[img]http://filesmelt.com/dl/gyration_air_mouse_megathread.png[/img]
Many of you have seen those awesome videos where people hack their wiimote through bluetooth and play games like Half Life 2 or WoW using the wiimote's gyroscope, but why spend an upward of $70 on something you have to hack and only gain semi-functionality?
Well for those of us who want some awesome gyroscope action without all the trouble of pairing, downloading beta driver software, and emulating a mouse; there's the Gyration Air Mouse.
[img]http://filesmelt.com/dl/gyration_side_view1.jpg[/img]
This remote-like device contains 5 different motion sensors: 3 linear axis sensors (x,y,z accelerometers) and 2 rotational axis sensors (yaw, and roll gyros). These sensors give you total free-handed motion control over the cursor on your screen. This mouse has two clickers, a clickable scroll wheel, and 3 programmable function buttons; so you get the full functionality of a regular mouse. It also has an optical sensor (I know optical usually sucks compared to most other tracking tech, but I've found that this mouse very accurately tracks on many surfaces.). One of the programmable buttons, when held down, puts the mouse into gesture mode. If you were in a web browser and you swung the mouse to the left in gesture mode, you would go back a page, and visa versa. With the software that comes with this mouse you can easily program these gestures. I myself made it so when I swing up it opens a new tab, and when I swing down it minimizes the open window.
This is the third day I've gotten to mess around with this awesome gadget and I must say it's rather impressive. I've played all sorts of games with this thing and it feels quite different, but in fact better in my personal opinion. The way the gyro works makes you feel like you're actually holding a gun in the game. I'd say it feels a lot like using the falcon, except without force feedback and such. One of my favorite things about using the Air Mouse is the fact that aiming weapons feels so natural. I've always had a hard time with aiming at the head of moving targets in games, but with this thing I can easily track people's head and fire at will with no such problems.
This device has a bit of a learning curve. It took quite a bit of getting used to, but now I must say I can't put this thing down. The only time I put it down is to do some very precise editing in photoshop, which it does relatively well compared to my old laser mouse. Also this mouse alone costs $80 and it comes with a usb charging station (that's right, no need to buy batteries).
Any questions? Feel free to ask.
$80? Too much for a bit of screwing around in my opinion.
Isn't the pointer all jittery
whenever I use Wii/PS Move the pointer is all shaky because of my hands, I don't see how you can use it as a mouse unless there's some sort of smoothing going on
Not much of a mega thread.. Cool gadget none the less.
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