The MouseField user interface

Some of us are ready for truly ubiquitous computing, but a lot of our devices are just not. Interfaces are too simple, too complex, or too mired in old ways of thinking about user interaction. Koji Tsukada, Toshiyuki Masui and Itiro Siio gave some thought to ubiquity and came up with a flexible input device called the MouseField, which allows users to control multiple information appliances intuitively and without great cost. The system interacts with RFID
chips in the devices and uses motion sensors to detect movement and execute commands without the need for special controller intermediaries. Take the example of listening to music: take a CD already saved to your music server and place its RFID-enabled jacket on the MouseField to call up a music player application. Move to the next or previous track by sliding the jacket up or down, adjust the volume by rotating the disc sleeve, and stop playback by simply removing the jacket from the MouseField. Very nice — now we want the academics and the businessfolk to get together on this and make it happen so we can pop down to Target and pick one up, thanks.