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Umm, no let's not plug it in.

In time this can be improved above 80% efficiency. It's not about "may as well plug it in", it's also about space constraints, plugs, etc. This can remove the need for a lot of wiring and is not a new technology by far.

People have used mice (not the animals) to do this for years.

Not to mention this could force standardizing of connections thus disabling companies from having proprietary connectors to connect things.

Shaver's plug gets bust? Would be nice to replace the plug and not the whole damn thing, etc. This bypasses that entirely.

It's simple electromagnetic induction and has an incredibly limited range but it's working great: http://www.a4tech.com/en/product2.asp?CID=90&SCID= 92&MNO=NB-99

a4tech is the brand for this kind of devices, take a look in the wireless, no battery mouse at http://www.a4tech.com/en/product1.asp?CID=90&SCID= 92

petty cheap too. and warks in linux too.

Why use batteries, necessarily? Draw on the supermarket's power, and run a microwave power grid over the shelving. Sort of like this mouse:
http://www.a4tech.com/en/media/thecrucible.htm
Then, not only are batteries less of a concern, but you won't drive the stock boys and deliverymen handling the goods nuts when they're not on display. Those folks are often under far more stress than those shopping.

That has been done. Check out This mouse and a review of it here. There is a wire to the mouse pad, but none to mouse. It is powered via RFID. I have one of these, and it works great. Never had any problems with it, even in games.

Say "Hello" to A4Tech NB-30 Battery-free Wireless Mouse.

http://www.a4tech.com/en/product2.asp?CID=90&SCID= 92&MNO=NB-20

I've been selling them in my shop for over a year now.

You mean like this?

Yeah, and I still haven't heard of smooth (as opposed to notched) mouse wheels *searches Google to make sure*

Actually, these exist. I distinctly remember buying a crappy PS/2 mouse at Clas Ohlsonwhich featured a notchless scroll wheel like you describe. I'm not 100%, but I think it was manufactured by A4Tech.

It was pretty annoying though. It wouldn't let you scroll pixel by pixel. The "notches" were still there, but implemented by software.

Not to mention, I prefer a mouse that doesn't scroll just because I look at it the wrong way. It'd be way too easy to scroll by mistake.

Another idea I've seen, is a mouse (also made by a cheap company, Typhoon. It used a trackball for 2-d scrolling. God, that was annoying! It was rather uncomfortable to get that scrolling straight and not jumping left and right all the time. Also notchless, and thus way too easy to trip.

My conclusion? Notchless is a bad idea if you want to implement a scroll wheel. The notches are there for a reason. Actually, I'm pretty much sure that you could modify several popular scroll mice to make them notchless, as the few I've opened actually was using optical sensors to detect motion rather than switches, anyway, and the notches are only there to prevent spurious scrolling.

The best scrolling mechanism I've used is on my iBook. I use a third-party tool called uControl to enable scrolling using my touchpad. Unlike SideTrack or similar Windows drivers, uControl will let you use your trackpad for mostly stepless 2D scrolling, when depressing the Fn modifier key (or other modifier key of choice.) Very handy.

Hope this helps! :-)

or at least according to their marketing guys..

according to their site,"...deriving its power from A4's patented RFID-Pad,using our advanced RFID technology..."

A cheapo (~$10) optical mouse I use is here
I use the left and right buttons as normal and the thumb button for middle click.
The left wheel in the middle can still act like a middle button though...

I purchased this mouse two years ago.Programmable buttons,two scroll wheels etc.Drivers for win and mac only,though.

here

I'm not sure what company it's from, but it's a good few years old. I do know, however, that it doesn't double as an optical mouse.

I'd love to give this one a spin, but the cradle bugs me. What if I'm using the computer and it goes dead? I can't think of anything more inconvenient than to be rat-less (or have to crawl on the floor to plug in a new mouse) while I wait for it to charge.

The solution I prefer is this one from A4-Tech. When your juice runs low, you simply plug in the charge cable and run as a wired mouse for a while (2.5 hours).

I'm not sure what company it's from, but it's a good few years old. I do know, however, that it doesn't double as an optical mouse.

I'd love to give this one a spin, but the cradle bugs me. What if I'm using the computer and it goes dead? I can't think of anything more inconvenient than to be rat-less (or have to crawl on the floor to plug in a new mouse) while I wait for it to charge.

The solution I prefer is this one from A4-Tech. When your juice runs low, you simply plug in the charge cable and run as a wired mouse for a while (2.5 hours).

An A4TECH is the way to go.. although my mouse got worn down so much, I could put a penny on the left button and it would click, my friends is still working fine. I found this mouse AMAZINGLY light.. good for the 180 degree turns. I have now replaced it with a standard logitech optical mouse and found it to be heavier and I also find myself accidentally clicking the right mouse button by mistake (goddamn silencer). So if you want a mouse for $20 that does a damn good job, go for the cheap a4tech mouse.

Dude, this includes Proccessor NIC and Video Card.

Hell, for a $50 case + PS combo (ok likely A LOT more expensive for a limited market like this product) and a $30 wirelss Keyboard Mouse combo from A4Tech I would be set.

Oooh yaaah.

Hehe, it already comes with TV out too.

INSANLY cool.

I am thinking Digital VCR here folks. :) Especialy if you outfit it with some sort of hot swappable IDE Hard Drive system, LOL!

Hehe, actualy with Flash Memory cards approuching (at as I recall) 1GigaByte now days, hmm, hehe! The MoBo has build in compatability with Flash Memory from what I can tell, LOL! Though some sort of internal mount USB unit could be used as well with a port for the Flash memory to fit into.

Hehe!!!!! Digital VCR! MPEG4 video, w00t w00t! :)

Man that would rock, though using Flash Memory would compleatly negate any sort of cost savings, LOL!

Still be pretty nice to have a 120GB or so drive installed in this baby and use it to go around with your movie collection sitting in something that you can almost carry in a small backpack, LOL!