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The new Combimouse concept takes both the mouse and keyboard and combines them into one device. The right section of the keyboard can also serve as an optical mouse.
The concept came from designer Ari Zagnoev and the first patent for the product was filed way back in 1999. In the last decade, he has been tuning his design and waiting for the technology to improve, so he could make the project viable. He has joined up with two other guys to handle software development and the business side. They are all preparing to enter the final stages of development before going any further.
The left portion of the Combimouse has some keys present as well as the 12 ‘F' keys and some multimedia control buttons. This section will run on two AA batteries, to offer more than a year life. Some of the images highlight a scroll wheel under the space bar, but this seems to have been omitted from the final design.
At the right of the device is a touch sensor to the side of the grip section which turns on mouse functionality when a finger is detected. The mouse cursor on screen will become responsive in the normal way. Some of the keys are assigned to some mouse button click behaviour. Click scrolling will be enabled by one of two keys.
If the finger is moved away from the sensor then full keyboard functionality is restored. It won't move while typing on the keyboard although the fine details have not been shared. The keys are said to be 14mm high, with 3mm of travel.
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The Combimouse using a 2.4ghz wireless connection with a USB dongle plugged into a Mac, Linux or PC however future units may also operate by Bluetooth.
The company are working via Indiegogo to get two units built and made ready for evaluation. The website says that Curtin University will be given the prototypes for testing. After this stage, then another campaign will be launched to bring the product to market. If people help back the campaign then they will be able to buy the Combimouse units from the production line at a discount price.
A pledge of only $10 will deduct $11 from the cost of the final product. If you can pledge $80 then it looks set to cover the cost of the final product when it comes to fruition. The funding campaign will close on May 20th.
Kitguru says: The product of the future or just a weird controller no one will want?
