We recently upgraded to a spiffy new optical mouse. This device has utterly fascinated my oldest son. After answering one question after another I decided to post how these devices work. Maybe this will save the other parents of the world a few minutes in case their child is as inquisitive as mine~

An optical mouse uses a light-emitting diode and photodiodes to detect movement relative to the underlying surface, rather than moving some of its parts — as in a mechanical mouse. Modern surface-independent optical mice work by using an optoelectronic sensor to take successive pictures of the surface on which the mouse operates. Most of these mice use LEDs to illuminate the surface that they track over; marketers often mislabel these LED optical mice as laser mice, confusing them with true laser mice. Changes between one frame and the next are processed by the image processing part of the chip and translated into movement on the two axes using an optical flow estimation algorithm.

Popularity: 23% [?]