According to Macsimum News, Apple has been granted a patent for a hybrid low power computer mouse. Basically, this ‘green’ mouse will use two different mechanisms to track its movement on your desk - an optical tracking sensor and a new feature, an accelerometer (see the Wiimote).

According to Apple, until the late 1990s, most computer mice were opto-mechanical in nature that required a number of moving parts to work in tandem with some form of optical emitters/receiving device to provide tracking information to a processor arranged move an on-screen icon (such as a pointer). However, towards the end of the 1990s, the purely optical mouse was developed where a tiny camera took over 1500 images every second to provide the requisite tracking information enabling the optical mouse to operate on almost any surface.

And, they continue, although a wireless optical computer mouse provides great flexibility to the computer user, one weak point of currently configured wireless computer mice is the relatively short battery life because of the power consumption of the optical tracking engine and wireless link.

So, what Apple is proposing here is a low power tracking solution. One such possibility is a hybrid computer mouse having both a low power accelerometer used in combination with an optical tracking engine to provide velocity or relative positional data with low tracking errors over a wide range of use.

Whew. A tiring read but exciting nonetheless.

Via Gizmodo.