knobmice

Working with live performance software one often finds virtual replications of physical interfaces, eg. DJ mix consoles, synthesizers, vision mixers, lighting desks and so on. On a computer, you use a mouse to manipulate them, but this isn't hugely ergonomic.

So people often connect 'uncommitted MIDI control surfaces' to their software, but these have fixed physical layouts that don't necessarily conform to the software's interface layout.

Enter the knobmouse. Imagine a squash ball held between thumb and index finger, mounted on a (2-3 cm wide) puck-shaped base that senses rotation (in the vertical axis) as well as movement. Squeezing the squash ball closes a switch and is equivalent to pressing a mouse button.

You move the ball across your desk to select an onscreen rotary dial, squeeze the ball, and tweak your finger/thumb to rotate it as you would rotate a real rotary dial. To move linear faders, you do the same thing but move the mouse after squeezing.

One knobmouse for each hand gives you similar ergonomics and control bandwidth to the real thing, but with complete configurability.