Japanese input device specialist Cooyoo has expanded its Crazy Small range of peripherals with the Crazy Small Wheel (via PC Watch). A major clue to this input device's singular function is the word 'wheel' – it is a USB Type-C mouse wheel peripheral. Now for the 'crazy' – the input peripheral is advertised as a foot operated device. Last but not least, it is indeed 'small' measuring just 1.8 x 1.5 x 1 inches. We can't help but think for a foot roller the average user might have preferred something more "substantial".
Using a foot operated scroll wheel is more than just a gimmick. People with finger joint problems, or limited mobility, might also find the Crazy Small Wheel appealing. In this case users can simply use the Crazy Small Wheel instead of the mouse wheel for the very same easy scrolling functionality. It must be mentioned that scroll wheel click functionality is available with this device, too.
If you are comfortable with using your mouse scroll wheel for its natural up and down page scroll movements, the Crazy Small Wheel can be assigned to cover horizontal scrolling functionality. Whether horizontal scrolling is useful to you probably depends on your workday, the games and apps you regularly use, and so on.
There are a number of settings available for users of this driverless device, which works across various OSes (Windows, MacOS, Linux, Android, iPadOS). Cooyoo says that the wheel click can be disabled, its sensitivity (low/normal) and rotation (forward reverse) changed, and the scroll direction (vertical, horizontal) changed. Users might also want to disable the wheel click if they are particularly heavy footed and find they accidentally engage the click sometimes.
The parameters are changed by invoking a command mode when you power up the Crazy Small Wheel with the wheel click held down. The product page link describes how to toggle and adjust the various settings available. Once you have made your setting changes they are stored n the device, so it will work in the way you like on any deice you plug into.
The Crazy Small Wheel came into being thanks to a successful crowdfunding campaign by device maker Cooyoo. The Crazy Small Wheel has been listed on Amazon Japan but right now it is unavailable. PC Watch says that the Crazy Small Wheel will be priced at JPY 3,050, roughly $27, plus shipping.
If you are in the market for a more traditional gaming mouse, or a wireless productivity mouse, check out these links for our respective best of 2022 guides.
