Is this possible??optical mouse pad made from a mirrer

[Fire58Mech]

I want to make a mouse pad for my optical mose out of an old mirrow hanging in the garage. Plus ad a gell pad to it for my wrist. Is this possibe, will it be too reflective?. Any suggestions on how to do it or design tips?

[Captain Slug]

Since an optical mouse needs to visually track movement, anything lacking in texture will prevent it from working properly.

[Fire58Mech]

How exactly ddoes an optical mouse work?

[Mord]

http://computer.howstuffworks.com/question631.htm

[Fire58Mech]

Thank you,

[axlecrusher]

Hum, well I suppose you could sand the back side of the mirror to give it texture. But this obviously make it much less reflective.

Axle

[hibner]

Just try it and see

[xanderjobizzle]

My friend uses a white cutting board.

[OKJEFF4]

I'm planning on getting a thick sheet of aluminum and crosshatching it slightly. Maybe you should try it.

[Chixofnix]

erm... sanding the backside of a mirror will remove the metal coating... if anything you should sand the top...

I think a better route would be to get a pane of glass treated to be anti-reflective (check autoshops), and then stick a visual "texture" underneath of your choosing... it could be any nonrepeating pattern and work great...

[PachManP]

try it...

but isn't a mirror what they use in the demos they set up at the stores...?

[Mord]

the optical mouse actually uses a tiny camera to take 1,500 pictures every second... the mouse has a small, red light-emitting diode (LED) that bounces light off that surface onto a complimentary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) sensor. The CMOS sensor sends each image to a digital signal processor (DSP) for analysis. The DSP, operating at 18 MIPS (million instructions per second), is able to detect patterns in the images and see how those patterns have moved since the previous image. Based on the change in patterns over a sequence of images, the DSP determines how far the mouse has moved and sends the corresponding coordinates to the computer.

And a mirror just reflects light, so the mouse would be taking images of itself, and if the mouse is in motion and the reflection is moving at the same speed then the photos will all appear the same and the mouse wont think that its moving.

At least thats how i think it works.

[Fire58Mech]

I like the aluminul idea. Wha tif sanded down the metal behind the glass?

[TheFrag]

Originally posted by Mord


And a mirror just reflects light, so the mouse would be taking images of itself, and if the mouse is in motion and the reflection is moving at the same speed then the photos will all appear the same and the mouse wont think that its moving.

At least thats how i think it works.

Well, it looks for contrast in the pictures. That is why using certain colors of mouse pads are a bad idea- the red light doesnt create much contrast on them. So... it is possible that if you sanded it or put a black pattern and stuff on it it could work... but not well.

[Fire58Mech]

pice of wood, 1 square foot, put a pice of glass on that( coated with something to make friction go away, how about rainX) Router out the edges of the wood, stain with red tint

I prefer steel over wood if possible. Is there some way to give a decent texture to it with out messing up the look?

[Scary_Penguin]

Fractals! A repeating pattern (sometimes) but never in close proximity to one another. Would look cool as well if you found a good one online and printed it and had it below the glass. The glass itself would still have some reflection that could cause problems with good movement recognition.

[Alice]

Wait, so if the mouse takes pictures, would there be any way to view them? I know, it souds dumb, but I just wanna know.

[Scary_Penguin]

Not without some serious modification, the picture-taking and evaluating is all done within the mouse hardware. The only information sent to your computer is the x and y axis movements and button clicks. If you did see them, it would look the same as a blotchy microscope slide :P

[Blind Tree Frog]

And since someone may mention it

There are optical mice that need mirrors to work. These are the old sun mice and there are blue and red patterns on the mirrors that the optics read. These mice are not the same tech as the current optical mice that look for features in the surface to compare against. This is why shiney reflective smooth surfaces are bad... no real defects for them to pick up.

[WyrmMaster]

wont work, not because its reflective, but because its clear for the thickness of the glass. The mouse is designed to focus on the surface, at a set distance from the "camera". With a mirror it sees through the glass to the backing, but the backing is too far away for it to use. Try a piece of glass or plexi on a table, wont work. Its not reflective like a mirror, but it still wont work.

If you want proof of the focus thing, take your mouse and lift it an eight of an inch off of the table, and move it arround. It might work at an eight, but thats about the limit.