Traditional GUIs have been based on a single pointing device for on-screen cursor manipulation. Trackpoint Mouse is a proposed Dual Pointing Device that works with existing GUIs. The primary pointing device remains as the cursor controller. The secondary TrackPoint can serve multiple purposes. Here are some software applications that take advantage of an additional TrackPoint:

Scrolling

Instead of moving the cursor to use the scrollbars of a document, the user can now scroll any window using the additional TrackPoint.

Two Cursor

With two cursors on a large desktop screen, the user will be able to increase productivity by using the primary cursor for editing, while leaving the secondary cursor at menubars or toolbars for selection purposes.

Zoom Window

This is a software simulation of a magnifying glass. The zoom window will magnify anything on the screen, directly over the target area. The secondary TrackPoint will be used to move this zoom window around the desktop. These are just a few of the many software possibilities with Dual Pointing Device systems.

Last updated: Monday, 10-May-2004 14:00:26 PDT

[ Back to USER Research | Almaden Research Center | IBM Research ]
[ IBM home page | Order | Search | Contact IBM | Help | (C) | (TM) ]