mvg@pnet51.orb.mn.org (Mitchell Gossman) (01/05/91)
I just tried the touch-screen stationary "mouse" called the "UnMouse" made by Appoint. It's a small, of, 2 by 5 inch device that is touch sensitive. It comes with some pretty impressive software that allows the dragging finger to do absolute mouse positioning, act like a regular mouse where only finger movement changes the mouse position, and even a trackball option with friction adjustment that causes the cursor to keep moving until "friction" intervenes! Trouble is, it seemed very strange indeed to use. When you push down to activate the mouse button function, the finger has a tendency to be hard to drag after the click on the sticky surface. Of the surface were Teflon, it would be better. You can let up without removing the finger from the pad surface without causing a "mouse up" action, but it's a pain letting the finger off the surface of the pad at exactly the right position on the screen. What I'm wondering is if the pad, with practice, is better than a mouse. I was impressed with the precision of movements and the software, but it seems like the learning curve is very long. Any opinions? Mitchell Gossman mvg@pnet51.cts.com