ProxMat USB Mat

Posted by Chad Criswell Mar 5, 2008

Not too long ago I blogged about a new accessory called the Eco-Button, essentially an external sleep button that when pressed tells your computer to go to sleep to conserve energy.In that post I pointed out that most keyboards now have a sleep button on them somewhere and to be honest, a special hotkey combination will do the same thing.Now however there is a new cousin to the Eco-Button that might actually have some merit to buying it.

The ProxMat USB Mat can perform the same function as the sleep button on your keyboard (or Eco-Button) but it does it automatically when you get up from your computer.The mat rests under the user's feet and is pressure sensitive.The mat can be set to send almost any keypress or sequence to the computer when the mat is stepped on, and a different combination when the user leaves.This would be incredibly useful for public access computer terminals to prevent identity theft.When a user leaves the station the ProxMat can automatically log them out, preventing someone else from walking up and having access to whatever programs or files they forgot to close when they left.