Cursor Control Without Lifting Hands from Keyboard | Hacker News Reader

Cursor Control Without Lifting Hands from Keyboard

kickstarter.com

14 pointslettergram10 comments

Reminds me of the leap motion, I've even seen some laptops with an embedded leap motion sensor. Anyways I like that solutions are being created to reduce repetitive hand movements when using the computer.

Trackpoints on Thinkpads are more effective. You don't even have to lift your finger up from the keyboard.

Neat idea, but the demo video just makes me think it is hard to use with precision. Going in to a second "precision mode" seems like a bad workaround. Look at how the narrator struggles a little to hit small targets like the window close button and the scroll bar:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Knnh_vIVgA4

The lack of precision reminds me of those crappy quality trackballs on miniature wireless keyboards.

Hello. Sorry if this is in appropriate to jump in. I'm the lead programmer and the guy that made the video as well. Unfortunately, you know these videos have to be put out under deadlines, and we will have about 4 more months of time to improve the programming, plus always improvements going forward. The position pad is actually a slider, and as you slide your thumb to the left (in example), it narrows the band of focus for how much you can move the cursor. That's not completely refined yet, and will get better. Feel free to PM me on the kickstarter site if I can give more info. Brent

I agree this is a pretty clever idea. A mouse needs one hand to use and a keyboard needs two; there's no way to keep your hands in one area the whole time you use a computer without something like this.

What about trackpoints? That's one of the reasons why I keep buying thinkpads.

There's also devices like SmartNav.

Also, Eye tracking is frighteningly good and has been for a long time now. I wonder why contextual menus based on eye movements and hand gestures haven't been forwarded.

Shame about the new buttonless clickpads on Thinkpads. I'm using one now, and it's definitely more of a hassle than the old style.

what about https://www.kinesis-ergo.com/shop/rollermouse-free2/

There were keyboards built as large trackpads for the old powerbooks - a.k.a. the fingerworks touchstream: http://lowendmac.com/bookrev/03/0530.html#4

Reply on news.ycombinator.com