Tired of running out of mousing room on your meagre li'l mousepad? If so, you might like the Padrone Primera mouse. It's worn like a ring, and is claimed to turn the entire top of your desk into a giant touchpad.
Made by Swiss startup Padrone, the Primera is currently the subject of a Kickstarter campaign.
According to the designers, it's been in development for the past 10 years. And although we have seen various other attempts at finger-worn computer mice, none of them have worked quite like this one.
The device is worn on the index finger of the user's dominant hand. Among other electronics, it incorporates a six-axis motion sensor, a forward-facing camera, a microprocessor, a Bluetooth LE module, and a rechargeable battery.
Utilizing input from the motion sensor and the camera, the microprocessor is able to identify specific finger/hand movements, plus it's able to see the end of the finger along with the surface directly below it. Padrone is quick to point out that all the processing takes place within the mouse, so users needn't be concerned about images being sent to the internet.
The Primera is powered up by double-tapping the side of the index finger with the thumb. From there, sliding the fingertip across the surface of the desk moves the onscreen pointer accordingly. A desk-tap with the index finger serves as a left click, while tapping the middle finger produces a right click.
Scrolling is managed by sliding the index and middle fingers together. Pressing the thumb against the side of the index finger allows users to drag and drop items. And when the hand is moved to the keyboard to start typing, the Primera sees the keyboard and automatically goes into standby mode until the hand is moved back to the desk.
It is important to note that the device only works on reasonably well-lit surfaces that don't have overly chaotic color patterns. Battery life also isn't great, as one 100-minute USB charge is said to be sufficient for one full work day.
Back on the plus side, though, the device should work with any tablet or computer that accepts a Bluetooth mouse, without any added software.
Assuming the Padrone Primera reaches production, a pledge of €259 (about US$279) will get you one. It's demonstrated in the following video.
Sources: Kickstarter, Padrone
I hate regular computer mice. Since the mid-1990's I have only used Cirque touchpad mice on my desktop computers.