Paper Reading # 13

Comments
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Reference
Mouse 2.0: Multi-touch Meets the Mouse
Nicolas Villar, Shahram Izadi, Dan Rosenfeld, Hrvoje Benko, John Helmes, Jonathan Westhues, Steve Hodges, Eyal Ofek, Alex Butler, Xiang Cao, Billy Chen
UIST 09 October 4-7, 2009 Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

Summary
This paper talks about innovative input devices that have computer mice capabilities combined with multi-touch capabilities. Even though multi-touch has been incorporated to mobile phones and tablets, desktops have yet to incorporate multi-touch input devices. The authors describe five different MT mice along with their benefits and limitations. The five prototypes are the FTIR, Orb Mouse, Cap Mouse, Side Mouse, and the Arty Mouse. The frustrated total internal inflection (FTIR) mouse is composed of an acrylic sheet, IR-Leds, optical sensors, and a camera.  When fingers are pressed on the acrylic sheet an IR light is detected by the camera. The acrylic sheet is molded as a smooth arc. The optical sensor is used to located input displacement across the acrylic sheet. The Orb Mouse is composed of an IR-sensitive camera and an internal source of IR illumination. Illumination radiates away from the center of the device and is reflected back by objects. The main problem here is that the objects could be a user's hand, or a keyboard that is close by which is hard for the device to differentiate. Cap Mouse uses capacitive touch sensing similar to how keyboards work. When a user presses the mouse a change in capacitance in a specific area is determined. The benefit of this system is that it is not affected by illumination. Side Mouse detects movement in the surface in front of it instead of actual movement in the mouse. Finger movement is reflected as IR light back to the camera. The main benefit of this mouse is that the input area is not limited by the surface of the device. Arty Mouse is composed of a base where the palm of the hand rests, and two arms extend from it where the thumb and index fingers are placed.

Discussion
It seems incredible to me that even though we know that multi-touch has become the new norm of input, we have not yet implemented multi-touch mice. I do not know if we are waiting for the next generation of desktops to incorporate multi-touch mice, but we are definitely lacking on that part. Out of the five designs described in this paper I think I would like the FTIR mouse the best.