Who invented the first mouse. Who Invented the Computer Mouse - When Invented

Exactly 40 years ago, on December 9, 1968, at a computer conference in San Francisco, among other innovations, Douglas Engelbart demonstrated the first mouse. Some computer legends say that a computer mouse was created in the Xerox laboratory, others that the mouse was created by order of Apple. In fact, a computer mouse, it is an indicator of x and y positions, it is a computer manipulator, it is a manipulator of the mouse type, was "born" in 1964. It was invented by Douglas Carl Engelbart (born January 30, 1925). ) from Stanford Research Institute.

This is all part of a graphical interface that we could summarize in a command terminal that is used visually. At the end of the day, what you do when you click on the icon is to execute the command that launches the application so that we can use it.

We do all this every day, how to write, open applications and even interact with them, we can do without a mouse. This is why the mouse is important, because the tasks that took us longer, we do them intuitively with the mouse.

It is true that without a graphical interface, the mouse will not work at all, because it would be like a car without an engine. Thanks to the mouse, we can interact with a graphical interface, which makes computing accessible to all people who do not have computer skills.

There was no "government order" for the mouse - it appeared as one of the by-products of Engelbart's development of the oN-Line System (NLS) operating system. In the course of work on NLS, the concept of a "windowed" interface emerged, and the mouse was created as one of the possible manipulators for working with windows. In fact, the idea of such a manipulator appeared in 1963, and in 1964 the first working prototype was made (in one interview, Engelbart said that he first thought about creating such a device back in 1951).

This is where the mouse comes into play: in providing information technologies people, therefore it is important. It is true that it can be replaced, but how long does it take to complete the most basic tasks such as switching between folders? On the other hand, there are professions that directly require a mouse or replacement, such as a graphic designer. To this day, design without a mouse or electronic tablet is almost impossible, as it allows us to see what we are doing in real time, without having to read millions and millions of lines of code one by one.

The first computer mouse was a handmade wooden box with two perpendicular wheels and a button inside. When the mouse moved, the wheels rolled on the table and made it possible to find out the direction and amount of movement of the device. This data was converted to cursor movement on the screen.

This is impossible, since every time we move our character or move the camera, we run lines of code that we must write by hand without a mouse. As you can imagine, there have been several attempts to replace the regular mouse, and not all of them have borne fruit. While they are all variations of the original mouse, the truth is, rather than adding value to this famous peripheral, they made it somewhat ergonomic or difficult to use.

Infrared mice and losing them

Do you remember when your friends used to send you photos using an infrared phone? What was the most a big problem? The fact that the phones had to constantly look at each other so that the data transfer was not interrupted. Well, the same thing happened with the mice.

On December 9, 1968, the first public demonstration of the NLS system and, with it, a mouse prototype took place. And in 1970, Engelbart received a patent for "an indicator of x and y coordinates for a display system."

Engelbart did not work alone on the creation of the manipulator: he “only” invented the mouse, but the graduate student Bill English (Bill English; there are many “English Bill” in the world, but the trace of this has been lost, his biographical information is scarce and fragmentary). one of the few photographs of Bill English can be found on the "mouse site" of the virtual Stanford Museum). Later, Jeff Rulifson (now the head of the VLSI Research Group at Sun Microsystems Laboratories) significantly improved the design of the mouse and developed software.

The computer had an infrared receiver connected to the mouse, but we could not move the mouse freely, because the moment the mouse lost contact with the receiver, the cursor stopped. Remembering that the mouse never stops moving because it has become impossible to keep it on the same line all the time.

Pointing stick, useful but no function

This little button was like a small scale joystick and it allowed you to move the cursor but didn't press or anything. It was fun to chat when the computer started, but over time it disappeared. On the other hand, another of the trackball systems that were previously instead of touch pad, a ball with buttons on the side. It was like taking a mechanical mouse and embedding it in the middle of a laptop, but of course it had the same problems as its ancestors: dirt and mechanism broke easily, so it ended up being replaced by a trackpad.

The archives of the Stanford University Virtual Museum contain an educational film from 1968, which demonstrates the first computer mouse and its amazing capabilities for that time. The next "mouse step" was taken in 1972 at the Xerox PARC Research Center in Palo Alto. An improved version of the Xerox mouse was created by Bill English, who joined PARC from Engelbart's lab: the two large wheels were replaced by a single bearing, whose movements were fixed by two rollers inside the mouse. The design of the case has become more reminiscent of a modern mouse.

Interesting, but not very ergonomic invention. It is software that allows us to use a webcam to control the cursor of our head. When you move your head, the webcam detects movement and the cursor moves. The main problem is that we will be forced to constantly move the head and neck with obvious problems that we can create.

On the other hand, it forces us to have a webcam that not everyone needs or that not all laptops, so this is not a real replacement. However, in order to break the spear with this method, it is very well thought out for people with disabilities who cannot move their limbs.

Until the beginning of the 80s of the XX century. the mouse was still an exotic device. In 1983, there were about 10 companies that made and sold various models of computer mice. Some of these companies were founded by former employees of the Engelbart laboratory or PARC.

By the way, a mouse in those days was not cheap. For example, mice from The Mouse House, based on designs and patents from Xerox, cost about $ 400 (plus about $ 300 for the interface board to which the mouse was attached). This was due to the fact that the mouse had a rather complex (and not very reliable) mechanical device.

Your future and the alternatives that will make you disappear

As time progresses and technology improves, the mouse evolves and alternatives emerge that seek to supplant this peripheral. While the vast majority of these are variations of the original mouse, the truth is that others are innovations that break the concept of a mouse and allow us to use things other than our hands.

Eye control or eye cursor control

This is a technology that has been with us for several years, but has not yet exploded. This technology uses high-speed cameras to track eye movement, pupil dilation and subject flicker, among other factors. Thus, we could say that our eye will act like the ball of old mechanical mice and blink like a click.

In short, the mouse, although it became an "officially recognized" peripheral device, but still remained the lot of researchers and developers of new computer technologies, but by no means ordinary users.

In 1979, Apple developed the Macintosh and Lisa PCs. It was decided to equip them with mice, and Steve Jobs ordered the creation of a mouse - unpretentious, reliable, with a cost price of about $ 20-30 - from the design company Hovey-Kelley Design. As a result, the mouse was significantly improved: instead of a small steel bearing in a complex mechanical suspension, a large rubber ball appeared, which freely rolled in the body. The system of wheels and unreliable electrical contacts has been replaced by optoelectronic converters and slotted wheels. In addition, it was decided to use a cast plastic case, in which all the necessary parts are clearly fixed in place. Thus, it was possible to abandon the precision machining of the case and manual assembly - now the mouse could be assembled by any worker on the conveyor.

The use of the voice is what we are used to in our mobile phones but computers are relatively new - and there is a lot of room for improvement. However, it is true that we can navigate the graphical environment of our computer using our voice and speak out loud which programs we want to open, what we want to write, and even perform basic actions such as shutting down the machine.

The design world belongs to graphic tablets

Do you remember when we talked about the sensitivity of mice and that it has to be high to do the exact thing? To solve this problem, especially in graphic design, appeared graphic tablets... They act like a checkmate, and a pencil acts like a mouse in much the same way. This way we will control the cursor with a pencil and this will follow the tracing we are drawing.

We can say that the computer mouse gained popularity thanks to Apple computers Macintosh - and it, in turn, was one of the reasons for the overwhelming success of the Macintosh PC in 1984

Engelbart's mouse also contributed greatly to the successful launch of Windows 95 in August 1995.

By the way, Microsoft introduced mouse support into the IBM PC back in 1983, but later (Billy, as always, is a little late, but he realizes in time ...) than Apple, he drew attention to the mouse's capabilities when working with "windowed" systems.

That way, if we are good shooters or good pulsations, we get the perfect shot because it is exactly the same as on paper. It is a technology that did not take long to get to the art departments of large companies and that, more and more often, it is more often found in the computers of walks around the house.

Translated as "no mouse". How can you use a mouse without a mouse? It is basically an infrared camera located on top of our laptop, capable of detecting the position of our fingerprints and the movement we make with them. This way we can use the mouse normally, but without the physical mouse.

About the name of the mouse also go around the computer legends - that it was proposed to be called, for example, a "beetle". These are legends and nothing more: in all interviews - when asked about the name - Engelbart invariably answered: “I don't know why we called it a mouse. This name stuck right away, and we never changed it. "

In 1968, Engelbart received a check for $ 10 thousand for his invention and the entire fee was made as the first contribution for a modest country house ... On December 1, 2000, Engelbart was awarded the National Medal of Technology (The National Medal of Technology) - one of the highest awards for scientists in the United States for achievements in the IT field.

Basically, the computer detects the movement that we make with our finger, and this movement means that the cursor is moving. All actions that we do with the mouse can be done by tapping with the finger fingers located on the sides of the device. However, as we can see, it seems difficult to push out the periphery that takes so long between us. The fact that the mouse ceases to exist, what will happen sooner or later, as it happens with everything, will mean a new learning process to replace the intuitive operation of this beloved peripheral.

Now Douglas Engelbart could be richer and more famous than Bill Gates, but, unlike the latter, he is not modest in the American way: he has deliberately "gone into the shadows", and few people remember him.

Of course, you cannot say about the inventor of the computer mouse that he is as poor as a church mouse, but he did not earn millions / billions from his invention ...

If you know of any invention that has passed us by, do not hesitate to let us know in the comments. He died today at his home in California at the age of 88. Engelbart was much more than the creator of this peripheral, indispensable for the vast majority of us. His ideas were fundamental to the application of hypertext or the development of graphical interfaces.

Today its prototype appears to be almost prehistoric. It could only move along two axes, not simultaneously - the cursor did not draw diagonals - because it used two independent wheels for each axis of movement. The solution, of course, was to replace the wheels with a ball, although curiously there are two designs that are considered precursors to this idea. The first is the development of military secrets before Engelbert's mouse, although it was never used commercially.

according to information from open sources

There are such objects, without which, literally, without hands. This device is one of them: a rare computer user does without it. This refers to the mouse manipulator (this is its official name), the purpose of which is to convert the user's mechanical movements into the movement of the pointer-cursor on the screen. Of course, you can get by with one keyboard or touchscreen devices with a touchscreen and a touchpad, and yet working at a computer without a mouse can be safely compared to riding a bicycle without pedals.

The mouse gets its name from the cable that connects it to the computer as an adhesive. Four years later, the mouse lost the ball. Optical mice have been around since the 1980s, but they need a dedicated mesh rug to work with. Each of us deals with computers on a daily basis, and many of us only do it with computer skills. The interfaces and tools are intuitive and we learn to get things done with them, even if we don't know how they work behind the scenes.

The secret lies in its usability. They are so easy to use that we don’t renovate them or their designs. But if we pay little attention, we find that there are curious details, forms and orders that condition the use that we give these devices, and this is because someone, for some reason, decided that this is so.

Why the mouse was called a mouse, there are two versions. Some believe that this name was given to her by the inventor of the American engineer Douglas Engelbart, since her wire looked like a tail (another name "beetle" associated with the shape of the body did not take root). Others believe that the English mouse "mouse" is an abbreviation for Manually Operated User Signal Encoder. Engelbart himself mentioned in an interview that the idea of such a device was born to him in the early 1950s, while studying at the University of Berkeley and working in the radar laboratory belonging to NACA (future NASA).

Today we answer another question: why is the mouse cursor a curled arrow? Douglas Engelbart, inventor of the mouse. Like many of these details, in order to find the answer, we must look back at an era in which user interfaces, to which we are so accustomed, were born today.

His obsession was to work on projects that benefited humanity, and in the late 1940s he began working on how to create the potential of computers to enhance the intelligence of humans. Douglas Engelbart next to the first mouse or mouse.

However, this idea was realized only in 1964, when Engelbart, engaged in the creation of the computer operating system oN-Line System (NLS), considered the concept of a window interface. A convenient manipulator was needed to indicate objects on the screen when working interactively with texts. Engelbart and his colleagues have tabulated the characteristics of all manipulators known at the beginning of the 1960s, including foot, knee, and so on.

During World War II, he worked as a radar system operator, so he figured out how to build a machine based on a cathode ray tube, in which the user can create graphical models of information and dynamically move from one file to another according to their interests.

For him computers would be the most fast way"To improve a person's ability to cope with a complex problem, to achieve the necessary compression to meet his needs and develop solutions." It was a breakthrough at the time. If the user wanted to perform an operation, he put a series of cards, the operator processed them and would bring the result hours or days later.

Angelbart's mouse.

D. Engelbart.

None of the existing ones satisfied the requirements of scientists, and then a rather awkward construction of a thick-walled wooden box with a tiny red button, an uncomfortable "tail" under the user's wrist, and large metal discs that turned as the device moved. The first mouse was assembled by engineer Bill English, and programs to demonstrate its capabilities were written by Jeff Rulifson.

NASA did not appreciate any operating system nor the manipulator that came with it. They were considered unnecessarily complex, besides Angel-bart never knew how to present his developments from the advantageous side, believing that competent people will figure it out anyway. In 1968, he still received a patent for "an indicator of x and y coordinates for a display system." This model was significantly different from the experimental model, it already had three buttons, but still it was still very far from the modern mouse.

After the failure of the NLS system, Engelbart's lab was closed. English moved on to the Xerox PARC R&D Center, where many of today's computer technologies saw the light of day, and continued to refine the mouse. In 1972 he received a patent for a new model. Two large disk English replaced one bearing, the movements of which were fixed by means of two rollers. The case design has also become more similar to the one we are used to.

B. English.

Three-button mouse. 1970s

The further fate of the mouse is closely related to by Apple... Its CEO, Steve Jobe, commissioned the development of a new model from a small company called Hovey-Kelley Design. The task was not easy: it was required to reduce the cost of the product by at least ten times, to make the mouse more reliable and easier to use. As a result, the steel bearing in the complex mechanical suspension was replaced by a rubber ball rolling freely in the housing. The expensive system of coding discs and unreliable electrical contacts has been replaced by simple optoelectronic converters and slotted wheels. In addition, a molded plastic case was proposed, in which all parts were fastened in place. Such a mouse was simply assembled on a conveyor belt. As a result, Apple got a reliable and inexpensive device, which was one of the reasons for the overwhelming success of the Macintosh computers that entered the market in 1984.

The mouse, commissioned by Jobs, was so successful that its operation continued for nearly two decades. Only in the second half of the 1990s, a new type of optical mouse was created in the Agilent Technologies research laboratory, which at that time belonged to Hewlett-Packard.

Ball mouse.

The first generation of optical mice was based on the use of various optocoupler sensor circuits with an indirect optical communication... All these sensors had a common drawback: on the working surface (rug) there had to be a special hatching of lines intersecting at a certain angle. For some models, shading was done with paints invisible in normal light. The inconveniences in operation were obvious: the mouse had to be kept in a strict orientation relative to the rug, and the rugs themselves quickly became dirty and became unusable. Replacing them was not easy: the hatching patterns of different manufacturers did not match, and mats were not produced separately from mice. In this regard, the model did not receive wide distribution.

1999 saw the launch of the production of second-generation optical mice based on a microcircuit containing a photosensor and an image processor. The reduction in price and miniaturization of computer technology made it possible to fit all this in one element. The photosensor periodically scanned the area of the working surface under the mouse. When changing the pattern, the processor determined in which direction and how far the mouse moved. The scanned area was illuminated by an LED (usually red).

Mouse pads provide a huge scope for designers' imagination: different shapes, colors, patterns ...

In 2004, Logitech introduced the MX 1000 mouse, which uses an infrared laser rather than an LED to illuminate a surface. The advantage of this technology is the high contrast of the surface image obtained on the sensor, which ensures better recognition. The downside is the need to scatter the laser beam in order to increase the captured surface area. This is achieved by installing additional lenses, and as a result, the cost increases.

Recently, many new models of manipulators have appeared on the market, including wireless mice in great demand. Communication between the mouse and a receiving device connected to the computer port can be done in two ways. Infrared contact has a significant disadvantage: any obstacle between the mouse and the sensor interferes with operation.

Logitech wireless mouse.

More convenient is radio communication using a Bluetooth connection, which allows you to abandon the receiving device, because most modern computers equipped with bluetooth adapters.

Induction manipulators became a kind of offshoot from the first generation optical mice. They come complete with a special mat, which, powered by a computer, creates a small electromagnetic field that induces an induction current in the manipulator coil. A special processor can track the movement of the arm in this magnetic field, transmitting the signal back to the computer. Such designs, however, are quite expensive, and hybrid mice are more often used, in which a conventional optical system is powered from an induction current.

The functionality of mice of different modifications can vary significantly. Angelbart once planned to equip the mouse with five buttons for all fingers, but for a long time mice were either three-button or one-button, like Apple. At the same time, the middle button was used very rarely and in the end was replaced by a scroll wheel (scrolling text). However, some manufacturers equip their mice with additional wheels and buttons. The design can include mini-joysticks and trackballs, rotating balls that provide scrolling in any direction.

In 2009, Apple introduced the Magic Mouse, the world's first multi-touch multi-touch mouse. Instead of controls, it uses touch touchpad, which allows using various gestures to press, scroll in any direction, various transitions and other actions. Gyroscopic mice also appeared, which recognize movement not only on the surface, but also in space, and mice that can be used as a remote control. remote control(e.g. MediaPlay from Logitech).

Apple mouse, model Pro Mouse.

The standard office mice have extravagant cousins designed for hobbyists computer games... These more sensitive devices have additional individually adjustable buttons and a non-slip outer surface. And the company Logitech made an attempt to implement the interactive mice of the iFeel line, which, with a light vibration, notified the owner about various events on the screen, but the new product did not inspire users.

Not just mice

Designing unusual mice has become a kind of competition for designers. So, designers from South Korea have developed an inflatable mouse JellyClick, the electronic filling of which fits on a small flexible plate. In the deflated state, the mouse can be rolled up to the size of this plate, and the cable with the USB connector can be passed through a special holder. And the round gel Jelfin mouse can be used as a stress ball to crumple and press, relieving stress from hard work.

One of the most unusual mouse models is Hunter Digital's NoHands Mouse, controlled ... by feet. The device consists of two pedals, one of which controls the movement of the pointer on the screen, and the second - pressing the button. The developer claims that his device is not only more convenient than conventional mice, but also allows you to get rid of carpal tunnel syndrome, which 70% of people who spend a lot of time at the computer have. It is also noted that when using NoHands Mous, both hands are free to operate the keyboard.

At one time it seemed that the progressive touch interface would take away the mouse's status as the primary coordinating input device. However, it turned out that with prolonged work, it becomes more tiring, since the hands have to be held in weight. Therefore, the mouse is not going to give up its positions, even though it is accused of provoking painful carpal tunnel syndrome. After all, new ergonomic models and a rational mode of operation allow you to use the mouse with greater performance and comfort.

11.10.2017