By 1982, most users of the Xerox ball mouse were using "special pads" to accession the friction of the ball.

Optical mice have the problem of not working well on transparent or reflective surfaces (such as fake eye or highly polished wood). These surfaces, which often include desk and table surfaces, author jitter and depletion of tracking on the display pointer as the mouse moves over these http://www.a1imaging.com/ reflective spots. The use of mousepads with precision surfaces eliminates spot jitter effects of late optical mice.