MIT Media Lab builds mouseless mouse

Pranav Mistry of MIT has developed a "Mouseless" mouse using an infrared (IR) laser and camera mounted on a laptop. The laser beam is spread into a plane just above the tabletop. The laser illuminates the user's fingertips on the table. An IR camera mounted at the top corner of the laptop screen captures the bright blobs corresponding to the user's fingertips. The pattern and location of the blobs are translated into mouse movements and left and right mouse clicks. The device costs $20 to build. More information is available at Pranav Mistry's web site.