trc@houti.UUCP (06/30/83)
One of the main problems with a mouse (or a digitizing pad) is that one has to move one's eyes from the screen in order to transfer one's hands from the keyboard to the mouse or back. Another is that the mouse may "drift" - requiring the user to pick it up and re-position it. The light pen has the disadvantage of requiring one-to-one correspondence of the pen to cursor position, in order to be "intuitive". One also has to look away from the screen in order to move between the keyboard and lightpen. (It is possible to make the pen work like a mouse, with large movements translated into small cursor movements. This might, however tend to obsure the screen.) PARTIAL SOLUTION: The Sensor Glove. The "pick-up" problem could probably be solved by attaching the particular sensor to the hand. A mini-mouse might be held in the palm of the hand with an elastic band or glove. A fiber-optic light guide could be run from the index finger to a sensor attached at the wrist to allow the user to simply point at the screen. Probably some similar method could be used for digitizing pads. Or, if one could make a wireless light pen, one could just stick it over one's ear, where it is easy to find. Sometimes the old ways work out best! Tom Craver houti!trc