Communications of the ACM
A Mouse That Beats the Gamers at Super-Quick Motions
A new type of computer mouse looks and responds like a conventional mouse, but offers nearly unlimited tracking speed.
Credit: Alain Herzog/EPFL
A new computer mouse developed by Arash Salarian at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne looks and responds like a conventional mouse, but offers nearly unlimited tracking speed.
The supermouse is based on an algorithm that combines an optical sensor with a system based on accelerometers and gyroscopes. The algorithm enables seamless switching between the optical and inertial modes, with tracking at low speed using the optical sensor and high-speed tracking using the inertial sensor. A 32-bit microcontroller calculates the trajectory every millisecond and allows the inertial system to take over beyond a certain speed limit.
The mouse is five times faster than those that use optical sensors, and Salarian says "it is very likely that it supports an even greater speed. The limit we measured only corresponds to the upper limit of test instruments."
Salarian designed the mouse with gamers in mind, and blogs and specialized sites report it makes the action much more fluid.
From Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne
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