Using a laptop can be an exercise of patience, especially when it comes to navigation just through the touchpad or pointing stick alone, while others find a welcome relief through the mouse. What happens when you can actually navigate through the entire laptop without using both the keyboard and mouse? BT researchers in the U.K. are doing exactly just that, working on an adapter known as the BT Balance that empowers users of laptops and tablet PCs to access a myriad of applications, menus, as well as other commands simply by moving or tilting the laptop. This reminds me of the Nintendo Wii controller to a certain extent, but let’s explore how such a navigation mechanism works.

Once the adaptor is inserted into the laptop, all the user needs to do when it comes to moving the mouse cursor is to move or tilt the laptop. The results range from scrolling through a document or web page to traversing across the length and breadth of your desktop with the cursor. This is made possible by including movement sensors inside the adapter which subsequently sends signals to the laptop, where the pre-loaded software will be used to translate the motions read into actions and commands for the computer to execute.

The BT Balance was developed mainly for computer users who are having a hard time using both mouse and keyboard (how is that possible compared to tilting and moving a laptop, I don’t know). As you know, the laptop screen can only be viewed from a certain angle and with all the tilting going on, it can be pretty hard to see what’s going on the screen. And how exactly do you double click? Knock the laptop against your knee twice? The BT Balances raises more questions that it does in providing answers.

Source: Popgadget