 23, 2000

Actually, I don't use scrollbars much either. For instance, reading this page, I completely relocated my whole arm, leaned on my elbow, and banged the down arrow repeatedly.

It beats "mouse cramp".
posted by dhartung at 12:20 PM on August 24, 2000

page down works really well for me when I'm scrolling down the front page (I work from the bottom up) when I'm leaning back with my keyboard on my lap. I start to get all hot and heavy with the tab key, too. (to follow the links)

But when I'm flipping from mouse to keyboard, I tend to use the compass to scroll large areas. (looking for a particular block of code or something, that I know is near but not wheelable distance. It's a pretty personalized window of time and momentum (how well the many-window-working flow is going).

I think I'll be quiet now.
posted by cCranium at 4:32 PM on August 24, 2000