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<TITLE>RE: [Chimera-users] Chimera with 3d (6-axis) mouse?</TITLE>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2>I have a n52 as part of my control surfaces. I use it in conjunction with controllermate.<BR>
For the mac, it all works pretty good. But controllermate only runs on the mac.<BR>
<BR>
One of the critical infrastructure problems is integration. <BR>
With the development of X11, the mouse and keyboard were developed with a consistent interface across applications, along with OS management and expected application response.<BR>
<BR>
This has been an ongoing stumbling block for most human interfaces since.<BR>
<BR>
In regards to USB, this has been partially addressed by the USB/HID specification.<BR>
But vendors may optionally implement standard USB/HID OS drivers, or develop their own USB/private kernel modifications.<BR>
<BR>
With n52, it uses USB-HID, so it can theoretically work across all computers; but that only gets the signals appropriately cued by the OS; to make it integrate into application software requires more software, like which application gets the input.<BR>
<BR>
In the mac this is frequently done in the system prefs; but n52 does not provide any software for this because typical user games directly go to the USB-HID as a sole user of the hardware.<BR>
<BR>
Also the game apps map the keys and may not allow for them to be user definable except for right/left hand options.<BR>
For a single game use, this is ok. For a complex scientific viz environment using multiple application software, this not the way to go in the long term. If you have a killer app that requires a $15k haptic device, say for medical surgery, that is an exception. Generally it would be desirable for average research situations to keep the Human Interface Devices down to $25-$2k and use them across various applications.<BR>
<BR>
Parallel user communities dealing with similar problems are audio recording and video editing. The way they have dealt with this is through the MIDI spcification; now midi/usb interfaces are available using USB/private methods and are not USB-HID compliant.<BR>
<BR>
There are some control surfaces using ethernet that may have solve the problem, but are not open source; I am researching this now.<BR>
<BR>
As for the space navigator, it is USB=HID compliant, as well as the space pilot (except the the LCD output which is USB/private).<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
Matthew Dougherty<BR>
713-433-3849<BR>
National Center for Macromolecular Imaging<BR>
Baylor College of Medicine/Houston Texas USA<BR>
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-----Original Message-----<BR>
From: chimera-users-bounces@cgl.ucsf.edu on behalf of Andrew Fant<BR>
Sent: Tue 4/8/2008 3:06 PM<BR>
To: chimera-users@cgl.ucsf.edu<BR>
Subject: Re: [Chimera-users] Chimera with 3d (6-axis) mouse?<BR>
<BR>
At the risk of sticking my nose into a discussion, has anyone in cgl <BR>
looked at the nostromo n52 as a potential input device? it's a USB <BR>
device with a 8 way thumb pad, a trigger button, a scroll wheel, and <BR>
14 function keys arranged in three rows under the finger tips that can <BR>
shift into 3 different states. I've been thinking that it could be<BR>
combined with a mouse or track-ball to control the functions in a <BR>
modeling program without having to use pull-down menus or typing as <BR>
many commands, much like the old button box on SGI workstations. Of <BR>
course, the<BR>
big question would be setting up a sane command scheme. I have a <BR>
couple kicking around here if anyone else is interested in this sort <BR>
of a scheme.<BR>
<BR>
Thanks,<BR>
Andy</FONT>
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