Which is the computer mouse History?

Who invented the computer mouse?

The computer mouse was invented by Dr. Douglas Engelbart.

Which is the computer mouse history?

Dr. Douglas Engelbart first demonstrated the device called, at the time, an “X-Y Position Indicator for a Display System” at a computer conference in San Francisco in 1968. Engelbart made a small, brick-like mechanism with one button on top and two wheels on the underside. The two wheels detected horizontal and vertical movement, and the unit was somewhat difficult to maneuver. The unit was linked to the computer by a cable so the motion signals could be electrically transmitted to the computer for viewing on the monitor.

By 1973, Xerox‘s Palo Alto Research Center, or PARC, developed the Alto personal computer. The wheels on the mouse’s undercarriage had been replaced by a single, free-rolling ball; and two more buttons (for a total of three) had been added to the top. The device was called both a mouse and a pointing device, and Xerox combined it with its Alto computer, one of the first personal computers. The Alto had a graphical user interface (GUI); that is, the user pointed to icons, or picture symbols, and lists of operations called menus and clicked on them to cause the computer to open a file, print, and perform other functions. This method of operating the computer was later adapted by Macintosh and Windows operating systems.

Apple Computer released the first commercial computer that used a mouse in 1983 with the Apple Lisa. However, this first try was a little too expensive for most businesses, and Apple’s second try, 1984’s Macintosh, was far more successful (and much cheaper). It showed the world that the mouse could be used to make computing easier for the general public. Microsoft, the maker of MS-DOS, the dominant operating system for PCs, would follow up with its own GUI the next year.

Improvements were added to make sensors less prone to collecting dust, to make scrolling easier through an added wheel on the top, and to make the mouse cordless by using radio-frequency signals (borrowed from garage door openers) or infrared signals (adapted from television or remote controls). Today, practically every desktop computer made uses a mouse.