Optical Mouse - Optical Versus Mechanical Mice

Optical Versus Mechanical Mice

Unlike mechanical mice, which can become clogged with lint, optical mice have no moving parts (besides possibly buttons and scroll wheels); therefore, they do not require maintenance other than removing debris that might collect under the light emitter. However, they generally cannot track on glossy and transparent surfaces, including some mouse-pads, sometimes causing the cursor to drift unpredictably during operation. Mice with less image-processing power also have problems tracking fast movement, though some mice can track faster than 2 m/s (80 inches per second).

Some models of laser mouse can track on glossy and transparent surfaces, and have a much higher sensitivity.

As of 2006 mechanical mice had lower average power requirements than their optical counterparts; the power used by mice is relatively small, and only an important consideration when the power is derived from batteries, with their limited capacity.

Optical models outperform mechanical mice on uneven, slick, soft, sticky, or loose surfaces, and generally in mobile situations lacking mouse pads. Because optical mice render movement based on an image which the LED (or infrared diode) illuminates, use with multicolored mouse pads may result in unreliable performance; however, laser mice do not suffer these problems and will track on such surfaces. The advent of affordable high-speed, low-resolution cameras and the integrated logic in optical mice provides an ideal laboratory for experimentation on next-generation input-devices. Experimenters can obtain low-cost components simply by taking apart a working mouse and changing the optics or by writing new software.