ElectroSizzle.com » World’s Cheapest Optical Mousepad

Warm up to Electrical Engineering.

May 22

World’s Cheapest Optical Mousepad

(May 22nd, 2008) Author: TheSizzle in Category: Uncategorized

In the lab where I work, everyone has desks with smooth faux-wood tops. The natural reaction is, “Oh man, my optical mouse is going to work great on this!” If you thought this, you would be horribly wrong. The shiny smooth top inhibits the optical mouse’s ability to image the surface and track its own movement. Luckily, a researcher named Mike Carr came up with a solution by creating the World’s Cheapest Optical Mousepad. Just print out the PDF on a black-and-white printer and affix it to your desk. When it gets worn out, throw it away (or better yet, recycle it) and print out another. The random pattern is an ideal surface for enhancing the performance of any optical mouse. If you’re an online gamer and you get fragged, chances are that your enemy is using this optical mousepad. Ah, the wonders of modern technology…

No comments

No Comments

Sponsors:

More Sponsors:

NASA Image of the Day

Snapshot of the International Space Station

On March 13, 2008, the International Space Station passed across the field-of-view of Germany's remote sensing satellite, TerraSAR-X, at a distance of 195 kilometers, or 122 miles, and at a relative speed of 34,540 kilometers per hour, or more than 22,000 mph. In contrast to optical cameras, radar does not 'see' surfaces. Instead, it is much more aware of the edges and corners which bounce back the microwave signal it transmits. Smooth surfaces such as those on the station's solar generators or the radiator panels used to dissipate excess heat, unless directly facing the radar antenna, tend to deflect rather than reflect the radar beam, causing these features to appear on the radar image as dark areas. The radar image of the station therefore looks like a dense collection of bright spots from which the outlines of the space station can be clearly identified. The central element on the station, to which all the modules are docked, has a grid structure that presents a multiplicity of reflecting surfaces to the radar beam, making it readily identifiable. This image has a resolution of about one meter (about 39 inches). In other words, objects can be depicted as discrete units--that is, shown separately--provided that they are at least one meter apart. If they are closer together than that, they tend to merge into a single block on a radar image. Since this image as taken, the station has expanded and is more than 90 percent complete, including a full complement of solar arrays. Image Credit: DLR
Read More

World’s Cheapest Optical Mousepad

No Comments

Leave a comment

Sponsors:

Recent Posts

Archives

Recent Comments

Categories

Tags

More Sponsors:

Blogroll

NASA Image of the Day