History of Computers - The Mouse
By Alec Winograd
The mouse is an input device moved by the computer's user to interact with the graphical user interface. It is the tool most people use to interact with the computer swiftly and efficiently. It was in fact named a mouse because "the tail came out the end" (Englebart)[1]
Contents
Overview
The computer mouse was invented in 1963 by Douglas Englebart, a researcher at the Stanford Research Institute who also introduced the first GUI (History of Computers - GUI). It was originally referred to as an X-Y Position Indicator for a System Display. [2] Thought invented in 1963, the computer mouse did not become widely used until the Apple Macintosh used it in 1984. When the mouse was first invented, there was no need for it because the early computer displays only showed text.[3]
Different Types of Mice
Roller Ball
The roller ball mouse is one of the early, widely used designs. A ball is placed on the bottom of the mouse between three rollers inside which are in the X and Y planes as well as one in a diagonal, thus all movements can be detected. As the ball moves between the rollers, the computer determines how fast and in what direction the rollers move. The computer then moves the pointer accordingly. [2]
Optical
The optical mouse was first introduced in 1999 by Agilent Technologies. The optical mouse shines an LED(light emitting diode) on the surface it is placed and takes thousand of pictures per second to determine speed and position by comparing the different textures in the pictures . Some benefits of and optical mouse are it does not use any moving parts(the mouse will not get stuck or sticky like a roller ball) and it provides a smoother, more precise movement of the pointer.[4] Until recently, Optical mice were more expensive than roller ball ones, but since the price of optical mice dropped to a similar range as Roller Ball ones optical mice have taken over almost all of new mouse sales.[5]
Joystick-Mouse
The use of joystick for a mouse was nowhere near as popular as the other two types, but thanks to the creation of systems devoted entirely to games, they met markets with surprising success.
Significance
The mouse is an extremely important addition to computers. Invented in 1963, it is the the primary way to interact with an optical interface such as Windows XP, the mouse was first used on the Macintosh. For those who do not know a lot about computers, it is the only way to efficiently interact with the computer. The mouse is essential and actively used in computer gaming. It allows for quick, easy interacting with the computer.
References
- ↑ http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa081898.htm
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 http://www.computerhope.com/help/mouse.htm
- ↑ http://www.howstuffworks.com/mouse.htm
- ↑ http://www.tech-faq.com/optical-mouse.shtml
- ↑ see tracking method data
