Jan
19
What is the difference between a optical mouse and wireless mouse?
ByWhat is the difference between a optical mouse and wireless mouse?
I kind of got confused when some mouse’s were named optical and wireless and the ones with the cords, which the green thing in the back.
I got a mouse and keyboard with the little cord attached to the mouse and to the back of the computer and were wondering what are those called.
3 Comments
January 19th, 2010 at 5:46 am
wireless: mouse with no tail
optical: mouse with good eyes
January 19th, 2010 at 5:50 am
Wireless mouses obviously no wires or ” Tail” While Optical mouses do but they use laser infrared technology which allows them to very nice and sensitive.
I personally don’t like wireless cause the signal from the receiver can go away at times.
January 19th, 2010 at 6:10 am
Those are different technologies.
A wired (old school) mouse it physically connected to the computer.
A wireless mouse talks to a receiver that catches a radio wave from the mouse that tells the computer how it has moved, buttons pressed whatever.
A mechanical mouse it the old school kind that had a ball on it that turned axes and the computer determined where it was going based on how much the vertical roller moved and how much the horizontal roller moved. These touched the surface and collected dirt.
An optical mouse has a small scanner or camera that see’s how it’s moving. If you were in a car with a glass floor and never looked up, you’d still know which way you were going; same concept.
You can have a wired optical mouse, or a wireless one; a wired mechanical mouse, or a wireless one (rare nowadays.)
The cables you refer to in the second part of your question are color coded nowadays. Green is for your mouse and purple (rarely orange) round cables are called ps/2. The rectangular type is called USB. Unless you’re using a USB connector, you just need to match the color when connecting almost anything on your computer