Marine Mouse Takes IT To New DepthsMarine Mouse Takes IT To New Depths

The Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego had a problem with a digital low-light color camera it was using to record changes in the color of Bahamian coral reefs caused by warming waters. The computer and mouse that controlled the camera remained on a boat on the surface while a diver worked as deep as 100 feet below.

David Zawada, a graduate student at the school, came up with an idea to solve the problem: an underwater mouse. When built, it gave the diver at the reef control over the camera's operations and the ability to click on photos on an underwater monitor. Scripps didn't use any fancy components, just commercially available software and an optical mouse that cost less than $20.

"It's just the same thing you have on your computer now," says Jules Jaffe, a research oceanographer and head of the Scripps Laboratory for Underwater Imaging. "There's nothing new about trying to make instruments and put them in the ocean, but as the technology evolves, it's interesting to create a user interface to allow a diver to have the technology interaction underwater."

The mouse is the size of a brick and made of clear plexiglass. The mouse pad is a black-and-white-striped piece of paper covered by plastic, similar to contact paper. The optical mouse beams a light over the pattern, illuminating the mouse pad. That light is reflected back inside the mouse, enabling it to distinguish black from white as it's moved over the paper, and hence record the direction in which it's moving. Beneath the surface, the weight of water pressing on the mouse makes it tougher to move than on a desk. "Our innovation was using an optical mouse so that the part that moves is the part that interfaces with the mouse pad," Jaffe says.

He adds that the Navy has expressed interest in the new device.