One thing about scroll wheels and the Apple Mighty Mouse "scroll ball" is that you have to lift your finger and move it to different radii of the wheel/ball, in order to keep "scrolling".
A mouse with a pointing stick (actually a "scrolling" stick), instead of a scroll wheel, will solve this problem, and allow you to "scroll" in any direction.-- BJS, Jun 20 2006 Pointing stick input device http://en.wikipedia...wiki/Pointing_stick [BJS, Jun 21 2006, last modified Jun 22 2006] Apple Mighty Mouse http://store.apple....8B&nplm=MA086LL%2FA [BJS, Jun 21 2006] I don't see why not, but scrolling is a more natural movement.-- daseva, Jun 20 2006 If you scroll too much, you could get carpal tunnel syndrome.-- BJS, Jun 20 2006 OK, well I know this probably wouldn't work, but what if you had a pointing stick that made you feel like your finger was scrolling when you used it?-- daseva, Jun 20 2006 Why? If you did that then it would eliminate the main point of this idea.-- BJS, Jun 20 2006 I think so...-- BJS, Jun 21 2006 It's been done.
Microsoft Intellimouse makes the mouse into a distance-sensitive scroll controller if you click the wheel.-- baconbrain, Jun 22 2006 Could you provide a link to where it's been done?-- BJS, Jun 22 2006 There was a link to a wikipedia entry. I copied text from it. You deleted my entry and the link.-- baconbrain, Jun 22 2006 Okay, I have read it and it did say that they have been observed on computer mice, BUT I’m assuming the ones that Wikipedia was referring to where used to point the cursor rather than to “scroll” the screen, since it didn’t specify how they where used. And since they are called “pointing sticks” rather than ""scrolling” sticks”. That means they are used for pointing and not for moving an image around.
And I don’t know what the correct term for moving a two dimensional image around in any two dimensional direction but not rotating it is. I’m sure its not actually scrolling, because scrolling is back and forth or side to side in one direction, and I looked up “panning” at dictionary.com and it said things like, “To move a movie or television camera to follow an object or create a panoramic effect.” and “To move (a camera) so as to follow a moving object or create a panoramic effect.”
I don't think such a word exists.-- BJS, Jun 22 2006 Nice idea. I used to have a laptop with one of these sticks on them for mouse control. I envisage that this would work much like a more intuitive version of clicking the wheel on an intellimouse. Rather than a click and drag, you apply a force to scroll and remove the force to stop scrolling. I like it. [+] I wish you'd left baconbrain's link up, though. If someone doesn't get your idea, knowing what they think you mean is an important step in getting everyone elso to understand the idea.
Maybe you could change the name of the idea to 'Mouse Scrolling Stick' to remove any confusion between this idea and the already existing 'Pointing Sticks'.-- st3f, Jun 22 2006 It was actually my link, but I put it back.
Thanks for the suggestion.-- BJS, Jun 22 2006 random, halfbakery