REYNALDO LABARETE JR.PROJECT IN COMPUTER

PARTS OF THE MOUSE

A mouse is a device that controls the movement of the cursor or pointer on a display screen. A mouse is a small object you can roll along a hard, flat surface. Its name is derived from its shape, which looks a bit like a mouse, its connecting wire that one can imagine to be the mouse's tail, and the fact that one must make it scurry along a surface. As you move the mouse, the pointer on the display screen moves in the same direction.

THE MOUSE

A computer mouse is an input device that is most often used with a personal computer. Moving a mouse along a flat surface can move the on-screen cursor to different items on the screen. Items can be moved or selected by pressing the mouse buttons (called clicking). It is called a computer mouse because of the wire that connects the mouse to the computer. The people who designed the first computer mice thought that it looked like the tail on a mouse. Today, many computer mice use wireless technology and have no wire.

THE FUNCTIONS

Buttons

The button or buttons of a mouse constitute part or the entire top surface of the mouse. When you press a button, it tells your computer to perform an action at the cursor's location on the screen. A mouse has at least one button, though most have two or more. On some mice, such as the standard mouse for many Apple desktop computers, the entire top surface of the mouse is a single button. Two-button mice allow you to input different messages to your computer depending on whether you click the right button or the left button. Your computer interprets these different clicks based on the configuration of your mouse driver.

Motion Detection

Your computer needs to receive data about the motion and location of your mouse. The two most common components for picking up this data are the trackball and the optical sensor. The trackball is a small ball inside a cavity underneath the mouse. As the trackball rolls across a surface, internal gears encode data about the mouse's position. Trackballs require some maintenance, as the cavity can fill up with dirt and debris, thereby causing inaccuracies in the motion data. Optical mice use an optical sensor to track the mouse's movement across a surface. This is less susceptible to errors caused by the intake of dirt and debris, but the optical sensor may perform differently depending on the reflective properties of the mouse surface. A third and less common motion sensor is the internal gyroscope. These eliminate the need for any sort of contact between the mouse and a surface.

Scroll Wheel

Many mice have at least one wheel used to send scrolling data to the computer. Standard mouse drivers interpret scrolling data according to the current window in your GUI. For example, if your current window is a browser window, the scroll wheel will enable you to scroll up and down that window. On many mice, the scroll wheel also functions as a third button. In some cases, pressing the scroll button will toggle a scroll mode on or off. This mode allows you to scroll by moving the entire mouse instead of by rolling the wheel.

Connections

Your mouse can't transmit data if it isn't connected to your computer. Some mice connect to your computer via a cord, while others are cordless. If your mouse has a cord, it is likely a USB cord that fits into your computer's USB port.