We never knew just how much work it was moving our mouse around our desktop until we blew ourself silly on Zyxio's breath-enabled sensawaft tech. The sensor detects the directionality of breathing, which sounds really easy in theory but took a bit of learning in practice. After a couple minutes of trying, however, we were "blowing with our mind" as the promotional materials suggest, and while we wouldn't call ourselves halfway accurate, we could see ourselves suggesting a mild amount of cursor direction with very little effort after a day or so of use. There's an obvious application for the disabled, but Zyxio also thinks it can talk gamers into using it as a "third hand," and envisions other applications such as controlling a mobile phone or zooming in and out of a GPS view in a car. We can't see it taking the industry by storm, but sensawaft is certainly an impressive and entertaining technology, and with devices in the projected $70 range in Q2 or Q3 of this year, it might not be too expensive for a novelty buy. Check out a video of it in action after the break.
posted January 8th 2010 1:59AM
I'd blow on her cursor.
Sorry, i actually feel that was needed
@Alexicov
thats a man baby, yeah
@cswright
That's my mother!
Waste of good CES space.
Another waste of CES space.
Why???
@ifinoxonifi Paul hit on it briefly, but this could be a really handy device for disabled people who don't have other means of navigating a computer. (Sometimes, not even voice recognition is an option). For $70, this would be a steal, since most machines for that demographic are often horrendously expensive and tricky to use.
I don't think it'll take off as a "third arm", but maybe it could be used with head-tracking equipment for people who don't wanna actually lean around or something? Your guess is as good as mine at this point.
@ifinoxonifi
quadraplegics for one would find this great. They have to do something similar to just get their wheelchair to move.
people with motion disorders in their arms, like parkinsons or other nerve damage.
Lots of non-healthy people applications, and the fact that is' like $70 instead of $5000 like other solutions this is great.
that macbook is using windows ha-ha-ha(stupid laugh )
yup, the mind-blowing windows vista
gaming third hand = spit covered pc.
I want one.
Why won't anyone address the whole "we blew ourselves silly.." comment? Are we just going to gloss over that one :P.
If you use one of these professionally, would it be a blow job?
Ask her out for a drink, Paul!
A great tool for the neck-bearded mouth breathers out there.
To all the morons who ask why.
Disabled people. That's why.
Yeah, all the disabled people who would love to use this device to alleviate their physical handicaps sure are a bunch of lazy, neck bearded mouth breathers. Now lets get back to looking at more bullshit mobile device articles and other crap people want but don't truly need.
Christ.
@Extinction
Sarcasm aside, that was me agreeing with you by the way lol
@mmauve I hear you, clearly engadget has never heard of a Puff and Sip device...
@thelongmile Yeah, I'm in the PWD community, and I've seen sip and puff around for more than a decade.
Breath control is old news, but breath control without a straw may be helpful to some PWDs who don't need the straw.
@DarkElfa
I've gotta go move my cursor right now
and when you sneeze..... don't tell me. it goes on stand-by?
@DarkElfa
brb, filing patent
Shame on you Paul Miller (the Engadget submitter) for being so careless and shortsighted; has it ever occurred to you that some people are disable/tetraplegic yet still have a functional brain (i.e. Stephen Hawkings brilliant mind) and would like options to work with a computer?
Maybe it doesn't work for you Paul Miller, but don't make a fool of yourself by not considering the benefits to other people.
Do yourself a favor; get a passport, leave your computer home and go discover the world and go meet people. Throw in some community time for kicks too. Maybe then you'll see that no everybody lives in America and watches HBO.
@Olivier Dude, chill out. Oh, and Steven Hawking is a fraud.
@Olivier /facepalm - Didn't read the whole article, did ya?
I'm sensing alot of users passing out..
@(Unverified)
And also the need for breath mints?
This would be GREAT for a surgeon to control a computer while he's scrubbed up and sterile. You cant just grab a mouse unless you set the whole thing up for that, which doesnt happen often.
@cjmike
Actually we just double glove, and control the robot. If a complication arise, we can just take off a glove and stay sterile.
I swear my old college roommate could have controlled his computer with his ass if this was available back then.
@Bosco
You win the internet good sir
Any computer a mic and GlovePIE can do the same, for free, comes with a demo script to make it especially simple.
However the author really hates israel and doesn't want israeli to use it, for that reason I won't link to it, so there, more business for google.
But why not bing or yahoo you ask? http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/dec/28/sex-internet-india-law
@DarkElfa
ever heard of a quadriplegic? or parkinsons disease? muscular distrophy? multiple sclerosis? cerebral palsy?
dude... not everyone has full control of their hands.
Those cybersex sessions will get very interesting and maybe slightly garbled.....
"...until we blew ourself silly..."
Gigidty!
new technology breathing technology
@DarkElfa you fail if you didn't even get it
Shouldn't this be in CRAPDGET section?