WEEK 2: From ARPAnet to Facebook: The Story of Cyberspace

February 03, 2022

WEEK 2: From ARPAnet to Facebook: The Story of Cyberspace

History of the computer mouse

How first mouse introduced to society

Douglas Engelbart of SRI company began developing the mouse in the early 1960s. In 1968, the first public demonstration of a mouse controlling a computer system took place. Before demonstrating the mouse, Engelbart and his colleague William considered some kind of mechanism for moving a pointer around the screen. There were various technologies in use or being evaluated for use at the time, including the light pen, joysticks, and so on. The writers, on the other hand, were seeking for the greatest and most efficient gadget.

In 1966, they approached NASA and said, "Let's test them and find out once and for all." The team worked with NASA to create a series of easy activities and timed a group of volunteers as they completed them using the various gadgets. For example, the computer may create an object at random on the screen and a pointer someplace else. They measured how long it took people to move the pointer to the item. It was rapidly evident that the mouse outperformed all of the others. Devices like the light pen just required too much time by having the user to continuously pick up the pointer and stretch all the way to the screen, which was quite tiring. That's how the mouse was chosen and demonstrated to society.

Modern optical mice

The earliest computer mouse design included two wheels: one for X-dimension and one for Y-dimension. Bill English, while working at Xerox PARC, converted it to the ball after several years. It was more convenient to use since the ball could move diagonally. Optical computer mice were introduced a few years later and are still widely used in the current world. There have been a few enhancements made to computer mice for the benefit of humans. Aside from left-click and right-click buttons, there are also side buttons, sometimes known as programmable buttons. It may be used in games to remember hotkeys and save time spent on the keyboard.