Computer Mouse :: Computer Science

Computer MouseThe Computer MouseThe computer shiner first came about in the early 1980s. The thoughtbeing that the effect from the users hand could be turned intosignals that the computer could read moving the cursor around and alsoallowing the buttons to function when pressed.Today there atomic number 18 a few different types of computer mice on the market.These being the mice that use the traditional tracking ball, theoptical mouse and the mouse that has no tangible link to thecomputer.The most common mouse found near a computer today is the traditionalmouse that uses the tracking ball. This is the same method as was utilizewhen the mouse was first released in the 1980s. The track ball insidethe mouse touches the desk when it is moved. When the ball moves themotion is detected by two perpendicular axis, one which detects x axisdirectional motion and the other y-axis direction motion.Tracking Ball Perpendicular axis motion demodulatorsHole in which track ball would teaseThe diagrams above show the tracking ball and the wad in which thetracking ball sits. You can see the x and y axis motion detectors ofwhich the y-axis detector lies 90 from the x-axis detector. Thesemotion detectors ar also known as rollers. When the mouse is in usethe tracking ball moves moving one or twain of the rollers. Each rolleris connected to a shaft, which spins a disc. The disc has holes in itand next to the disc is an infrared LED and an infrared sensor. As thedisc spins the hole in the disc breaks the beams of light generated bythe LED and the sensor picks up these pulses of light. The speed ofthe pulses is related to how far the mouse has travelled. If the discspins faster the further the mouse would have travelled. A diagrambelow shows one of these discs.LED light LED sensorDisc ShaftSo from the mouse which is mechanical the movement and distance can bemeasured. This all starts at the track ball as explain above and endsat the transducers, which send the information to the computer. Oncethe distance, movement and direction data is gathered from thephysical and the pulses of light are picked up from the infraredsensor the information is sent to the transducers. These transducerstranslate the information into electrical signals. These signals aretranslated into binary and sent to the computer. The computer willunderstand the binary data thus moving the cursor on the screen asappropriate. This shows that both physical and electrical operations