Designing and Creating a Mouse Using Nature-Inspired Shapes

Abstract

Human beings have always made their tools and instruments they need using patterns in nature. Mimicking nature has become the foundation of a new science called Biomimetics. In the present article, multiple forms and levels in nature were utilized to design and create a mouse. The rivers are a good source for choosing the shape of a mouse with lots of stones abraded through the centuries which also have smooth surfaces. In this research, a significant number of stones fitted to hand size were collected and then the best ones were scanned by an optical scanner. The point cloud model obtained was used to design and create the mouse and determine the geometric parameters of the mouse. After extracting the 3D model of the point cloud using a rapid prototyping technique with the Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) method, some mouse models were designed ambidextrously for left-handed and right-handed people. Considering the results of the mouse evaluation by 30 people who were provided with the mouse, it can be concluded that the created mouse provided a high rate of satisfaction.

Keywords

• biomimetics
• mouse
• reverse engineering
• rapid prototyping