A bit of mechanical ingenuity makes building this foot-controlled mouse into a fun project. It consists of a platform which hosts one pedal for each foot. The right foot controls the movement of the cursor, and the left is responsible for the buttons.
The guts of a wireless mouse do most of the electrical work for this hack. You can see that the optical sensor is mounted on the front of the right foot pedal. A ball bearing combined with a hinge provides motion on two axes. This moves the sensor past a piece of curved foam made by covering a ball with plastic wrap then spraying foam insulation around it. The pedal on the left has four buttons actuated by moving the toes down, up, left, or right. There’s a centering mechanism for this pedal which uses a rubber band
One thing we wonder about here is whether there is a need to lift and re-center the mouse/cursor? There is also no scroll wheel. But those issues are just waiting for someone to pick up the project and make their own improvements.
Mouse sensors are nifty. If you come across a wireless mouse that uses one of the ADNS cameras, it’s very easy to interface to a microcontroller using the reference design in the datasheets. Just pull the camera and lens out, and do whatever with it.
That is a good idea, but I used a microcontroller recently for the first time in my “Mattress with Motion” : http://www.dossierd.nl/ap_bewegendmatras_eng.html
The footmouse I am using right now is with a pen-tablet. See the photos at the bottom of the details-page: http://www.dossierd.nl/ap_voetmuis_detail_eng.html
With a pen-tablet I am able to switch between relative and absolute mode.
yay! its not exactly the same as my foot controlled mouse! oh wait, I think its better, damn…
“Feet! Do your stuff!”
Simple, obvious, functional – excellent project.
I think most cameras are independent of the controller chip inside the mouse. So you could probably simulate picking up the mouse by opening up certain lines between the camera and controller chip.
That, or you might try to experiment turning off the LED to see if the camera will be “silent” when in the dark.
As the mouse is normally used as a relative positioning device – this “more absolute” positioning device may be problematic. So, could something the size and mass of a boccie (spelling) ball used as a foot track ball be better?
Using an optical mouse requires the concave shape, which is very hard to make. I removed the optical mouse and concave shape, and replaced it with a pen-tablet. See at the bottom of my details-page: http://www.dossierd.nl/ap_voetmuis_detail_eng.html
It’s a Foot Alcher!!!!
Just kidding, you shouldn’t be alching anyways…
yes…on the keyboard….
I thought the same thing. First stop Home Depot, next stop XHamster!
this is way overthought, a 2 axis potensiometer aka joxstick would be much more appropriate.
the old ball mouses had them wheels which would also work.
Well, I have thought about almost every possible solution. And that is not enough for a good accuracy. The position of my right pedal sets directly the position of my mouse.
My best idea was to attach a door hinge on a ballbearing. So the mechanical construction is the main thing.
People are discussing the need to pick up and re-center a mouse, however there are a number of readily available plugins that allow a game controller (such as an airplane joystick) to be used as a mouse. This would allow for absolute positioning on the screen as opposed to relative.
Good hack for disabled people +1 !
This is cool, I never thought of it… but wouldn’t it also be cool to just look at the think you want to click… you are already looking there anyway.
You mean some kind of eye-tracking-mouse ?
They are getting more accurate over the years. They are also expensive. But it’s a good solution for people who can’t use their hands and legs.
There are keyboards with mousewheels. I have this Logitech kb and there’s a mousewheel with a back button on the left, next to the capslock.
PROBLEM SOLVED.
For “picking up” the mouse, I guess you want a button which will either disable the sensor somehow (turn off the LED?) or perhaps move the foam surface away out of range of the optical sensor.
If your OS does that mouse precision thing whereby faster movements move the cursor more than slower motions, you don’t actually ever need to pick up the mouse- just move quickly in the direction you want to go, and slowly back, and the cursor “ratchets” in that direction.
There is no need to pick up the mouse. If I move my cursor to the side of the screen, my footmouse can move further. When I return the pedal of my footmouse, the cursor starts moving immediately.
So by swinging the pedal of my footmouse to the sides, the cursor is back in the middle somewhere. I do it without thinking.
Do you know how you center the cursor with your normal mouse ? Some people pick it up and place it back on the table, others make a swing to the sides, or a combinations of both. It’s easy to do, so normal mice don’t have a “put-the-cursor-in-the-middle-of-the-screen-button”.
I really think the niche here would be for disabled individuals who can no longer use a regular mouse.
Great. It took so long to educate people that the CD tray is not a coffee holder and that the mouse is not a foot pedal, and now you build this.