Arduino computer mouse/input device

Question

I have successfully talked to the computer from an Arduino via serial USB port and I had the idea that I could make a keyboard or mouse with the arduino. Say I wanted to translate the computer's mouse 1 pixel to the left. What message would I have to send over the serial line in order to achieve this?

Answer 1

Google is a wonderful thing. "use arduino as mouse" returns 1.7 million hits. The third hit on the list takes you to the Arduino Playground for an example using the new Leonardo board.

Note: The Leonardo differs from all preceding boards in that the ATmega32u4 has built-in USB communication, eliminating the need for a secondary processor. This allows the Leonardo to appear to a connected computer as a mouse and keyboard, in addition to a virtual (CDC) serial / COM port.

Assuming you don't have that board, here is another site for some other specific boards and yet another that is log for a project including hardware and software for older boards.

Hope this helps (and is a better answer to the question).

Answer 2

You would have to reconfigure the USB interface chip to appear as a USB HID endpoint.