The Puyocon isn't about to swoop in and replace your trusty old two-dimensional laser pointing mousie just yet, but we're always suckers for
bizarre input peripherals. Demonstrated by Tsukuba University at Siggraph Asia 2009 last month, it is a soft and squeezable ball that offers a quirky new spin on the old
airborne controller idea. Differing from the
Wii Remote in the fact that it won't break your HDTV (or itself) if it slips out of your hand, the spongy ball operates on the basis of a three-way accelerometer and 14 pressure sensors in order to give detailed multidimensional information to the system it's controlling. That's probably overkill for the humble computer desktop, but there might be hope for the Puyocon becoming a commercial reality through games that make use of all its input points -- after all, if there's room for the
Wiiwaa, why not the Puyocon too? See it in action after the break.
posted January 15th 2010 5:27AM
If I were me, I wouldn't throw my mouse.
@revoltracers \
but you're not
Do not taunt the Happy Fun Ball
This makes me want a Tangerine
A Finnish company called Ball-it introduced a very similar input device already several years ago and they released it as a commercial product last year. Take a look at http://www.bloboshop.com/ or http://www.ball-it.com/
@Fuusio You definitely are an employee of that company. I've caught you spamming it twice now.
Look, this device is better, cheaper, has more sensors, and they arent stupid enough to charge for an SDK.
@Extinction For your information, Sherlock Holmes, I am definitely not employee of Ball-it. I live in the same (relatively small) city as this company, so I happen to know the company, their background and their product. I was also able to buy the Blobo ball, because it is already being sold here in Finland.
Where did I claimed that Ball-it product is better than this Japanese research device? I am just interested about these technologies because of my research background, and wanted to share something I knew.
I do agree with you that it is very stupid from this company to charge for the SDK. I was also interested to get the SDK, but when I realized that they were asking money for it I was really disappointed ... I did not like the current Blobo games. They were too simple, boring, and the UI design of games were quite terrible. The device itself is small, nice, and accurate enough, and it would have been quite nice to do some DIY projects with the ball ...
Well, these japanese guys are little bit late! Ball-IT with its Blobo controller already patented it, did it, in smaller size, and in shops now!
Its like iOrb!
http://www.ims.tuwien.ac.at/research/iorb/
Honestly, I just want a mouse that reacts to being used as a goddamn mouse.
I fell like singing "Threw it on the ground!"
~that's an orange, that's not a mouse, what do you think, i'm stupid?~
It's wonderful!
I think that a simple, universal ball has absorbed person's intention.
これからが楽しみです。
"Puyocon mouse reacts to being squeezed, thrown, gyrated"
Funny, so do I.