Bergman.SoftArts%MIT-MULTICS@sri-unix.UUCP (12/09/83)
It sounds like the effect for the user would be similar to that of a device I played with at SIGGRAPH '82, a force-sensitive joystick. It used piezoelectric crystals or somesuch to determine how hard you were pushing. The joystick itself didn't move. The company, "precision measurement devices" or some such, had a variety of sizes, shapes, sensitivity, etc, some in combination with others (a airplane style joystick with one of these on top for the thumb and one or two triggers for fingers, for example. Some of them were hooked up so that force affected velocity, others so that force affected position. The ones in which the force applied affected position were very nice. If you pushed hard and suddenly, the cursor leaped to the right place, if you gradually increased force, it moved slowly. In general, they were surprisingly easy to use. One adapted to the differences very quickly. They were especially good at things like tracking a moving target. Their main customer appears to be the government. mike bergman bergman.softarts@mit-multics