Multitouch and the Mouse

Reading today about Apples new line of laptops, I was reminded of comments that Paul Thurrott made on Windows Weekly about the viability of touch screen interfaces.

The basic point Paul made was that he doesn't want to be touching his screen - his iPhone gets all messy, and he doesn't want the same to happen to his main computer.

I'd add that the idea of waving my arm about in front of my existing monitors all day sounds inconvenient and tiring!

Well, I've got an idea to share ... what would happen if we combined a mouse and a trackpad together ...

trackpad.jpg

microsoftMouse.jpg

Take a regular mouse, rip off the buttons and mousewheel, and replace the entire upper surface with a trackpad.

trackMouse.jpg

(Please forgive the crude mockup - I'm a developer, not an artist!)

Movement of the mouse remains the way that you move the cursor around the screen.

Clicking buttons and moving the mousewheel also remains the same - but the trackpad allows for a wide range of gestures, both single- and multi-touch, to be used as well.

Most of the work in making this happen would be in getting the driver just right - given that people tend to rest their fingers on the mouse, you'd need to tell the difference between deliberate and inadvertent actions.

I've no connections to anyone in the hardware business, so I'm putting this out there for someone to try. The only thing I ask is this: If you make this a reality, I'd like a few units from the production run to share with friends and family.