As Bluetooth, wifi, and other “freeing” wireless technologies become affordable and widely used we will begin to depend more and more on batteries. The battery life of a laptop is a significant buying point. The same goes for MP3 players, cameras, and computer accessories. While I lust for a Bluetooth mouse I cringe at the thought of the batteries in it running out while on the last level of Half-Life 2. This dilemma got me thinking (a dangerous thing).
We have all seen the marketing hype around kinetic powered watches. The watch captures the energy of it being moved about by your arm. It then uses that stored power to continuously power your watch. Why can’t we do that for a wireless computer mouse?
If the capturing of your hand’s kinetic energy is not a possibility how about a roller(s) or maybe a way to create static electricity?
Are there any engineers willing to enlighten me on the brilliance or stupidity of this idea?
Let the royalties pour in!
Comments
josh - August 21, 2003 8:42 pm
I have a degree in psychology, so I feel qualified to say that is a brilliant idea.
Charlie - August 22, 2003 2:46 pm
This post reminded me of an april fools joke which google shows me was from 1999. Compaq Australia put up an official looking product announcement page announcing their new "Compaq Dynamouse" that would recharge your laptop battery while being used. I believe they even compared it to the Kinetic watch. Sadly the page doesn't seem to be there anymore.
Brad Pineau - August 22, 2003 6:22 pm
You could throw some solar panels on it too...
Ben - September 12, 2003 4:43 am
And what about keyboards, couldn't the key strokes be used to power a wireless keyboard?
Paul - August 9, 2004 5:23 am
I can't see why it wouldn't work. There are a lot more complicated things out there. Your biggest problem would be getting the corporate bigwigs to look your way.
Joe Sanfilippo - October 13, 2004 3:35 am
I came up with the same idea totally independent of you. Then i did a quick net search to see if anyone had taken the idea seriously. As an engineering student this may be a potential undertaking of mine.
jason schlachter - December 1, 2004 1:02 pm
i'm an artificial intelligence engineer for an R&D firm. Moments ago I had this brilliant idea of making my optical mouse self powered. It could be kinetic powered by the motion of the mouse, it could be powered by the heat of the hand, it could be powered by the scroll wheel motion or the clicking action. I did a google search and ended up here. Why hasn't it been done? Lack of organization is the only reason I can imagine. Perhaps it was done in an R&D lab somewhere but never made it to prime time? The idea sounds good to me. Unfortunately my lab is software focused.
Dan James - December 1, 2004 1:20 pm
Jason,
I'm not sure why it hasn't been done. I've had a few inquiries over the year to "research" it but haven't heard anything back. Do you know any hardware R&D firms?
Iain Galloway - December 3, 2004 5:06 pm
Why? Power consumption is presently too high.
5.0V @ 30mA when moving just for the optical sensor!
The LED takes another 10~25mA and then there'e the microcontroller.
If you've seen wind up radios, then you know what "amount" of movement is required.
So you'll have to switch to a wind-up mouse. :-)
poncho - December 6, 2004 5:08 am
A wind-up mouse?!
Now I would pay for that, more for comical value (obviously), but I would actually like to read more of this, if there are any developments.
Alvin - October 19, 2008 11:45 pm
Guys, don't forget the cost of doing R&D for such a mouse, but what's the purpose of saving such a small bit of power if in the event that such a mouse is possible, it is going to cost us so much more than a normal mouse since with the integration with the kinetic censor, motion tracker, caprturing system etc. I can get a mouse as cheap as $3!