Invented by : Douglas Engelbart
Invented in year : 1964
Computer Mouse is a hand-operated electronic pointing device that controls the coordinates of a cursor on a computer screen as it is moved around on a pad or a surface. The mouse's motion typically translates into the motion of a pointer on a display, which allows for fine control of a Graphical User Interface. It functions by detecting two-dimensional motion relative to its supporting surface. Physically, a mouse consists of an object held under one of the user's hands, with one or more buttons. It sometimes features other elements, such as "wheels", which allow the user to perform various system-dependent operations, or extra buttons or features can add more control or dimensional input. Utilizing a mouse a user has the ability to perform various functions such as opening a program or file. Its name is derived from its shape, which looks a bit like a mouse, its connecting wire that one can imagine to be the mouse's tail, and the fact that one must make it scurry along a surface.
There are different types of Computer Mice
- Cordless
- Footmouse
- Glidepoint
- IntelliMouse
- J mouse
- Joystick
- Mechanical
- Optical
- Touchpad
- Trackball
- TrackPoint
- Wheel mouse
History of Computer Mouse
The computer mouse was invented by a US inventor, Douglas Engelbart. As a graduate student in electrical engineering at UC Berkeley after World War II Doug Engelbart began to imagine ways in which all sorts of information could be displayed on the screens of cathode ray tubes like the ones he had used as a radar technician during the war, and he dreamed of "flying" through a variety of information spaces. For two years beginning in 1959 at SRI in Menlo Park, Engelbart was provided the opportunity to pursue his visionary ideas further into the formulation of a theoretical framework for the co-evolution of human skills, knowledge, and organizations.
In 1964, the first prototype computer mouse was made to use with a graphical user interface (GUI), 'windows'. Engelbart received a patent for the wooden shell with two metal wheels (computer mouse U.S. Patent # 3,541,541) in 1970, describing it in the patent application as an "X-Y position indicator for a display system." "It was nicknamed the mouse because the tail came out the end," Throughout the '60s and '70s, while working at his own lab (Augmentation Research Center, Stanford Research Institute), Engelbart dedicated himself to creating a hypermedia groupware system called NLS (for oNLine System). Most of his accomplishments, including the computer mouse and windows, were part of NLS. In 1968, a 90-minute, staged public demonstration of a networked computer system was held at the Augmentation Research Centre - the first public appearance and world debut of the mouse, windows, hypermedia with object linking and addressing, and video teleconferencing. Douglas Engelbart was awarded the 1997 Lemelson-MIT Prize of $500,000, the world's largest single prize for invention and innovation. In 1998, he was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.
Development in the Invention of Computer Mouse
The computer mouse has been through various technological advancements till now, which include physical changes as well as modifications and enhancements in the features. Bill English, builder of Engelbart's original mouse invented the ball mouse in 1972 while working for Xerox PARC. The ball-mouse replaced the external wheels with a single ball that could rotate in any direction. It came as part of the hardware package of the Xerox Alto computer. Perpendicular chopper wheels housed inside the mouse's body chopped beams of light on the way to light sensors, thus detecting in their turn the motion of the ball. This variant of the mouse resembled an inverted trackball and became the predominant form used with personal computers throughout the 1980s and 1990s
In 1984, Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple, Inc., re-designed the computer mouse for his Macintosh computers which are still used nowdays. He constructed a similar design out of affordable materials and lightweight plastic which was first packaged with the Apple II Macintosh series. This launch gave the mouse a household status.
The modern mice have shed their tails and opted for a sleeker, cordless style. Wireless, LED, and ergonomically designed mice are just some of the thousands of designs available to consumers. Developed by Agilent Technologies and introduced to the world in late 1999, the optical mouse actually uses a tiny camera to take 1,500 pictures every second. Able to work on almost any surface, the mouse has a small, red light-emitting diode (LED) that bounces light off that surface onto a complimentary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) sensor.
Role of in the Improvement Of Human Life
- A Mouse became a better option for fine movements and adjustments than most of the alternatives.
- The device made computer operation easy and hassle-free.With additional buttons and a scroll wheel functions like opening, closing and minimizing software, grouping, moving and deleting files and even image editing with software like Photoshop became piece of cake
- There are many user-friendly functions being introduced in the 'mice' manufactured today, thereby enhancing their usability.
