Amazon pulls you in with computer ‘tractor beam’
Mar 4, 2013, 9:55 AM | Updated: 11:02 am
Amazon.com is working on a new technology that might make some computer users think they're losing control of their mouse. (AP Photo/file)
(AP Photo/file)
Amazon.com is working on a new technology that might make some computer users think they’re losing control of their mouse.
A newly patented system pulls your on-screen pointer toward a link or clickable object on a page. On “Star Trek,” it was called a tractor beam. Amazon calls it a “gravity-based link assist” system.
The technology is supposed to make it easier to navigate a page.
Wired News also notes that it makes it easier to click on something to buy.
“Gravity-based link assist” gives links and clickable objects something of a gravitational field and will, in effect, pull your pointer toward them as you drag your pointer across a page.
