Spaceball Inventor Debuts New Spatial Controller

8 Sept 2004 -- Spatial Freedom Pty. Ltd. has released the next generation spatial controller - astroidä 6000.

Developed by Spaceball inventor, Mr John Hilton, astroid enters the market at about 60% beneath the cost of similar technology on the global market.

Spatial controllers provide natural spatial control of 3D images and objects by sensing a light fingertip push and twist applied to a sprung ball sensor. The 3D image or object moves and spins as though gently pushed around by the fingers.

Typically used in the left hand, this natural control improves the user interface. It frees CAD engineers from the need to think about how to move their design and allows them to focus on other design tasks.

The astroid also introduces a new feature called a scroll hat. It acts like a wheel on a computer mouse but adds left/right scrolling. Gently pushing the hat in any 2D direction scrolls the image accordingly. Pushing harder produces faster scrolling. The scroll hat is useful in any application, including office applications, where smooth scrolling is supported.

The astroid currently supports Catia^®, Pro/E^®, Solid Edge^®, and Unigraphics NX^®, while support for other popular 3D CAD programs will follow.

Mr. Hilton founded Spatial Freedom to commercialise this new spatial controller technology.

"It’s exciting to bring what is now the sixth generation of my technology to the market, and the astroid is a significant evolution of the well respected Spaceball series of products and technologies," said Mr Hilton.

"It not only improves on the Spaceball technology but does so at an affordable price. The launch of the astroid here at the plm Expo in Australia has been very successful."

First introduced in 1987, there are now over 250,000 spatial controllers used by 3D CAD engineers worldwide.

Current users include aerospace and automotive companies such as Airbus, Boeing, McDonnell Douglas, Ford and General Motors to name a few. And, living up to its name, the Spaceball was used by Jet Propulsion Labs as the first interplanetary controller when it was used to direct the Mars rovers.

Spatial Freedom is a leading developer and manufacturer of spatial controllers. The company is headquartered in Sydney, Australia.

 

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