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18 Jul 2008
The computer mouse is set to die out in the next five years and will be usurped by touch screens and facial recognition, analysts believe.
Gartner said that innovations from electronics firms creating new interactive interfaces for gaming and smartphones are driving the demise of the mouse.
Steven Prentice, vice president and Gartner Fellow, told the BBC that devices such as Nintendo's MotionPlus for the Wii and Apple's iPhone point the way to the future, offering greater accuracy in motion detection.
"With the Wii you point and shake and it vibrates back at you so you have a two-way relationship," said the analyst.
"The new generation of smartphones like the iPhone all now have tilting mechanisms or you can shake the device to do one or more things."
Prentice also highlighted home entertainment efforts from Panasonic which employ hand and facial recognition techniques to display information in place of a conventional remote control.
However, while the mouse's 40 year-old reign is coming to an end, the keyboard is here to stay, according to the analyst.
"For all its faults, the keyboard will remain the primary text input device. Nothing is easily going to replace it," he said. "But the idea of a keyboard with a mouse as a control interface is breaking down."
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Do you agree?
finally...
i would guess that the mouse may not be completely phased out by touch technology but rather take a back seat. for the time being. i agree with the above poster, given where this technology currently stands (or at least, the technology that gets released to the public) i'd bet that it has it's bugs, flaws, what have you. give it a decade, then for sure. until then we'll just be using a mouse for the more finer controls, in conjunction with a touch screen for more general commands. no more Cmd+W. i can't wait.
Posted by: p.m. 21 Jul 2008
So are Humans!!!!
This sounds like one of those Bill Gates predictions where everyone will be using voice commands with their computers. He's been saying this for 15 years now and it's coming within the next perpetual 2 years. The mouse is going nowhere. Not until we can control our pointers with out eyes and blinks. Touch screens on laptops are not going to win over people. Arms will get tired being lifted to in a work day to click things. The mouse is going nowhere soon.
Posted by: trevorblanco 20 Jul 2008
Nice Propoganda
These analysts seem to be forgetting that there is a large part of the gaming population that use pc's over home game consoles. I can just imagine the damage to screens in general from playing first person shooters where they are constantly taping the screen. Or frowning to fire a rocket launcher or some such. The mouse is going to be around for a lot longer because it is simple, easy to use and if it breaks its cheap to replace compared with a supper dupper touchy feely screen thats gona be £1k minimum.
Posted by: Pro-Gamer 19 Jul 2008
Not yet!
The mouse will probably die out at some point but definitely not within the next five years. The reason being is similar to the keyboard's reason. The keyboard is the quickest and most discrete way of inputting text. These traits are echoed by the mouse; it is very discrete in operation of selecting things on a computer compared to touch screen and pointing devices, and is just as fast as using touch screen devices once accustomed to it and both are much quicker than pointing devices (they are just not accurate enough, or rather the users using them). Also mice are cheap compared to both other technologies and can you imagine the amount of RSI people would get with pointing devices; even touch screen devices would have this problem on full size monitors.
Posted by: :) 18 Jul 2008
Don't think about it
When you use you mouse, do you think to yourself ?.... "Okay, I need to move the pointer up, so I need to move the mouse up a bit, oh no, a bit too far, down again." No, of course not, it's pure hand to eye cordination and computer interfaces at it's finest. When are we going to stop using pens, shoes or ironing boards. Just becasue it's technology does not mean that it has to be replaced by more technology.
Posted by: Tom Fotheringham 18 Jul 2008
Gartner , why do they say such things?
Gartner, Inc advies about the acquisition of new technolgy. It's within their interest to promote replacement technolgy. Check out their website.
Posted by: Tom Fotheringham 18 Jul 2008
How can it die?
Until they actually have a better way of doing what a mouse does, theres no way it will die out. I use my mouse for many things; including gaming, software development and everyday use. The fact is, if I could use touchscreen technology now to develop software, I wouldnt. If I could use some sort of face/eye tracker for games, I wouldn't, because the technology we have (mice) are designed to be used with the software we have, and until the software doesn't require the use of mice, they wont die out. I for one will still have a mouse in 5 years, 10 years and probably 15 years time.
Posted by: Adam, UK 18 Jul 2008
mice usefulness ?
I disagree, you cant play online games with a touchscreen, for a long while yet it is going to stay a useful device.
Posted by: L 18 Jul 2008