OPTICAL MOUSE

PURPOSE:To make a device inexpensive by providing the first and the second line patterns which consist of parallel narrow lines and detect one direction and a direction orthogonal to it. CONSTITUTION:An optical mouse 1 is constituted with mouse bodies 2 and 3 incorporating a line reader 4 and a pad 5 having the first and the second line patterns 7X and 7Y which form longitudinal and lateral stripes and can be detected optically. A base material 6 of this pad 5 consists of a transparent glass plate or the like, and parallel narrow lines as line patterns are provided on both faces of the transparent substrate 6 in directions orthogonal to each other. Vacuum-deposited aluminium thin films are suitable as these lines. The reflected light from a light emitting diode 9 in the line reader 4 is received by a photodetector 10 such as a photodiode or the like, and the number of lines is counted electrically in accordance with difference of the quantity of received light due to presence or absence of these lines, and the position of mouse bodies 2 and 3 on the pad 5 is detected.