Skip to main content

Turn your iPhone into a touch and gesture computer mouse with Mauz

mauz_2
Image used with permission by copyright holder

For those of you who prefer to plug in an external mouse than fiddle around with your laptop’s trackpad, packing even a mini mouse when you take a computer on the road can be annoying. Its curvy shape makes the mouse awkward to fit into some bag pockets, and can take up one of the few on-board USB ports on your laptop that other peripherals also need.

Recommended Videos

mauz_3Next to your laptop, your smartphone is probably the other gadget you never go without. What if your phone could double as a mouse so that you could leave your external mouse at home?

With Mauz, a little dongle that you plug into your iPhone’s connector, your phone instantly becomes a really smart mouse that can understand touch, gesture, and motion controls.

In fact, attaching the little device to the iPhone will trigger the Mauz app to open, which transforms your phone into a button-less touch mouse that you can use to right-click, left-click, and scroll. Flip the phone into landscape mode and it becomes a TouchPad where you can use multi-touch gestures like two-finger zoom to enlarge what you see on screen.

Using your iPhone’s front-facing camera, the Mauz dongle can also understand gestures, similar to the Xbox Kinect’s controls, so you can wave your hand above your phone to navigate menus and windows. According the video demo of the device (shown below), the Mauz is even compatible with smart HDTVs so you can use your gestures to control your TV without having to get a new television set or an Xbox with Kinect just to be able to use gesture controls.

Taking advantage of the gyroscope and accelerometer inside your iPhone, the Mauz can also function like a Nintendo Wii motion controller. This means you’ll be able to take your iPhone and physically move it to manipulate what you see on screen. Though we know of no actual application for this type of control on the computer at the moment, Mauz’s creator Gilad Meiri mentioned on the Kickstarter project page that the company will be releasing its software development kit in hopes that developers will come up with some new and useful apps. In the not so distant future, perhaps we will be able to tilt the Mauz to change the 3D camera view in certain video games, or rotate the device to move digital 3D objects as you design them.

Can’t wait to attach one of these Mauz dongles to your iPhone so you can live out your Minority Report dreams? With just eight days to go in its Kickstarter campaign, Mauz is far from meeting its $150,000 funding goal by March 8 – it has only secured $26,000 so far. Meiri, who previously brought the world the bottle-opening iPhone case Intoxicase, is counting on the campaign to fund the production of the first-gen Mauz for iPhone 4/4S. The next priority is for the company to make the Mauz for iPhone 5 this August, while continuing to figure out how to bring this technology to Android and other platforms. Until then, the Mauz remains a concept device and a very promising one at that.

Would you want a Mauz for your iPhone? Let us know what you think.

Gloria Sin
Former Contributor
Gloria’s tech journey really began when she was studying user centered design in university, and developed a love for…
How to use iPhone Mirroring on your Mac
Apple's Craig Federighi demonstrates the iPhone Mirroring feature in macOS Sequoia at the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in June 2024.

In 2024, Apple introduced iPhne Mirroring. This macOS Sequoia feature puts a mirrored version of your iPhone right on your Mac’s desktop, enabling you to interact with your iPhone without ever needing to have it in your hands. You can open iOS apps, send emails, change settings, and much more, all from the comfort of your Mac.

Read more
These smart glasses turned my iPhone into a legitimate spatial computer
Alan Truly wears Viture Pro smart glasses while working with an iPhone and Bluetooth keyboard.

With Viture Pro, I can use spatial computing anywhere. Photo by Tracey Truly / Digital Trends

The recently announced Viture Pro smart glasses are a nice upgrade in brightness and clarity over the original model. I’ve been testing them for several weeks and was pleasantly surprised to find a unique feature that lets me use my iPhone like a spatial computer.

Read more
The best password managers for iPhone
Login screen on an iPhone held by a woman.

As password management becomes more challenging because of the tons of logins we have to keep track of, it may be time to move beyond the default Apple Keychain for passwords on your iPhone. You may want a tool that seamlessly syncs with your Windows computer or offers extensions for web browsers other than Safari.

For safe and solid options to maintain passwords and logins on iOS, this list provides you with the features, security measures, and prices for the best password managers on iPhone.

Read more