By Bruce Eaton
While looking to be a solution to a problem that no one has ever had, the Digital Cowboy Dual Pointer Mouse truly makes people wonder what it is trying to accomplish that you couldn’t already without it. It works by allowing switching between two cursors (pointers if you will) that you move independently. This allows for some interesting things to be possible, such as working on two monitors without the harrowing hassle of dragging the mouse across your desktop.
I personally cannot think of anything beyond this application. Readers, I beg of you, let me know how you would use this. Possibly this is the greatest invention ever and I am just missing its point, or I am seeing with clear vision and it truly is useless. I don’t know! Just let me know in the comments: how would you use this?
Available this month in Japanland for $25.
[Dual Pointer Mouse] VIA [Gizmodo]
This seems to be another not-that-usefull-but-technically-sweet invention. It could be useful when using remote viewing application where the use often needs to click back in the remote view screen to gain back control. Same thing apply for virutal machine users where you could leav one cursor on the virtual machine screen and the otheron your desktop. Other than that.., and considering the software alows for it… I dunno. Guess some R&D departments have some fun and like inventing for the sake of inventing (a bit like art for the the sake of art… which eventually lead to things like Picasso… which is highly depressing :0)
I too am at a loss. Games, maybe? You could leave one cursor on some kind of “recharge” or “reload” button, while the other cursor blasted aliens.
For remote training or monitoring…the remote PC could have an idependent cursor so you could watch what the other PC was clicking on, while you played Solitaire. Hm, another game use. Also, I don’t see how that would work, really.
Games and remote console control are both good applications, as noted. I would add 3D manipulation to that list. There are a large array of specialized 3D input devices already on the market, most of them much more complex than this.
At work I frequently have to click a PROCEED button in a non-keyboard navigable window. If I had this mouse I’d leave one pointer hovering where the Proceed button pops up and then use the other pointer normally.
[…] v?a – oh gizmo! […]
I could see it beeing used in software like Photoshop. Then you wouldn’t have to move your mouse AAAAALL the way to the menu, to switch between text and brushes… Other than that, I find it a bit useless. The time you use finding the switch-pointer-button, an mentally set your mind to the fact that you’re controling the other mouse pointer. That time could be used to move a single-pointer mouse 10 times… But what the hey… The geek-factor also counts for something! 🙂
As a translator, I often work with texts in two languages. A double cursor would let me keep my place in 2 documents and go back and forth between them without realigning the cursors.
Whoo, late comment. I can see a use for this product IF they could make it go to two computers. I have a laptop and a desktop PC, with the desktop’s monitor to one side of my desk and the laptop directly in front of me. Juggling two mice and two keyboards can be a pain when I’m trying to set up the desktop with the laptop present, so it’d be really cool if I could use one mouse to connect to both and flip a button each time I turn my head to one side.
Not a huge market, certainly, but it is a neat technology. Of course the same effect could be replicated in software for anyone who has a mouse with more buttons than they use…
Imagine resizing a window with one mouse at each end of a window. But my idea of dual mouse is the use of both at the same time. I think the use of two mouse will be very useful especialy for mulit tasking.