Alien computing equipment

[kengr]

Ok, just had a truly *weird* idea come to me while looking over at fayanora's mouse.

A pointing device for aliens. It's a blob of "goo" and you move the pointer(s) on (in?) the display by using your manipulatory appendages to exert pressure in various directions at various points.

It's slick & slimy to allow for easy movement.

Sort of a combo mouse/joystick/whatever. That looks like a big blob of snot. And feels *worse*.

Have fun trying to hack that alien computer, guys!

Comments

[mistresscayenne.livejournal.com]

Oohy gooy how do you like the foody. Aliens are kind of bloby. Hope this idea sticks in your head all night!

[scott-sanford.livejournal.com]

The mouse is a suboptimal pointing device in several ways, but it's one we use for various reasons despite this. We devised a keyboard that takes both hands and very nearly all ten fingers to use properly (you can type with only one thumb) - yet we then added a gizmo that forces the user to take one hand away from the keyboard to use it at all. Oops.

In Dilbert there was a monkey who used the mouse with his tail; that would be practical for aliens with appropriate appendages. Humans could use a foot pedal/joystick/something system, but we don't. A few head-mounted systems have been tried, but have never caught on.

For some purposes the blob would be quite practical. Maybe you hold it in one 'hand' (it could be sticky to help with this); an accelerometer array like in the Wii would let the user easily do fancy pointing and selecting, while a chording system would allow the equivalent of typing. This might be frustrating if the aliens' hands did not map well to human hands.

[kengr]

The accelerometer thing already exist. 29 years ago someone staying with Jim Oliver (remember him?) had a gyro-mouse.

Had a gryo in it (and sounded like a jet warming up for takeoff as it spun up). You tilted up to move the cursor up, down for down, and left and right for those directions.

Damned expensive though. Especially the wireless ones they have now.

[scott-sanford.livejournal.com]

I remember Swordsmith very well! Ah, those were the days.

Yes, something like a gyro-mouse - with sound effects, I'd hope - with a chording keyboard. It could be quite perplexing to figure out without someone to demonstrate proper use.

[kengr]

Hey, the sound effects were half the fun. I can picture it starting up and somebody ducking for cover or diving across the room.

If you want a chording keyboard, there are not horribly expensive braille keyboards (they've got six buttons plus a couple extra for special purposes. The six keys map to the 6 dots in a braille "cell". The things you learn having a blind friend.)

Come to think of it, you could do a chording keyboard of that sort for Tolkien's Tengwar Elvish script. There aren't that many elements to a character and they are related enough to make it workable.