摘要 |
Thumb twiddling devices that include a flat, hand-held housing (23) having a centrally located wheel (21) with an oblong thumb slot (35) and finger slots (33a, 33b) peripherally located about the wheel are disclosed. Thumb twiddling causes the rotation of the wheel (21) when a user's fingers (63) are interleaved together in the finger slots (33a, 33b) such that the thumbs lie in the thumb slot (35). In a toy form of the invention, thumb twiddle wheel rotations are sensed and the result used to control a display (49). In a controller form of the invention, sensed thumb twiddle wheel rotations are used to provide control signals suitable for controlling the movement of a video game object. Direction (e.g., steering) signals are provided by a tilt sensor mounted in the flat housing. Several thumb twiddle controllers can be used simultaneously by several video game "players" to control their respective objects in an interactive game.
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