The history of the computer mouse begins on December 9, 1968, when it was introduced at a show of interactive devices in California. Douglas Engelbart received a patent for this gadget in 1970.
A person, as a rule, performs most operations with material objects in the surrounding world with his hands. Such actions are familiar and convenient to us. A mouse is a device that allows you to use hand movements to influence virtual computer objects - move them, expand them, press virtual buttons, etc.
The first computer mouse was created in 1968. It was a rough wooden box with two large wheels inside and a single button on the body.
In the 90s of the last century, ball mice became widespread.
When moving the mouse, its rubber ball rolled along the surface of the mousepad. He rotated two rollers on which discs with slots were attached. Near each roller there was a special light source - an LED. He sent rays of light onto a rotating disk. Thin beams from the light source were interrupted when the disks rotated. Light receivers (phototransistors) detected these changes and sent signals to the computer.
Modern optical mice illuminate the surface underneath them. This light is reflected from the surface and captured by an optical device. The resulting “snapshot” is transferred to the mouse microprocessor. Based on the analysis of a series of consecutive “snapshots”, the microprocessor determines the direction of mouse movement. The corresponding signals are transmitted to the computer.
Using this or that technology, the mouse transmits information to the computer about its movements in space. The received data is processed by the processor, and the operating system moves the cursor (mouse pointer) around the screen accordingly.
In turn, programs running on the computer receive information from the operating system that the cursor is over a particular control element and react in a given way to mouse actions - pressing keys or rotating the scroll wheel.
Advantages of a computer mouse
The mouse has become the main point-and-point input device due to the following features:
— Very low price compared to other devices like touch screens;
— The mouse is suitable for long-term use. In the early days of multimedia, filmmakers liked to show computers of the “future” with a touch interface, but in reality this method of input is quite tedious, since you have to hold your hands in the air;
— High accuracy of cursor positioning. With the mouse (with the exception of some “unsuccessful” models) it is easy to hit the desired pixel on the screen;
— The mouse allows many different manipulations - double and triple clicks, dragging, gestures, pressing one button while dragging another, etc. Therefore, you can concentrate a large number of controls in one hand - multi-button mice allow you to control, for example, a browser without any involvement keyboards.
Disadvantages of a computer mouse
— Alleged danger of carpal tunnel syndrome;
— For work, a flat, smooth surface of sufficient size is required;
— Instability to vibrations. For this reason, the mouse is practically not used in military devices.
All over the world, Douglas Engelbart is rightly considered the inventor of the computer manipulator or the first computer mouse. However, as with most inventions, it did not come out of nowhere, and before the device that gave birth to the modern mouse was invented, several similar concepts, prototypes and fully functioning devices already existed. So, if you suddenly become interested in the origin and history of this assistant in navigating your workspace, you will find in this article a sufficient amount of information that may shed light on the questions you have.
First trackball
When tracing the history of the computer mouse, it is worth starting with one British engineer, whose invention was classified as a military secret and hidden from the public. This engineer was a professor Ralph Benjamin, who, while working in the scientific department of the British Navy, invented a device that functioned almost the same as a trackball back in the mid-40s of the last century. According to an interview with Dr. Benjamin conducted in 2013, he was tasked with helping develop a device called the Integrated Imaging System. It was an early version of a computer that was supposed to calculate the theoretical trajectory of a tracked aircraft based on user input.
The on-screen cursor was controlled by a simple joystick, which Benjamin thought could be greatly improved, and after some modifications he came up with what he called " roller ball" It functioned much like a standard mechanical mouse, having an external ball manipulating two rubberized wheels inside dedicated to the X and Y axes. This movement was then translated to corresponding movement of the cursor on the screen.
So why don't people think that it was the professor who invented the mouse? Besides the fact that Benjamin’s device was not the progenitor of the modern computer mouse, it was rather its absolute opposite. After all, instead of moving the mouse using the friction of the ball on the work surface, you had to turn the huge ball manually. So it was more like a huge mechanical mouse turned inside out. Although Benjamin's device was more accurate than a joystick, it was never implemented, and due to its status as a military secret, the professor did not receive the credit he deserved for inventing what was essentially a modern trackball. And even despite the innovative nature of the device, he remains an unknown figure in the history of computer technology.
Second try
A similar device to the previous one was developed independently of Benjamin's design in 1952 by the company Ferranti Canada, commissioned by the Canadian Defense Research Council. The company, among other things, was tasked with creating an input device for computers with a budget of "about zero dollars." Three engineers working for Ferranti Fred Longstaff, Tom Cranston And Canyon Taylor, came up with the idea of using a ball housed in a special housing, which was constantly in contact with four wheels located around it. When the ball was rotated in a given direction, the movement of the wheels was translated into corresponding movements of the cursor on the screen.
Simply put, it was an independent "four-wheel" version of Dr. Benjamin's trackball. It's funny that for the sake of the low budget with which the engineers had to work, they did not “reinvent the wheel.” Instead of designing a trackball from scratch, they simply used a 16cm bowling ball. Well, due to the fact that the device was also developed for the military, it was covered in a veil of secrecy.
You see, Engelbart's mouse didn't use a ball at all, instead two perpendicular wheels directly touched to control the position of the cursor. Although the design of this device was quite functional, its disadvantage was that one wheel constantly partially scratched the surface of the table. However, let's not get ahead of things.
Engelbart device
Douglas Engelbart developed what is considered the direct "ancestor" of the modern mouse in the 60s as part of a project to discover the most efficient way to interact with a computer. Engelbart believed that the existing devices in use at the time (mainly keyboards and joysticks) were ineffective. With the help of an engineer Bill English he developed a portable device containing two perpendicular wheels, the movements of which were controlled by a cursor. Essentially, the principle of operation was the same as that of the two previously mentioned trackball devices, but without a ball and in a much more convenient size for one-handed operation.
Engelbart came up with the concept for this device in 1961, and the first prototype was created by English already in 1964. Later, in 1966, Engelbart and English NASA requesting funding for research to determine the most intuitive and efficient input device. The space agency agreed, after which a series of tests were carried out. The mouse turned out to be the most effective, which surprised many, even the creators, since it had not been tested at all before. And the name “mouse” itself stuck to the device at an unspecified moment during testing. As Engelbart notes, “This was most likely caused by a wire coming from the rear of the structure.”
At the Fall Joint computer conference, held in San Francisco on December 9, 1968, Engelbart introduced the mouse to more than a thousand computer engineers in one of the most influential computer presentations of all time, which also included other now well-known developments such as hyperlinks, video communications, remote access, etc.
Mechanical computer mouse and Xerox
Despite the mouse's public debut to the best minds in the computer world, Engelbart's role and even the monumental presentation itself, which would greatly influence the next decades of computing, were largely forgotten. Like many other inventors before him, Engelbart received little recognition. This was despite the fact that a few years later English would go on to develop a mechanical computer mouse that used a ball to control the position of the cursor, which would become a common design for almost all mice until the advent of optical ones.
Besides gaining a little recognition, due to the fact that Engelbart and English were working at Stanford Research Institute when they developed the first mouse, they did not own the final patent that was granted for it in 1970. Thus, the creators did not have the money or rights to invent it. Stanford Research Institute reportedly made some money from the patent before it expired in 1984, when they licensed it to Apple.
By the way, speaking of Apple, the mouse as we know it today came to its final form largely thanks to Steve Jobs. When Jobs went to the research center, he saw a prototype of a mechanical mouse invented by Bill English, who was now working for Xerox PARC. Jobs immediately saw the device's profound potential. As it later turned out, Xerox had been selling their first computer, the Xerox Alto, along with this mouse since 1973 and later bundled it with Xerox 8010, released in 1981.
However, the company's top brass apparently misjudged how innovative their system was. As Jobs notes: “If Xerox knew what they had and took advantage of their real opportunities, they could be as great as I.B.M., Microsoft and Xerox themselves taken together are the largest high-tech company in the world."
Apple mouse
Jobs, stunned by this lack of vision, heads back to Apple and forces his team to completely rethink the company's vision for the personal computer, radically changing its plans to introduce a windowing system with a mouse as a key component. According to Dean Hovey, Jobs later explained to him: “The Xerox mouse is a $300 mouse that breaks within two weeks. Our goal is to produce an analogue for less than $15. But it should last at least a couple of years, and I want to use it on both laminate and jeans.” Howie then explained that he bought all the roll-on deodorants (because of the roll-ons themselves), as well as the oil can as a "case". This was the beginning of the Apple mouse. As for why the mouse Apple had only one button, unlike other competitors (the Xerox mouse had three buttons), everything here is as simple as possible. The company felt that managing such an outlandish and new device at that time was already a hassle, so making it simple and convenient was a priority.
The first appearance of the Apple mouse was accompanied by a rather controversial computer. Apple Lisa. This was the first Apple mouse to have a steel ball that controlled internal positioning wheels. Consequently, the design was redesigned once again (with a rubber ball replacing it) for the more popular Apple Macintosh computer, released in 1984, which became one of the first commercially successful devices to use a mouse. Microsoft also released its own mouse in 1983 for PC, in the period between the Apple Lisa and the much more famous Macintosh 128K, but it was the latter that subsequently stimulated the wider adoption of the mouse.
After the success of the Macintosh, other companies followed suit, and the mouse became a staple addition to every personal computer. Despite many predictions made at different times that the mouse will go the way of cassettes and push-button mobile phones, they are still popular and take on different shapes and types to provide the greatest convenience and comfort when interacting with a computer.
Optical mouse
The optical mouse was developed around 1980, finally getting rid of the ball that often became dirty from rolling around on the desktop surface, which naturally had a negative impact on the mouse's performance. In 1988, a patent was issued for an optical mouse invented by Lisa M. Williams and Robert S. Cherry, which was to be sold commercially with Xerox products such as Xerox STAR. The production cost of one mouse was $17, and they went on sale for $35. Despite this, it was not until 1998 that optical mice became a commercially viable alternative to mechanical mice and hit the mass consumer market. This was achieved by increasing the processing power of microcontrollers and reducing component costs.
And from that moment on, the market for controllers and manipulators began to develop at a rapid pace, as did other areas of technology and electronics. In 2004, the first laser mouse appeared, later in 2010, devices such as the first 3-D mouse were introduced, which allows you to freely position the cursor in three-dimensional space, as well as Microsoft Kinect, which is a gesture-reading device. Returning specifically to computer mice, we once again remind you that the modern market is full of a wide variety of wired, wireless, gaming and other models. And you can find ratings of current new products in this area on our website.
Part of artificial intelligence
The inventor of the computer mouse was Douglas Carl Engelbart (born January 30, 1925), a researcher at the Stanford Institute. This happened in 1964, although, by his own admission, he had been thinking about such a device since the early 50s. The mouse, being a companion product of the oN-Line System (NLS) operating system, turned out to be one of the components of a grandiose project. It was about the development of artificial human intelligence.
Mouse Inspiration
According to Douglas, he was led to the creation of the mouse by analyzing all other devices intended for input. When compiling a grid of already known developments, the desired characteristics of the device, which at that time did not yet exist, were determined. The same thing happened as with the Periodic Table of the Elements. A system defined by groups of rows and columns itself leads to the discovery of previously unknown elements.
Without her it’s like having no hands!
A whole laboratory was working on creating a manipulator. Engelbart was the inventor of the mouse, and Bill English, based on his sketches, brought this idea to life. The first mouse had a wire in the front, but to get it out of the way, I had to throw it back. The device resembled a mouse with a tail, and all employees began to call it that.
This name has become firmly established in computer slang. Phrase: “It’s done in two mouse clicks!” today is clear to everyone. If the mouse is working properly, we don't even notice its presence. But if problems happen to it, we are left without hands, or rather, without a mouse!
The tool is not for users
The very first computer mouse was a handmade mahogany box (!). A button and two perpendicular wheels are such a simple device. When moving the mouse, the wheels rolled along the plane, which made it possible to determine the magnitude and direction of the change in position. At the same time, the data was reflected by moving the cursor on the screen.
However, the mouse, having become a recognized peripheral device, still remains only a tool for developers of new technologies. It is not at all intended for ordinary users! But progress does not stand still: step by step the mouse is being improved and its design is changing. By 1981, the first computer mouse appeared, used for PC navigation. The laurels of its creators remained with the Xerox 8010 Star Information System.
Inventor's Award
For more than 40 years, millions of different computer mice have been produced annually. However, D.K. Engelbart did not become a millionaire. Being an extremely modest person, he simply went into the shadows. The invention was patented by the Stanford Institute, but at that time no one really understood its true value. In 1968, it became known that the license was transferred to Apple for only $40,000.
Engelbart himself received only a check for $10 thousand for his invention. He paid the fee as the first payment for a small country house... Later, the inventor was awarded one of the highest US awards for scientists - The National Medal of Technology. The event became a recognition of all his inventions in the IT field, including the computer mouse. This happened on December 1, 2000. And on December 9, 2008, the fortieth anniversary of the first demonstration of the invention was celebrated.
Who invented the first computer mouse?
Many of us use a computer every day, but we rarely think about how computer technology was created and developed. Crazy leaps in technology development have made it possible to create a computer that anyone can use today. However, such apparent ease of working on a computer is very difficult to imagine without a small device known as " mouse". It plays a very important and often unnoticed role for people when they use it to navigate their desktop.
Mouse is an electronic device, slightly smaller than the palm of your hand, with one or more buttons. This simple device makes working with a computer easy and convenient. Simply put, a mouse is used to move the cursor on a computer monitor and perform various actions on desktop elements. The computer mouse is constantly being improved technologically, its ergonomics and design are improving.
The computer mouse was created by an American inventor Douglas Engelbart in 1964. He is not only the inventor of the computer mouse, but also of many other devices, services and software elements too. Among them: a prototype window interface (multiple windows when opening programs), email and the "@" sign, video and teleconferencing on a computer, hypermedia, etc. Since there was no procedure for issuing software patents at the time, Engelbart never received a patent for his version of Windows. However, he has acquired over 45 patents to his name.
But among his most famous innovations and inventions is still the computer mouse, which today is used all over the world by every PC user.
In 1964, a full-scale working model of a computer mouse was developed using a graphical user interface ( GUI). It was a handcrafted polished wooden case with two metal wheels inside and one red button on top.
In 1970, Douglas Engelbart applied for and received a patent for this invention. In the patent application, the device is referred to as " positional X-Y indicator on the system monitor"The device was called a “mouse” because of the wire attached to the back, similar to the tail of a mouse. The name quickly stuck and to this day in computer language this manipulator is known as a “mouse”.
Unfortunately, Douglas Engelbart did not know how to profitably sell his own brilliant ideas. For his “mouse” he received a small sum of $10,000, which immediately went towards paying the down payment for a small country house near Silicon Valley.
In 1984 Steve Jobs, co-founder of the company Apple, updated the design of the computer mouse for his computers Macintosh.
Magazine PC Magazine awarded Douglas a lifetime award in 1987 For achievements along the path of life».
In 1997, Douglas Engelbart received the Inventor's Prize Lemelson-MIT amounting to $500 thousand, which is the highest monetary prize in any field of invention to date.
Finally, in 1998, his name was included in National Inventors Hall of Fame(National Inventors' Hall of Fame).
The invention of the computer mouse turned out to be extremely useful for working on a computer. Many convenient functions have appeared, and a huge number of changes have been made to increase the versatility of the mouse. This miniature device has come a long way since its creation by Douglas Engelbart, but if not for his invention, navigating a computer would now be far from an easy task.
« Even the GUI still limits our capabilities. It reminds me of Chinese English in some ways. We must continue the evolution of computing technology» - Douglas Engelbart.
Experts at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) later reduced the size and replaced the wheels with a ball in a bearing joint, the rotation of which was sensed by rollers with a set of contacts. This mouse became one of the input elements of the “computer of the future” Alto, and it was this mouse that Apple founder Steve Jobs saw when he visited PARC in 1979 to get acquainted with technical innovations that could be used in the company’s next computers.
Jobs liked the concept, but not the implementation. The Alto mouse cost $400, the interface for connecting it cost another 300, the dimensions resembled a brick, and there was no need to even talk about ease of use. So Jobs turned to the young company Hovey-Kelley Design, founded by two Stanford graduates, with a mandate... to reinvent everything. The task looked almost insurmountable - the young Hovey-Kelley engineers heard about such a device for the first time in their lives, and they needed to make it simpler, more reliable and more unpretentious to the surface (Jobs put forward the requirement for normal operation on jeans) and, most importantly, more than ten (!) times cheaper - prices range from $10 to $35.
Dean Hovey, the company's CEO, assembled the first rough prototype within a few days from a plastic oil can and a deodorant ball. This simple design formed the basis for further work. Electronics engineers Jim Sachs and Rickson Sun tried a lot of ways to read the revolutions of the ball - from embedding magnets into it to applying a special striped pattern, and settled on two rollers with rotation sensors in the form of perforated disks, which were read using LEDs and phototransistors. Jim Yurchenko, who was in charge of the mechanics, took on the difficult task of combining all this in one compact housing, and also made the device reliable and insensitive to dust and dirt by introducing a dust-collecting gasket into the design and making the ball easily removable (for cleaning the rollers). Then it was the turn of Douglas Dayton, who was responsible for the exterior and ergonomics of the “rodent” at Hovey-Kelley. At that time, no one imagined how users would hold such a manipulator. Palm? With your fingertips? How's the gearshift knob? How's the sanding block? What shape should the mouse be - oval, triangular, square?
After the form was approved, the question of the number of buttons came to the fore. Engelbart at one time used three buttons because he couldn’t figure out how to place more. Dayton also advocated three buttons, while Apple engineers were considering two. The dispute was resolved by Jobs himself, who relied on simplicity and limited the number of buttons to one, and this became the Apple standard for many years. And the mouse itself is an example of an input device that has survived since the appearance of the Apple Lisa computer in 1981 to the present day.