I've noticed problems with woodgrain in loads of optical mice. I don't know about your wood (desk that is,) as some grain patterns seem to be worse than others, but virtually all of the first 2 generations of optical mice were rather useless on wood.
On another note, I saw some research a couple years ago where people actually managed to get a mentally controlled cursor working, though I haven't the foggiest how. Seems like that could be rather portable... I think the interface was simply a clip on the user's finger.
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Wood
I've noticed problems with woodgrain in loads of optical mice. I don't know about your wood (desk that is,) as some grain patterns seem to be worse than others, but virtually all of the first 2 generations of optical mice were rather useless on wood.
On another note, I saw some research a couple years ago where people actually managed to get a mentally controlled cursor working, though I haven't the foggiest how. Seems like that could be rather portable... I think the interface was simply a clip on the user's finger.