I've been wondering whether or not if this will work. I'm pretty sure that it won't, but I'm wondering if anyone has tried.
Maybe opaque glass will work, I have no clue.
Optical Trackball with Glass Ball???
-
Firebolt1914
- Location: United States
- Main keyboard: IBM SSK
- Main mouse: Kensington Orbit
- Favorite switch: Buckling Spring/Thorpe
- DT Pro Member: -
-
SL89
- ‽
- Location: Massachusetts, USA
- Main keyboard: CODE 104
- Main mouse: Logitech M570
- Favorite switch: Cherry MX Green
- DT Pro Member: 0095
-
Firebolt1914
- Location: United States
- Main keyboard: IBM SSK
- Main mouse: Kensington Orbit
- Favorite switch: Buckling Spring/Thorpe
- DT Pro Member: -
Crap, I just noticed there was another thread on this.......
-
davkol
- Location: CZ
- Main keyboard: Kinesis Advantage2, JIS ThinkPad,…
- Main mouse: I like (some) trackballs, e.g., L-Trac
- Favorite switch: #vintage ghost Cherry MX Black (+ thick POM caps)
- DT Pro Member: -
IIRC someone has tried various balls in their optical trackballs (modern Kensington Expert, maybe Orbit) without success, due to an imperfect shape and especially the lack of visual patterns that stock balls had.
-
Mal-2
- Location: Los Angeles, CA
- Main keyboard: Cherry G86-61400
- Main mouse: Generic 6-button "gaming mouse"
- Favorite switch: Probably buckling spring, but love them Blues too
- DT Pro Member: -
- Contact:
It might be possible to do this with, say, an infrared LED and sensor and a ball that is transparent in the visual spectrum but opaque and textured in the IR. (Or pick any other wavelength through UVA, the concept remains the same.) That is to say, how you see the ball and how the sensor sees the ball don't have to be even remotely the same.