Dual goes cursor in the DCT-DPM1

We're still trying to figure out exactly what the hell the Digital Cowboy DCT-DPM1 does, but our faithfully awful translator-bot tell us it does something to the effect of duping the mouse cursor at the click of a button, and possibly switch between the two. Hey man, any kind of gimmick will do if "labor effectiveness substantial rise you are not wrong!" you know?

[Via Akihabara News]

[DNS @ Mar 7th 2006 11:38AM]

such useless...god

[OxyMormoN @ Mar 7th 2006 11:40AM]

I think it lets you have two cursors, so if you are doing formatting tasks (for example) you can leave one at the controls and use the other for selection etc. then switch between them when needed. This could be very useful if one were using multiple screens to save time moving the cursor over large screen estate

[apathyangel @ Mar 7th 2006 11:47AM]

You could save precious miliseconds moving a mouse imagine how much time that could save in the long run.
Maybe a whole minute!

[john commenter @ Mar 7th 2006 11:52AM]

I can see two cursors being faster if you were working in a no-keyboard environment, had a wireless mouse in each hand and a clear desk in front of you, the cursors looked like left and right hands, and the UI was carefully modeled to work efficiently with left and right sides. Maybe photoshop or something. Like this, no.

[Pal @ Mar 7th 2006 12:32PM]

I can read Japanese, so let me enlighten you a little.

Coming late March. Open price (like most Japanese electronics -- it means that stores can set their own price).

Move the mouse normally to move the white (regular) cursor. Click and hold the side button and move the mouse to move the red cursor. Click on the bottom sets of mouse buttons for left and right-click of the red cursor.

--------

Pretty cool, I'm sure it'll speed up dialog menus and other repetetive tasks. Then again, it'd be more efficient to just write a macro.

[jimmie @ Mar 7th 2006 12:35PM]

The description given on the page is not too helpful, but it roughly reads:

[Industory first dual pointer mouse]
Have you not thought it'd be good if there were two cursors?

DCT-DPM1 is an industory first, unique mouse which can control two cursors with one mouse.

Your productivity will gain so much!

[Usage example]
In Excel
Cell combine operation in Excel will be easier than ever.
1) Press and hold the side button will turn the red cursor into a white cursor. The second cursor now is able to be operated.(Move the second cursor on to the cell-conbine button while press and holding the side button.

2)Normal operation is as easy. (Select a cell to which you wish to combine)

3)If you press "direct click button"(which is only for the second cursor) you will not need to swap cursors.(Click the "direct click button" and the cells are combined at once)


eh, some' like this. I don't really think this is too useful...

[veniex @ Mar 7th 2006 1:00PM]

I dont really see how this will increase productivity.

[Brian @ Mar 7th 2006 1:14PM]

Keyboard shortcuts anyone?

[Andrew @ Mar 7th 2006 1:57PM]

I wonder what using this in Counter strike would be like...

[smartypants @ Mar 7th 2006 2:19PM]

I think having two cursors is an interesting idea. Technically, you don't really need two cursors, they could be "virtual", meaning you could have a button to switch between your two virtual cursors and just use software to remember the position of where you left your other cursor last.

[Joel @ Mar 7th 2006 2:51PM]

As a teacher who teaches various graphics applications, I can see this being good in the classroom for demonstration use.

[Robert Preseau @ Mar 7th 2006 3:18PM]

I guess from an ergonomic standpoint this could get you all outta whack. Most people set their mouse so they can cover all screen real estate without having to reposition their wrist. If you have red and white mouse "droppings" at opposite ends of your screen it's going to be more work to use this than not.

Definitely goes in the odd, I'd probably have to use it in real life to understand its benefits, kinda way.

[master_of_fm @ Mar 7th 2006 3:42PM]

i could this really helping out using a two monitor setup, no more shuffling the mouse arcoss the mouse pad half a dozen times to get the cursor over to the other display

[Bo_gus @ Mar 7th 2006 5:06PM]

#13's got a point. This is like hot-swapping using a keyboard on a KVM device, except you're doing it with a mouse.

[neimad @ Mar 7th 2006 5:49PM]

I've always wanted to have two independant mice hooked up to one computer, such that there are two independant cursors and two people could use the same computer at once.
This would be extremely useful for collaborative environments such as writing music, etc..
I think this is the closest thing i've seen to that idea, but still not a solution.

[samay @ Mar 7th 2006 6:37PM]

Now you can have 2 guns in Counter-Strike!

[samay @ Mar 7th 2006 6:39PM]

umm..#15..Have you ever tried hooking up a USB mouse to a laptop..?

[evo @ Mar 7th 2006 7:27PM]

The ability to have two cursors on the screen at once is terrific. This would greatly simplify lots of repetitive tasks in Photoshop, IDEs, etc. for which keystrokes are not well-suited.

But what I'd prefer would be a simple key combination (like holding down Ctrl+Shift) that would alternate the use of the mouse between cursors 1 and 2. Then I could use my left hand to control which cursor I was using--that would be a hell of a lot easier than all the button twiddling with a single mouse.

[James Scherber @ Mar 8th 2006 1:24AM]

It seems way dumb at first thought. But it will most likely save a boat-load of time when used in repetitive tasks. It certainly beats clicking back and forth.

What you are actually doing is mapping a clickable area, be it a button or dialog box, to a particular mouse button. Yep, I like the idea.

[Berkana @ Mar 8th 2006 4:49AM]

Finally! I have been waiting for someone to build a practical two cursor mouse all semester.

I'm serious. I do 3-D modeling in an application with multiple viewports (Rhinoceros), and almost every time I use it, I've wanted to be able to have one cursor handling the items or points I've selected, and another to select tools and options from the pallets and toolbars. With one cursor, you can't do that: try moving to another viewport, and the point you're activley handling moves with the cursor until your cursor leaves the view port. If you have the point or position just right, well, tough toenails; you can't do anything with the cursor without messing that up.

Further more, Rhinoceros uses the right mouse button as the panning/orbiting tool, which leaves me with no contextual menu access. With a multi-cursor mouse, this would not be a problem. I could have the convenience of having the panning/orbiting tool right there while being able to use contextual menus with the same mouse.

If you've ever worked with an enormous monitor, sometimes you just want your cursor to stay put while you use another cursor to do fetch/tool selection work. It's a paint to have to move the mouse all over on a huge monitor: if the mouse cursor speed is set very high, you don't get high-resolution control, and vice versa. Having two cursors where you need them (while keeping a high-resolution slow mouse movement) and being able to quickly switch between them is a perfect solution.


The mulit-viewport CAD and 3-D modeling companies ought to jump on this right away. This idea is long overdue!

[Jason @ Mar 8th 2006 1:44PM]

Think of the applications, people!

In solitaire you could move a card with one cursor and click the card underneath with the other cursor. No more losing games!

[purplepeople @ Mar 8th 2006 3:32PM]

#20 has it right on.

For the last two years I've been looking for this also to the point of asking MS if they would ever do it. The answer was, of course, no. Obviously only left brained people working there. Same response with Wacom when I asked. Must be the typical programmers' mentality.

I also use Rhino and Photoshop. In conjuction with a a tablet, this would be perfect for an ambidextrous user. Mouse in one hand for tools and pen pointer in the other for sketching freehand or placing CAD points. MS-Paint, Jasc, CorelDraw, Illustrator, AutoCAD, Maya, ... the list of graphic applications is just about endless. Then there's the video editing and music software. You have design, architecture, engineering, music and Hollywood. Forget Office workers, these industries spend a lot of money on their tools.

[cez @ Mar 9th 2006 10:50PM]

Though the idea is interesting, this looks like a mouse with a third button to me. What's stopping somebody from writing a program to get the same functionality (switching cursors by holding the side button) with any other mouse?