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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?"
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...
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.
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."
(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.