Slashdot Mirror
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?"
s/RFID/Induction
--fatboy
The statement that the mouse is powered by RFID is a bit of a misnomer. It may be RF that transmits the mouse movement, but it is actually Inductive Coupling. The mouse pad has a coil that transfers power to a coil in the mouse using magnetic flux. This transfer of power is limited to short distances. Passive RFID uses radio frequency to transmit the power to the tag and relay the information back to the "server". I think that using inductive coupling for Mouse power is a great idea! Anything to reduce consumption of batteries that wind up in a landfill.
All the worlds indeed a
So you have to keep it within 2 inches of the mat, and where does the mat get its power from? It either has batteries or is cabled.
I'll stick with my real wireless mouse thanks very much, no batteries just charge it once a week (or when I remember to put it back in its cradle).
Bush and Blair ate my sig!
So, whats the difference between this and a wacom tablet, besides the fact that wacoms are generaly superior? If you've never tried photoshop/other graphics app with a wacom, you're missing out.
> What else could be powered by RFID?
Paranoia.
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.
tasks(723) drafts(105) languages(484) examples(29106)
1984
This is another way of starting a sig with this and ending it with that.
Here is a link to the Cheap Mod, courtesy of Afrotech: http://www.afrotechmods.com/cheap/arnoldpad/arnold pad.htm
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 mouse pad cannot be operated on any metal surface. Since the warnings about this are printed on the box, in the manual, and on the mouse pad itself, I figured it was in my best interest to avoid finding out why metal and power-over-RFID don't mesh.
Well there's a sentence that sure didn't end the way I wanted it to... Where's his sense of adventure?
...is that the mouse is responsible for position information, not the pad... Which is nice in some ways, because you mouse motion in real-world use doesn't always map nicely to the digitizing pad's cartesian grid.
:)
If your entire desk's surface was one big induction loop, this would allow you to have this mouse work over the whole of your desk (assuming there's enough power coupling). Beware the magnetic media, though!
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...
Yeah, I'd have to go with the "Hey that's (kinda) cool" reaction. When I got my first wireless mouse, the advantages were seen immediatly: I could use it anywhere on my desk and not worry about a cord. The way this thing is set up, it'd be more of a pain then a tradtional wired mouse, because not only would there still be a cord for the mouse pad, which the mouse needs to sit at least 2" from, but the mouse itself is useless unless it's on the mouse pad.
.messy).
For me, one of the nice things about having a wireless mouse is when I'm reading longer webpages, I often sit back in my chair, holding the mouse in the palm of my hand, and use the mouse wheel to scroll down the page. (which I could do with a wired mouse, only it gets. .
I'm sure there are better implimentations of remote RFID power, and it's probably going to end up being very common in the future, it's just I can't think of any right now.
The Internet is generally stupid
Try reading the article instead of posting stupid statements, the author of the article TESTED IT under Linux.
how is babby formed?
For a moment, I thought "First they put them in dogs and cats, now they're putting them in mice?" And then wondered why is it news that it's wireless? Was there something about the little critters that made it so you had to run a wire into your pet mouse for a RFID tag to work properly? And really, how often do peoples mice run away and then are picked up by animal control and scanned to find the owner?
Then I read the article and it made more sense.
The Internet is generally stupid
You can buy a bluetooth wireless mouse and run all over the place with it without worrying about bringing your receiver along.
This seems like it's just a really, really nice idea for desktops, where my MX700 needs to be cradled every night and still occasionally runs out of juice at just the wrong time.
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.
Since it's powered by inductive coupleing, not RFID, it's in the same category as my Sonicare toothbrush, except the toothbrush is more advanced.
The toothbrush has a battery that is inductively recharged when it's sitting in it's base.
I have used the toothbrush over 6,000 miles from it's base which is amore useful range than the 2 inch range of the mouse.
A wireless mouse with a battery that got recharged when you left it on the mouse pad but didn't have to be near the mousepad to work would actually have some utility. They need to add a battery.
I've seen a couple posts where people have said "Hey, the first optical mouse let me throw away the pad." and have just got to drop a quick note here.
I have several optical mice that *need* their pad, as it has a grid for the optics to read as you draw the mouse across it. So it took them awhile to figure out how to get the optical mouse to work with no pad. Just as it will take them awhile to figure out how to give the entire population of the Earth cancer by using Inductive style power beamed from satellites to power those mice.
"Genius may shine aloof and alone, like a star, but goodness is social, and it takes two men and God to make a Brother."
Wacom tablets use battery-less controls. Wacom has their particular technology patented, which is a big reason they're so popular. Their devices are very lightweight and never need batteries. While a pen is likely the most common device used with a tablet, Wacom sells mouses and (simulated) airbrushes that work the same way.
If you buy Wacom's cheapest Graphire pad, it comes with a mouse. From my experience, the input device must be within 1/2 inch of the pad in order for it to work.
Whatever the case, I don't see the point in having a wireless mouse, if the mousepad must be wired. But that's just me, I guess.
(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.
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.