Logitech announces V400 laser cordless mouse

MUMBAI: Logitech, a $1.5 billion peripheral devices technology major, celebrated this month the 10-year anniversary of the world's first high-volume computer pointing device to use optical technology, instead of mechanical motion, to measure movement.

Unveiled on September 6 in 1995, the Logitech TrackMan Marble trackball delivered unprecedented PC navigation precision by eliminating moving mechanical parts, thereby preventing dirt or dust particles from disrupting the tracking mechanism.

The company marked today's anniversary by announcing its newest computer mice — the Logitech V400 Laser Cordless Mouse, the Logitech MX610 Laser Cordless Mouse, the Logitech LX7 Cordless Optical Mouse, and the Logitech V270 Cordless Optical Notebook Mouse for Bluetooth — all of which feature optical-based tracking technology.

The TrackMan Marble included the patented Logitech Marble optical technology.

Inspired by the human eye, the original Marble technology used an integrated sensor to visually detect the motion of a trackball, then translated that motion into on-screen cursor movement.

Logitech later applied optical technology to mainstream computer mice in combination with a red light-emitting diode (LED), which was necessary to illuminate the surface directly beneath the mouse. In 2004, Logitech made yet another big breakthrough in optical tracking by introducing the world's first mouse to use ultra-precise laser illumination.

“The introduction of Logitech's Marble technology 10 years ago was very exciting because we gave eyesight to a tracking device for the first time, making computer navigation far more precise than it ever had been before,” said Moninder Jain, country manager, Logitech India. “A trackball or a mouse can navigate smoothly over a surface and measure distances more accurately by seeing, rather than by rolling, stumbling or skipping over surface irregularities. Looking back, Marble optical technology set the stage for a revolution in pointing devices.”