Working in Movement

In his book Natural Born Cyborgs, Andy Clark talks about "cognitive prostheses and how plastic brains can learn to treat well-designed new tools as if they were parts of the person." (More on Clark in a previous post, Experiencing Ourselves Plus.)

Sometimes I feel a computer mouse has become a natural extension of my hand as a pointing and selecting device. It feels like the mouse lets me put my hand inside the screen to do what I want with the information residing there. That's an abstraction, of course, but I'd agree with Clark that I experience the mouse as if it was part of me. I've incorporated it into my self-image.

Soon, my nose might join the hand in controlling the mouse, at least according to Dmitry Gorodnichy of the Institute of Information Technology in Ottawa, Canada. Nose-steered mouse could save aching arms describes how Gorodnichy has written a piece of software that incorporates a webcam to let you point to object on the screen with your nose. The software, called a nouse, doesn't stop with just pointing. If you want to click the nouse, simply blink twice with your right or left eye.

The potential use of the nouse for handicapped computer users is obvious. But there are other innovative uses, too. It can help a user navigate around 3D computer software, such as virtual design environments and games. This probably extends how we can interact with virtual environments without really expensive peripherals. And just as typing on tiny cell phone keyboards with thumbs has become easy for text messegers, facile use of the nose may one day soon be an asset. Who could have guessed?

For more information and to download the nouse software, visit Nouse homepage. Seems to only work on Windows though.