SPECIAL FEATURE: DI Y P HYSICS

www.iop.org/journals/physed

Design and calibration of an

inexpensive digital anemometer
R Hernandez-Walls1, E Rojas-Mayoral2, L Baez-Castillo3 and
B Rojas-Mayoral4
1

Facultad de Ciencias Marinas, UABC, Ensenada Baja California, Mexico

Centro de Investigacion Cientfica y Superior de Ensenada, Ensenada, Baja California,
Mexico
3
Facultad de Ciencias, UABC, Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico
4
Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Exactas, Unison, Sonora, Mexico
2

E-mail: rwalls@uabc.mx

Abstract
An inexpensive and easily implemented device to measure wind velocity is
proposed. This prototype has the advantage of being able to measure both the
speed and the direction of the wind in two dimensions. The device utilizes a
computational interface commonly referred to as a mouse. The mouse
proposed for this prototype contains an optical sensor which allows it to
situate itself in space. The prototype utilizes a pendulum with an attached
drag body. The pendulums drag body interacts with the fluid in motion,
causing an angle with respect to the vertical. The mouse measures the
displacement of a sphere attached to the pendulum and calculates the angle.
The resulting angle determines the relationship between the drag force and
the wind speed, thereby allowing the mouse to calculate the velocity. A
MATLAB script was written to process the data received from the mouse.
After calibration, the program determines the relationship between the pixels
measured and the pendulums angle, and so obtains information about the
wind. This system (device and software) eliminates human error in data
collection and storage, thereby considerably reducing the time and cost
associated with measuring wind velocity.
S Supplementary data are available from stacks.iop.org/physed/43/593
Introduction
One problem in meteorology is that of obtaining
reliable data in an autonomous way. In general,
meteorological instruments are expensive and
difficult to maintain. This problem can be solved
with a personal computer system. Any computer
system will contain input and output devices, such
as a mouse and a monitor. It has been shown
that a computer mouse can be used as an input
device for information [15]. The use of the

computer mouse as an electronic interface is an

alternative that avoids the design and construction
of an interface card between the computer and
a sensor [4]. In this article, a prototype of an
anemometer is proposed that utilizes an optic
sensor. Even though this prototype is similar
to a one-dimensional current meter, it has the
advantage of being able to measure the winds
speed as well as its direction [4].
This article is structured as follows. The
next section contains the physical preliminaries

0031-9120/08/060593+06$30.00 2008 IOP Publishing Ltd

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R Hernandez-Walls et al
for obtaining an equation used to calculate the
speed and direction of the fluid in motion with the
proposed device. The following section describes
the assembly of the anemometer, consisting of
an optical mouse, a sphere and a pendulum.
Later, the calibration of the proposed device is
examined, followed by a description of how the
computer script captures the information. Finally,
the advantages, disadvantages and conclusions are
discussed.

Physical preliminaries
If we consider the case of a pendulum with weight
(W ), that, upon interacting with fluid in motion,
produces an angle with respect to the vertical ( ),
resulting from the drag force ( Fa ) that the fluid
exercises over the pendulum, then the resulting
opposing force is the tension (T ). This can be
described with a diagram of a free body, where
a balance of forces is obtained, as is shown in
figure 1. Using the trigonometric relationship
between the angles and sides of a right triangle,
the following equation is obtained:
tan =

Fa
.
W

(1)

Solving for the drag force in equation (1),

Fa = W tan .

(2)

The drag force of an object surrounded by

a stationary flow is defined by the following
equation [6]:

Fa = 12 Cd Av 2

Solving for the velocity, we find


2W tan
.
v=
Cd A

PHYSICS EDUCATION

following parameters can be considered constants,

and that they may all be included in a constant:

2W
.
K
(6)
Cd A
Then equation for the velocity is

v = K tan .

(7)

If the value of the constant K is known, then

only the deviation of the angle with respect to the
vertical is necessary to obtain a measurement of
the velocity of the flow.

Experimental device

(4)

(5)

If we consider that the fluid and the object do

not change with time, it can be supposed that the
594

Figure 1. Right triangle representing the balance of

forces obtained by modifying the free-body diagram.

(3)

where Cd is the drag coefficient, A is the

area of the projection of the object on a plane
perpendicular to the direction of motion, is the
density of the fluid, and v is the flow speed.
Setting equations (2) and (3) equal to each
other, the following equation is obtained:

W tan = 12 Cd Av 2 .

Fa

The main purpose of this project is to measure

the drag angle with an optical computer mouse.
The mouse is positioned on the upper portion
of a sphere, which has free movement, while a
pendulum is attached to the lower portion of the
sphere. When the pendulum interacts with fluid in
motion, it changes its alignment, thereby causing
the attached sphere to rotate. The mouse detects
the rotation of the sphere, as shown in figure 2.
It was necessary to build a device that first
allowed the free movement of the sphere when
the drag object was interacting with the fluid,
and second, allowed the mouse to detect the
movement of the sphere. The device is mounted
on a triangular frame, inside which a sphere is
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Design and calibration of an inexpensive digital anemometer

mouse

sphere

pendulum
flow
drag body

Figure 2. Effect of the drag force on the pendulum.

supported by skate bearings that allow the free

movement of the sphere without changing its
relative position with respect to the mouse. A
board with a circular hole in the centre is affixed
to the top of the frame. The mouse is attached
to the board so that it can detect the movement
of the sphere through the hole in the board.

Since the mouse detects any displacement of the

surface below it by optical means, the mouse
has to be fixed to the upper part of the structure
in such a way that it stays within a small and
constant distance to the sphere without making
any contact. A pendulum is attached to the
bottom of the sphere. A vane is used as a drag
body and is attached to the opposite end of the
pendulum. When the vane interacts with the fluid,
the movement is transmitted to the sphere by the
pendulum. The mouse then detects the movement
(figure 3).
The optical mouse is capable of measuring the
pixels of the rotating surface of the sphere, but not
the angle ( ) resulting from the spheres rotation.
It is necessary to determine the relationship
between the measured pixels and the drag angle
of the pendulum.

Pixelangle relation
For the rotation of the sphere, caused by an angle
( ), there exists a specific quantity of pixels.
Therefore the angle ( ) can be defined as

= pixels.

(8)

Figure 3. 3D model of the prototype.

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R Hernandez-Walls et al
55

16

50

14

speed (mph)

45

12

40
35

10

30

25

20

15

10
0

0
0

0.5

1.0

1.5
2.0
tan1/2 ()

2.5

3.0

3.5

50

100 150 200 250 300 350 400

pixelsx

Figure 6. Angles plotted against the horizontal

displacement of the cursor in pixels.

proposed device. The weather gauge measures

wind speed based on the same physical principles.
The angles with respect to the vertical ( )
were measured and the corresponding wind speeds
obtained via the weather gauge were plotted with
velocity (miles per hour) on the vertical axis and

tan on the horizontal axis (figure 4). A linear

regression with a correlation coefficient of 0.993
produced the following equation:

v = 15.179 tan .
(10)
Figure 5. Calibration of the prototype with a protractor.

Equation (8) describes a straight line with slope .

Substituting equation (8) in (7):

v = tan( pixels) K .
(9)
For the components:

vx = tan(x pixelsx ) K

vy =

tan( y pixels y ) K .

(9.1)

(9.2)

The following section contains a description of

how the estimation of the constant K was carried
out.

Calibration
A commercial weather gauge (SELL-O-CRAFT
Sheboygan) was used for the calibration of the
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PHYSICS EDUCATION

The experimental device was calibrated

to measure the velocity of the air with K
(equation (7)) equal to the slope of equation (10).
The drag body must have the same weight (W ) and
area ( A) as the drag body of the weather gauge.
For obtaining the pixelangle relationship,
a protractor was placed on the base of the
cage assembly (figure 5), and for each angle of
inclination ( ) the movement of the surface of the
sphere was measured in pixels by the mouse in
both the x -axis and the y -axis.
The measurements of the pixels against the
angles are shown in figures 6 and 7. The
equation obtained from the linear regression, with
a correlation coefficient of 0.995, for the x -axis
was
x = 4.16 102 pixels.
For the y -axis, with a correlation coefficient of
0.998, the equation obtained was

y = 5.09 102 pixels.

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Design and calibration of an inexpensive digital anemometer

16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
0

50

100

150
200
pixelsy

250

300

Figure 7. Angles plotted against the vertical

displacement of the cursor in pixels.

Therefore the value of the constant in equation (9.1) is x = 4.16 102 , while in equation (9.2), y = 5.09 102 .

Algorithm and script

The computer program for the calibration of the
prototype was written in MATLAB, since it offers
functions to obtain information from input devices
such as the mouse. The script is shown in box 1.
In order to obtain the coordinates of the
position of the cursor, it is necessary to obtain the
dimensions of the monitor. For this the function
get is utilized, as follows:
get(0, screensize).
In order to start using the prototype it is necessary
to set the initial position of the cursor. The
following function is utilized:
set(0, PointerLocation, [x, y]).
The function that obtains the position of the cursor
when the prototype is in operation is
get(0, PointerLocation).

Advantages and disadvantages

The materials of the proposed digital anemometer
are available at low cost. The software was
designed with elementary programming concepts,
making the reading and storage of the measured
digital data and its subsequent processing efficient.
November 2008

Box 1. MATLAB script for calculating wind velocity

with a mouse. This script is also available as a
supplementary data file in the online version of the
journal at stacks.iop.org/physed/43/593.

The calibration of the prototype is simple.

The high correlation coefficients obtained suggest
that the measurement of the wind velocity is
reliable.
This system can be easily adapted for other
environments, such as marine coastal zones or
fluid mechanics laboratories. It is possible to
measure the velocity in two dimensions of almost
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any flow by calibrating the prototype for that
specific fluid.
The main disadvantage of this prototype is
that the mouse must be kept dry.

Conclusions

[5] Ng T W 2003 The optical mouse as an inexpensive

device SPIE Proc. ETuF4 (San Diego, CA)
(Bellingham, WA: SPIE Optical Engineering
Press) pp 13
[6] Roberson J A 1980 Engineering Fluid Mechanics
(Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin)

The measurement range depends on the drag body

and the precision depends on the volume of the
sphere: the bigger the sphere, the greater the
precision.
It has been shown that an optical mouse can
be used as an inexpensive sensor of geophysical
variables: in this case, the velocity of the wind
(speed and direction).

Rafael Hernandez-Walls received his

PhD in optics from CICESE, Ensenada,
Mexico. He currently works as a
professor and researcher at the School of
Marine Sciences of the Universidad
Autonoma de Baja California (UABC)
where he teaches physics and
computation, focusing on the
development of new technologies for use
in marine sciences.

Acknowledgments

Evaristo Rojas-Mayoral is a student

currently working to obtain his Masters
degree in physical oceanography from
CICESE, Ensenada, Mexico. In 2005, he
earned his Bachelors degree in
oceanography from the Universidad
Autonoma de Baja California. Since
2001, he has worked on the design and
implementation of new methods and
technologies for measuring different
properties of geophysical fluids.

The authors acknowledge Andrea Lievana-Mac

Tavish for her suggestions and comments. The
first author also acknowledges support from SNI,
UABC and from SEP-CONACYT (Mexico) under
grants UABC-325 and SEP-2004-C01-47285.
Received 14 May 2008, in final form 30 July 2008
doi:10.1088/0031-9120/43/6/005

References
[1] Ochoa O R and Kolp N F 1997 The computer
mouse as a data acquisition interface:
application to harmonic oscillators Am. J. Phys.
65 11158
[2] Yang Z and Maeda R 2000 Automatic micro flow
rate measurement using a modified computer
mouse device 1st Annual Int. IEEE-EMBS
Special Conf. on Microtechnology in Medicine
and Biology (France) pp 28891
[3] Modesto-Ortiz M, Martnez Y and Gonzalez J I
2003 Observaciones De Nivel Del Mar Con
Instrumentos De Bajo Costo. Reunion Anual De
Geofsica (Mexico: UGM) p 159
[4] Hernandez-Walls R, Luna-Hernandez J R,
Rojas-Mayoral E and Navarro-Olache L F 2004
Dispositivo electronico, de facil construccion,
para medir la velocidad de un fluido Rev. Ing.
Hidraulica Mexico 19 1218

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Leonardo Baez-Castillo is a student

working to obtain his Bachelors degree
in physics from the Universidad
Autonoma de Baja California, Ensenada,
Mexico. During his academic career, he
has participated in the design and
construction of instrumentation for both
physics and oceanographic laboratories.
He is currently in the process of
completing his thesis in biophysics,
carrying out his research in the laboratory
of Animal Reproduction and
Immunology.

Braulio Rojas-Mayoral is a student

working to obtain his Bachelors degree
in physics from the Universidad de
Sonora, Hermosillo, Mexico. His
principal interest is in numerical
modelling and the realization of applied
experiments.

November 2008