Creating an IMU-based 3D Mouse with an ESP32-S3

The FULL CODE Breakdown video is in the first link below the video! Also pictures and a blog post with more details!
And as always all the files can be downloaded there!

Given a slightly elevated stand to help maintain the mouse angle and revert back to no movement between tilts, I can almost picture potential here to be less frustrating than a regular mouse. You know, because you're not running out of tracking space or knocking the coffee over.

For little rodents that can gnaw their way into anything, and are scared of cats, "mice" is right, yes.

But for mechanical rodents (I've heard people refer to a mouse as "rodent", and was impressed by this) as far as I'm concerned the correct plural is "mouses", not mice. Mice are little rodents. Lots of them. Mice is their collective noun. Mouses are just metaphorical mouse instances. It's much more sensible to keep things simple, call them mouses, and leave whatever ancient reason there was to give the word "mouse" and irregular plural, whereas "house" plurals to just plain "houses", regularly.

Hmm … lice are the plural of louse, so it's not a perfectly irregular thing.

If they make a device they decide to call a louse, go with "louses" and not "lice", in the plural, as well.

Lots of words in an irrelevant matter, yes I know. What can I say? This is the Internet. This kind of thing is happening all the time.

Doing a double integral of IMU samples wouldn't be too hard. The problem is that the IMU isn't perfect – you are measuring acceleration with a bit of error. And you're integrating the error twice as well – and that's why the device just shoots off in seconds.

Similar problem needs solving for VR. There, it's universally accepted you need to correct it several times a second to get proper readings (an external system provides an absolute position, but slowly, an IMU can be sampled at hundreds of Hz, but by itself would run away. So an IMU fills in the blanks between samples of another positioning system).

What an IMU can measure very well is rotation, so a trackball would be possible if the PCB was inside the ball with a battery. To get rotation, samples from a gyro get integrated – but only once – so it drifts, but at a constant speed, so it's manageable. The other sensors in an IMU can be used to correct that drift. I'd recommend madgwick's algorithms for doing so, correcting the drift is actual hard math. For a drift-free result you'll need gyro+accel+magnetometer. Magnetometers aren't great, usually needing calibration because they are influenced by metals around them, but you could provide a fake stronger north with a magnet in the casing

You are not incorrect in calling them mouses, computer mouse is an acronym: Manually-Operated User-Selection Equipment the plural of which is MOUSEs. Mice refers to the animals.

What is its battery life?

if you designed the bottom plate like a half ball shape, you can use it on an surface, an tip it in all directions, or just design the bottom like a spinning top. So you can use it in mid air, and on a table too.

Try making a PS/2 to Bluetooth using esp32. Let's revive good old keyboards!

Great video and project, love the little face on the mouse!

It looks like you have recreated the 3d space mouse that some CAD users are fond of, just a floating version. I still prefer the traditional mouse.

13:38 "We should find an actual use case where this thing is actually useful." Uh oh, Clem is talking crazy again!

Maybe you should ask ChatGPT for some integral code 😅

You can make it with a rumble Pack inside And make the scroll wheel control the speed of the vibration. Mmmmmm that be good ❤