Optical mouse as an inexpensive kilopixel camera

Abstract

Optical mouse has become one of the staple peripheral for computer nowadays after successfully replacing the mechanical mouse. One of the underlying technologies used in the optical mouse is the use of a high speed camera to capture surface images for the calculation of the mouse movement in the X and Y directions. As such, it will be feasible to create a cheap camera out of the optical mouse.

The process of creating a camera out of the optical mouse was to first identify and

understand how the components of the optical mouse functions. One of the most

crucial components is the optical sensor. The data sheet of the optical sensor

provided important information such as the description of the pins, the details of the

read and write operations and the address of the registers in the optical sensor.