Computer mice come in all size and shapes. You can buy small models for mobile use, gaming mice with more than a dozen different buttons, plain two button mice and even mice for big handed individuals.

The USB big mouse that is manufactured by Brando nevertheless plays in a different league. The USB mouse measures a whooping 175mm in length, 105mm in width and 55mm in height making it one of the largest, if not the largest, retail mouse in the world.

When you look at the product image above you will notice that it comes with flashing LED lights and a translucent edge.

The core question here is whether it is ergonomic to work with this large mouse for an extended period of time. While that certainly depends on the size of the hands of the user, it looks as if the sheer size of the mouse requires movement not only of the hand but also lower arm.

The USB mouse comes with two mouse buttons and a scroll wheel. The flashing LED light makes it more of a gadget than a piece of hardware that you could work with all day. It is not clear if the effect can be disabled.

When you search for an extra large computer mouse for large hands you do not find a lot of offers, and while the USB big mouse looks more like a gadget, it could be an alternative for users with very large hands. The mouse retails for $20. More information are available at the manufacturer website.

Which leads to the following question: Which computer mouse are you using?

Microsoft’s Mouse Without Borders is a tool for Windows to use one mouse on multiple computers in the same computer network. This way you could use one mouse both on a desktop PC and a laptop, as long as both computers are connected to the same network and that the Mouse Without Borders software is installed on all computers.

You need to install the software on all computers that you want to control with a single mouse. When you start the program for the first time you are asked to if you have installed the program on another computer in the network. If you click yes, you see a prompt where you have to enter a security code and the computer’s name to establish the connection.

If you select the no option, a security code is generated and displayed next to the computer’s name.

You then need to repeat the steps for all computer systems that you want to control with one mouse. Please note that Mouse Without Borders is limited to four PC systems that you can use a single mouse on.

Once setup, you can use the mouse on all PCs as if it was a single desktop. You can move the mouse between PCs and work on each computer individually without switching input devices.

One interesting feature is the ability to drag and drop files from one computer to the other this way. Just select the files on one computer and drag and drop them to another to copy or move them to the second PC.

Additional options include locking all PCs or logging in on all at once. Here is a video that demonstrates the capabilities in the second half.

Mouse Without Boarders is a Microsoft The Garage project, in which Microsoft employees come together after work to build and invent. The program can be downloaded from Microsoft’s Technet website.

The touch interface reacts to touches. It is possible for instance to left-click and right-click by taping the finger in the right locations on the mouse surface. Microsoft states that it can do everything that a normal mouse can do which would indicate that there should be an emulation of a middle-mouse button as well. That’s however not confirmed and not shown in any of the videos.

The video demonstrates the capabilities of the touch features of the mouse. It is possible to use one, two or three fingers to activate features on the screen.

One Finger lets you manage the content of a document or webpage – moving one finger lets you precisely scroll in any direction and hyperscroll through long documents with a quick flick of your finger, while using your thumb lets you move back/forward easily through your internet browser.

Two Fingers lets you manage multiple windows by maximizing, minimizing, restoring, and snapping them side-by-side.

Three Fingers lets you navigate the whole desktop – three fingers up to display all of your open windows for easy task switching or three fingers down for clearing the desktop entirely.

It uses BlueTrack Technology to work on virtually any surface without difficulties. The USB Nano transceiver can pick up signals at a 30-foot range.

The mouse has been designed for Windows 7 exclusively and it is likely that drivers are shipping with it that enable the functionality on the operating system. It is not likely that the touch feature will work on other operating systems.

Microsoft concentrated solely on the touch capabilities of the mouse, avoiding other relevant information that users may want to know. This includes the mouse’s dpi and whether a middle-mouse button is emulated or not.

The Microsoft Touch Mouse will be available in May 2011 for a price of $79.95. (via)

Would you buy, or use, the Microsoft Touch Mouse?

In which situations might this come in handy? In all were mouse and computer keyboard usage might interfere with another process, be it statistical analysis or programs that react immediately on mouse or keyboard input and where this is unwanted.

The time that the computer mouse and keyboard are blocked can be defined in the program’s options. There is also an option to change the hotkey that starts the blocking from CTRL Q to another hotkey.

The program will display a tooltip next to the mouse cursor that is counting down the remaining seconds that all input devices are blocked on the computer system. The software program adds itself automatically to the Windows System Tray. A right-click will open a context menu that provides links to the program’s options. It uses roughly 4 Megabytes of computer memory while running and should be compatible to most versions of the Windows operating system.

That’s the end of the calibration phase and HeadMouse 2 can be used from then on to control the computer mouse. The mouse cursor can be moved by turning the head into the direction it should be moved. Turning the head to the left side would move the cursor to the left while turning it up would move it up.

There are three different methods to perform a mouse click. A mouse click can be initiated by closing the eyes, opening the mouse or not moving the head around for 1.5 seconds. At least one method has to be activated. Objects like windows or icons can be moved using the very same principle by clicking once on the object to activate it, moving the head to move it and clicking again to place it.

There are several occasions where HeadMouse 2 could come in handy. It provides the means to control the mouse with a webcam and movement of the head. While it is not as fast as using the hands to control the computer mouse it provides sufficient means to work with the computer.

HeadMouse2

SlowMousion comes to the rescue. The software sits quietly in the system tray upon installation and provides the user with one feature: To slow down the computer mouse speed. It makes use of a global hotkey to slow down the computer mouse. By default that hotkey is the Windows key but it can be changed to other keys, and the left-, middle- and right-mouse buttons.

The mouse speed is reduced to a fraction of the normal speed upon pressing the hotkey which has to be pressed continuously for the effect to last.

SlowMousion does not (unfortunately) come with options to adjust the slow down factor which would definitely be a recommended setting for an updated version.

The software program is compatible to windows2000, Windows XP and Windows Vista.