evoMouse launches Pet and Cube mouse controllers

CES 2010: Project a keyboard or mousepad onto a surface

10 January 2010 0:19 GMT / By Duncan Geere

We've seen keyboards projected onto tables before, but at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, a company called evoMouse has taken the concept a step further - adding mouse and multitouch support.

The evoMouse Pet is a small, four-legged, animal-shaped device with two infrared sensors. It lets you use your finger on a table as a mouse pointer, tracking your movements and translating them to the screen. You can click, double-click, right-click and drag with particular gestures, as well as offering support for Windows 7's pinch-to-zoom and rotate functionality.

There's also the evoMouse Cube, which contains similar sensors and can also project a laser keyboard onto a surface that can cope with 400 characters per minute - about seven per second. In our brief testing, we found it accurate as long as you're hitting keys dead-on, however the lack of haptic feedback could prove a problem if you're writing a novel.

The devices both connect via Bluetooth and work on Windows XP/Vista and 7, or on Windows Mobile, BlackBerry and Symbian devices. They can also be connected with USB and the on-board battery charges that way - which should last 2 hours when disconnected. It also supports handwriting recognition.

Both devices will be on sale in the UK, but it's not yet clear how much they'll cost. When we hear more, we'll pass the info on.