Use mouse as a position sensor

Question

I have a project in which we use a laser mouse as a position sensor. To prove the conceptual work, I wanted to use electrical components, like from a commercial mouse “off the shelf”, to save development time. Thus, I do not need to do hardware design, driver design, etc.

I would like to be able to capture the coordinates from the mouse of the position sensor while still using the standard mouse and keyboard to control the Windows environment. This means that I need:

1.) Disconnect the mouse of the position sensor to move the cursor

2.) Be able to still use the standard mouse to move the cursor

3.) Be able to capture the coordinates with the mouse position sensor

I prefer to program in .net, but the standard c / C ++ solutions are great too. I am not sure if this is possible. Any suggestions would be great. Thanks!

Answer 1

I found a couple of links that could help

using-two-mice-in-windows-7-dual-mouse-dual-cursor

http://cpnmouse.sourceforge.net/