3 ms·

A long time ago when I used to spend almost all my day in front of a computer, I wrote a program that would measure the physical distance my mouse cursor had mo

by spuz 6y ago

A long time ago when I used to spend almost all my day in front of a computer, I wrote a program that would measure the physical distance my mouse cursor had moved thinking surely it must be several hundred meters a day. In fact it was only about 30 metres per day. I imagine to scroll a mile would take several months for the average web user.

ccostes 6y ago
It seems like cursor acceleration (breaking the linearity between pixel and physical distance) would make this non-trivial; curious how you implemented it.
- andai 6y ago
  You mean to translate from pixels moved into mousepad-meters?
- GhostVII 6y ago
  It sounds like they measures the distance the cursor on-screen moved, not how far they physically moved their mouse. So accelleration wouldn't be a factor.
- spuz 6y ago
  Well I wanted to specifically measure cursor distance rather than mouse distance so acceleration doesn't come into it. As long as you can sample the mouse position frequently enough, you can get an idea of how far it has travelled. All I had to do to convert pixels to physical distance was use a tape measure to get the width and height of the visible part of the screen.
bitxbitxbitcoin 6y ago
I think my scroll distance varies greatly depending on how many Terms of Services I have to "read" in a given day.
- whynaut 6y ago
  One of the best modern uses of the “End” key (or [Cmd/Shift][Up/Down]) Right up there with “who even wrote this article” and “wait when was this published”
duke_core 6y ago
It also depends on the type of user you are, for someone like me who does almost everything with a keyboard it would be pretty minimal, but for say a fps gamer I'd say it would be pretty high
dmfilipenko 6y ago
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/cursor-traveler-mouse-mov/fpaofkicpfiiifjpmkcadjpedlohpgep?hl=en https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/cursor-traveler-mo... Here it is. Doing the same

by spuz 6y ago

ccostes 6y ago

It seems like cursor acceleration (breaking the linearity between pixel and physical distance) would make this non-trivial; curious how you implemented it.

andai 6y ago
You mean to translate from pixels moved into mousepad-meters?
GhostVII 6y ago
It sounds like they measures the distance the cursor on-screen moved, not how far they physically moved their mouse. So accelleration wouldn't be a factor.
spuz 6y ago
Well I wanted to specifically measure cursor distance rather than mouse distance so acceleration doesn't come into it. As long as you can sample the mouse position frequently enough, you can get an idea of how far it has travelled. All I had to do to convert pixels to physical distance was use a tape measure to get the width and height of the visible part of the screen.

bitxbitxbitcoin 6y ago

I think my scroll distance varies greatly depending on how many Terms of Services I have to "read" in a given day.

whynaut 6y ago
One of the best modern uses of the “End” key (or [Cmd/Shift][Up/Down]) Right up there with “who even wrote this article” and “wait when was this published”

duke_core 6y ago

It also depends on the type of user you are, for someone like me who does almost everything with a keyboard it would be pretty minimal, but for say a fps gamer I'd say it would be pretty high

dmfilipenko 6y ago

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/cursor-traveler-mouse-mov/fpaofkicpfiiifjpmkcadjpedlohpgep?hl=en https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/cursor-traveler-mo... Here it is. Doing the same