Types of Computer Mouse

Different Types of Computer Mouse

What is a Computer Mouse?

• The computer mouse is considered an input device.
• With a click of a button, the mouse sends information to the computer.
• The computer mouse is an interesting device that offers an alternative way to interact with the computer beside a keyboard

Mechanical Mouse

• Also called as the ball mouse, a mechanical mouse has rubber or metal ball on it’s underside. 
• When the ball rolls, mechanical sensors inside the mouse detect the direction and move the pointer on the screen of the PC. 
• This type of mouse requires a flat surface or a mouse pad to work efficiently. One of the drawbacks of the device is that it is more prone to attracting dust.

Optomechanical or Optical-mechanical Mouse

An Optomechanical or optical-mechanical mouse is same as the mechanical mouse except that the sensors used in it are optical and not mechanical. The device is a combination of optical and mechanical technologies, wherein, the ball is present but the mouse movement is detected optically leading to more accuracy.

Laser Mouse

• A laser mouse is the new generation mouse with two necessary components – light emitter and light detector. 
• A laser mouse uses laser as the light emitter and has a precise scanning of mouse movement. 

Optical Mouse

An optical mouse also has light emitter and light detector but it uses LED as the light emitter. It generally has lower DPI than laser mouse and users might find difficulty in using the device on black or shiny surfaces.

Serial mouse:  these ones connect directly to an RS-232C serial port or a PS/2port.  This is the simplest type of connection.

PS/2 mouse:  connects to a PS/2 port.
USB mice

Cordless Mouse
Cordless mouse:  These are not physically connected to the computer.  They rely on infrared or radio waves to communicate with the computer.  Cordless are more expensive than both the serial and bus mouse.  

Air mouse... no surface needed

An Inertial mouse also called an “air mouse” is a mouse that doesn’t need solid surfaces to work. Unlike laser and optical mice, an inertial mouse uses accelerometers to detect rotary movement from every angle. So simple wrist movements are required to operated an inertial mouse.

Air mice are faster, lighter and easier to use than laser or optical mice. It was recently confirmed that an inertial mouse consumes less power than its LED and laser brethren and are usually cordless with an increased range.

3D Mice

A fairly new concept to the uninformed, a 3D mouse can be used to navigate or interact with objects in a 3D space. Quite simply, 3D mice are used by artists and engineers to create the next big masterpiece or design a modern skyscraper over looking the city. You can for example take an image, pan, zoom and rotate the object to fit into your design, most of which would be difficult on a conventional mouse and keyboard. The most popular 3D mice brand would be 3DConnexion as they exclusively specialize in 3D mouse models.

3D mice are very niche and can be expensive for the ordinary consumer; however professionals with various creative skill sets prefer 3D mice for its practicality and its three degrees of freedom.

BlueTrack Mouse

The next generation mouse from Microsoft, it is based on the BlueTrack Technology that enables the mouse to track efficiently on any surface, be it a granite countertop or a carpet. The blue beam in mouse is a combination of image sensor and pixel geometry & is four times larger than the average laser beam used in laser mouse. It generates high-contrast pictures of the surface for an exceptional tracking accuracy.