[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/16253164[/vimeo]
Better wash up your loins, guys, ‘cuz they ’bout to get blown. For all the readers out there who work in 3D, you may or may not love the crap out of this: the world’s first (as far as I’m aware, anyway) spherical mouse.
Though it’s probably bullspit for anything other than 3D design, the Axsotic Spheric Mouse is a much-needed relief for those designers sick of holding three keys just to rotate the camera. The device pans and rotates along three of your favourite axes, and apparently can zoom, although that might require the holding of keys anyway. Guess you can’t win ’em all.
Whether this makes a real difference in the workflow of designers remains to be seen, but whether or not it does, this is one piece of interaction design that has me all hot and bothered.
I WANT IT!!
Not to be a naysayer… but what about everything produced by these people?
http://www.3dconnexion.com/
I got a 3d modeling mouse from them 2 years ago, and I know there are really 3d mice out there as well. Granted, I haven’t seen one with a free-floating ball like this one, but they do the exact same thing.
A little more research for anyone interseted:
When you watch the demonstratin video you can clearly see there is no need to press an extra button for zooming in/out.
Gaming:
http://vimeo.com/25914354
http://www.axsotic.com/game.html