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I want to use an optical mouse to measure displacement in X and Y direction of my robot. I'm using Ubuntu mate 18.04 on raspberry pi and wrote the following python code :

mouse = file('/dev/input/mouse0')
while True:
status, dx, dy = tuple(ord(c) for c in mouse.read(3))

def to_signed(n):
    return n - ((0x80 & n) << 1)

dx = to_signed(dx)
dy = to_signed(dy)
print "%#02x %d %d" % (status, dx, dy)

But these displacement values are velocities dependent. I just want the displacement value, which is acceleration independent.

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I am not sure what you mean by 'displacement value which is acceleration independent'. The conversion of relative positioning you're getting from /dev/input/mouse will always depend on the DPI of the mouse. All you'd have to do is figure out the DPI (either from the specs or from measurements, and hence the conversion between reported dx/dy values, and then accumulate them once you start moving from the origin. Here are some resources that could be useful to you:

http://kodedevil.com/2017/07/09/optical-mouse-odometer-rpi/ (notice the scaling factor in the code)

http://blog.makezine.com/2012/09/15/turning-a-cheap-optical-mouse-into-a-robot-odometer/

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  • $\begingroup$ I mean I need displacement values which won't depend on velocity. You can notice that the mouse needs to be moved a longer distance to go end to end on your screen, while it takes lesser distance at a higher speed. So that means I do not get a true value of just the displacement $\endgroup$
    – jash
    Aug 10, 2019 at 4:53
  • $\begingroup$ I think the important thing is the change in DPI - you know how in Windows, the faster you jerk the mouse, the more the cursor moves even when the mouse translates the same (X,Y)? You need to figure if your driver is modifying the mouse movement as well. I agree with @HighVoltage - you need to get the Mouse specs before you can be sure how far you travel $\endgroup$
    – robotsfoundme
    Jan 8, 2020 at 22:22

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