CrunchGear

Though the Swiftpoint SLIDER shown in the above photo may look like a full-sized mousing apparatus, make no mistake; it’s tiny and it fits around your thumb. It can also be flipped up sideways and used somewhat like a pen.

The device is billed as “the perfect solution to the challenges of new and emerging technologies and operating environments: offering full mouse funtionality and more, in a compact and ergonomic package, without the need for the additional ‘mousing surface’ that mobile environments ofetn lack.”

In English, that means that you can use it on top of your laptop keyboard, like so…

And, as previously mentioned, you can also use it like a pen. Example!

And that’s not all! According to a study at the University of Canterbury that may or may not have been commissioned by the very company that makes this device, “100% of participants preferred the Swiftpoint over the touchpad with around half preferring the Swiftpoint over a standard mouse after just 20 minutes use.” Amazing, no?! Speed and accuracy was also improved by 30-40% over a normal touchpad.

Take all this with a grain of salt — it’s unknown how the study was conducted, who paid for it, how many participants there were, yadda, yadda, and one final yadda.

Details beyond all the smoke and mirrors are scarce. This may or may not be an actual product beyond a prototype and it may or may not be coming to a store (online or otherwise) near you. Also, I’m assuming it’s Bluetooth because I haven’t seen any wires connected to the device. It could, though, be some proprietary wireless connection via a USB dongle, which would be a dumb move. Let’s just hope it’s Bluetooth for now.

At any rate, it’s an interesting idea and it might be able to gain some traction provided it doesn’t cost and arm and a leg (and a thumb!!! LOL!!! ROFL!!!)

SLIDER [FutureMouse.com] via Ubergizmo