Logitech introduces MX Air Mouse

Posted by Dennis Sellers Jul 12, 2007 at 6:30am

Logitech has introduced the MX Air Rechargeable Cordless Air Mouse, a laser mouse that works on the desk and in the air. You use it in the way people use a remote to control a television. It combines three important technologies: Freespace motion-control, gesture command and wireless.

“MX Air will work with a Macintosh, however there is no software support and we do not test it with Macintosh systems,” a Logitech rep told Macsimum. “Consequently we do not claim support for Macintosh on the box. I’ve used it on a Mac and found that the only major feature that doesn’t work is the skip forward/skip back gesture control. The volume control
works. We are working on Mac drivers, but don’t have an availability date to announce yet.”

Freespace motion control technology is designed to provide accurate, responsive navigation without the limitations encountered by previous in-air pointing devices, according to Rory Dooley, Logitech senior vice president and general manager of the Control Devices business unit. This patented technology is based on a combination of MEMS (microelectromechanical systems) sensors, DSP (digital signal processing) technology and RF (radio frequency) wireless technology.

These combined technologies allow a user to hold the mouse in any orientation, point in any direction, and enjoy effortless, intuitive cursor control, Dooley says. Additionally, sophisticated algorithms distinguish between intentional and unintentional hand movements, effectively canceling the slight involuntary tremors everyone experiences when holding a device in the air.

With gesture-based commands, you can do things such as changing the volume on your computer by pressing and holding the volume button and gesturing—to the right to increase volume, or to the left to decrease it. For music applications, a small circular motion to the right activates the skip track command, while a circle to the left repeats the song.

In place of a traditional scroll wheel, the MX Air mouse features a touch-sensitive scroll panel. A swipe of the finger across the surface enables the inertial scrolling mechanism, which adjusts its speed according to the speed of the finger swipe. Media functions such as Play/Pause, Volume/Mute, Back and Select can be accessed in the air by pressing the orange backlighted buttons with the thumb.

The MX Air mouse has apolished-black, semi-transparent top case, a silver base and a contoured shape. It uses Logitech’s 2.4 GHz Digital Cordless technology, which offers a range of up to 30 feet . The Logitech MX Air Rechargeable Cordless Air Mouse is expected to be available in the U.S. and Europe beginning in August. Its suggested retail price is US$149.99.

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