COMPUTER MOUSE A standard mouse consists of the following components: Housing the one you hold in your hand

nd and move around on your desktop Method of transmitting movement to the system can either be Ball/roller or optical sensors Buttons used for making selections Interface connects the mouse to the system. Conventional mice use wire and connector while wireless mouse use radio frequency or infrared transceiver. Computer Mouse Development Computer mouse was invented by Douglas Engelbart of Stanford Research Center in 1964 and was originally called X-Y Position Indicator for a display system. In 1973, Xerox used the same mouse design in its experimental computer called Alto. In 1979, Steve Jobs (owner of Apple/Macintosh) after seeing what a mouse can do in the Alto computer, decided to incorporate the mouse system together with the GUI (Graphical User Interface) to his latest computer design called Lisa. It was in 1984 when Apple introduces Macintosh as the mainstream of their computer design. Macintosh became a hit, and because of this the mouse development was credited to Apple Computers.

mouse has a trackball that rotate in any direction. Moving the mouse will cause the ball to rotate and this determines its directions. The mouse uses two metal rollers that detect its horizontal and vertical movements. Connected to the end of the metal rollers are a disk-like encoder wheels that rotate in between two optical beams. The signal of the beam will be interrupted and this will generate the electrical signals.
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Shown above is a sample mechanical mouse with a track ball in the underside that makes contact with the working surface of the mouse. The mouse ball can be removed by rotating the mouse ball housing in a counter clockwise direction. The mouse ball (rubber ball) rolls as you move the mouse. Its movements are translated into electrical signals transmitted to the computer across the cable.

2. Optical Mouse was developed in 1999 by Agilent Technologies and it works like a tiny camera that takes thousands of pictures every second. It is designed to work on every surface without the use of a mouse pad. It uses a LED (Light Emitting Diode) to transmit the light beam and a photodiode (sensor) to detect the movement relative to underlying surface.

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An optical mouse developed by Microsoft is shown above. It works by illuminating a LED on its underside and uses an optoelectronic sensor to detect relative motion on different types of surface.

The first mouse design developed by Douglas Engelbart is shown above. It was made from wood and a metal wheel. Physically it looks very primitive, but it works.

Types of Mouse 1. Mechanical Mouse was invented in 1972 by Bill English while working with Xerox. The

3. Laser Mouse was developed by Sun Micro system in 1998 and it works like an optical mouse, but it uses a small infrared laser instead of a LED. Using an infrared laser increases its tracking capability by 20 times as compared to conventional mouse. The mouse sensitivity and

resolution also increases but the power consumption decreases on this type of mouse.

Mechanical mouse utilizes less power compared to an optical mouse, but this is not a serious issue for PC users. Users are more focus on the mouse efficiency. How Mechanical Mouse Works Mechanical mouse always depends on the rotation of the track ball in determining its speeds, directions and movements. The track ball is connected to two rollers which individually determine the X (horizontal)and Y (vertical) directional motion of the mouse. As shown below each roller has its own chopper wheel (looks like a bicycle wheel) that interrupts the beam transmitted by light source and received by the detector. The wheel passes in between the light source and detector causing the light beam to break. The break in the light beam is converted to electrical signal that correspond to movement in the mouse pointer.

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Shown above is a sample laser mouse developed by Microsoft. Compared to optical mouse, laser mouse has greater resolution because it uses infrared technology.

Optical Mouse Versus Mechanical Mouse Working surface Optical mouse can work on different landscape compared to a mechanical mouse. Its optical technology can accurately determine the movement, direction and speed of the mouse regardless of the contour in its working surface. Mechanical mouse will encounter problem once the working surface is bumpy (not smooth). However, optical mouse will have problem working in glossy and transparent surfaces. The light may not bounce back directly to the optoelectronic sensor and this may cause the pointer to drift unpredictably during operation. Life expectancy Optical mouse is expected to have a greater life expectancy compared to a mechanical mouse. Optical mouse is designed with no moving parts, which means less wear and a lower chance of failure. The mechanical mouse, because of its design, has a life expectancy of 1 to 2 years only. Tolerance against dirt and dust Mechanical mouse uses a trackball that acquires a lot of dirt and dust during operation. These requires mechanical mouse user to frequently clean the mouse. Optical mouse has no rolling parts thus; dust or dirt cannot get inside the mouse and affect the tracking sensor. Optical mouse does not require cleaning except for the dust debris collected on its underside. Power consumption

Shown below is the inside of a mechanical mouse. It has the mouse circuitry, infrared LED and sensor, mouse buttons, chopper wheel and the ball that touches the desktop and rolls when the mouse moves.

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The rollers inside the mouse are in contact with track ball. As shown in the picture below, the white rollers protrude and touch the ball. The first roller detects the horizontal movements of the mouse, while the other roller which is placed 90 degrees of the first roller detects the vertical movements. When the ball is rolling, one or both rollers rotate as well.

PC Technology 2

A mouse has an on-board processor that converts these electrical signals into its binary equivalent. The chip will then send the 1s and 0s combinations to the PC using the mouse cord. A sample mouse processor developed by Logitech is shown below. The rollers are connected to a shaft and the shafts spin the chopper wheel between the light transmitter and receiver. The chopper wheel (sometimes called decoder disk) has 36 holes around its edge that is used to alternately break and restore the light signal. It uses an infrared LED to transmit the light and an infrared sensor to receive it as shown below.

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[How Mechanical Mouse Works, Pages 7-12 of 32] How Optical Mouse Works As discussed earlier, an optical mouse works like a tiny camera that produces thousands of snap shots every second. Built-in CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) sensors transmit these images to the DSP (Digital Signal Processor) for processing. The DSP will analyze the image patterns and recognize the changes from one image to another. Based on these changes, the DSP will determine how far and which direction does the mouse travels and sends the coordinates to the PC. The computer will move the mouse pointer to the location (coordinates) sent by DSP on the screen. This process is done continuously every second so it appears that the mouse pointer is moving smoothly.

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Shown below is a close-up look of an infrared LED on one side of the chopper wheel and an infrared sensor on the other side. As the chopper rotates, it breaks and restores the light signal alternately. These light pulses are converted into electrical pulses which are directly related to the movement of the mouse pointer on the screen. There are also 2 pairs of infrared transmitter and sensor on each side of the wheel; theseare used to determine the direction of wheel rotation.
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Shown above is a sample of an optical mouse underside. It has a LED and a photodiode. Wireless Mouse Most wireless mouse uses the RF (Radio Frequency) technology to transmit data to the computer. A wireless mouse has a transmitter (connected to the mouse) and a receiver

(connected to the PC). RF mice use different frequencies to avoid communication conflict. It has a transmission range of 6 feet to 33 feet and operates at 27 MHz RF is better than infrared (IR) technology because IR can only accommodate short-range transmission and requires the line of sight between the transmitter and receiver. Shown below is a sample wireless mouse with a docking station. This docking station is where a mouse is placed when not in use. The docking station also serves as charger for the wireless mouse battery.

A wireless receiver can be a card or any external plug-in device that utilizes computer ports (commonly used is USB). Bluetooth Mouse Bluetooth is also known as PAN (Personal Area Network) and is one of the most common RF technology used in wireless mouse. A Bluetooth mouse has a range of 33 feet and operates at a range of 2.4 GHz. It can accommodate multiple Bluetooth signal coming from other devices at one time, but uses the techniques called frequency hopping to avoid signals interference.

How Wireless Mouse Works The transmitter of a wireless mouse resides inside the mouse housing. It converts hand motion into radio signal that is sent to the PC. Shown below is a wireless mouse circuit with a transmitter circuit on top of it. The circuit has a processing chip that converts electrical pulses to RF signals. Shown above is a Bluetooth mouse developed by Targus Technologies and it has the Bluetooth logo on top of the case. It also has a built in transmitter and a USB interface receiver. Biometric Mouse Biometric mouse is a type of mouse that has an added security to protect the computer system against unauthorized access by disabling the mouse functions. It has an integrated fingerprint reader in the mouse housing. This feature enhances the system security by allowing only authorized user to access the system using a mouse. This is more convenient than typing a password to secure login.

The receiver is directly connected to the PC. It accepts the signals coming from the mouse transmitter decode the signals and transmit it to the mouse driver software which is managed by the PC operating system. Shown below is a sample wireless mouse receiver that is connected to the USB port of a PC.

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Shown above is a sample biometric mouse developed by Microsoft. The fingerprint reader is located on top of the mouse housing, but there are also designs where the fingerprint reader is on the side of the mouse. To activate its biometric functions, a software program that comes with the mouse must be installed first.
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Advantages of Computer Mouse Computer mouse is considered a primary input device because of the following reasons:

1. It can work in small spaces because of its physical design and how it is used. Computer mouse only requires a small working space and its movement is bounded by the size of the mouse pad. Shown below is a sample of a mouse pad that is used as a working ground in using and operating the mouse. Whenever the mouse movement goes beyond the edge of the mouse pad, the user by instinct will immediately put the mouse back at the center of the mouse pad.

constantly moved on a flat surface. Dust and dirt are easily picked up by this movement. Shown below is a sample dirt and debris being pickedup by a mechanical mouse during operation.

2. It is designed to adjust to the granularity of

movement because it is capable of detecting two dimensional (horizontal and vertical) movements. There is a direct relationship between the users hand control and the cursor movement (direction, speed and distance). As shown below, a computer mouse can translate user hand movement into on-screen pointer movement.

Mouse Connectors 1. Serial Connector the oldest connector used in interfacing a mouse to a PC. It is a DB 9-pin connector (shown below) that uses a serial transmission technology. This connector is used in most PC system with AT and Baby AT motherboard form factors. It uses an external port with cable connected to COM1or COM2 of the motherboard.

2. PS/2 Connector also known as 6-pin

mini DIN connector (shown below) which is commonly used in LPX, NLX and ATX motherboard form factors.

3. It is low cost because the design is simple. It has few components (electronics and mechanicals) only. The components are inexpensive and are readily available in the market.

Disadvantages of Computer Mouse 1. It requires certain amount of eye-hand coordination in using a computer mouse. It may be hard and awkward at first, but these skills can easily developed by user because of frequent use and practice. 2. Mechanical mouse are prone to dust and dirt which may cause problem in using it. Mechanical mouse has a track ball that is

3. USB Connector the most common mouse connector being use today. Because USB is a universal port (shown below), it can replace both standard serial and parallel port using a single port. The latest mouse model, including those with special features like wireless and biometric mouse uses USB port.

running across the middle of the rollers. Use a clean cotton swab soaked in cleaning fluid (alcohol or other) to remove the dirt from the roller. 5. Close the mouse and return the ball to the mouse ball housing. Tips in Purchasing a Mouse Choose the right type of mouse connector based on your motherboard form factor. A connector adapter is available to convert USB to PS/2 and PS/2 to serial as shown below. Mouse Troubleshooting No Mouse Movement -Check if the mouse (PS/2) is properly connected to the PS/2 mouse port and not on the keyboard port. The color label of these devices must be considered to avoid confusion between the ports. Turn off the computer and reconnect the mouse to the right port. -Check the BIOS setup and make sure that the PS/2 mouse port is enabled. - If the mouse still does not work after turning the computer on, try to isolate the problem by using the same mouse to other computer. If the mouse works in other computer, then the problem is on the motherboard mouse port. If the mouse did not work in other computer, then the problem is probably on the mouse. The mouse pointer periodically stop moving - For mechanical mouse, clean the mouse roller ball. -For optical mouse, clean the optical lens located on the mouse underside using a clean cloth. Inspect the LED if there is debris build-up. Gently blow the debris away from the lens. - Optical mouse may have problem on a very glossy or highly reflective working surface because of its optical technology. Check the mouse pad and make sure that it does not cause tracking problems. Interrupt Conflict -Interrupt conflict does not normally occur if a user is going to connect the mouse using the standard port. Basically a mouse is assigned to use IRQ12 in modern motherboard design. The conflict occurs when a different interface is used to connect the mouse to a PC, like an adapter card. 2. Remove the mouse ball and wash it with warm soapy water. Dry the ball using a clean piece of cloth. 3. Open the mouse housing and use a can of compress air to blow away the dust and dirt inside the mouse housing. 4. Check if there is build-up of dirt in the mouse rollers. The build-up normally looks like a stripe -To check if there are conflicts, access the Device Manager window and resolve the conflict. Mouse extra button or scroll does not work - Mouse may not be a hybrid design, get on-line and download the proper driver for the mouse.

Choose a mouse with additional buttons for better functionality. Choose a mouse with ergonomic design that is fitted to the user. Buy a mouse with scroll wheel for easy document scrolling. Expect a mouse (mechanical) to last 1 to 2 years. Cleaning a Mechanical Mouse 1. Turn the mouse upside down and remove the mouse ball retainer ring by rotating it on a counter clockwise direction. Removing the retainer ring will expose the rollers and ball housing.