Gamepad with mouse-like speed and accuracy? You betcha

Very interesting! Please let us know if your cousin puts this up on kickstarter or something like that.

Interesting concept, but judging from the video it's not as precise or accurate as the mouse.

I do agree it looks better than a standard gamepad, so that's a plus.

Looks great ! Kickstart this for a PS3 and I'm in.

Interesting. I wonder how you could accomplish continuous turning like you can with a mouse by picking it up off the table.

Hmm... My thumb is nowhere near as fast nor as accurate as my wrist and forearm-based mouse movements, and my thumb tires much more quickly. Although the movements are planar rather than spherical, it seems an aweful lot like using a thumbstick...

Neat idea though, and a lot more travel (and therefore accuracy) over tiny traditional controller embedded joysticks, so it does seem like an improvement. But my thumb hurts already, just from thinking about using it...

Hey guys, I hope you'll excuse the slight hypoerbole on my part, but I honestly feel this is a huge step up from analog sticks. Like geekmaster mentioned, a mouse affords the player many degrees of movement, shoulder, elbow and wrist, which just a thumb can't really compete against, but it makes up quite a bit.

@brandlew
Under most circumstances you wouldn't need continuous scrolling with relatively high sensitivity.
However if it's needed, we designed it so that when you've reached the edge of the "mouse pad" on the controller, you just ease off the pressure a little on your thumb, the mouse will slide back to centre while tracking is disabled, then you can just re-apply pressure and start tracking again. It's a really simple process.

"nihilian" wrote:
... However if it's needed, we designed it so that when you've reached the edge of the "mouse pad" on the controller, you just ease off the pressure a little on your thumb, the mouse will slide back to centre while tracking is disabled, then you can just re-apply pressure and start tracking again. It's a really simple process.

That sounds like it should work pretty good for simulating a mouse. Very intuitive solution.

I would be very tempted to hold my controller with one hand and place my other hand above the "mouse" to use it as I am accustomed (better in-game reflexes). It could help existing "mouse reflexes" if the mouse "puck" had a standard mouse-shaped cover and buttons that could be snapped onto it.

Your slide rails would behave as a mouse platform and mouse mat, while keeping your virtual mouse from sliding off onto the floor.