On 8/20/07, James Newtons Massmind wrote: > Your crazy idea for the day, courtesy of the Half Bakery. > > http://www.halfbakery.com/idea/Mouse_20barcode_20reader > > WARNING: Visiting the Half Bakery can result in long term damage and injury > to your income and job security. This site has been found to be addictive > and consuming. > > "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 Agilent optical mouse chips let you access the sensor data directly. I don't know if the common USB interface microcontrollers expose this however. You could definitely make a barcode scanner with that data I would think. My computer has a little VGA camera built in, and that would make a lot more sense as a barcode scanner. Regards, Mark markrages@gmail -- Mark Rages, Engineer Midwest Telecine LLC markrages@midwesttelecine.com -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist