[HN Gopher] Mouse Pong: play a game from mouse's firmware with p...
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Mouse Pong: play a game from mouse's firmware with persistence of
vision cursor
Author : gvy-dvpont
Score : 122 points
Date : 2024-08-08 00:18 UTC (22 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (github.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (github.com)
| zeroq wrote:
| Brilliant!
| nottorp wrote:
| :( It doesn't run on the actual mouse's firmware, it has an extra
| RP2040 inserted between the mouse board and the computer.
|
| Still nifty though.
| 4gotunameagain wrote:
| Even pedantically and by definition, it could be argued that it
| runs in the mouse's firmware.
|
| It is quite often that "firmware" refers to a set of programs
| stored in the ROM of an embedded device, not just the one for a
| key functionality.
| nottorp wrote:
| It could be, if it ran in something that you got when buying
| the stock mouse.
|
| It does not?
| gvy-dvpont wrote:
| The RP2040 is running firmware. It is inside the mouse.
| It's now the mouse's firmware!
|
| I get your point but I'm confident that if I had to lawyer
| up I would win this one :P
| nottorp wrote:
| Feel free to. I can't afford lawyers so you win.
| freestyle24147 wrote:
| This is about as "true" as fully replacing a Honda
| Civic's engine with something that has 10x the
| horsepower, and then advertising that you managed to get
| 10x the horsepower out of the Civic using the Civic's
| engine.
|
| Your argument is more one of philosophy / law / BS than
| something anyone would take as true.
| rob74 wrote:
| Well yeah, GP's argument applies here too: whatever
| engine you insert into your Honda Civic will be the
| Civic's engine, so the statement would be correct - as
| long as you specify that it's the _Civic 's engine_ and
| not the _Civic engine_ (as in the original one).
|
| To be less academic: I don't think there is a mouse in
| this world where you can actually modify the firmware,
| because using flash memory for something this dirt cheap
| and with a functionality that hasn't changed for decades
| is out of the question, so this is probably the only way
| to do it...
| Piskvorrr wrote:
| Pretty sure that the multi-modal wireless mice (think
| Logitech MX Master) have a firmware for the mouse _and_ a
| firmware for the receiver.
|
| (how I know: I managed to softbrick one - and reflash to
| working condition.)
| gvy-dvpont wrote:
| And I think more importantly (I'm not going to engage
| with this branch of conversation beyond this)
|
| Does the person buying a Civic capable of running 10X
| care? No. It's a 10X Civic. They've already crashed.
| freestyle24147 wrote:
| This doesn't even remotely address anything anyone has
| said regarding your claim about playing a game with the
| "mouse's firmware". At least you're now aware of how
| ridiculous it sounds, but clearly you don't care so long
| as you believe you could win this in some imaginary court
| case.
| numpad0 wrote:
| I'm guessing there are non-zero number of people(not
| including myself) who hoped it is about a secretly
| reprogrammable mouse sensor.
|
| Many cheap mouse sensors these days are ultra integrated
| to the point they often even lack USB pullup resistors.
| If they could be reprogrammed to, say, add a pixel dump
| command that very few of them implement, that would be
| very interesting.
| thfuran wrote:
| If I switch back to a wired mouse, does that mean that all my
| games are running from my mouse firmware? What about if I
| tape a trackball to the top of my case?
| ASalazarMX wrote:
| That cannot be argued in this case. The author explicitly
| states that he made an interceptor that sits between the PC
| and a regular mouse, so the interceptor is the one running
| the game.
|
| > [..] detached the USB connection from the inside of a cheap
| HP mouse and fed it into the XIAO's USB port (this goes to
| the computer). I then wire up the aux USB connection using
| the XIAO's power/GPIO pins, which goes back to the original
| mouse's PCB. This creates a USB interceptor that can be
| programmed to do whatever!
|
| It would be like saying you're running Megaman from your
| SNES's firmware, which even if it has a bit of truth, most
| technical people would object to.
| woodrowbarlow wrote:
| it would be kind of neat to port this for an existing open-
| source mouse like [1] or [2].
|
| 1: https://ploopy.co/mouse/ 2:
| https://github.com/biomurph/Mouse
| _Microft wrote:
| Now guess why ,,the orange site" has such a bad reputation
| among makers.
| ASalazarMX wrote:
| I prefer people who keep makers (or hackers) honest, because
| those tend to be honest too.
|
| The experiment is already cool, why needlessly embezzle it?
| TimTheTinker wrote:
| This is a _great_ hack. Very nice!
| rob74 wrote:
| The ideas people come up with never cease to amaze me...
| crazygringo wrote:
| Seriously. I'm genuinely curious what the thought process was
| that led to this idea.
| wwilim wrote:
| Presumably bouncing the pointer between window borders in
| Zoom meetings. Maybe ADHD as well ;)
| bmacho wrote:
| Great idea, and it is nice to see it on video!
|
| The advertising about it is bad tho, it doesn't suggest that you
| have a specially crafted mouse for it, it suggests otherwise.
| cpeth wrote:
| Ok cool but but now we need the obvious next step...
|
| Can it run and render Doom?
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(page generated 2024-08-08 23:00 UTC)