Thomas: As you might have noticed if you follow the news, the mouse had it’s 40th Birthday today (and recently, Logitech produced their 1 billionth example!. You can read all about it’s beginnings elsewhere online, but we’re here to discuss what comes next for the humble mouse. Cringley has already predicted Apple to produce a replacement tech by the end of this year, although he was typically vague about what it would involve:
So what’s new for the mouse?
Martin: Cringely perhaps got ahead of himself there. Maybe he will only be a few weeks out and they’ll replace the mouse at Macworld in January. I’ve been looking at applications like Touchpad Pro which allow remote control of your computer from an iPod Touch or iPhone. They look like a great idea. Imagine if you could get a touchscreen the same size as a mouse pad that allowed you to use it as a touch pad, it could also simulate keyboards and specialized software specific controls. Alternatively, how about taking the mouse off the table and holding a motion sensing pointer that allowed you to point to the screen like a Wiimote? I even like the idea of using a graphics tablet as a large multi touch enabled touch pad. It would be much cheaper than the touch screen option too.
None of these ideas work that well in my head. Maybe Apple or Microsoft or someone else has an amazing device up their sleeves. You have to say though that if the Mouse has survived for 40 years it must be doing something right and will be difficult to replace. Maybe we’ll just get improvements to the current mouse like the Microsoft Blue Track.
Thomas: Yeah, we’re definitely going to see some evolution of the current mouse tech from Microsoft and Logitech. They’re too far down that particular rabbit hole to let go, and why should they? The mouse as we know it is certainly not going to disappear in the next decade, probably not even the next 4 decades.
Gesture control would be great, even better if you could dispense with the Wiimote. Imagine sitting in front of your TV and swiping the air left to right to flip channels. A couple of cameras mounted in the TV bezel could do this with a bit of clever software. It might not be a replacement to the mouse but as a replacement to the TV remote control it would be fantastic.
The Telegraph has a news article on the mouses Birthday here. They seem to be drawing the same conclusions as ourselves and Cringley, change is on the horizon and it’s taking several different shapes. For my money, it’s going to be in the first six months of 2009 and it’ll be multi touch enabled.
Martin: That video is cool but I am going to need a bigger office!
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