Wireless Mouse
The wireless mouse has scurried onto the scene in recent years. It's primary benefit is not having to drag around the wire that connects it to your PC. Instead it communicates with Infrared light (IR) or radio waves (RF) to a pod that is connected to your PC's PS/2 or USB port.
Infrared Type
The first wireless mouse used Infrared light to communicate with the pod. This is the same technology that is used in your TV remote controller, and as you know the distance between controller and TV can be many feet apart. The mouse and pod have the same long distance range. The major drawback is when something gets between the controller and the TV, it doesn't work. The IR mouse has the same drawback, it must have a direct line-of-sight to the pod or it doesn't work. Some stores still offer them and they fairly inexpensive.
RF Type
The next type of wireless mouse to show up was the RF mouse. It uses the same technology as in your car remote lock controller. As with the car lock controller the mouse does not need line-of-sight to work, which means if you put a coffee cup in front of the pod connected to your PC, the RF wireless mouse keeps communicating with the pod. The transmitter in the mouse can have different power ratings which translate into different working distances from the pod. Most are rated at 3 feet, 6 feet or 30 feet. The 30 foot range is specified for Bluetooth, which is an emerging RF specification for wirelessly connecting together many devices in a small area. For most PC users 3 or 6 feet is fine. These devices are about twice the cost of the IR type mouse.
In addition to the wireless communication between mouse and pod, just about all wireless mice use optical means to convert the back and forth, side-to-side mouse movements you make with your mouse into the pointer movements you see on your display. The older trackball mouse is heading for that big cheese in the sky! Click Here for more information.
Wireless Keyboard
They use the same IR or RF technology as the wireless mouse to
communicate with a pod. You can often buy a wireless mouse and wireless
keyboard set that communicates with a single pod that connects to your PC.