In case somebody missed it in the tech news, Apple filed a patent for a computer mouse with multitouch capabilities and it looks like it’s using FTIR:

pcjoint.com

Seems like a pretty nifty idea to replace the scrollwheel and add some finger gestures. Moving your finger in a circle like with the ipod for continues scrolling. Simple zooming gestures like Han showd us should also be possible. Come to think of it, using a transparent Apple mouse and a tiny camera it should be possible to DIY.

The patent was filed in March 2006.

grtz.

You would need quite a wide angle on the camera + flat camera and lens. Unless it is possible to be used without a lens.

pretty nifty, nice idea, but instead of using your hand to control the cursor you use your finger, i dont know how fucked up your finger will get after heavily use, people seem to suffer from SMS thumbs as well, downside would be that you dont have a tactile feedback of the mousepress, unless they make the surface change shape some how.

But still you indirectly adjust the stuff you see on screen, you don’t use your hands directly, so it’s less intuitive then using your fingers directly on the screen, but still a nice idea

aside to that, you can also use mousestures to do certain tasks instead of using your fingers....