The computer mouse is celebrating its 40th anniversary today after first
being unveiled by Douglas Engelbart at the Fall Joint Computer Conference (FJCC)
in 1968.
The original mouse had two wheels set at right angles to each other and the
computer plotted the distance each wheel moved. Then in 1972 Xerox PARC came up
with a ball mouse, the design for which remained popular for decades.
Englebart developer the mouse while at the Stanford Research Institute (SRI),
one of the largest research institutes in the world.
“Doug Engelbart once said, ‘the better we get, the better we get at getting
better.’ That concept, combined with his creation of perhaps the most innovative
interactive computing tools ever developed, has been a personal inspiration to
me,” said Curt Carlson, Ph.D., SRI president.
“Doug and his team exemplified the disciplined approach to innovation used by
SRI researchers today. By focusing on a very important problem, capturing the
genius of the team, and continuously improving their tools, they accomplished a
tour de force unlike any other in the field. Silicon Valley, the computing
industry, and society are indebted to Doug and his team.”
The first mouse was made of wood and had a single button, a design copied by
Apple until recently, and was used to highlight text on a written document.
source : http://www.vnunet.com/