Laser Mouse
Posted: January 27, 2012 at 6:36 pmIf you’re looking to invest in a new mouse or you’re just interested about how mice work then this will be a good read. I cover the way optical and laser technology functions and I compare the two in order to find out which one’s better.
The optical mice’s reputation boomed in the late 1990s when it started being shipped as an extra feature to a lot of personal computer systems. The optical mice became increasingly universal among users because it it turned working with the mouse into a much easier task than with the usual ball mouse. Since then seeing a regular ball mouse has become somewhat of an event.
So how does the optical technology really function?
The optical mouse is armed with a light emitting diode (LED) and photodiodes which the mouse makes use of in order to track movement relative to a plane i.e. a desk top or a mouse pad.
In essence, optical mice are provided with an optoelectronic sensor (a small low-resolution video camera) which takes successive pictures of the surface on which the mouse operates. The images of the surface that the sensor takes are captured in steady succession and compared with each other in order to determine how far the mouse has moved.
present-day optical mice work on almost any surface. A few exceptions are glass, mirror and other specular materials.
The color of the light emitting diode (LED) of the optical mouse is normally red simply because red diodes are cheaper but it is not infrequent to see blue light emitting diodes nonetheless.
Unlike ball mice optical mice don’t have any moving parts which which is why they normally don’t have mechanical malfunctions and optical mice are more durable.
The light emitting diode (LED) of battery-powered wireless optical mice only glows steadily when movement is detected. The rest of the time it flashes every so often in order to save power.
But what’s the difference between the optical mouse and the laser mouse?
As a substitute of using a light emitting diode (LED) the laser mouse uses an infrared laser diode. The small infrared laser the mouse is armed with essentially increases the resolution of the photo taken by the mouse. The laser enables around twenty times greater surface tracking capacity than normal optical mouse technology.
Glass laser mice (a.k.a. glaser mice) can also be operated on mirror or transparent and translucent surfaces.
Because the laser diode, that the mouse employs, emits infrared light it’s for the most part invisible for the naked eye.
So which one is better? The optical or the laser mouse?
To answer this question we should bear in mind the dpi (dots per inch) each technology is able to detect.
On the one hand ,the average range for the optical mouse starts from 400 to around 800 dpi.
On the other hand, the range of the laser mouse is often above 2000 dpi. The capability of laser technology to track such high dpi makes the laser mouse much more precise and accurate when in comparison to an optical mouse. That added sensitivity is why most professional graphic designers and gamers favor the laser mouse rather than the optical mouse.
In conclusion, laser mouse technology is arguably the better one. I say arguably because some users find the added sensitivity somewhat distracting while simply checking their email or browsing the Web.
