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Mouse Uses RFID Instead of Batteries
ValourX writes "NewsForge (part of OSTG, like Slashdot) has a review of a mouse that is powered by RFID (and yes, it works with Linux). It's cordless and uses no batteries -- you just have to keep the mouse within 2 inches of the mousepad for it to work. What else could be powered by RFID?"
One, it's not RFID. RFID is a means of identifying things, that happens to use the RF from the detector as a power source. You can use RF as a power source without it being RFID.
Two, bateryless cordless mice are old news. I've got a Graphire 2 next to me that's done that thing for three or four years.
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I never use the Wacom mouse because it requires you to only have the mouse on the pad. My current tethered mouse ranges all over a 2-foot-square area on my desk, depending on my posture, activity, and current clutter level. I think I'd hate this "RFID" mouse as well.
I don't see what you are saying... There is a usb cable that goes to the mouse pad that powers the pad... The pad then transfers power to the mouse through a coil and thus you have a cordless mouse. I personally think it is cool because it is a cheap mouse without a cord... I hate batteries and weight, thus the reason I would never buy a real cordless mouse.
The main reason people buy a wireless mouse and is not so that they can cart their stuff off to a remote chair 30 feet away at will ( why would you ever do that? Could you even see the screen??? ), it is simply because a wireless mouse means no more fighting with the cord when you are dragging it around and the cord gets lightly jammed against something on the desk.
A mouse pad does not move. Hence no problems with it's cord being tangled.
So...the mouse isn't battery powered, but the mousepad is?
FTFA: "The NB-50 mouse pad does have a cord, and it connects to the computer via USB."
This is for people who don't want a wire on the part that moves, but don't mind having a wire on the part that stays put.
I know I don't tangle up my keyboard's wire nearly as often as I do the mouse wire, but I got an optical mouse partly because I don't like to be restricted in the area on which I can move said mouse. I do tasks that are conductive to large mouse movements, precise dragging and whatnot, so this isn't for me. Still cool, though.
You can't take the sky from me...
It's not so bad being confined to the tablet. My Wacom mouse pad is about 18" x 18". That's pretty close to your 2'x2' square.
I bought one of the bigger ones because I wanted the resolution for my wife's freelance graphics work.
The pen is pretty awesome to use in a graphics program, it's incredible how much more freedom you have with it instead of the mouse.
No power is wasted. This is actually an induction antenna; think of it as a transformer where one coil is in the mouse pad and the other is in the mouse. If there's nothing to pick up the power, no current flows (or at least, very little). The technique is used all over the place.
The only thing I'm wondering about is what happens about stray bits of metal placed on the mouse mat. If you're not careful, power will get transmitted to them; not only does this waste energy, it can be potentially dangerous... you wouldn't want to discover your wedding ring getting hot after using the mouse for a short while...
Back in the day the KGB beamed microwaves at the US embassy to power bugs for spying.
The simplest bug I know of is antenna, half wave rectifier, carbon microphone. As the load varies (carbon mike changes resistance with sound pressure) the amplitude of a harmonic is modulated and radiated by the same antenna.
The biggest problem with wired mice is the cord getting tangled up, running out of cord while you're gaming or in the way as it's used (curling up and ending up on the mousepad, for instance). With this system, the cord never moves once it's positioned. You can mouse around the pad as much as you want and the cord never gets in the way.
http://www-micro.msb.le.ac.uk/video/mite.html
(a) This has nothing to do with RFID, as the parent stated.
(b) Mice powered by induction from a special mousepad (or top-of-the-mousepad) have been around for a very long time. Presumably these didn't catch on for the same reason that optical mice that required a mousepad with a grid didn't catch on -- people don't like being forced to have a particular mousepad.
(c) Tesla owns your ass, mouse-people -- he powered lamps with remotely transmitted power twenty-five miles away.
Any program relying on (nontrivial) preemptive multithreading will be buggy.
It's just stinkin RF... there's no ID, morons.
http://www.teslatech.info/ttmagazine/v1n4/valone.h tm
http://www.braincourse.com/wirelessa.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla
Standing on the shoulders of giants.
whats the difference between this and a wacom tablet
Well, this probably isn't owned by a crazy, quasi-religious cult leader* for starters.
*Specifically, Sun Myung Moon.