Corded mice are a thing of the past. Computer mice use power, that we all know! How much power? Not enough for the average person to care. I'm sure that the millions of mice out there must add up to a substantial amount. Especially if you use rechargeable batteries. But that isn't my main concern. How many of you have a wireless mouse and have to constantly replace batteries to use it? And do you dispose of them properly? Heavy metals can enter the environment via a landfill and may produce the following potential problems or hazards:

-Pollute the lakes and streams as the metals vaporize into the air when burned.
-Contribute to heavy metals that potentially may leach from solid waste landfills.
-Expose the environment and water to lead and acid.
-Contain strong corrosive acids.
-May cause burns or danger to eyes and skin.

Because of this I propose a clean green mouse

Step 1: Green Methods

All of the methods below would require a wireless optical mouse. I will discuss possible ways of modifing this conventional mouse to a more environmentally friendly device.

METHOD 1
A solar powered mouse is not an obvious solution to this problem. You would think an office would not provide enough energy in terms of light. I was surprised to find a product out there that puts this energy to use and unfortunately I cant take credit for this Idea. Someone came up with it before me.

"Minister Cramer of the Ministry for Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment is taking part in a user trial of the world's first exclusively photovoltaic-powered (PV) computer mouse."

source: http://www.tudelft.nl/live/pagina.jsp?id=e8c72be6-3452-4f04-b1ae-6d6b71f2b88d&lang=en

If I may say so, It is damn sexy

Unfortunately a solar panel is quite hard to integrate into a conventional mouse as there isn't much room with the batteries. A very efficient cell could be used so it doesn't have to be as large. It might also be uncomfortable to hold after the surface of the mouse has been altered.

It may be easiest to buy a relatively flat mouse and use a small solar panel, or even better, a flexible one and gluing it to the surface with resin. Many small solar panels could also be connected so that the panels lie flat.

Please comment below on any ideas you have

*Note: This instructable has no instructions and has been posted to inspire

Step 2: METHOD 2

METHOD 2

This idea I'm rather proud of and cannot find on the net (I might be incorrect). The idea was to use the motion of the mouse to power it. I do not know wether this is feasible. My idea was to use a heavy ball, just like in an old mechanical mouse, and replace the ball with a magnet in the shape of a ball or a magnet within some sort of heavy material. the magnet would then spin (omnidirectionally) within a coil (or many coils). This would hopefully provide enough power for the mouse to function. At first I thought I could find a cordless mechanical mouse but that turned out to be a dead end, as you could imagine. Therefore it would have to be an optical mouse with a separate power unit that consists of the magnetic ball and coils.

This is the idea I'm most keen on building, If I ever do I will post my results

Step 3: METHOD 3

METHOD 3
The reason why I thought up these ideas is beacause of a mouse I bought that is powered by induction, the same technique used to charge electric toothbrushes. As you would've guessed it runs off the power supplied by the USB port. I thought that if its possible to run a mouse on a weak magnetic field produced by alternating current, then it is surely possible to have an array of thin hardrive magnets to produce the field (the mouse would only work when moving but thats okay). For this to work the magnets would have to alternate in polarity. Yeah I know that it is probably a not a good idea to have a super powerful array of magnets sitting on your desk, especially not close to a CRT monitor. Instead of magnets you could still use a coil to produce the magnetic field, but powered by a solar panel. An even better idea would be to integrate the solar panel into the induction pad.

I will try the array of magnets and post it later on