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Wireless Mouse with no Batteries
GI Joe writes "Hardcoreware.net have posted a review of a mouse with no batteries; it receives its charge through induction from the USB powered mousepad. Of course this means you must use the mouse on this mousepad, taking away some of the big advantages of a wireless mouse. However, they said that the mouse is otherwise very accurate, and has no lag at all since it uses RFID."
Oh, BTW, FP!
Ack, too many TLAs!
"Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
So instead of powering the mouse, you power the mouse pad... Seems kinda pointless. The only advantage is not having to replace batteries all the time.
See if the company was smart they'd leave "RFID" out of the documentation because all the tin foil hat nuts are going to freak about their mouse tracking brain patterns or something.
Although now that I think about, I would like a mouse that tracked my brain patters. Free up an extra hand and such.
can't sleep slashdot will eat me
..if you already "invent" a wireless mouse, why not get the power from the movement the human being makes? I guess I'd notice a slight strenghtening of the movement!
Why has no one build a mouse with a optical sensor that ALSO has a old style ball hooked up to a small dynamo.
:\
Self powered, never needs the batteries changed. And since precision doesnt matter the ball never needs cleaning, so it's not a disadvantage like it is for tracking.
Easily enough power could be generated for the optical system and a low power RF transmitter
Beep beep.
rfid? it uses an rfid tag to communicate with the host? check your buzzwords. i think you mean rf, buddy.
Of course this means you must use the mouse on this mousepad, taking away some of the big advantages of a wireless mouse.
I use my mouse on a pad so it doesn't scratch the desk. I don't have a wireless so I don't need a pad, I have it so that when I want to move, I can (instead of sitting scrunched up), and also because it involves less confusion with wires.
Also, couldn't you get shocked if the mousepad conducts electricity? Or is it like touching the edges of a battery?
~Ilyanep
To get message, take amount of carrier pigeons at each stage mod 2. Then decode binary.
...from Wacom! Who, incidentally, are the best hardware company ever.
http://www.wacom.com for your batteryless pointing device needs.
Whence? Hence. Whither? Thither.
Aaaaand in other news, Wacom files a multi-bazillion dollar patent infringement suit against A4Tech...
Which one people find worse, sticking to the required usb powered mousepad, or replacing batteries/rechargeable batteries...?
I will surely keep changing the batteries. Besides, I get them free from at my workplace.
-Is the meaning of life vanity, or is vanity the meaning of life?
I'm going back to a wired mouse because they're lighter. No need to further punish my wrists with the weight of a dynamo and the friction of one or more geared balls.
I don't know about you, but i like wireless mice because they have no annoying wires, not because I feel constrained by having my mouse so close to the rest of my computer.
However, the downside of wireless mice is changing batteries. It's annoying to stop to replace the batteries, especially when you're in the middle of round of CounterStrike, trying to defuse a bomb at the same time as not get shot at by AK47s.
So, I'd love to buy this mouse, because otherwise, Terrorists Win!
"Einstein argued that [...] God is not capricious or arbitrary. No such faith comforts the software engineer." ~ Brooks
Why in the hell would anyone want a wireless mouse but a wired mousepad? And I dont really like the idea that I cant use it on a metal desk. I'll stick to my wired ball-less 3 button mouse, thanks.
Doesn't having a wired mouse pad kind of defeat the purpose of a wireless mouse?
Especially when the mouse has to be used with said mouse pad?
The parent of this has nothing to do the grandparent of this... And please feel free to mod THIS one down, not the parent of this :)
-Is the meaning of life vanity, or is vanity the meaning of life?
http://www.afrotechmods.com/cheap/arnoldpad/arnold pad.htm
This mouse is also induction charged, although it seems this new one may have some of the bugs worked out, like the pad-heating problem...
and the mousepad to "conveniently" electrocute you when you download those MP3s.
Meh.
"Do not operate on any metal surfaced table"
Why would anyone want one? ... not with this mouse, gotta be used on the mousepad it comes with. ... not with this mouse, you can only use it as far away as the cord for the mousepad will reach.
Pehaps i'm unusual, but the major advantage of an optical mouse to me is that it can be used on any surface
AND the major advantage of wireless is that the mouse is in no way connected to the computer (apart from a distance/obstruction restraint for the wireless connection)
I'm not trying to start a flamewar but I just honestly can't see any advantages of this. Can someone point some out for me?
Some hot fucking news!
My Wacom Graphire came with a mouse like that, wireless, but had to be used on the pad only. That was, what, only 10 years ago. Glad to see something just like it finally make the fucking news! Oh, wait, it's not news, it's slashdot...
The mice that use a docking station for recharging have it right, this one does not have buttons, it looks like, but it has a scroll wheel. And it has to be used on the included mousepad which is in fact a radio emmiter. I don't know, I use a touch pad most often (on my laptop, so no extra batteries anyway,) but when I use a mouse I like to be able to move it anywhere without having to move the mousepad with it. Now, make that radio emmiter recharge a battery inside the mouse, add a couple of buttons, and now it's useful to me.
You can't handle the truth.
Articles dotted so can't be sure, but are these actually any different to the mice that used to come with Wacom tablets about 4 years ago?
Metal happens to be this supermouses.
Meh.
This is just like my wacom tablet, except without a pen... I must say it is very nice to have a wired pad and a non wired mouse.
A mouse pad with an induction coil eh? sounds like a great diskette/ZIP/hard-disk eraser to me...
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
That is not optical, but mechanical, and generates its energy from the movement of the wheels that also read the movements?
I don't think it would be enough energy, but it maybe is. I haven't made the calculations.
--
Wiki de Ciencia Ficcion y Fantasia
I'm sure they'll advertise this one as having a "free mouse pad" like its some grand deal. They'll not tell the buyer that the provided mouse pad is an essential part of the system and not a magnanimous offer on their part. I wonder how many people will try to use this mouse with the pad of their choice, get a few days use and then complain when it dies.
It reminds me of those old Sun optical mice with the metal grid-pattern mouse pads. I always like turning coworkers pads 90 degrees and watching the ensuing hilarity.
Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
This is not so original: Arnold and afroman did it first
What's the point of a wireless mouse that needs the mousepad to be plugged in?
Assume I was drunk when I posted this.
According to the box this mouse provides "wireless freedom", but the article says "The pad is what powers the mouse itself, using induction. It doesn't charge batteries in the mouse, or anything like that, so you cannot use the mouse anywhere else."
So what's the point? It's actually worse then a standard wired optical mouse because you have to use it on the pad.
If you want a "battery free" wireless optical mouse just get one with rechargable batteries and a charging station. No battery replacements and you can still actually use with wirelessly.
Right; this mouse uses Subspace Communication (tm Star Trek). Not this old-fashioned RF stuff.
Ah. "RFID". Cue the "Princess Bride" I-do-not-think-that-word-means-what-you-think-it means quotes.
Let's see, RF at 3E8 m/s will cover one inch in about... 85 picoseconds. Yes, I'm sure RF propagation has always been the cause of your lag. Definitely when your mouse is on the moon and the computer is on earth.
Oh wait, I forgot. This device doesn't use RF. It uses... RFID.
I give up.
Batteryless cordless phone that takes power from its cradle.
SplashPower who seem to be making a more cross-device version of this.
The wire on my mouse isn't annoying when you use it in it's normal position (ie where I've positioned my mouse mat).
It only gets annoying when I want to move it and use it in another position for some reason (such as needing that bit of deskspace for something) in which case the wired mousemat is going to be just as annoying, if not more so (I'd have to move both the mouse and the mousemat as they work in tandem, whereas now I can get away with just moving the mouse).
Boffoonery - downloadable Comedy Benefit for Bletchley Park
Dammit.. I replaced my mouse batterys today.. I could buy one of those. very nice.. i was wondering. if someone hack's your computer they could use it to give you chocks. and you can use it to keep your child's off porn sites. just send a chock if SEX word is found on a website.
Or better yet, keep the optical thing, so the mouse moves accurately and doesn't annoy the living "F" word out of you, and then add the ball thing to generate the electricity.
Or better yet, get rid of the stupid ball thing and add a special device that collects the heat from your hand when you operate the mouse, and converts that into electricity. And then, when everybody's mouse is like that, the excess energy will be used to power government computer systems, and then we will live in the Matrix.
All that from a stupid mouse. Who cares anyway if the cottonpicking thing needs a battery to operate? That's a small price to pay when it allows you to avoid slavery to machines.
...just use a really old monitor that doesn't have that sissy electromagnetic radiation shielding.
Just go back to ball-mouse, instead of optical, and use the ball movement to power the RF?
Radio transmission on a small scale would probably have enough power from that... Maybe have some crank or pushbutton to charge the mouse if it isn't charged up.
Site's very slooooow.
Try the Coral link here
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..."
"It's better to be a pirate then join the Navy"
I remember these were being touted a couple of years ago by Splashpower: link
My guess is these just take too long to charge your phone... or is there another reason these never caught on?
have been seen before. Just a thought.
So why is a USB mousepad any better than a USB mouse? I don't use a mouse pad because none of them provide a large enough mousing surface. When you are gaming you can't pick up your mouse and move it to the other side of the pad or the other guy kills you. This wireless mouse is not much good as it is useless as soon as it leaves the mouse pad.
Saying Java is nice because it works on all OS's is like saying that anal sex is nice because it works on all genders.
Seems to me they just want to stuff in more buzzwords to sound flash.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
maybe they use rfid so only THAT mouse can be used with THAT pad on THAT computer as some sort of security feature.
is if the whole desk was one big "power pad" that your laptop, printer, mouse etc could all be powered by. I could eliminate the last must-have cables running all over my desk. This is pretty much useless.
Wirelessly charge any electonic device? I'm guessing that these never caught on because it's not possible to practically do that.
Why not just use the scroll wheel on the mouse to generate the power to run it. Instead of a battery, it could charge a capacitor to store the power.
I don't use a mouse pad because none of them provide a large enough mousing surface.
You obviously haven't seen this.
Useless? Bah, any true nerd would mod that mouse with large capacitor.
Large enough capacitor=power to run the mouse 5 minutes after leaving the mouse pad.
And probably wouldn't cause any excess weight either, since most modern mouses have extra metal added in for weight, just remove that to balance the capacitor weight.
There are no atheists when recovering from tape backup.
In Soviet Russia, the tinfoil hat RF(ID) overlords welcome insensitive clods. PROFIT!
--- Asking inconvenient questions for over 30 years...
You know how battery-less watches work?
There's a very eccentric cam inside the watch, attached to a very small generator.
Any movement of the watch would move the cam slightly, generating a small amount of current in the generator.
An efficient power circuit captures that spike and stores it in a capacitor.
The same method could be used in a cordless mouse.
Power requirements are little bit higher, but not much.
Also, there could be a small generator attached to the scroll wheel.
When you are gaming you can't pick up your mouse and move it to the other side of the pad or the other guy kills you.
Trackballs don't have that problem.
"Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
Apparently first devices will be available 2005, not many other details than that on their site. Other than that the devices need a special reciever as part of / attatched to the battery.
isn't this the same thing as having a touchpad? except you still have a mouse, albeit without a tail.
just more complex....touchpad gives a designated area for mousing, you pick up from the pad, no pointer movement. Um, sorry, but I fail to see any benefits here.
I'd not like to keep my hand lying on such a device for hours a day.
My 2 cents.
What I don't get is what makes this 'MOUSE' any different than a digitizer pad (most come with mouse-like pointing devices along with the pen style interface). Seems like it's a lot of bother over something that's been available for a dozen or more years.
Kinetic stupidity has a new brand leader: Allen Zadr.
Seems like the site is down.
n te nt&task=view&id=794&Itemid=0
Check out another review of the same mouse:
http://www.cooltechzone.com/index.php?option=co
link
I wish I had mod points.
You mean like Wacom and other graphics tablets have been doing for, oh, about 20 years?
16 x 20 not big enough?
My Tech Posts on Twitter
Large enough capacitor=power to run the mouse 5 minutes after leaving the mouse pad.
Which is great if your playing minesweeper. I prefer games which don't require a break every 5 mins to reacharge my mouse.
And before you say 'just pause the game every 5 mins' - that just destroys the realism for games that rely on it (read:FPS), even if
you could get some magic capacitor that'd manage 5 mins @ 100mA @ 5v (mouse power consumption reference here).
Anyway, how's this very different than graphics tablets that have mice? (Like this Wacom one)
which granted its not optical, but it is wireless, runs on a USB pad, is arguably far more accurate, and definatly more flexible as an input device.
Windows in 6 Bytes (IA-32) : 90 90 90 90 CD 19
What not just make a mouse pad box with a electric conductor on the top. Then put a whip antenia on you mouse thats just like a bumper car.
Im sure all the l337 speakers would crap there pants when you show off your noob fraging sparks.
This Sig for rent.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
until someone finds a way to mod the pad and make a cheap RFID reader?
I'm not even going to pretend to understand how it works, but my Grandfather has a watch that recharges just through the motion of him walking around, moving his arm, etc.
Couldn't something like this be introduced in a larger scale (lots of room inside those mice) to power a cordless mouse? It's not like they sit static for great deals if time.
I'm sure someone smarter than me is aware of this method and can probable tell me why it won't work?
Wacom has been doing this for years with their famed pen and mouse tablets.
We had pad-tethered mice almost 20 years ago (although it was the mice that were wired back then). We don't have them any more because people didn't seem to like the pad tether. Now these people are giving us a new mouse that provies all of the advantages of a wireless mouse -- excep that it's tethered to a wired mousepad.
In other words, it's really wireless in name only.
Free Software: Like love, it grows best when given away.
Not all devices that run on 3 V (two alkaline cells) can run properly on 2.4 V (two NiCd or NiMH cells).
This is interesting because .... ? :-)
I had a direct entry tablet with pen for my TRS-80 Color Computer in 1979 that had a wireless mouse (ok, puck) attachment! Jeeze. You kids don't remember anything !
its like a wacom graphire, but without the pen.
Gee, I'll take 3!
Why is this slashdot material? Watcom has had this available for YEARS. They even have wireless battery-less pens.
Oops posted as a reply to someone else's post instead of the original post.. Wanted to say, why is this slashdot material? Because Watcom has had this available for YEARS.. they even have wireless, battery-less pens.
What would this do to a watch with a metal clasp and metal backplate? Being someone that works on computers regularly(mine and other people's), I also have no shortage of screws and tools lying around on my desk. Now for my pathetic attempt at a joke: This is about as useful to a nerd as a solar powered mouse.
Here at Overclockers Australia
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Call me crazy... [pause] I say, call me crazy, but how about a solar-rechargeable mouse? Just like those solar cordless lawn-lights. Slow trickel charge when your hand isn't on it- gotta be 90% of the day!
-MrLogic
[clever sig here]
What the hell does RFID have to do with it being fast?
Wow, I bet crypt'ing a data path sur will make it faster.
Bunch of pseudo scientist...
The Sun is warmer, 5 times warmer than the greenhouse gas contribution!
Idiots....
You know those little glass hand boiler things with the color liquid inside? You hold it, and the liquid bubbles up the tube and into a second bulb. Surely this sort of setup (slightly miniaturized of course) would be enough to turn a very small generator turbine. Since your hand would be on the mouse while using it, thus heating it up, I could see this working...
No, it charges while being used on the mat. The capacitor idea isn't to use it without the mat, but so that you can go off the mat for short periods and not have to lift it up, and reposition it (which is not good during an fps). And it's different because it is optical. Graphics tablet mice are passive, they could never generate a beam and tablet mice i found to not have good accuracy compared to my optical mice.
out that this was already done by Wacom...
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
What I want to know is how this is any better than the usual graphics tablets that come with wireless batteryless mice already. Mice that are tracked by the tablet, not the mouse, so the mouse is small and light. And some of them even have crosshairs attached to the top side for precision movements.
They had an optical mouse 10 years ago? That must have cost a bomb!
Karma: It's all a bunch of tree-huggin' hippy crap!
This is a neat toy (one I wouldn't mind playing around with myself), but this is not the perfect mouse.
Logitech is definitely onto something with their mouse dock. It's quite easy to slip the mouse into the dock when leaving the PC and take it back out when coming back, but with BT (and IR) mice, I find that there is still a problem: distance. I'm not sure about you, but having three displays on my desktop, the last thing I need is another device that MUST be there. Between my PDA's cradle, my sound system's remote, a satellite speaker, and various crap from ThinkGeek, the real estate on my desk is extremely scarce. My perfect mouse would be one with the design of an Intellimouse Explorer 4.0, based on RF technology to allow for reliable use several feet from the base. The cradle can then be placed somewhere where real estate isn't quite so scarce (a shelf, for example.)
As for my take on the battery-free tech, it's a toy. A cool, definitely nerdy toy, but still a toy. There's no reason anyone should be too lazy to slip a mouse into its cradle once every few days.
Genius may have its limitations, but stupidity is not thus handicapped.
i hope some innovative high tech company can develope a wireless mousepad.
Do not operate on any metal surfaced table
I presume this thing will function like an inductive heater if any large piece of metal comes in contact with this. Might be good for cooking some noodles though.
Divide by zero hurts my brain.
IT U$3$ TEH EVILZ RFID!!!!11
Sigh...
...and not have to lift it up
No, it charges while being used on the mat.
Yes, clearly it charges on the mat (as the article header states).
The capacitor idea isn't to use it without the mat...
Based on your premise how does the cap help? You still have to 'lift it up' to get back on the pad after you go off. Also if this was the intention of the parent to my first post, why would they suggest a time of 5 mins?
And it's different because it is optical...
Again, Yes, clearly the technology is different, but the function is the same [Tablet Vs Pad Optical : mouse works on pad], hence my question about the difference between the two beyond a trivial difference in application of existing technologies.
tablet mice i found to not have good accuracy
This is far too subjective to get into an argument about, theres too many factors, but it probably boils down to the amount of cash you want to fork out. I've seen tablets far nicer than any optical I've used, and some that are rubbish.
Windows in 6 Bytes (IA-32) : 90 90 90 90 CD 19
Try a Wacom Graphire 3 with mouse... first of all you have a real drawing tablet which is pressure sensitive... and you have a mouse with NO optical! all is done by the Tablet itself and you can even make it work with the Tablet PC version of Windows XP when you install the Penabled drivers. Hurrah!
F/OSS & IT Consultant
Using kinetics... I mean, watch manufacturers use it already... How much trouble would it be to put that into a mouse? Maybe I'll make it my weekend project :-)
Seriously though, the average person never spots a mouse on the screen before it moves... hence, the extra moves to 'find the pointer' and every subsequent movement could be used to charge the mouse.
Just food for thought.
Wacom, not Watcom. Watcom made a nice compiler for a while. Wacom makes tablets.
That's why you set your mouse sensitivity to max, then edit the .cfg file to set it even higher, so that even when you're just resting your hand on your mouse, your pulse your gun twitch around like you're having a siezure.
I am NOT a man!
I am a free number!
They even have wireless battery-less pens.
What about pencils? I've always wanted one of those.
...they'll have real live mice that you move around on a special mousepad, energy for the wireless is generated by sucking the life force from the poor bastard that you caught half-alive in your trap last night.
What about charging the mouse through its rolling ball? Or, preferably, a trackball with the same mechanism? And Bluetooth, to boot (pun intended)?
--
make install -not war
It uses 'RFID' for power? Amazing...I suppose next we'll see cop cars that use Driver's Licenses for fuel.
Wireless Mouse nailed to your desk!
My Wacom tablet came with a wireless mouse years ago.
I don't think I could keep a straight face in person discussing geared balls.
We are one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively. Back to you with the weather, Bob!
I can see the advantage for couch surfing and boardroom presentations, but why bother with desktops? A company I did some contracting for just moved offices and to look "funky" put wireless mice and keyboards on every desk. What a disaster! The batteries on all the mice started running out in a couple of weeks and the ctrl keys on the keyboards only worked half the time 'cause the signal was flakey.
Guess this product would fix the problem for the mice at least but really, why bother for a machine that you always sit at?
One of these days I'm moving to Theory - everything works there
Hasn't Wacom been making this type of product for about 15 years now?
It's good to use your head, but not as a battering ram.
You don't have to lift it up to get on the pad. You just make a pad that has the charging pad in the middle. That way you have a seamless very large pad and if you need to go off the charging pad you can, but you can just return it to the center.
Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity, though I'm not yet sure about the universe. - A Einstein
Just reminds me of microwaving your brain with a cell phone. How long will it be before people find out that you can not only get carpletunnel, but liquify the nerve endings in your wrist at the same time while powering the mouse...?
That is a joke, lest you missed the tags.
You need a FREE iPod Nano
I can't think of one really good point to this, other than that you can use the mouse at all points.
My wireless mouse has a battery, that needs to be charged for about 20 min. every 2 weeks at maximum (I normally go for about 3-4 weeks depending on use, and I use heavily to begin with).
This type of mouse will save me while playing those games that I can't take a 20 min. break from, and I have forgotten to dock my mouse for over two weeks.
I guess this is more of the "I can do it" technologies not "I should do it".
Am I the only one that read that as "Wireless mouse with no buttons"? I stared at my monitor for a bit, trying to figure out how that would work, then I realized I read it wrong...
54th and Cermak, you mean?
What about having a wireless, batteryless mouse operate off the motion of the mouse itself? Couldn't you have a tiny little generator run off the ball of the mouse to produce electricity? It brings new meaning to the idea of shaking your mouse to get it to unfreeze, though, doesn't it? Hey, maybe I should patent this before someone like M$ does.
Greg
Instead of battery, how about using condenser for charging power?
Yes, condenser can't store as much power as pattery. But, it can be charged very fast and it don't have deterioration.
And mice don't use so much power.
So, condenser is the best way to charge power, I think.
I have a Wacom Graphire tablet around here somewhere. I am not sure exactly what model it is, I haven't had it plugged in in a long time. It came with a pen and a mouse. At first, I was actually quite excited about the mouse. It has no chord and it has almost no weight (I never liked chordless mice because of the weight of the batteries).
I tried it out and it works very well... Except for one issue that I will never be able to get past. The mouse pointer moves in relation to the direction you move the mouse on the pad. This means that if you tilt the mouse 90 degrees in relation to the tablet and push the mouse horizontally, the pointer will move vertically.
That is the most extreme example. Even when using it normally you can tell the pointer just isn't moving the way it should. If this mouse has the same problem I wouldn't go anywhere near the thing :).
what happens when you have to hold a key or mouse button down? ..... but then we just would have ran in a retarded little circle back to the current solution wouldnt we?
it still uses power, so if hand movement stops power generation stops, and it stops sending a signal to the computer, which would suck for FPS or other games because after holding down w for a second or 2 you would stop running....
ways to get arround it you ask?
well we could add a battery
the answer isnt no batteries its longer lasting ones or adding a hand movement Discharge/recharge so the built in batt never dies, but thats not very wallet friendly...
if its not broke, dont fix it..
Can't the mouse be powered by you moving it around? Similar to those (swatch) watches which use this principle?
I bet they'll introduce the next generation product soon enough: a wireless mouse pad!
It uses RFID?
"Hey I got like this really cool mouse? It's totally useless in that the pointer doesn't do anything when you move it around but I can tell you EXACTLY which Walmart shelf it was on before I bought it and the feds know which hand I'm using. How cool is that?"
http://www.afrotechmods.com/cheap/arnoldpad/arnold pad.htm
fun stuff on that site.
philo
Wow..tin foil hats still gets modded up around here?
Doesnt take much in terms of humor to get a response.
I guess its the online version of the 'pull my finger joke'
So, we get a mouse WITHOUT a wire, just to get a pad WITH wire. So, what's the use of this thing ? On the other side, this is WAY too stupid : > Since when RFID is equivalent with "no lag" ? Since wheb RFID implies SPEED ? Is RFID using some other form of energy that propagates signals at speeds greater than the speed of light ? Jeez, this world seems to be falling apart. Every day appears a new idiot with a new (and totally USELESS) "invention". I suppose someday another idiot will invent the method to preserve farts in cans or bottles and everybody will say he's the 21'st century's Einstein.
Wacom adds to their tablets mouses, wireless, which use no batteries and has do be used on the tablet.
Deliriant isti Americani.
I used to have an Apple II graphics tablet, which would erase disks and credit cards placed on top. I'm not really that happy about putting something designed to give off magnetic fields right where unsuspecting users could drop tapes or other magnetic media on them...
When you are gaming you can't pick up your mouse and move it to the other side of the pad or the other guy kills you.
I rather thought that in FPS game you set your mouse sensitivity relative to how far you want to move the mouse to do a 360. I guess this falls into personal taste. Some gamers prefer ball mice, others like trackballs. I must admit in the past I enjoyed the accuracy of the old sun optical mice with the reflective pad, this usb pad doesn't sound half bad in theory.
There is no sanctuary. There is no sanctuary. SHUT UP! There is no shut up. There is no shut up.
I think that this idea would be great if instead of always needing to be on the pad it had some batteries so that maybe once a week you needed to leave the mouse on the pad or in a cradle for 2 or 3 hours. That way you wouldn't have to switch batteries but you would still be able to mouse wherever you wanted. It wouldn't solve the issue of batteries being heavy but that wasn't what made me upset about my mouse. Dead batteries and interferance from the tower (my pc tower sits right next to the mousepad and caused mouse movement with the early wirless mouse I used to be erratic) were the problems.
"You can now flame me, I am full of love,"
has no lag at all since it uses RFID.
What is that supposed to mean? RFID uses radio waves that travel faster than the radio waves used by ordinary cordless mice?
Or perhaps this mouse is faster than a (fictional) mouse that uses sound to communicate with the PC?
Dan East
Better known as 318230.
Dunno about Intuos, but with a Graphire it only happens if you haven't installed the graphics. A Graphire 2 can pretend it's an USB mouse even without the Wacom drivers, but then it has exact the same problem you described.
On the other hand, if you did install the driver, it's smart enough to make a difference between the pen and the mouse. It tracks the pen up to the 1/4 inch distance you describe, yes, but lifting the mouse barely a millimeter stops the tracking. I.e., it behaves exactly like a ball mouse.
And it's _waaay_ nice to have a mouse with:
- no cord to get tangled, _and_
- without the idiotic re-activation lag of normal wireless mice, which go to sleep as soon as you don't move them for half a second. (Like I'm gonna keep wiggling the mouse when I'm sniping.) _and_
- without a ball to get dirty, _and_
- without a led/scanner that gets confused by quick movements
For me, it's the perfect mouse, bar none. And the stylus is a nice bonus too.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
Screw paying for these fancy "features" -- Ahnold will tell you how to do it yourself.
The RF engineers at my job would prefer to call it LF, or low frequency as opposed to radio frequency.
But yes, RFID is just an ID tag, it holds at most 200 bytes of data on the ones I have seen. Tag, not data storage, and certainly not a communication technology.
Yep, I'm using one. In fact, one on each computer I own. For the mouse. It's hard to describe, and it does take some getting used to, but picture this:
- no cord to get in the way or pull at the mouse,
- none of that idiotic wake-up lag of normal wireless mice (Which go to sleep if you don't move them all the time. And, yes, even Logitech's have it. A lot shorter, but it exists.)
- no ball to get dirty
- no laser to get confused by very quick movements or by a hair getting stuck to the bottom of the mouse right in front of the LED. (Don't laugh, it actually happened to me.)
- no batteries to run out when you need them the most
Personally I rate the combination as _waay_ nice.
The available surface is one problem, yes, but:
1. Being a twitch-gamer, I'm used to work with high sensitivity and small mouse movements. I can cover the whole screen in less than an inch mouse movement. At which point, the A6 active surface of a Graphire is more than enough.
2. You can buy larger pads anyway. Even in the budget range you can get the Graphire XL. And Intuos, now that you can literally get one that covers half the desk.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
i cant understand why anyone would ever want to use a trackball... cant stand them... :)
but anyway, a power generator of some sort within a mouse could easily power a wireless mouse... a mouse moves A LOT... compared to a watches, though im sure the amount of power requires is of another order of magnitude...
I am very sucseptible to "let's have another drink"
I do scream bloody murder!
Signed: the Apple zealot.
I think with those you have to keep the mouse oriented at a certain angle, but not with this design.
Trackballs are king. Super precision. And why use your whole arm to move the mouse when you can use your finger. The precision of my finger is much that of my clunky arm [who needs them?]. Anyone who seriously does CAD, Graphics, or pretty much anything uses trackball or trackpoint (the eraser-point on laptops). Sadly most vendors find people like their touchbads despite horrible acuracy and poor tracking... which is why Dell has almost phased out the trackpoint. -M
when you see the word 'Linux', drink!
Where the wack did you pull "optical" out of? Is "optical" a buzzword so buzzy it starts to buzz for you before anyone actually invoked it? Wacom thingy is a goddamn tablet, for creeps sake. The only piece of optical technology in it is the power LED.
In case you're wondering, the mouse has nothing on its bottom, nothing at all. No ball, no lense, no little wheels.. Amazing!
I've just invented a fully functional car with no engine! Does 0-60 in 7 seconds, top-speed 120mph, at the same time boasting a fuel consumption of infinity mpg! The car literally uses no energy, produces no pollution, and will go on and on for miles and miles, literally until the wheels wear out! Coming to a major motor manufacturer near you soon!!*
* requires 4-litre diesel operated tread-mill to be in contact with wheels at all times.I have a wireless keyboard and mouse, it was only £17, albeit PS2 (which was good in the end, as Linux didn't like it when I tried a USB keyboard/mouse recently). It wasn't the mouse reviewed, and the keyboard has a strange ergonomic layout (angled keys, and numberpad on the left so right hand is closer to the mouse) but it is pretty good.
One thing I liked though, is that the wireless PS2 receiver also integrated a battery charger, so you never had to go around and hunt for the recharger, it was straight in front of you. It also came with 6 batteries, so there is always a spare set.
Sadly the mouse isn't the best, and does get through the batteries at a fair rate, although I do use the computer a lot.
so let me get this straight... I can have a wireless mouse, but now my mousepad needs to be plugged in? No thanks... I'll stick with a wired mouse and a mousepad (or lack of one) of my choosing.
maybe the submitter hasn't seend any wacom tablets. This is not new technology.
Come out with a wireless mousepad?
You can use a wireless mouse anywhere... on the plugged in pad.
Never mind that this is exactly how my wacom tablet works, (which is why I only use it for the pen) but doesn't it strike anyone that this completely defeats the purpose of being "wireless"?
it ain't wireless afterall :D
This is nothing new. The Wacom Tablets have long since been doing this. Graffire 1 and 2 were often packaged with a 'Mouse' that was wireless, no batteries, and had perfect accuracy. I still have mine. Works fine...nearly 3 years after I bought it.
I find the pen much more useful, though.
I modded by wireless mouse to use an RTG to power it. I just filled the battery cavity with plutonium 238, threw in a thermocouple and I was good to go.
The thing worked fine until it melted through the floor. Maybe I'll stick to go-fasta stripes next time...
Moderation Total: -1 Troll, +3 Goat
I do increase my mouse sensitivity but there is a happy medium between getting on large targets fast, and being able to dial into precision distance shots. I use a corded optical Intellimouse Explorer
Saying Java is nice because it works on all OS's is like saying that anal sex is nice because it works on all genders.
Trouble is, I keep getting 0wned in Counterstrike when I need to stop to wind it up again.
Unless you REALLY can't stand getting your mouse cable caught on stuff, or can't seem to keep your cordless mouse charged, I really can't see a need for this. Not at more than double the price of a decent mouse.
I've got a $15 cordless mouse I love. And my corded mice are decent too.
I haven't paid more than $30 for a mouse in 20 years!
THINK! It's patriotic
Where else but /. would you find a serious discussion of mouse balls? *sigh*
Say, does anyone else hate that crusty buildup you get on your balls?
*grin*
THINK! It's patriotic
The biggest problem with trackballs: Your thumb is not a precision instrument. It did not evolve to move over a large range or with any accuracy. Using your thumb as a pointer is like using a hammer to measure distance.
Slashdot quality declines as the number of hot grits posts decreases. - Provolt's Law, Apr-09-2005