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August 15, 2005 7:58 AM PDT
Mighty Mouse (#4): Problems tracking on wooden surfaces
Problems tracking on wooden surfaces Several posters on Apple's Discussion Boards are reporting issues with using the Mighty Mouse on a wooden service. Poster Oliver von Quadt writes:
"I am quite disappointed about the fact that the mouse can't handle my wooden table surface. The cursor jumps and it is basically impossible to work with it.
"This seems strange, as my truly low-level MS Mouse as well as a medium-quality Logitech mouse do the job perfectly on that very same surface."
Similar issues? Please let us know.Previous Coverage:
- Mighty Mouse (#3): Solution for Firefox scroll-button conflict; Usability issues; more
- Mighty Mouse: Problems with horizontal/diagonal scrolling
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Mike
I thought the guys at MacFixIt could spell better than that, especially when they
spell the same word properly in the rest of the article. :)
I've also seen tracking problems with Apple's original optical mouse, on some
black surfaces.
birch plywood desktop -- even after I cleaned of a couple of years
accumulation
of dust and coffee stains. :=) This is not highly grained or figured wood,
sometimes there are three or four inches between grain marks. But the MM
tracks beautifully! So, I would have to conclude that any tracking problems
are definitely not caused by the wood surface <i>per. se.</i>.
I would like to know if the mice in question work normally on a mouse
pad?
It would also be informative to know what color wood they are being used
on and if the finish is gloss, semi-gloss, or flat. I would not be surprised if a
very dark wood with a flat finish or a very highly patterned wood did cause a
problem.
---
G4/1.25 MDD, 1.5 GB, SuperDrive, OS X 10.3.8
G4/733 Quicksilver, 1.3 GB, Combo Drive, OS X 10.3.8
iBook 600, 640 MB, Combo Drive, OS X 10.3.8
The black surface I mention above that a regular Apple mouse (oblong, white,
from a new iMac G5) had trouble with, is flat black.
A very highly patterned wood would probably allow any optical mouse to work
better, since the optical method that's being used depends on detecting
differences in the surface texture or pattern as the mouse is moved across the
surface. However, if the surface is highly polished, even a patterned surface
might cause trouble for some mice, since the LED's light bounces off the shiny
surface before it reaches the patterned surface underneath it, and so it doesn't
get as much of a chance to register a pattern difference.
Macfixit's report #5 on mice reports that the Mighty Mouse has trouble on a patterned surface, and prefers a solid color. I've found that other optical mice work fine with a patterned surface, including a wooden surface with grain. Apparently there are at least two basic designs in optical mice.
I have a plastic desk protector,I cut a piece of naugahyde 20'' square fastened it
down with double sided tape no problems
- by 123 August 17, 2005 4:23 AM PDT
- One thing mice seem not to be able to track on is my iBook's palm rest. It's
- Like this Reply to this comment
-
(8 Comments)not too reflective, since paper works fine. It's just that either the texture is
too fine, or there aren't enough distinguishing marks.
It's like looking at two pictures of sand close-up, and trying to figure out
where the overlap is. It's *possible*, it just takes a long time because there
are lots of configurations to check. If you stick a rock in the picture, it
becomes a lot easier.
Possibly, the area of wood between the grain has no distinct markings, so the
mouse only tracks every time it crosses a grain.