Multi-touch mouse in gaming applications

Abstract

Keyboards, mice, joysticks, customized gamepads, and other peripherals are continually being developed to enhance a user's experience when playing computer video games. Unfortunately, many of these devices provide users with limited input control because of the complexity of today's gaming applications. For example, many computer video games require a combination of mouse and keyboard to control even the simplest of in-game tasks (e.g., walking into a room and looking around may require several keyboard keystrokes and mouse movements). Accordingly, one or more systems and/or techniques for performing in-game tasks based upon user input within a multi-touch mouse are disclosed herein. User input comprising one or more user interactions detect by spatial sensors within the multi-touch mouse may be received. A wide variety of in-game tasks (e.g., character movements, character actions, character view, etc.) may be performed based upon the user interactions (e.g., a swipe gesture, a mouse position change, etc.).

1 . A method for performing in-game tasks based upon user input on a multi-touch mouse comprising:
 receiving user input comprising a first user interaction with a first spatial sensor of a multi-touch mouse and a second user interaction with a second spatial sensor of the multi-touch mouse; and   performing a first in-game task based upon the first user interaction and a second in-game task based upon the second user interaction.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , the first spatial sensor overlaid the second spatial sensor within the multi-touch mouse. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , the user input comprising a third user interaction with the second spatial sensor; and the performing comprising performing a third in-game task based upon the third user interaction. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 3 , the first user interaction comprising a multi-touch mouse position change; the second user interaction comprising a swipe gesture on the surface of the multi-touch mouse; and the third user interaction comprising a grip of the multi-touch mouse. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , the first user interaction comprising a multi-touch mouse position change; and the second user interaction comprising a swipe gesture on the surface of the multi-touch mouse, a swipe gesture length, and swipe gesture direction. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 5 , comprising:
 performing a view control in-game task based upon mapping the multi-touch mouse position change with a view change in-game task; and   performing an in-game navigation control task based upon mapping the swipe gesture with movement of a character; mapping the swipe gesture length with a speed of the movement; and mapping the swipe gesture direction with a movement direction.   
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , the second user interaction comprising a first finger to second finger distance on the multi-touch mouse surface. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , the second user interaction comprising a change of grip of the multi-touch mouse; and the performing the second in-game task comprising mapping the change of grip with a camera view roll in-game task. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1 , the first user interaction and the second user interaction received concurrently within the user input, and the first in-game task and the second in-game task performed concurrently. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 3 , comprising:
 detecting the second user interaction within a first portion of the multi-touch mouse surface mapped to the first in-game task; and   detecting the third user interaction within a second portion of the multi-touch mouse surface mapped to the third in-game task.   
     
     
         11 . A system for performing in-game tasks based upon user input on a multi-touch mouse, comprising:
 a mapping component configured to:
 maintain a mapping of one or more user interactions on a multi-touch mouse to one or more in-game tasks; and 
   a task component configured to:
 receive user input comprising a first user interaction with a first spatial sensor of a multi-touch mouse and a second user interaction with a second spatial sensor of the multi-touch mouse; and 
 perform a first in-game task corresponding to the first user interaction and a second in-game task corresponding to the second user interaction based upon the mapping. 
   
     
     
         13 . The system of  claim 11 , the mapping component configured to:
 map a first portion of the multi-touch mouse surface to a third in-game task and a second portion of the multi-touch mouse surface to a fourth in-game task.   
     
     
         14 . The system of  claim 11 , the user input comprising a third user interaction with the second spatial sensor of the multi-touch mouse. 
     
     
         15 . The system of  claim 14 , the task component configured to:
 perform a third in-game task corresponding to the third user interaction based upon the mapping.   
     
     
         16 . The system of  claim 11 , the first spatial sensor overlaid the second spatial sensor within the multi-touch mouse. 
     
     
         17 . The system of  claim 16 , the task component configured to perform the first in-game task and the second in-game task concurrently. 
     
     
         18 . The system of  claim 11 , the task component configured to:
 receive user input comprising the first user interaction corresponding to a multi-touch mouse position change; and the second user interaction corresponding a swipe gesture on the surface of the multi-touch mouse;   perform a character selection in-game task of one or more characters based upon the multi-touch mouse position change corresponding to locations of one or more characters within a game; and   perform a character movement to destination in-game task of the selected characters based upon the swipe gesture.   
     
     
         19 . The system of  claim 11 , the mapping component configured to:
 maintain the mapping based upon user preference defined by one or more user settings.   
     
     
         20 . A method for performing in-game tasks based upon user input on a multi-touch mouse comprising:
 receiving user input comprising a first user interaction with a first spatial sensor of a multi-touch mouse, a second user interaction with a second spatial sensor of the multi-touch mouse, and a third user interaction with a button of the multi-touch mouse, the first spatial sensor, second spatial sensor, and the button in an overlaid configuration within the multi-touch mouse; and   performing a first in-game task based upon the first user interaction, a second in-game task based upon the second user interaction, and a third in-game task based upon the third user interaction concurrently.