Mouseless: An invisible PC mouse

Mouseless is an invisible computer mouse that provides the familiarity of interaction of a physical mouse without actually needing a real hardware mouse.

Mouseless is a project by Pranav Mistry of the MIT Fluid Interfaces Group. It is powered by an Infrared (IR) laser beam  and an Infrared camera embedded in the computer. Watch the video below to get a glimpse of the invisible mouse:

Let’s understand how it works:

The Mouseless invention removes the requirement of having a physical mouse altogether but still provides the intuitive interaction of a physical mouse that we are familiar with. Mouseless consists of an Infrared (IR) laser beam (with line cap) and an Infrared camera. Both IR laser and IR camera are embedded in the computer. The laser beam module is modified with a line cap and placed such that it creates a plane of IR laser just above the surface the computer sits on. The user cups their hand, as if a physical mouse was present underneath, and the laser beam lights up the hand which is in contact with the surface. The IR camera detects those bright IR blobs using computer vision. The change in the position and arrangements of these blobs are interpreted as mouse cursor movement and mouse clicks. As the user moves their hand the cursor on screen moves accordingly. When the user taps their index finger, the size of the blob changes and the camera recognizes the intended mouse click.

Inventions of the invisible mouse and gestural devices will make the traditional mouse a history very soon….what is your opinion?

Information from Pranav Mistry’s blog.