Microsoft hints at new mice: "Say Goodbye to Laser"
By Nilay Patel 
posted Aug 27th 2008 4:54AM
posted Aug 27th 2008 4:54AM
We'd say the jump from traditional optical mice to laser mice was pretty momentous, and it sounds like Microsoft is getting ready to jump again -- Microsoft Hardware put up a teaser this afternoon for a September 9th announcement featuring the tagline "Say Goodbye to Laser." Yeah, that's not exactly subtle, is it? We're hoping a return to old-school trackballs with grimy little wheels is in order, but we're just sentimentalists at heart.
[Via Seattle PI, thanks Spencer]
[Via Seattle PI, thanks Spencer]
What is the problem with current laser mice? I don't see any benefit to a new technology other than perhaps longer battery life on wireless mice.
I still have plenty of surfaces that I don't track well on, so that's an area for improvement.
It may also improve accuracy... 2000 DPI might not be very good when gaming on a SHV display... But what's better than lasers? I'm thinking it'll incorporate a tiny hadron collider (I don't know how; it just will).
Pictures on German amazon homepage:
http://www.amazon.de/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.de%2FExplore-Technologie-Untergrund-Batterieanzeige-incl-Reiseetui%2Fdp%2FB001DC9T92%3Fie%3DUTF8%26s%3Dce-de%26qid%3D1219830648%26sr%3D8-13
Englisherised - http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.de%2FExplore-Technologie-Untergrund-Batterieanzeige-incl-Reiseetui%2Fdp%2FB001DC9T92%3Fie%3DUTF8%26s%3Dce-de%26qid%3D1219830648%26sr%3D8-13&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&sl=de&tl=en
You can count me out though, the reason I like laser is that there isn't a big red light under the mouse, so I'm not going to like a strip of blue light...
@zomg0t
A Tiny Hadron Collider? THC? That's not gonna improve accuracy ;-)
@Cal
I know that at least Logitech has invisible optical mice:
http://reviews.cnet.com/mice/logitech-lx7-cordless-optical/4505-3148_7-31532300.html?tag=mncol;lst
"This design features an invisible light optical technology"
Maybe Microsoft can make this mouse use invisible optics as well.
Their secret-keeping skill is worse than Nokia,
(or up-coming Apple )
How about we just say goodbye to mice instead. Touchscreens FTW
"This year we're introducing two new mice with our breakthrough tracking technology called Blue Track. The key to it is that it uses a big blue beam. And this is unlike any tracking technology that's been introduced to date."
http://www.bootcamp.com/report.jsp?reportId=2617
I personally was willing to wait another year for this -- what's with this 9.9.08 BS
No, it's not that there's a problem. They're just going to stop them from ever being made again. No new product, just..... no more lasers.
@zomg0t
Razer has invisible Eye-safe lasers in their mice as well. It's in the Razer Copperhead, I don't now about any of their other mice.
I've been sooooo worried about my mouse tech lately this a such a relief. Thank god!
@High Ranks
I'd prefer to wait 91 years for 9.9.99.
Is it just me or do the images in that spoiler look a tiny bit like eyes?
Maybe they have designed a new type of optical recognition system for mice?
I think i need to phone the MS PR team.
they use insect eyes as sensors
Our Blue Lemon™ Mouse Technology is light-years ahead of the competition.
GPS then?
/joke
No just WiFi triangulation.
No, just existing CCTV cameras and some nifty image processing. Available only in UK.
It's already working.
ON something call Wii
Photon Torpedo.
Just make the damn thing bluetooth please. Nothing like having the latest products run on ass ancient 900mhz tech with huge dongles that stick out of the side of laptops, begging to be snapped off on accident.
I dunno, women seem to like my huge dongle. *ba-dum CHINGGG*
I couldn't agree more. Pretty much every laptop these days has Bluetooth and yet we're still restricted to taking up a USB port with a dongle or using a second-rate mouse. Aside from the hideous drivers for it on the Mac, the VX Revolution mouse is pretty much perfect in terms of its physical form and features. The only exception in that it uses RF rather than Bluetooth. Give me a Bluetooth version and I"d be very happy. Given this I'm hoping that Microsoft bangs out some good competition. Fingers crossed...
I'd expect it to be bluetooth if it's a notebook mouse. I'm using a Microsoft Wireless Notebook Presenter Mouse 8000 and that's bluetooth.
I wonder if a mice can be built to connect using Wifi?
@Kelmon
"Pretty much every laptop these days has Bluetooth" that is so far from the truth most laptops dont have bluetooth go to any electronics store and find 2 laptops that have bluetooth you will be suprised how many dont have it.
I disagree.
Microsoft's RF tech works amazingly well for input devices, little to no input lag, long battery life, no problems holding and keeping a connection. Most bluetooth devices on the other hand suck battery like there's no tomorrow, sometimes can experience input lag, occasionally have a long resume time after a period of not using the device for a while, and I sometimes bluetooth devices for no apparent reason will just loose their paring.
So unless it's for a mobile laptop mouse, I'd rather have a Microsoft's 900Mhz RF.
they're called fingers ..
I for one am quite intrigued. I can't imagine anything superior to frickin lasers.
These type of things:
└ ├ ┼ ┬ ┴
Extended ASCII Codes (8bit)
I remain faithful that Microsoft is coming back to the legacy Ball mouse.
X, Y axis crud buildup on the rollers FTW!
balls of STEEEEEL!
As we all know, MS Research has made significant progress in the field of mind control. What's new is that by reversing the process (mind controls device instead of the opposite) a new generation of pointing device has been created. Very cool indeed.
Already seen what this is going to be. It's good.
MS are doing it because they forgot to patent the red laser when they invented it. Duh!
Anyway, this is much better.
@ Septimus,
MS didn't forget to paten the "red laser." Red Laser was introduced by Hughes Research Labs in 1960. That's a decade before Microsoft got its start.
And just in case you were referring tot he red "optical" mouse, that was invented by sun microsystems. Not MS.
Quoting you on the next line:
"Duh!"
Surface?
So is there anything concrete to say that "Laser" refers to mice, not to printers, with possibly a new technology in printing?
MS builds mice. They do not build printers.
Correction: *Mouses*
Correction: mice is Correct
9th September? So if rumours are correct the announcement will be completely overshadowed by Apple press event.
So everyone is just gonna ignore this new release? Even if Apple has something extraordinary to show? Riiiiight.....
Smells like a mouse with a motion sensor.
You might want to blow your nose, because that's not what this is.
Goodbye to laser.
/me waits...
Now what?
I'm gonna laugh if it turns out to just be a touch screen or something alone those lines. lol
Whoa there... you said you'd wait till if it turns out to be touchscreens... don't start laughing already!
Hmm maybe it use accelerometers instead and therefore has a lower power draw and is sensitive in more plains of movement. That type of setup would also eliminate the need to use the mouse on a surface. Through in bluetooth and definitely got something.
accelerometers ?
How would that work if you're using your laptop on a say ... a plane or train ?
It when certainly be interesting when the vehicle turns, accelerates, goes through turbulence etc .....
well it is pretty obvious that a MS product using lasers has to be a mouse because as has been said, they don't make printers or anything else using them.
now what will the mouse have?
the links provided about "blue light" tech are intriguing. exactly how different can using different light be?
i believe not much, but the difference may be in either responsiveness (not a problem right now), or the more important issue of energy efficiency (which you can never have too much of).
personally i would have thought they would have used the technology in the Segway for movement detection that surpasses the Nintendo Wii.
especially as the mouse only needs 2D (as opposed to the Wii's 3D detection requirements)
Segway tech:
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,3973,26752,00.asp
@ j.d.ripper
Hhhhmmmm.. one option is then to have the designated driver/pilot/captain move the controls of the car/plane/boat in such a way that your mousepointer will move on the screen exactly the way you want. Now that's what I call service!
http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/mice_pointers/mice/devices/3443&cl=us,en
If it's a new mouse I'm guessing motion sensing or gyroscope stuff
Microsoft Mind Control Mouse: Control You but no Windows
Definitely proton beams.
maybe theyre going military and use a eye tracking system
Can somebody say "BlueTrack"?
and typing "BlueTrack" is not saying BlueTrack.
Via Google and translated from Italian, I think:
Microsoft is pleased to announce the launch of a new mouse tracking technology is revolutionary than optical that than lasers. The Explorer Mouse will change your way of managing the computer. Thanks to technology tracking Microsoft Bluetrack, offers excellent performance and accuracy on most surfaces (raw wood, granite and carpeting included) allowing you to control your computer from anywhere you want. Its elegant design, the blue luminescence and metal finishing side will give an exclusive style. Accurate and fast, is rechargeable through the appropriate base.
Features:
* Microsoft BlueTrack ™ is a new technology for tracking revolutionary than optical and laser. The optical sensors Blue Specular, born from a combination of a Blue LED and lens with wide angle, join the power-haul optical precision laser than managing to make more precise and wide the image contrast of the surface. This allows the mouse with technology BlueTrack to function perfectly well on surfaces such as granite, wood raw and the carpet, on which neither mice nor optical lasers can work to the fullest. The radius of tracking mouse BlueTrack capture a larger section of the area being four times larger previous technologies. The BlueTrack mice are ideal for those who usually gather to manage their PC in the most disparate of the house, train, airport or even on the street, often in places where the areas of support are not very linear or smooth.
* a Wireless Connection
lol @ Microsoft office...
"Dammit Google. You spoiled our surprise!?!"
So that's where all the BluRay blue lasers went...
Hopefully something that can be used on a reflective or transparent surface. I'm currently using a notepad as a mouse pad!
I use a giant piece of cardboard as a mouse pad, and it actually works very well. It's a flat surface and the mouse moves smoothly on it.
Ha... Glad to know i'm not the only one using a weird mouse pad. I currently am working on a glass table with a Razer Copperhead. My mouse pad is a sheet of paper taped to the table...
Welcome - The BALL MOUSE
I, for one, welcome our new lazer-less overlords.
oh, dammit - i was supposed to say something with "fail" in it. We are still doing "fail", right?
dammit.
dammit.dammit.dammit.
The background picture is named something with 'BlueTrack' in it, which gave me this on Google:
http://www.yougame.it/MS_Explorer_Mini_Mouse-7048.html
where a new "revolutionary" MS mouse with a blue led and some kind of lens is described (my italian is not that great).
Could this be SOAP?
Found this in MS Reseach:
"Soap is an input device that is based on an optical sensor
as used in optical mice. Yet, soap takes its “mouse
pad” with it and can therefore be operated in mid-air."
And wash your dirty hands.
Trackball YES! Poison the mice Trackball them down and destroy. It took me almost 3 months last year to get my Logitech trackball replaced with a new one. It was definitly worth it. No mice for me. No pain for me :-) A trackball is healtier and more natural. No sweat concerning surface space.
So basically "Say Goodbye to Laser..........cause we are going back to Optical"
Oh great. September 9th. Maybe MS steals Apple's thunder this time around? Judging from the speculation, this could be really cool. Watch Apple introduce the same tech in a new Mighty Mouse or something. Oh snap. Although new MacBooks, iPods and Cinema Displays, iTunes 8 (maybe some other stuff) would be hard to top coverage wise.
Goodbye laser, hello LASERS!
No no no... it's good by lasers hello TAZERS!! You will be twitching so hard from the voltage that you won't even miss the laser. ;-0
don't click me, bro!
could it be like a Wii-mote sort of thing?
@MHC
it is the original translation posted by miko34
Why no a tap like mac Air but bigger?
Multitouch is cool now XD (like copy Apple)
It's going to be a ball mouse, but instead of rollers, lasers will read the surface of the ball.
damn only years after Razer's FIRST mouse, the BOOMSLANG did it.
thats an easy one...think..microsoft have been heavily investing in touch technology and interaction lately with surface and such...some kind of touch mouse..id almost bet my left nut on that one
What!! No laser, and I just got the dam shark used to the mouse.
If you hadn't told me it was MS I would've sworn that was an Apple ad - do they have to steal everything these days...
No wait a minute I've worked it out!
That logo looks like UFOs doesn't it? And Laser could be a codename. So if someone with the codename Laser is about to be taken back to his/her home planet on the 9th Sept. And Bill Gates is 'retiring' - well it doesn't take a genius...
geocities still exists?
fail.
Isn't some other rather momentous event to also occur on the 9th?
They should have chosen 9/11 as the launch date! Would have gotten lot more people talking. "Say goodbye to lasers" muhahaha!!
it'd still be overshadowed by a handful of ipod updates anyway
Funny...
I haven't said bye to my ball mouse yet.
It's a coverup. They're announcing Dreamcast emulation on the 360.
is this using the same principle as blu-ray? as in... a shorter wavelength laser?
Multitouch?
candles?
It'll be something about which nobody cares, you just know it.
Laser? BlueTrack? I'm using a five year old optical and that works fine (http://i34.tinypic.com/vr4kmr.jpg). I'm definitely going for another one of these but this time the wired model. No thank you, Microsoft pointing technology pioneering. I bought one of the first ever optical mice on the market from Microsoft a couple of years back, cost me 140€. Returned it after two days because all games were utterly unplayable on a Everglide mousepad and any other surface and there was no improvement in desktop navigation whatsoever. I stuck with Logitech and Optical ever since.
Mice with frickin' laser beams attached to their heads!