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Hardware

Wireless Mouse with no Batteries 329

GI Joe writes "Hardcoreware.net have posted a review of a mouse with no batteries; it receives its charge through induction from the USB powered mousepad. Of course this means you must use the mouse on this mousepad, taking away some of the big advantages of a wireless mouse. However, they said that the mouse is otherwise very accurate, and has no lag at all since it uses RFID."
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Wireless Mouse with no Batteries

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  • Oh, BTW, FP!
    Ack, too many TLAs!
    • by JPriest ( 547211 ) on Thursday November 25, 2004 @08:14PM (#10921325) Homepage
      So why is a USB mousepad any better than a USB mouse? I don't use a mouse pad because none of them provide a large enough mousing surface. When you are gaming you can't pick up your mouse and move it to the other side of the pad or the other guy kills you. This wireless mouse is not much good as it is useless as soon as it leaves the mouse pad.
      • I don't use a mouse pad because none of them provide a large enough mousing surface.

        You obviously haven't seen this [thinkgeek.com].
      • When you are gaming you can't pick up your mouse and move it to the other side of the pad or the other guy kills you.

        Trackballs don't have that problem.

        • Trackballs have a whole different set of problems. Typically - I use a trackball for doing most things, but I need to game with a regular mouse (preferably optical).

          What I don't get is what makes this 'MOUSE' any different than a digitizer pad (most come with mouse-like pointing devices along with the pen style interface). Seems like it's a lot of bother over something that's been available for a dozen or more years.

        • That's why you set your mouse sensitivity to max, then edit the .cfg file to set it even higher, so that even when you're just resting your hand on your mouse, your pulse your gun twitch around like you're having a siezure.

      • by Guspaz ( 556486 ) on Thursday November 25, 2004 @10:22PM (#10921842)
        What I want to know is how this is any better than the usual graphics tablets that come with wireless batteryless mice already. Mice that are tracked by the tablet, not the mouse, so the mouse is small and light. And some of them even have crosshairs attached to the top side for precision movements.
    • Why would RF make it accurate? For that matter, why would RFID? I guess it could use RFID to prevent you getting cross-talk from other RF mice, but surely RFID won;t make it track better.

      Seems to me they just want to stuff in more buzzwords to sound flash.

  • by powerlinekid ( 442532 ) on Thursday November 25, 2004 @07:34PM (#10921086)
    See if the company was smart they'd leave "RFID" out of the documentation because all the tin foil hat nuts are going to freak about their mouse tracking brain patterns or something.

    Although now that I think about, I would like a mouse that tracked my brain patters. Free up an extra hand and such.
    • by noidentity ( 188756 ) on Thursday November 25, 2004 @07:58PM (#10921247)
      See if the company was smart they'd leave "RFID" out of the documentation because all the tin foil hat nuts are going to freak about their mouse tracking brain patterns or something.

      Holy shit! With this they can probably track every move you make at 600 dpi or more! When will they stop???
      • by mikiN ( 75494 )
        Just imagine the looks from the poor chap happily clocking up some mouse-miles when a bunch of governmentt health officials knock down his door demanding that he "TAKE A MICROPAUSE RIGHT NOW!"
        --
        Workrave [workrave.org] - Helps relieve the strain on your wrists without straining your wallet.
    • Free up an extra hand and such.


      that would be helpfull for so many slashdotters....

      not only does it free up that hand, but your mind automagically goes to the proper pr0n page...
  • Bleh.. (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Karamchand ( 607798 ) on Thursday November 25, 2004 @07:34PM (#10921090)
    ..if you already "invent" a wireless mouse, why not get the power from the movement the human being makes? I guess I'd notice a slight strenghtening of the movement!
    • Re:Bleh.. (Score:2, Interesting)

      by davidbrit2 ( 775091 )
      That's exactly what I was thinking. Aren't there wristwatches that do something like that?
      • Re:Bleh.. (Score:2, Interesting)

        by empaler ( 130732 )
        Yep. Perfect for people like me who tend to forget my watch on a shelf for a few days. Or months. Just pick it up and shake it back and forth (making you look as if you're excessively masturbating), and presto: it works again.
      • Re:Bleh.. (Score:2, Insightful)

        The watches do not generate electric power, they have a weight that winds a spring. Mice are not typically moved in only one direction, so you would lose a good bit of energy, also I doubt even if it was moving straight that it would generate enough power for an optical mouse and a transmitter. (Besides the fact that you would still need batteries :) )
        • Re:Bleh.. (Score:2, Informative)

          by Drakonite ( 523948 )
          The watches do not generate electric power, they have a weight that winds a spring.

          Um... no. While a watch like you describe MIGHT exist (I've never seen one, nor heard of one working on that priciple) I promise you the majority of batteryless watches are electrically powered quarts watches.

          They have a small knetic generator (you can google if you want to know how they work) which charges a power cell, which in turn runs the watch as though it was a (semi) normal quartz watch.

          The Seiko Knetic is a good

    • Re:Bleh.. (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Calroth ( 310516 ) on Thursday November 25, 2004 @07:53PM (#10921217)
      ...why not get the power from the movement the human being makes?

      Oh, and whilst I think about it:

      Normal wireless mouses contain batteries, which add extra weight, which makes them slightly harder to move around. So if you have a wireless mouse without batteries, but which was powered by hand movements, it's possible that it could still be easier to move around!
      • lol, that's a nice thought. Thanks for it! :) Kind regards, Calroth! K.
      • Think back to the days of the light that was powered by the wheel of your bicycle. (I love the simpsons episode that spoofed that). You'd have some kind of friction on some sort of traction mechanism to generate energy.

        We'd be back to the old trackball days :(
  • by Realistic_Dragon ( 655151 ) on Thursday November 25, 2004 @07:34PM (#10921092) Homepage
    Why has no one build a mouse with a optical sensor that ALSO has a old style ball hooked up to a small dynamo.

    Self powered, never needs the batteries changed. And since precision doesnt matter the ball never needs cleaning, so it's not a disadvantage like it is for tracking.

    Easily enough power could be generated for the optical system and a low power RF transmitter :\
    • Can you say RSI? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 25, 2004 @07:37PM (#10921114)
      I'm going back to a wired mouse because they're lighter. No need to further punish my wrists with the weight of a dynamo and the friction of one or more geared balls.
      • by EvilNTUser ( 573674 ) on Thursday November 25, 2004 @07:50PM (#10921198)
        Why is this modded funny? I switched back to a wired mouse for the exact same reason.

        (Well, that, and I realized that buying batteries for the thing just to get rid of a cable that doesn't even disturb me was a horrible thing to do to the environment)
        • 1. Try a trackball, no pushing the mouse at all.

          2. Rechargeable batteries.

          3. Make a trackball self powered.

          4. Patent

          5. PROFIT!

          Yo Grark
        • Re:Can you say RSI? (Score:3, Interesting)

          by /dev/trash ( 182850 )
          I have used rechargeables for my wireless mouse for, over 3 years, on the same two. In fact I cursed myself for buying the 4 pack of AAA's since the other two haven't been used yet.
      • There may be a point. I stayed away from optical mice because I thought they were too light. I hated it that the cable was heavier than the mouse. I had considered adding weights to a mouse.

        Now, I have a few optical mice, although I still use a ball mouse on occasion. The real problem I have with mice is, oddly, the button clicks.
        • by sahonen ( 680948 )
          Yes! I wish someone would make a silent mouse. Especially for those late night sessions that keep everyone within earshot awake, like when Half-Life 2 came out.
      • I went back to wired mice because they're cheaper... I had a logitech one but its USB connector just fell apart after 3 months (and it wasn't even unplugged during that time... the first time I needed to unplug it it broke). £50 ($75) down the crapper because of a 1p connector.

        Since then I've been using cheap wired opticals.. if/when they break it's no big deal to replace them.
      • by dj42 ( 765300 ) on Friday November 26, 2004 @12:05AM (#10922232) Journal
        I don't think I could keep a straight face in person discussing geared balls.
    • The ball still needs cleaning as it is used over time, gunk accumulates and the movement of the mouse over the mousepad's surface is not smooth.

    • Ball doesn't move = no induction.

      Ball moves slower than necessary = not enough induction.
      It would need cleaning. Also, I doubt you could actually get enough power that way.
    • Cause that's a stupid idea (although it sounds good). You will have all the disadvantages of a ball -- needing a hard straight surface, cleaning (yes you still need to clean it), expense and mechanical failures. My Microsoft cordless mouse goes for *at least* 3 months (that's as long as I've had it and I haven't changed the batteries yet) on one set of batteries and I use it all the time. The mouse can also run on only one AA battery (rather than two) if needed. I really don't think having to change you
    • This may be because to generate that power one would have to slow the mouse down to do it. Your mouse would no-longer glide effortlessly across a smooth mouse pad, but instead would feel as if it was moving through molasses.

      Experiment 1: Put one finger on top of your mouse, push down hard, and then use the rest of your fingers to grasp the mouse and move it around. It still moves, but how much would your wrist hurt after doing that for 8 hours?

      Experiment 2: Connect a hand-crank generator to a variable
  • Seen this before... (Score:5, Informative)

    by kahei ( 466208 ) on Thursday November 25, 2004 @07:35PM (#10921102) Homepage
    ...from Wacom! Who, incidentally, are the best hardware company ever.

    http://www.wacom.com for your batteryless pointing device needs.

    • Yes but that mouse costs from 100 to 200 dollars. This is much much cheaper.
      • My graphire 3 pad came with mouse and pen for $85, and the pen was the only thing I was interested in. The mouse works well though, and though I didn't need it, it has been pretty helpful.
    • ...from Wacom!

      I have a Wacom Intuos 2 tablet with a battery-less wire-less mouse. I don't like the mouse at all, because I cannot stand lifting the damn thing 1/4" inch to exit the tracking field to reposition the mouse. I quickly found that the mouse really is useful only for a 1:1 coordinate mapping between the pad and screen, where no lifting would be needed.

      The battery-less wire-less pen, however, is excellent, and, after enough painful X server configuration, it even works great with the GIMP.
    • Well... someone beat me too it. Wacom's been doing this for a while. Wireless mouse, no battery. Plus, you have the pen which is totally awesome!
  • by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 25, 2004 @07:36PM (#10921110)
    Aaaaand in other news, Wacom files a multi-bazillion dollar patent infringement suit against A4Tech...
  • by serps ( 517783 ) on Thursday November 25, 2004 @07:37PM (#10921115) Homepage

    I don't know about you, but i like wireless mice because they have no annoying wires, not because I feel constrained by having my mouse so close to the rest of my computer.

    However, the downside of wireless mice is changing batteries. It's annoying to stop to replace the batteries, especially when you're in the middle of round of CounterStrike, trying to defuse a bomb at the same time as not get shot at by AK47s.

    So, I'd love to buy this mouse, because otherwise, Terrorists Win!

    • Re:Why complain? (Score:2, Informative)

      by Calroth ( 310516 )
      However, the downside of wireless mice is changing batteries. It's annoying to stop to replace the batteries, especially when you're in the middle of round of CounterStrike...

      Well, I'm not sure about yours, but mine starts giving warnings (a blinking red light) when I've got a good hour or so of battery left. Defusing the bomb takes less than an hour (god bless Counter-Strike) so you can wait until you've done that before swapping the batteries ;-)
    • Personally (Score:3, Informative)

      The wire on my mouse isn't annoying when you use it in it's normal position (ie where I've positioned my mouse mat).

      It only gets annoying when I want to move it and use it in another position for some reason (such as needing that bit of deskspace for something) in which case the wired mousemat is going to be just as annoying, if not more so (I'd have to move both the mouse and the mousemat as they work in tandem, whereas now I can get away with just moving the mouse).
    • Re:Why complain? (Score:3, Interesting)

      by SamSim ( 630795 )
      I'm amazed at the number of people who point to battery-changing as a drawback of wireless mice. You can get them with chargers [dabs.com] now.
  • why the hell? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by sensei_brandon ( 678735 ) on Thursday November 25, 2004 @07:37PM (#10921117)
    Why in the hell would anyone want a wireless mouse but a wired mousepad? And I dont really like the idea that I cant use it on a metal desk. I'll stick to my wired ball-less 3 button mouse, thanks.
    • by sixy ( 516428 ) on Thursday November 25, 2004 @07:46PM (#10921178)
      Why in the hell would anyone want a wireless mouse but a wired mousepad? And I dont really like the idea that I cant use it on a metal desk. I'll stick to my wired ball-less 3 button mouse, thanks.
      They prefer to be called neutered.
    • Because part of the annoyance of having a wired mouse is that the wire can get caught under/between stuff... Not a problem with a part you don't actually have to move around all the time.
  • My thought... (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Mold ( 136317 )
    Doesn't having a wired mouse pad kind of defeat the purpose of a wireless mouse?

    Especially when the mouse has to be used with said mouse pad?
    • Many people's problem with wired mice is that the cord will sort of pull on the mouse, distorting the desired path of movement. A wired pad, and unwired mouse, would fix this. I agree with you, though, it seems like a convoluted solution to a minor issue.
    • I find the wire gets in the way; particularly in FPSs where you are moving around a lot.
    • Next we'll be having computers without hard drives, CD players without speakers, and /. without CowboyNeal.
      • A great many CD players already come without speakers, and you can get a number of diskless computers as well. So Cowboy, when you going to step down? :-)
    • "Doesn't having a wired mouse pad kind of defeat the purpose of a wireless mouse?"

      Heh. Yep. This really isn't all that exciting. Wacom tablets have had 'mouse' styluses for a while now. I seriously doubt anybody on the planet is using one.

      I dunno, maybe if the pad covered my entire desk or something. But, no, even on a 12" surface, it's weird.
      • Wacom tablets have had 'mouse' styluses for a while now. I seriously doubt anybody on the planet is using one.

        Um... I understand designers love those things because they like pretending to draw much more than they like 'mousing' art. Also, those pens have tilt and pressure sensing... mice don't.
        • "Um... I understand designers love those things because they like pretending to draw much more than they like 'mousing' art. Also, those pens have tilt and pressure sensing... mice don't."

          I apologize for not communicating clearly. When I said "Mouse stylus" I mean a stylus in the housing of a mouse, not a pen stylus. Sorry, I really should have been more clear. Pen styluses are great for drawing. Heck, I bought a TabletPC just for that and have 0 regrets.

          Have a peek here [amazon.com] and you'll see what I'm refe
  • http://www.afrotechmods.com/cheap/arnoldpad/arnold pad.htm

    This mouse is also induction charged, although it seems this new one may have some of the bugs worked out, like the pad-heating problem...
  • by ylikone ( 589264 ) on Thursday November 25, 2004 @07:39PM (#10921134) Homepage
    and the mousepad to "conveniently" electrocute you when you download those MP3s.
  • by hacknslashdot ( 769458 ) on Thursday November 25, 2004 @07:41PM (#10921149)
    Why would anyone want one?
    Pehaps i'm unusual, but the major advantage of an optical mouse to me is that it can be used on any surface ... not with this mouse, gotta be used on the mousepad it comes with.
    AND the major advantage of wireless is that the mouse is in no way connected to the computer (apart from a distance/obstruction restraint for the wireless connection) ... not with this mouse, you can only use it as far away as the cord for the mousepad will reach.
    I'm not trying to start a flamewar but I just honestly can't see any advantages of this. Can someone point some out for me?
  • Wacom tablet? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by khrtt ( 701691 ) on Thursday November 25, 2004 @07:42PM (#10921151)
    Some hot fucking news!

    My Wacom Graphire came with a mouse like that, wireless, but had to be used on the pad only. That was, what, only 10 years ago. Glad to see something just like it finally make the fucking news! Oh, wait, it's not news, it's slashdot...
  • Not good enough (Score:3, Interesting)

    by roman_mir ( 125474 ) on Thursday November 25, 2004 @07:42PM (#10921155) Homepage Journal
    The mice that use a docking station for recharging have it right, this one does not have buttons, it looks like, but it has a scroll wheel. And it has to be used on the included mousepad which is in fact a radio emmiter. I don't know, I use a touch pad most often (on my laptop, so no extra batteries anyway,) but when I use a mouse I like to be able to move it anywhere without having to move the mousepad with it. Now, make that radio emmiter recharge a battery inside the mouse, add a couple of buttons, and now it's useful to me.

  • Old news? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by AC-x ( 735297 ) on Thursday November 25, 2004 @07:43PM (#10921166)
    Articles dotted so can't be sure, but are these actually any different to the mice that used to come with Wacom tablets about 4 years ago?
    • ok article is readable after all, and it's not the same as the wacom tablets.

      They used to use the tablet to sense the position of the mouse (so the movement was always relative to the pad, so it went a bit funny if you had the mouse at the wrong angle...), where as this one is an optical mouse powered by the pad.

      Of course as I said in a different post it seems pretty pointless when you can get wireless mice with rechargable batteries and a docking station.
      • Re:Old news? (Score:3, Interesting)

        Of course as I said in a different post it seems pretty pointless when you can get wireless mice with rechargable batteries and a docking station.

        I will also add to that...

        Modern day (as in released this year) cordless, rechargable, optical mice with docking stations are not only more sensitive, but also have low battery indicators that give really good warning about a low battery.

        I have to put my Logitech MX700 on the charger about once every few days or the light will start to flash by the fourth. Th
  • by Rosco P. Coltrane ( 209368 ) on Thursday November 25, 2004 @07:47PM (#10921187)
    A mouse pad with an induction coil eh? sounds like a great diskette/ZIP/hard-disk eraser to me...
  • That is not optical, but mechanical, and generates its energy from the movement of the wheels that also read the movements?

    I don't think it would be enough energy, but it maybe is. I haven't made the calculations.
    --
    Wiki de Ciencia Ficcion y Fantasia [uchile.cl]
  • by G4from128k ( 686170 ) on Thursday November 25, 2004 @07:50PM (#10921197)
    I'm sure they'll advertise this one as having a "free mouse pad" like its some grand deal. They'll not tell the buyer that the provided mouse pad is an essential part of the system and not a magnanimous offer on their part. I wonder how many people will try to use this mouse with the pad of their choice, get a few days use and then complain when it dies.

    It reminds me of those old Sun optical mice with the metal grid-pattern mouse pads. I always like turning coworkers pads 90 degrees and watching the ensuing hilarity.
  • This is not so original: Arnold and afroman did it first [afrotechmods.com]
  • According to the box this mouse provides "wireless freedom", but the article says "The pad is what powers the mouse itself, using induction. It doesn't charge batteries in the mouse, or anything like that, so you cannot use the mouse anywhere else."

    So what's the point? It's actually worse then a standard wired optical mouse because you have to use it on the pad.

    If you want a "battery free" wireless optical mouse just get one with rechargable batteries and a charging station. No battery replacements and
  • by Clueless Moron ( 548336 ) on Thursday November 25, 2004 @07:52PM (#10921214)
    I usually avoid wireless mice like the plague (even the vaunted MX900 and MX1000) due to mouse lag attributed to the use of RF communication.

    Right; this mouse uses Subspace Communication (tm Star Trek). Not this old-fashioned RF stuff.

    Whatever the BF does, it has essentially eliminated wireless mouse lag (I am guessing it has to do with the use of RFID

    Ah. "RFID". Cue the "Princess Bride" I-do-not-think-that-word-means-what-you-think-it means quotes.

    and the fact that the receiver is never further than a few inches from the mouse).

    Let's see, RF at 3E8 m/s will cover one inch in about... 85 picoseconds. Yes, I'm sure RF propagation has always been the cause of your lag. Definitely when your mouse is on the moon and the computer is on earth.

    Oh wait, I forgot. This device doesn't use RF. It uses... RFID.

    I give up.

  • Forget these stupid optical mice. What they need to do is bring back the little ball thing that gets hair and dust in it, so the mouse cursor only moves horizontally when you move the mouse diagonally. But the advantage will be they'll put a generator on the little ball thing, so when you move the mouse, you will generate the electricity necessary to transmit the mouse position back to the computer.

    Or better yet, keep the optical thing, so the mouse moves accurately and doesn't annoy the living "F" word out

  • I remember these were being touted a couple of years ago by Splashpower: link [splashpower.com]

    My guess is these just take too long to charge your phone... or is there another reason these never caught on?
  • by Synesthesiatic ( 679680 ) on Thursday November 25, 2004 @08:21PM (#10921355) Homepage
    is if the whole desk was one big "power pad" that your laptop, printer, mouse etc could all be powered by. I could eliminate the last must-have cables running all over my desk. This is pretty much useless.
  • You mean like Wacom and other graphics tablets have been doing for, oh, about 20 years?
  • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

    Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • I'm not even going to pretend to understand how it works, but my Grandfather has a watch that recharges just through the motion of him walking around, moving his arm, etc.

    Couldn't something like this be introduced in a larger scale (lots of room inside those mice) to power a cordless mouse? It's not like they sit static for great deals if time.

    I'm sure someone smarter than me is aware of this method and can probable tell me why it won't work?
    • Well, what's happening in those self-winding watches is that the motions of your wrist through-out the day can transfer much greater mechanical energy than it takes to move those tiny little watch hands over the same time period. The energy is captured by a unbalanced flywheel and stored in a spring.

      In the case of the mouse, it is unlikely that you could generate and capture enough energy to power a mouse. You would also have to factor in the very poor efficiency of converting mechanical to electrical ene

  • ( There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Piece Of Cheese )

    We had pad-tethered mice almost 20 years ago (although it was the mice that were wired back then). We don't have them any more because people didn't seem to like the pad tether. Now these people are giving us a new mouse that provies all of the advantages of a wireless mouse -- excep that it's tethered to a wired mousepad.

    In other words, it's really wireless in name only.

  • This is interesting because .... ?
    I had a direct entry tablet with pen for my TRS-80 Color Computer in 1979 that had a wireless mouse (ok, puck) attachment! Jeeze. You kids don't remember anything ! :-)
  • Another review (Score:2, Informative)

    by z3021017 ( 806883 )
    Here at Overclockers Australia [overclockers.com.au]
  • out that this was already done by Wacom...

  • The perfect mouse (Score:4, Insightful)

    by accelleron ( 790268 ) on Thursday November 25, 2004 @10:34PM (#10921898)
    This is a neat toy (one I wouldn't mind playing around with myself), but this is not the perfect mouse.

    Logitech is definitely onto something with their mouse dock. It's quite easy to slip the mouse into the dock when leaving the PC and take it back out when coming back, but with BT (and IR) mice, I find that there is still a problem: distance. I'm not sure about you, but having three displays on my desktop, the last thing I need is another device that MUST be there. Between my PDA's cradle, my sound system's remote, a satellite speaker, and various crap from ThinkGeek, the real estate on my desk is extremely scarce. My perfect mouse would be one with the design of an Intellimouse Explorer 4.0, based on RF technology to allow for reliable use several feet from the base. The cradle can then be placed somewhere where real estate isn't quite so scarce (a shelf, for example.)

    As for my take on the battery-free tech, it's a toy. A cool, definitely nerdy toy, but still a toy. There's no reason anyone should be too lazy to slip a mouse into its cradle once every few days.
    • by grumpygrodyguy ( 603716 ) on Thursday November 25, 2004 @11:33PM (#10922135)
      There's no reason anyone should be too lazy to slip a mouse into its cradle once every few days.

      It's not laziness, it's forgetfullness. The last thing I'd want to do is wake up and go over to my computer only to learn that I need to wait two hours for my mouse to charge because I forgot to dock my mouse recently.

      I prefer 4 AAA rechargable NmHi batteries sitting in a battery charger. That way you have the mouse as normal, and only need to change your behavior every few months to switch out the batteries.

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