The Swiftpoint Z is a multiple-degrees-of-freedom gaming mouse designed to provide unprecedented control to PC gamers and power users, delivering new features and functionality not previously seen in pointing devices.
The Challenge
Knowing that to set themselves apart in a highly competitive environment they would have to do more than just add a few extra side buttons, Swiftpoint moved to do what no one else had succeeded in yet: Integrating a mouse, gamepad and joystick into a single package while maintaining an ergonomic and comfortable form factor. They want also wanted to top this off with advanced input action mapping configurability.
All of this would of course involve some relatively heavy duty firmware running on a very small microcontroller in the mouse.
“When designing the Swiftpoint Z device, we set a very high bar for configurability and functionality, far above any other gaming device on the market, including the offerings from the biggest well-known brands like Razer and Logitech.”
Grant Odgers, Founder, Swiftpoint
What We Did
Device firmware
Firmware upgrading
Low level Mac & Windows USB support assistance
How We Helped
The Swiftpoint team challenged us to help create the firmware to enable the Z’s advanced features. On the ARM microcontroller, we implemented the most advanced input action configuration engine available on a mouse and integrated support for:
An IMU for acceleration based input - tilt and pivot control
The PIXART 12,000 DPI optical sensor
Pressure sensitive analogue buttons
18 multi function buttons
Vibration feedback
Configurable OLED display output
Firmware update capability
“We weren't sure if it was even possible to do within the constraints of memory and processing power of a mouse, but the developers at Spore Lab took on the challenge and did not shy away from the many hurdles that really pushed the limits of the hardware.”
Outcome
The result was a gaming mouse unlike anything on the market. Positioned as a premium gaming device for the PC market, the Swiftpoint Z received numerous highly positive reviews from the gaming community and professional reviewers, as well as the 2017 CES Gaming Innovation of the Year award.
“Due to their smarts, professionalism, and pure determination they delivered on our goals and exceeded our expectations.
With their disciplined approach, dedication, pride and ownership in the project, they were able to deliver an extremely robust solution, on time.
The Z would not be anywhere near as functional and ground breaking without Spore Lab's smarts to develop all of the complexity happening inside the mouse. We simply could not have achieved what we did, in the time that we had, without their world class expertise.”
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