Mouse

Working principle of device: One of the most well-known of the pointing devices is a mouse. Various kinds of mice are available in the market. They include Mechanical, Optical, Laser, 3D, Tactile, Gaming, Ergonomic, inertial and gyroscopic. The interfaces used to connect these devices to the host computer are Serial, USB, PS/2 and wireless (Blue-tooth). Fate has it that the mechanical type of mouse connected by the serial interface dominated the world. But the days of the old have gone and the new technology has taken over by the storm. Mechanical mice as well as Serial and PS/2 interfaces have now become obsolete. 

Mechanical Mice: These mice contained a heavy ball underneath the surface. The movement of the ball was translated into 2-D signals that can control the cursor on the screen. The downside to this technology was that the ball needed to remain clean. Unclean balls reduce the traction with the surface under the mouse which results in a less accurate motion of the cursor on the screen. 

Optical and Laser Mice: Functionally optical mice and laser mice are identical except the fact that laser mice emit coherent laser in place of non-coherent light used by optical mouse. Optical mice use an array of LEDs that radiate light on a surface. The photo-diodes built in the mouse receive the light as it gets reflected from the surface. These photo-diodes are capable of registering as high as 1,000 images of the surface per second as the mouse moves. These images are then interpreted by the circuitry in the mouse and sends the corresponding signal to the computer which in turn controls the movement of the cursor. Thus this technology eliminates the need of a mechanical ball. The advantage of using a laser mouse over optical mouse is that it can be used over a large number of surfaces. The other kinds of mice are less common.

Device installation: Most of the mice these days have got USB connectors. However, the older mice used PS/2 and serial connectors. Whenever a mice is attached to the system, the operating system, of its own accord, finds a driver from the pre-configured folders and installs the mouse (mouse is a plug-and-play PnP device). The connection is automatic and seamless to the end-user. 

Standard Configuration of device: Mice these days come in all shapes and sizes. The most well-known interfaces that mice use to connect to computers are USB and blue-tooth. The most common mice today are optical and laser. However, track-pads (pointing device for laptop) can also be used in place of traditional mice. A typical mouse has three buttons; Right click (on the upper right hand side), Left click (on the upper left hand side) and the scroll button (present in between the other two). These buttons can be toggled by tweaking the settings in the control panel. The speed of the onscreen cursor can also be adjusted in the mouse settings.  

Cost: The price of wireless (Blue-tooth enabled) and wired mice range from Rs. 150 to 1,000 (ordinarily). However it must also be noted that certain gaming mice can cost up to Rs. 29,000!

 Market share of top companies:

 

Logitech

Microsoft

HP

Dell

iball

Suggested models with cost of the top 5 companies:

1.     Logitech – B175 Wireless (Rs. 699), B100 USB Optical (Rs. 279), G300 Gaming Wired mouse (Rs. 1,375) etc

2.     HP – X1000 Wired (Rs. 149), X900 USB (Rs. 259), Z3700 Wireless (Rs. 1,134) etc

3.     Dell – MS111 USB (Rs. 219), M235 Wireless (Rs. 644) etc

4.     Microsoft – Wireless 4000 Graphite (Rs. 3,568), Compact Optical 500 (Rs. 2,209), Arc Touch Wireless (Rs. 6,396)

5.     iBall – Style36 (Rs. 319), RedEyeA9 (Rs. 1299), FreeGo G6 (Rs. 699) etc