h a l f b a k e r yOn the one hand, true. On the other hand, bollocks.
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Inspired (or at least suggested) by the
"paper CD" and "paper USB" ideas,
vaguely.
Most mice these days are optical, and
work by detecting the relative motion
between the mouse and features (such as
surface irregularities or colour variations)
on the mousepad or tabletop.
It should
be possible to create software
which would allow an optical mouse to
read barcode data: it just has to use the
same information differently. You would
just sweep the mouse over the barcode
on
a printed page, perhaps whilst holding
down a particular key-combination (to
tell
the computer you are reading a barcode
instead of mousing).
The barcoded data would then be
entered
just as if you'd typed it in at the
keyboard.
Possible applications include adverts
(mouse-swipe the barcode to type the
advertiser's URL straight into your
browser, or a specific product code
straight into their online catalogue),
manuals (instead of typing in the
example
in the book, mouse-swipe the printed
barcode), or in fact any situation where
you would normally copy a small amount
of text from a printed page.
The mouse is not a perfect barcode
reader
(for example, the barcodes would need
to
be printed quite tall, to be sure you "hit"
them with the sweet-spot of the optical
mouse), but everybody has one already.
Laser Mouse Docs
http://www.avagotec...ocument.do?id=14781
ADNB-6532 is just one of many; should be able to read bar code close up [kbecker, Aug 18 2007]
Laser Mouse
http://www.microsof...etails.aspx?pid=042
[nuclear hobo, Aug 19 2007]
[link]
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And this is different from widely available existing optical bar code readers how, exactly? Only in that it is a mouse instead of a myriad of other possible interface devices, most commonly a pen? Well, that's not even patentably distinct enough, I'm afraid. |
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[Global] As you sit at your computer now,
do you have a barcode reader? |
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As I pointed out, an optical mouse is not
an especially good barcode reader. It's
just a potential barcode reader that
everyone already has. |
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I get it now. You made do that wretched thing called "read". |
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This is software that turns the mouse I am now inches away from into a reader of barcodes, the nearest one to me of which is probably yards away. |
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Precisely so. And, may I add, || ||| |||| |||
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Bun just for the potential to write crazy stuff on mousemats. |
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I like it! I would use it. Well, if I had a mouse like that I would. I have a trackball - as optical as it is, it could not be used this way. :( |
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I don't think you could teach an old mouse new tricks. It'll probably need to have its brain changed. |
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I like the idea. But barcode scanners use lasers, the optical mouse would need lasers. Sorry but lasers and the AVERAGE consumer is asking for trouble. Though It would be nice. |
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Great idea, but you would need to change the firmware in the the mouses microcontroller for it to interperte the barcode digits. |
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Fresh pasty to you this morning Sir |
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And [Mick Gyver] there are several optical mice that use lasers already. Go to your local staples and check them out |
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[Evilpenguin] I think you're probably right
about the firmware. |
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[Mick Gyver] you probably don't need
lasers. The resolution of a barcode is not
very fine, and standard optical mice detect
movement over very small distances. |
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I was hoping it was a little mouse house just past where the person sits at the till... As your foodstuff trundles by on the conveyor belt, a little mouse with a little photo-diode muzzle, would scurry out, scan your goods, and return to his abode... |
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//you would need to change the
firmware// Actually, I suspect you
might just be able to get away without
new firmware. I tried my Apple optical
mouse on a barcode printed on glossy
white paper. |
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The mouse could not track the
movement on the plain white paper, but
did so as it crossed the barcode -
presumably, the featureless white has
nothing for it to register. Therefore,
perhaps, a careful plot of mouse-
distance against time would show that
the movement was in steps as it
crossed the barcode. With a little
decoding (of distance-v-time), it might
be possible to recover the barcode data. |
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I'll go away and write some software to
see if this is feasible. |
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Well, OK, it sort of works. If I plot the
apparent mouse movement against
time, as I sweep slowly across a barcode
printed on glossy white paper, I get a
low-resolution "image" of the barcode
(ie, there are peaks of movement
corresponding to the barcode lines), but
the resolution isn't quite high enough: I
can identify dense and sparse areas of
the barcode, but some pairs of lines
merge. However, this is just using
mickey-mouse software. I think that
smarter software would manage to
decipher the barcode if you made
several "swipes" with a standard optical
mouse. |
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Firmware would certainly be a better
solution: you'd want to record optical
intensity directly, rather than tracking
position and then decoding that; this
would also make the mouse able to
read barcodes on non-glossy paper.
(My mouse can't see the barcode if it's
on matt paper, because it can track its
position using the paper roughness,
regardless of a printed barcode.) |
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But I think this shows that it's vaguely
doable even with existing mice. It
would be fun, anyway, to experiment
with using mice in this way for optical
data input. |
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I thought a laser mouse would be a good idea but M$ has already baked it. [link] |
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True, but it doesn't read barcodes. |
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As long as you're writing software, the next step is what to do with the information: URL's go to bookmarks in your web browser, phone numbers go to the contact list on your PDA or cell phone, and bibliographic citations go to your bibliographic database (with automatic download of PDFs when available), etc. (This obviously applies to OCR scanners as well, which I would have much more use for.) |
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//the next step is what to do with the
information// |
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The simplest solution is to use the
barcode reader as an application-
independent data entry device, in
parallel with the keyboard. In other
words, scanning a barcode is equivalent
to typing the same characters in from
the keyboard. |
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I have a barcode reader like this (I mean
a keyboard-parallel reader, not a
barcode-reading mouse) on one of our
robots; it works fine and can be used to
enter data directly into any application. |
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At first I thought we were talking about LIVE mice reading bar codes. But anyhow it keeps things nice and neat on the desktop and having the reader conveniently inside of the mouse, you don't have to think about having a separate reader ready. |
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Applause for both the OP and MaxwellBuchanan's baking attempt. |
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The problem may be more than just the firmware in the mouse, though. The sensor itself may be based on edge detection and motion detection cells, rather than straight image capture and software (firmware) comparison. |
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Such a sensor was featured in the camera for the original Gameboy, so that it could be used for motion-based games without relying on the console's piddling Z80-derived CPU for support. |
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I think they should just update things so that mouse palmcurve is webcam; CCD is cheap, I've just placed a mouse on its side then righted it: |
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stable enough to be an image cam on the side; if the plastic is microfresnel is looks opaque to humans but is software transparent |
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as a palm reading cam you might be able to do truth detection or even diagnose cardiovascular ills |
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rubbed on a visually coded surface it acts like the title idea |
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if you like you could stego data onto any magazine type picture then every picture could contain url data |
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Treon, I think they would, but the radius
would be different, surely? If you could do
this, then people would have already have
been about to have done so, but they
haven't. But IF you could, then it wouldn't
have been quite the same after all. |
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Lasers are unnecessary. Many purpose-made barcode
scanners today are of the "CCD" type, which means they're
just pistol-grip low-resolution grayscale digital cameras with
special software. An optical mouse is also a low-resolution
grayscale digital camera with special software. Many optical
mouse chips can be commanded to send the images they see
to the computer. Then, the barcode decoding could be done
on the computer. |
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