Business

There are actually a number of products that purport to be finger-operated mice. Many of them are not actually mice at all, rather they are various input devices that use the fingers to control the traditional functions of a mouse. These functions are–generally speaking–cursor movement, scrolling up and down and left and right, left clicking, and right clicking. There are actually a couple of devices that more closely resemble mice in functionality if not in their looks.

Sometimes the designation of finger mouse would more accurately be termed a handheld mouse. Some of these devices resemble handheld joysticks, with trigger buttons and thumb-scrolling buttons in addition to the traditional left-click and right-click buttons. Other finger mice are designed more like traditional mice except that they are wireless, can be operated while held in the hand, and some of which can interpret gestures as mouse controls.

Gestures also vary from device to device. Most devices come with a number of pre-programmed gestures which coincide with specific functions like cut, copy, paste, forward, and back. The better devices allow you to change the meaning of pre-programmed gestures and define your own gestures as well. A gesture is a specific motion of the hand (like a full circle, a slide right or left, or a circle in the other direction).

Finger Mice That Look Nothing Like Mice
Many gesture-driven, mouse control devices use touchscreen technology to capture gestures. These products usually have a much larger library of gestures which can be assigned to certain functions. With a touchpad, gestures can be specific motions (like the circles and slides), tapping, and pinching. Include differences when using combinations of the thumb and various fingers, and you can see how this would result in a large library of assignable gestures.