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Did you know even the old-school computer mouse uses light to work?

The new school just don't have a mechanical component of a ball and two rollers which spin two separate "gears" which blocks light and then math to figure out the horizontal change + vertical change.

I found that pretty neat when I learned. (I'm old enough to remember the pains of using a gunked up ball mouse.)

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For old-school meaning about '85 or so, 'optical mouse' meant a mouse on a special gridded pad that worked optically.

See this: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sun_optical_mouse.jp...

That's not a regular mouse pad, it's a special red/blue/silver grid detected by a laser in the mouse.

You could rotate the mouse pad and the mouse wouldn’t track. Very prankable.

Edit: At least on a Sun workstation

I have fond memories of those things.

The old-school mice were also called "optical mice" because the old-old-school mice used mechanical sensors.

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