FLow: A Mouse With More

 

 Even as touch-enabled devices take over the world, along with other natural interfaces like voice and gesture, the mouse remains an integral part of computing. But what if we built a better mouse?

The team of German hardware designers behind Flow hopes the computing world will soon be beating a path to its door.

Flow is a "freely programmable wireless controller" which combines hand gesture recognition, touch, and haptics in a mobile, hockey puck-shaped design. The idea is to take the core functionality of a traditional mouse and expand it to also include much broader capabilities found in touch-based devices, video game controllers, and even motion-and-gesture sensors.

The Flow team on Monday launched an Indiegogo campaign for their open-platform device, seeking to raise $50,000 in seed money to jumpstart their dream of producing a product for general release by 2016. Just hours into the 40-day crowdfunding effort, Flow had already raised $12,398, or about 25 percent of the final goal.

Flow is being billed as a multi-use device which can be used as traditional mouse with a PC but also to interface with mobile devices and even hung on a wall as a smart device controller. It measures 70mm in diameter and 15mm in height, and "connects directly to anything that speaks Bluetooth Low Energy with no additional hardware required," according to its designers.
The device, made from aluminum and stainless steel with a durable polycarbonate touch surface, packs a long-life, replaceable battery promising four months of charge. Flow's sensors enable capacitive touch, 360-degree angular positioning, infrared-based hand gesture recognition and luminosity.
Flow CEO Tobias Eichenwald and his team say they eventually aim to code their controller with "dozens of controls out of the box," including synchronization with Linux-based software, popular design applications like Photoshop, the Arduino and Raspberry Pi "maker" boards, and media platforms like YouTube, Vimeo, and Pandora.
"We'll start off by supporting Mac, then add support for iOS devices, Android, Linux, and Windows. We're making progress fast and we'll keep you posted along the way," the Flow team said.