My computer engineering teacher wants me to make him a unique computer mouse after I showed him my gunmouse I made. Only problem is I can't think of a single thing that would be cool, unique, and not make using the mouse annoying/difficult. So far my only ideas are to put a mouse into a stuffed animal or some sort of toy and relocate buttons inside them to places (like make one out of a model car or something) or to make a mouse that looks basically the same but made from wood, which would be pretty unique. Any ideas/thoughts? Insane notions welcome.
Well, today when proposing new ideas to him he said he wants a foot-mouse, so he doesn't have to move his hands from keyboard to mouse and back. So I'm working on a plan for it, I'll make a mini-project log for it sometime.
hook up pedals from playstation and some sort of tracker ball seems kinda clunky but you get the idea maybe ?
Theoretically, yes. In practice, no. He wants it to be good, not totally ghetto piece of crap that he could have made in 4 seconds.
er, remember: don't make it really responsive, I can't move my foot with the same responsive accuracy as I can my hand. or else I think people would start using thier feet for fps.
Hi mattthegamer463, A foot mouse is certainly odd in my opinion. Apart from having difficulties moving it, the user would also have problems with the buttons and the scroll wheel. I would suggest a trackball would be easier for foot control. ARM
Just flip a ball mouse upside down (one of the ones you are meant to use where you roll the ball) Some kinda traction material on it, and big toe for left click, heel for right.
In a science fiction book called "Mote in God's Eye" they have these watchmakers that mod everything. Pistol grips that only fit the owner's hand, tooth brushes only the owner can hold comfortably. I have always wanted to do a lifecast of my hand in the mouse holding postion and make a cast of the the hand. Use the rubber skin stuff from the FX industry and make a truly comfortable mouse that just fits ME! My 0.02 USD worth Something to think about? John The Ancient Geek
I agree a foot-mouse would be strange to use, and would most likely be difficult to use, but its what he wants so who am I to say. My plan is to put metal "ball bearing casters" on the bottom of a triangle block of wood, then cut out the bottom of the wood to fit the mouse innards. Then, rig the buttons to a pad on the floor that will be used by the opposite foot. Ill see what I can get done on it this weekend by cutting a triangle piece from a 4x4 and taking a trip to home depot to find some suitable casters.
cool he ends up dancing and having a work out as he works and you get to have a laugh at his expense.
sounds nice The idea of a foot mouse sounds very promising. I was actually trying out how it would feel like to move a mouse with your foot after reading this. I jst imagined having a pointing device stuck to my foot and moving my leg around gently. I think it will work as long as you set down the sensitivity in Windows. Integrating a mouse with a slipper should be the best alternative to this. Having separate pedals for the clicking will make it feel less like a mouse IMHO. You can perfectly fine click with your big toe and your little pinky. I'm sure your legs will be tired after a while using this.
I mentioned both things to him, and he said he wants to use it while wearing shoes (I guess maybe he wants to use it at school too) and so using toes to click isn't an option, nor is making it into a slipper. I would rather use a separate foot for buttons, I would end up bumping the buttons too much if they were all on one foot.
Mount magnets in his shoe one left or right w/e and have another bad with magnets that snaps on with a normal mouse guts attached so it will track and assign 2 keyboard mounted keys to be left and right click and scroll.
I took a trip to home depot and Radioshack and picked up the closest thing I could find to wheels; Magic Slide chair bottoms. They should be fine, they move really easily across hardwood and so will suit well. I also got 2 momentary buttons for the button pad.
I think the foot mouse is an awesome idea. Especially if the marjority of time you are writing and you just need to occasionally click on something. I like leaning back in my chair with my keyboard in my lap and type ... but then I have to lean forward to click on something ... with the foot mouse that would never happen. If he is using it on a hardwood floor would he even need wheels for it? Just get those little fuzzy circles you put on the bottom of furniture so it doesn't scratch the floor attach it to a board roughly the size of his foot ... cut out the middle, mount an optical mouse in there. add some walls to the board so he doesn't have to press hard on the board to make it move around. then just get another board attach 2 big buttons to it like a gas/stop pedal and those will be your left and right click respectively.
Here are some pictures of things so far: Craptastic shot of the inside: The parts I got: I also got a piece of wood I'm going to use, but I don't have any pictures of it as of now.
