I'm looking for what is essentially a one dimensional version of an optical mouse sensor. I need to have a non contact sensor that can detect lateral movement of a target in one dimension only. I could use an optical mouse sensor, and use only one axis output, but all of the current mouse chips I've seen have only a USB output which are very difficult to interface to. Some early chips (eg., the PS/2 versions) had quadrature outputs as well so that they could emulate a standard quadrature encoder, but it appears that those chips are all obsolete and unavailable.
Is anyone aware of a sensor that would work in this application and has an easy to use output interface?
Is anyone aware of a sensor that would work in this application and has an easy to use output interface?