Optical Mice :: Free Essay Writer

Optical Mice School of Polytechnic Studies Department of Industrial & Engineering Technology COMPUTER PERIPHERALS A mouse is a device, or computer peripheral, lets a user control a cursor that allows data to be manipulated without having to use complicated keyboard commands. The mouse, though probably named mouse because of its appearance, was originally called an X0Y Position Indicator. Douglas Englebart, who worked for Stanford Research Institute, in 1963, invented the mouse, as we know today. The device didn’t become widely used an appreciated until 1973, when Xerox applied it to their Alto computer system. The mouse was also widely used in Apple computers and is now found on every computer today (Computer Hardware, www.computerhope.com/help/mouse.htm). If you look to the diagram to the right, you will see four parts track an optical-mechanical mouse’s X-Y position movement. When the mouse is moved the ball moves in the direction of the movement. When the roller rotates, light shines through the openings. This light is detected by two light sensors, which send signals to the computer of the movement. The offset of the light that the sensors receive determines the direction of each axis. So that motion is detected, the ball needs traction between the ball and the rollers, which is a major drawback to this design. A pure optical mouse works a little differently. Optical Mice need special grids that the sensor inside of the mice needs to see to negotiate motion. When this kind of mouse moves over this grid light from an LED or laser passes over the grid and the lines seen by the sensor. Optical mice are much more accurate judging motion than the ordinary optical mechanical mouse. One drawback to pure optical mice is that they might run into problems with bright lights (Computer Hardware, www.computerhope.com/help/mouse.htm). Optical mice, technologically more advanced and more accurate than ordinary mice, carry a hi-tech price. The average optical mouse runs from $30 to $100. Since a simpler and cheaper peripherals exist, optical mice aren’t used on a wide variety of systems yet. According to PC Data, no optical mice made it into the top 20 sellers list in any given month (ABCNEWS.com). Recently, though, Microsoft has introduced an optical mouse that can be used without grids on any surface. This new mouse has a camera that can take up to 1,500 images per second and has a high enough resolution to read even fibers in a blank sheet of paper (ABCNEWS.