Mouse Wheel design

[VirusType2]

Is anyone aware of a mouse that features a mouse wheel which does not rotate completely - instead, when you push the wheel up for example, it increases the 'scroll speed' variably.

The best example I can think of would be that the up and down motion on the wheel would be analog (like triggers on a 360 game pad) so the further you tilt the wheel up or down, the faster it scrolls the page.

I think that if there was a wheel like that, it would allow for some pretty accurate smooth scrolling in a web browser or long documents. I don't see why it wouldn't work fine in games. I think it would be comparable to rotating the wheel fast or slow, depending on how far you pushed it.

 

[Dinnesch]

Yes, that's amazing. Unfortunately they don't put these on laptops anymore since 2001. My laptop has such a thing for scrolling, it really works like a charm for websites. Same for analog volume switches, everything has to look/feel more 'digital' these days.

 

[VirusType2]

I'm not sure if I saw the idea somewhere else (maybe it was a laptop), but for a while, I was looking for a keyboard with a spring loaded analog slider (like a media control off to the side) - a feature with a similar action (and result) to the wheel I described. So, I welcome a keyboard suggestion as well, if anyone knows of one.

 

[Dinnesch]

Lenovo puts these 'Trackpoint' alternative mice on their laptops, probably there are programs to use them for scrolling.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pointing_stick
I can definitely see some market for mice using such a thing for scrolling, shame everyone has forgotten about them.

Well, I have no idea of any existing mice/keyboards.