Technology And Lifestyle

Optical Gaming Mouse

You were playing Commander Keen and Avoid the Noid, all using the arrow or WASD keys on your keyboard. Soon we were using the mouse after a time of conversion from the comfortable keyboard controls, inside the bounds of gaming, we were running around in Rise of the Triad shooting enemy gangsters and dogs and taking out enemy monsters in Doom with our mechanical ball rodents.

Soon games became more detailed and required better accuracy and a quick wrist to be successful. Traditional ball mice would gunk up and skip across the screen, they just couldn’t keep up.

Voila! Enter the Optical mouse in the form of the Microsoft Intelli-Mouse Optical. In general, the “new” Optical mouse technology of the time provided higher sensitivity, no skipping cursor across the screen because of gunked up mechanical features, and the mouse could now be used on a wide variety of different surfaces. Read here to learn how Optical Mice work.

The only limits were set on the capabilities of the LED optics of the optical mouse and the speed of which the processing of these images takes place, the measure of this is called Dots per Inch (DPI). It wasn’t until the Gaming Mouse that DPI numbers shot up utilizing the Optical mouse technology. An Optical Gaming Mouse of the past couple years is capable of over 1600 DPI, example: Logitech MX518,yet early ball mice were capable of around 200 DPI. Over 8 times the resolution!

Although traditional LED Optical mice are still the majority rule, the Laser Optical mouse made its huge explosion into the Optical Gaming Mouse market with the introduction of the Logitech MX1000 in 2004. The initial advantage the Laser mouse provided was the exact precision of the laser sensor was more accurate than an LED based optical sensor. The MX1000 only had a max sensitivity of 800 DPI but its precision blew all previous mice out of the water, move your hands even the slightest bit and you will see the relative movement of the mouse immediately, no more “stuck” cursors because of the lack of precision. Laser mice can track on even a wider array of surfaces than typical LED based Optical Gaming mice can.

Since the MX1000, Laser mice have made leaps and bounds to where even 5600 DPI is possible as demonstrated in the Razer Mamba There are plenty of other specifications and features that matter on a gaming mouse nowadays, customization of mouse buttons, USB polling rate, max acceleration, even on-board memory storage to store profiles of the above mentioned options.

The computer peripheral we know as the Mouse has gone from plain and clunky to sleek and agile in a mere 10 years time. The Optical Gaming Mouse has played the majority part in the push for this technology and the race between the different companies in the market. The demand has grown as Gamers realize the limitations of the old age hardware and the near limitless possibilities of digital enabling them to step up their level of competitiveness. Technology is a beautiful thing, the Mouse is a platform where this has been shown over and over again.

Fiber Optic Sensors

All fiber optic sensors have an optical element that is sensing these property changes. For most sensors, this element is the optical fiber itself or a non-fiber optical element.

Fiber optic sensors with optical fiber as sensor element are called “intrinsic fiber sensor” and sensors with a non-optical fiber sensing element are called “extrinsic fiber sensor”.

1. Intrinsic Fiber Sensors

In the intrinsic fiber sensor, external measurands such as pressure, vibration, temperature interact with optical fiber element and cause fiber bending, fiber distortion and a change in the refractive index of the sensing fiber.

Because of the refractive index change, lights that travel through the fiber are affected accordingly. The changes in light properties, such as light intensity, light wavelength and light phase are then detected. The magnitude of measurands interacting with the fiber can then be determined.

2. Extrinsic Fiber Sensors

Birefringent crystal, intensity mask or thin film absorbers are most often used as sensor elements in extrinsic fiber sensors. Usually they are integrated into the optical path.

When the external force interacts with the sensing element, the light properties are modulated as well. The sensor has light source, optical path and photo detector parts. The magnitude of measurands is detected similar to intrinsic fiber sensors.

The Applications of Fiber Optic Sensors

Wide Area Sensing and Monitoring

Because of optical fiber’s immune to electromagnetic field, fiber sensors have a big potential in these areas. They are widely used in temperature sensing in building, leakage monitoring along oil pipelines and so on.

The above mentioned applications are called wide area sensing or monitoring. The name means that the sensing covers a wide area. In this area, fiber sensors are divide into two categories: distributed sensor and quasi-distributed sensor.

1. Distributed Sensor

Distributed sensors sense measurands continuouly over the entire length of the fiber. The most important criteria is that sensor fibers must be very sensitive to measurands.

A typical example of distributed sensors is a temperature sensor utilizing Raman scattering effect in optical fibers. Another example is OTDR (Optical Time Domain Reflectometer) which senses signal reflection in the whole length of an optical path.

2. Quasi-Distributed Sensor

Quasi-distributed sensors use discrete sensor elements that are carefully arranged in the fiber network. This type if sensor needs to be small size, low cost and high reliability.

High Sensitivity Measurements

Another area for fiber sensors is the high sensitivity measurement applications. This type of sensors typically utilize light interference’s extremely high sensitivity property.

A number of interferometric fiber sensors have been used for measurement of temperature, pressure, vibration and so on. The fiber optic gyroscope is one typical example of this type of applications.

Common Applications and Types

Intrinsic fibre optic sensors utilise the properties of glass and the fibre geometry to measure a number of different quantities. Essentially they measure how light passes through the sensing fibre; then convert this light behaviour into a unit, such as pressure or temperature. They can be used in a variety of different situations; here are just four of the common types of fibre optic sensor used today.

• Strain sensing is a frequent application for this type of sensor as they are capable of measuring mechanical strain directly. This is measured through the ways the geometric properties of the fibre change under strain; this is manifested as a change to the light refractive properties of the fibre.
• Temperature sensing is carried by a practically identical sensor set up. The one difference is that to assess the temperature, the expansion or contraction of the fibre is measured. In this instance, instead of mechanical strain being the force, it is how the fibre is directly affected by changes in temperature that is measured.
• Pressure sensing can be carried out through the same measurement of expansion and contraction. Typically, a fibre will be inserted into a rigid steel tube with a diaphragm at the end. This diaphragm, coupled to the fibre acts as the sensor.
• Sensors are also used to measure humidity. These are slightly different from other sensors as they do not take their measurements from the direct strain placed upon the fibre. Instead, a special coating capable of absorbing and releasing water vapour is used; this coating is attached to the fibre and as it either expands or contracts in correlation to the water vapour it holds, it strains the fibre, changing its refractive properties and subsequently provides a measurement.

These four uses for fibre optic sensors are just some of the most common. Today sensors are used throughout the world in a variety of industries, from biomedical applications and aircraft to petroleum drilling sites.