Mouse and touchpad offer translational analog control, and in another mode, they offer rotation around two axes.
Mostly missing these days from computers are knobs (Griffin PowerMate, iPod wheel), which allow rotation around the third axis.
We also lack controls which naturally return to center or neutral. Joystick.
Create a control that allows all three dimensional rotations but also returns to center. The SpaceBall targeted to old Silicon Graphics might have been one attempt. Current 3dconnexion products try, but I am skeptical about how well one can express rotations around arbitrary axes, since "twist" seems segregated from the other two axes by the shape of the device.
Dexterity challenge: a sphere is shown on screen, as well as a randomly chosen point representing an axis through the center. Complete a 360 degree rotation around that axis while drifting from that axis as little as possible.
1 comment :
Hi Ken, John from 3Dconnexion here. I noticed your post and wanted to ask you to clarify what you need to know about the axis on our 3D mice?
As you may know, they allow for simultaneous 6DoF (6-degrees-of-freedom) navigation so whilst your dexterity challenge could be more or less tricky depending on the angle of the center axis, I am pretty confident that a 3D mouse would offer the smoothest, most intuitive way to complete the rotation.
Best regards
John
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