News 3

A Wireless Mouse That’s Surfaceless, Too
By Eric A. Taub
Personal Computing

Whether it’s cars or consumer electronics, manufacturers’ design concepts almost never make it to production; instead their best features are adopted into more mundane, less controversial versions.
RemoteHillcrest Labs

But one consumer electronics company has decided to buck that trend. On Monday, Hillcrest Labs introduced a production version of its radically rethought PC mouse.

The company is pushing its Loop mouse (which it prefers to call a pointer) as the perfect device to use when you’re watching video Web sites to which you’ve gained access on your computer and transferred to your TV. Instead of pushing your finger around a track pad, you simply wave the Loop pointer to move the cursor on screen (movements are picked up by a USB device connected to the PC). And because the pointer uses radio rather than infrared waves, you don’t need to aim it at the PC; in fact, the computer can even be put inside a cabinet.

I tried the Loop pointer and it works as promoted; simple wrist movements move the cursor easily. After a few minutes of use, you get the hang of it; simple twists of the wrist put the cursor where you expect it to go.

If you want to visit an actual Web site and need to type in some text, an on-screen keyboard available as part of the Windows and Mac operating systems allows you to point and click on letters, but it’s no substitute for a physical keyboard.

Instead, the best use of this device is for those sites that require mouse clicks only. In addition, it works very well as a sexy substitute for a PowerPoint remote, for those times when you need to show slides to a room full of colleagues.

Priced at $99, Hillcrest’s Loop remote is available from its Web site or from Amazon.