Sandio 3D Mouse

This is basically a standard mouse, but with the addition of three sizable analog sticks on the left, right, and top of the peripheral. The top analog is used for pitching a camera, while the sides are intended for rotating, translating, or Z-axis movement.

In other words, you can not only rotate a cube in 3D space without the use of the keyboard, but you can also move it side to side and pull it backwards and forwards, without clicking a single button. Google Earth was one immediately applicable application demonstrated, with all panning, zooming, and rotating achieved through use of the analog sticks.

Luckily it's not just about geometrical shapes. I got my hands on one and immediately fired up an RTS battle in Medieval II: Total War. While arrow or WASD keys are usually necessary to pan the camera around, now it would be possible to free those up for other commands, with all camera controls relegated to the mouse.

At least in theory. Designed by a Japanese team that clearly possesses greater dexterity than I, this mouse is a steep challenge for a simple Western gamer with a slow learning curve. It took me quite a while to even carry out basic, coordinated camera moves, and I was so set in my usual control mentality that I never did master it.

Sandio says you could potentially use the analog sticks for movement in something like an MMO, which is true, but I have to question whether it would be easier, or faster, than using a normal WASD setup. We only have so many fingers, and dealing with three additional analog sticks--in addition to a left button, right button, mouse wheel, and two side buttons--is just something I don't want to do.

Or need to do, for that matter. For RTS gamers especially, it seems an overly-complex device. Mouse technology will surely evolve, but not by transplanting bits of controllers on top of an existing design. As it stands, at $79.99, this FrankenMouse seems extremely unnecessary--and not in a warm Virtual Boy sort of way, but in the worst plastic Wii racquet peripheral sort of way.

Fancy Computers

Microsoft is glamming it up this year with a gallery of fashionable computers and laptops. We have the pink fufu laptop for the Maarten Goldstein demographic, the sleek, sexy Gateway for the traveling journalist, and the decapitated laptop for horror fans.

I'm not sure I'd place any of these on the level of art, but it's nice to see the PC realm vying for design awards along with Apple.

Sony OLED TVs

While Sony has almost no PlayStation 3s at the show, it does have the next generation of fancy, slim TVs. The company is showing off its OLED displays, ultra-thin panels running on LED lighting technology.

This tasty display is a 27" prototype. Measuring a mere 10 millimeters thick, it runs at a full 1080p resolution, boasts a 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio, and looks absolutely gorgeous for it. The rest are smaller variants already on sale in Japan, no less stunning in motion. Unfortunately, at a price of almost $2,000 US for 11 inches of TV, they're still a tiny bit expensive.

Sony Rolly

These guys are little rolling robots that flip their mechanical appendages to and fro, in time with music that it plays from two speakers on each end. You can store MP3, AAC, or ATRAC formatted songs on the unit's 2GB of internal memory, and each song can be manually choreographed with specific dance moves.

And that's it, really. It flaps its wings around a bit, spins on its wheels, and costs over $300 US.

I'm not sure who is crazy enough to buy one of these, but we'll find out when they hit this spring.

Bumblebee

There were a lot of impressive displays vying for the attention of press and businessmen alike, but none stood taller than this scale replica of Bumblebee from Transformers.

Of course, it's saying something about the futility of advertising when I can't remember what company brought this guy in as their robotic billboard, but it made a nice landmark at least.

Fatal1ty

While not technically a gadget, the cool-as-ice Fatal1ty was on the show floor as well, shilling for Creative while trouncing would-be competitors. The poor saps were brought on stage one after another to the face the famed FPS champion in Quake combat, and even with his shooting disabled while playing a keytar, he still managed to evade their fire long enough to score melee hits.

By the way, I'm not sure what Fatal1ty has around his neck there, but for some reason, I couldn't stop thinking of the Time Traveler.