The traditional mouse has certainly seen an evolution over the last ten years, moving from the crud-collecting ball version with serial connections to laser-guided devices that plugs into any USB port. Celluon now wants to take the evolution one step further by removing the hand-held device altogether, turning your desk into a virtual touch screen.
The evoMouse Pet recently made an appearance at CES 2010, sporting two eye-like infra-red sensors which track the movements of your fingers. Swipe to the right, and the on-screen cursor moves to the right. Use two fingers and push forward and backward to scroll up and down. Want to zoom in on an image pulled up by Bing? Use the index and thumb in the pinch-to-zoom motion as supported by Windows 7; the unique rotation capability is supported as well.
The evoMouse Pet device is rather small, fitting into the palm of your hand like a little red, four-legged Pokemon. Pocket Lint adds that a Cube version will also be available, however it will function just the same save for an added laser keyboard that can handle up to 400 characters per minute. Although the virtual keys were found to perform accurately, it's speculated that the lack of haptic feedback could be taxing on users accustomed to physical keys.
Both devices connect via Bluetooth to a PC with Windows XP, Vista, or 7. The device can also connect to a Windows Mobile device, Symbian devices, and Blackberry smartphones (no more track wheel??). The evoMouse also connects via USB for charging, and can hold a charge for up to two hours once disconnected. Currently, there's no expected ship date or pricing.
