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Innovative controllers bring 3-D to games

Last Updated: Tuesday, January 9, 2007 | 7:21 PM ET

CBC News

Three different companies are showcasing three different versions of a 3-D computer mouse at the Consumer Electronics Show.

While the average computer user is able to get by with a standard mouse, the new technology is designed to support 3-D gaming universes and advanced graphical and design applications.

A show attendee plays a PC game with Novint's Falcon controller, right, during the media preview at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on Saturday. The controller allows users to feel 3-D motion and force effects when playing games.
(Jae C. Hong/Associated Press)

But in a development that underscores the variety at this year's annual gadget get-together in Las Vegas, high-tech companies Novint, Cylo and Sandio have each developed entirely unique methods of delivering a 3-D mouse.

Sandio's Game O' mouse is the most similar to conventional computer mice. The main difference is two buttons on the side of the mouse can move both up and down and side to side, while the top button moves forward and backward.

Australian company Cylo also unveiled its first working prototype of the 3style mouse, a circular wireless mouse users spin to control its movements.

By far the most unique looking mouse is Novint's Falcon, a game controller with a spherical grip attached by three arms to what looks like a lunar module resting on its side. Users can hold the sphere and move it in three dimensions.

All three products were unveiled at the CES, which lost some of the attention of technology observers when Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced his company's new iPhone on Tuesday at the opening of the Macworld show in San Francisco.

But CES, now in its 40th year, will always be able to differentiate itself from Macworld because of the sheer variety of innovation as top retailers and unknown start-ups rub shoulders on the exhibition floor.

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