A modern computer is generally impossible to imagine without this gadget, which greatly simplifies the process of managing a PC. But only a few users know in what year the computer mouse was invented, and who is its creator. Let's remember how this gadget appeared, and what it was like from the very beginning.

What year was the computer mouse invented?

December 9, 1968 - it was on this day that the world saw the prototype of all modern computer mice. Of course, it was just a prototype. However, until this time, there were special computerized radars and manipulators, which became the basis for the creation of modern mice.

The very first prototype appeared in the early 50s. Then, for the Cossack of the Canadian Navy, computerized radars with the first graphical interface were created. They required a special cursor positioning system, which was used as a simple device based on a smooth ball. It was called the trackball, and it was the first step towards the creation of a modern computer mouse.

A little later, in 1951, Douglas Engelbart (creator) was already thinking about developing a manipulator, and in 1955 he took part in the manufacture of radar systems. In particular, he developed systems for displaying information in the framework of the NASA computer program. According to Douglas himself, he, together with his team, created a table with the parameters and capabilities of all modern manipulators at that time, determined their functions and the required parameters, which did not yet exist. During research in 1963, the idea was formed to create a display pointer that would move in an X-Y coordinate system.

First prototype

In 1964, based on the development of Douglas Engelbart, Stanford Research Institute graduate student Billy English assembled the first prototype of a computer mouse. At the same time, a program was written to demonstrate its capabilities.

It was a large, square, brown wooden box with a large red button at the very top. The cord was located in the front, but over time it was moved back. So he practically did not interfere. Inside there was a plane displacement sensor, which consisted of two metal discs. They were located perpendicular to each other: one rotated when the device moved to the side, and the other was responsible for moving forward or backward. Given this design, the mouse could not be moved diagonally, it could move forward or backward.

Speaking about the year in which the computer mouse was invented, it is worth clarifying that some people rightly believe that this invention was "born" in 1946. After all, it was in this year that the prototype device of all modern computer gadgets appeared.

First mouse view

A little later, on December 9, 1968, Douglas Engelbart presented a more advanced modification of this device to a group of engineers. It worked as a manipulator for the OS oN-Line System. The mouse had three buttons, although Douglas Engelbart himself claimed that he wanted to make 5 buttons (for each finger). And although at first it was planned to call the device a "beetle", later the name "mouse" stuck - because of the thick connecting cable, reminiscent of the tails of a rodent.

So, if it is logical to calculate in what year the computer mouse was invented, then we can talk about two dates: 1964 and 1968. In 1970, the inventor received a patent, which recorded the authorship of the manipulator, based on the use of two perpendicularly spaced wheels. Moreover, the very principle of the manipulator was not patented.

In 1972, this research was actively pursued at Xerox PARC, which significantly improved such a gadget. In particular, then the discs were replaced with a small ball or rollers. This is how new types of computer mice appeared.

In 1979, Xerox created the Xerox Alto computer, which was a research prototype and was not included in the series. But it was equipped with a computer mouse and had a graphical interface in the form of a desktop. Several thousand of these computers have been created.

The appearance of a rubber ball inside the case

In 1979, Stanford Research Institute (where Engelbart's team worked) sold the Apple mouse project for $ 40,000. After licensing such an invention, Apple commissioned Hovey-Kelley Design to improve the mouse. As a result, instead of a steel bearing, she received a comfortable rubber ball that rolled freely in the housing. The introduction of this innovation has eliminated the complex system of coding wheels and electrical contacts. Instead, simple optoelectronic converters and slotted wheels were implemented.

Further development

In 1983, a dozen companies were already manufacturing and selling different types of computer mice. In the same year, Apple released the one-button mouse Lisa. It was designed for Apple in downtown Palo Alto. Engineers were able to create a cheap modification of this device, making it compact and collapsible. You could take out the ball from the inside, clean it of dust. This mouse was included with the Apple-Macintosh home computer.

In 1987, Douglas Engelbart's patent expired, and only in 1998 the merits of this inventor were officially recognized. Engelbart himself received the $ 500,000 Lemelson-MIT Prize.

Since 1999, optical mice have begun to appear that work on any surface. Many models released after 2000 have survived to this day. Moreover, some of them are used successfully.

Finally

The history of the creation of a computer mouse is short. In about 30 years, it was possible to create a high-tech gadget from a primitive and very expensive device, which is cheap today. As for modern models, they are radically different from the first computer mouse. All that remains of it is the idea of ​​positioning the cursor on the graphical interface.

Now you know who invented the computer mouse. In this regard, no one has any doubts. But as for the date of creation, there are 2 opinions:

1. In 1964, a prototype of this gadget (designed by Engelbart) was created by a graduate student at the Stanford Research Institute.
2. In 1968, Engelbart himself presented a working, improved version of the mouse.

Here, everyone decides for himself when the first computer mouse appeared. However, it is generally accepted that she first saw the world on December 9, 1968.

Today, the mouse is an essential input device for all modern computers. But more recently, everything was different. Computers did not have a graphical command and data could only be entered using the keyboard. And when the very first one appeared, you will be surprised to see what kind of evolution this familiar object has gone through.

Who Invented the First Computer Mouse?

He is considered the father of this device. He was one of those scientists who try to bring science closer even to ordinary people and make progress available to everyone. He invented the first computer mice in the early 1960s in his laboratory at Stanford Research Institute (now SRI International). The first prototype was built in 1964 and was named the "XY Position Indicator for a Display System" in a 1967 patent application for this invention. But the official document under the number 3541541 was received only in 1970.

But is it that simple?

It would seem that everyone knows who created the first computer mouse. But trackball (ball drive) technology was first used much earlier by the Canadian Navy. Back in 1952, the mouse was a simple bowling ball attached to a sophisticated hardware system that could sense the movement of the ball and mimic its movement on the screen. But the world found out about this only years later - after all, it was a secret military invention that was never patented or tried to be mass produced. 11 years later, it was already known, but D. Engelbart recognized it as ineffective. At that moment, he did not yet know how to connect his mouse vision and this device.

How did the idea come about?

The main ideas about the invention first came to D. Engelbart's mind in 1961, when he was at a conference on computer graphics and pondered the problem of increasing the efficiency of interactive computing. It occurred to him that by using two small wheels that move on the tabletop (one wheel turns horizontally and the other vertically) the computer can track the combinations of their rotation and, accordingly, move the cursor on the display. To some extent, the principle of operation is similar to a planimeter - a tool used by engineers and geographers to measure distances on a map or drawing, etc. Then the scientist wrote this idea down in his notebook for future use.

Step into the Future

A little over a year later, D. Engelbart received a grant from the institute to launch his research initiative called "Improving the Human Mind". Under it, he imagined a system where knowledge workers, working at high-performance computer stations with interactive displays, have access to a vast online information space. With it, they can collaborate on critical issues. But this system sorely lacked a modern input device. After all, in order to comfortably interact with objects on the screen, you need to be able to quickly select them. NASA became interested in the project and provided a grant to design a computer mouse. The first version of this device is similar to the modern one except in size. In parallel, the team of researchers came up with other devices that made it possible to control the cursor by pressing the feet on the pedal or moving the knee of a special clamp under the table. These inventions never caught on, but the joystick, invented at the same time, was later improved and is still used.

In 1965, D. Engelbart's team published a final report on their research and various methods for selecting objects on the screen. There were even volunteers who participated in the testing. It happened something like this: the program showed objects in different parts of the screen and volunteers tried to click on them with different devices as quickly as possible. Based on the test results, the first computer mice were clearly superior to all other devices and were included as standard equipment for further research.

What did the first computer mouse look like?

It was made of wood and was the first input device to fit in the user's hand. Knowing the principle of its operation, you should no longer be surprised at what the first computer mouse looked like. Under the body there were two metal wheel discs, a diagram. There was only one button, and the wire went under the wrist of the person holding the device. The prototype was assembled by one of the members of D. Engelbart's team, his assistant William (Bill) English. Initially, he worked in a different laboratory, but soon joined the input device project, developed and implemented the design of a new device.

By tilting and swinging the mouse, you can draw perfectly straight vertical and horizontal lines.

In 1967, the body became plastic.

Where did the name come from?

Nobody really remembers who was the first to call this device a mouse. It was tested by 5-6 people, it is possible that one of them voiced the similarity. Moreover, the world's first computer mouse had a tail-wire at the back.

Further improvements

Of course, the prototypes were far from ideal.

In 1968 in San Francisco at a computer conference D. Engelbart presented the improved first computer mice. They had three buttons, in addition to them, the keyboard was equipped with a device for the left hand.

The idea was this: the right hand works with the mouse, highlighting and activating objects. And the left one conveniently calls up the necessary commands using a small keyboard with five long keys, like a piano. At the same time, it became clear that the wire at the operator's hand gets confused when using the device, and that it needs to be brought to the opposite side. Of course, the left-hand attachment did not take root, but Douglas Engelbart used it on his computers until his last days.

Continued work on improvement

In the further stages of the development of the mouse, other scientists entered the scene. The most interesting thing is that D. Engelbart never received royalties from his invention. Since he patented it as a specialist at the Stanford Institute, it was the institute that controlled the rights to the device.

So, in 1972, Bill English replaced the wheels with a trackball, which made it possible to recognize the movement of the mouse in any direction. Since he was then working at Xerox PARC, this new product became part of the advanced Xerox Alto system by that standards. It was a minicomputer with a graphical interface. Therefore, many people mistakenly believe that the first in Xerox.

The next round of development took place with the mouse in 1983, when Apple came into play. The entrepreneur calculated the cost of mass production of the device, which was approximately $ 300. It was too expensive for the average consumer, so the decision was made to simplify the mouse design and replace the three buttons with one. The price dropped to $ 15. While this decision is still considered controversial, Apple is in no hurry to change its iconic design.

The first computer mice were rectangular or square in shape, the anatomical rounded design did not appear until 1991. It was introduced by Logitech. In addition to an interesting shape, the novelty was wireless: communication with a computer was provided using radio waves.

The first optical mouse appeared in 1982. For her work, she needed a special mat with a printed mesh. And while the ball in the trackball quickly became dirty and inconvenient in that it had to be cleaned regularly, the optical mouse was not commercially viable until 1998.

What's next?

As you already know, "tailed" ones with a trackball are practically not used anymore. Technology and ergonomics of computer mice are constantly being improved. And even today, when devices with touchscreens are becoming more and more popular, their sales are not falling.

The Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) later downsized and replaced the wheels with a ball in a bearing pivot, the rotation of which was sensed by rollers with a set of contacts. This mouse became one of the input elements of the "computer of the future" Alto, and was seen by Apple founder Steve Jobs, who visited PARC in 1979 to get acquainted with technical innovations that could be used in the next computers of the company.

Jobs liked the concept, but he didn't. The Alto mouse cost $ 400, another 300 cost the interface to connect it, the dimensions resembled a brick, and there was no need to talk about usability. So Jobs approached the young company Hovey-Kelley Design, founded by two Stanford alumni, with the task of ... reinventing everything. The task looked almost impossible - young Hovey-Kelley engineers had heard of such a device for the first time in their lives, while it was required to make it simpler, more reliable and unpretentious to the surface (Jobs put forward the requirement of normal operation on jeans) and, most importantly, in more than ten (!) times cheaper - from $ 10 to $ 35.

Dean Hovey, the company's chief executive, assembled the first crude prototype within days from a plastic oil can and a deodorant ball. This simple design formed the basis for further work. Electronics engineers Jim Sachs and Rixon Sun tried a lot of ways to read the revolutions of a ball, from embedding magnets in it to applying a special striped pattern, and settled on two rollers with rotation sensors in the form of perforated discs, which were read using LEDs and phototransistors. Jim Yurchenko, in charge of mechanics, took on the daunting task of putting it all together in one compact case, and also made the device reliable and insensitive to dust and dirt by introducing a dust-collecting pad into the design and making the ball easily removable (for cleaning the rollers). Then it was Douglas Dayton's turn, who was in charge of the exterior and ergonomics of the rodent at Hovey-Kelley. At that time, no one imagined how users would hold such a manipulator. Palm? With your fingertips? How to handle the gearshift lever? How is the sanding block? What shape should the mouse be - oval, triangular, square?

After the approval of the form, the question of the number of buttons came to the fore. Engelbart used three buttons at one time, because he could not figure out how to place more. Dayton also favored three buttons, while Apple engineers considered two. The dispute was resolved by Jobs himself, who relied on simplicity and limited the number of buttons to one, and this became the Apple standard for many years. And the mouse itself is an example of an input device that has survived since the appearance of the Apple Lisa computer in 1981 to the present day.

The history of the emergence, development and improvement of manipulators is not as simple and short as it might seem at first glance: for example, an ordinary computer mouse was invented almost half a century ago.

Since then, the entire civilized world has been closely following her reincarnations. As for the first keyboards, their concept appeared long before the advent of the personal computer (remember mechanical typewriters). However, before proceeding with the presentation of the history of these devices, let's define the terminology: by manipulators we mean the following water devices that have ever existed: mouse, keyboard, trackball, trackpoint (pointing stick), graphics tablet (digitizer), light pen, touchpad , touch screen, Roller Mouse, joystick, Kinect and other game manipulators.

How the keyboard changed

The first computers, dating from the late 1940s, supported information input using both punched cards and teletypes. Later, with the development of computers, punched cards began to be perceived as a relic of the past, and they were replaced by more advanced methods of storing information, such as magnetic tapes.

In the 60s, with the advent of the first video terminals, which made it possible to display input and output information in real time, text input finally became the main way of human-computer communication. Of course, in those days there were no graphical interfaces yet, and a primitive keyboard was enough to work in text mode.

As mentioned in the introduction, the first keyboards appeared long before personal computers: their history began with the development of mechanical typewriters in 1868. This method of entering information was prompt and convenient, as a result of which it quickly took root. The next step was teletypes, which replaced the telegraph at the beginning of the last century, and then electric typewriters and the first computers appeared. Thus, keyboards were transformed from mechanical to electronic. The world's first graphical computer developed at Xerox PARC was the Xerox Alto.

In the first personal computers, the keyboard was part of the case, but later, with the advent of the IBM PC concept, they began to be produced as independent devices, and later their wireless counterparts appeared.

How was the connection between the input device and the operating system of the personal computer carried out? At first, optical interfaces were used for communication, but they caused a lot of inconvenience due to the fact that they required a line of sight between the receiver and the transmitter, failed in bright light, and later they were supplanted by radio interfaces.

In addition to standard keyboards, today are known gaming keyboards completely redesigned for left-handed play (Thrustmaster Tacticalboard and Belkin SpeedPad Nostromo n50), game-changing keyboards (Zboard), recessed keyboards (DataHand System), chord keyboards, backlit keyboards, and more. Artemy Lebedev Studio developed Optimus project- a keyboard in which the current value of each key is displayed through a small built-in LCD display, which displays exactly what it is currently controlling. "Optimus" is simultaneously suitable for any keyboard layouts - Cyrillic, Ancient Greek, Georgian, Arabic, can display notes, numbers, special characters, HTML codes, mathematical functions, images, etc. The configurator program allows you to program each button to play a sequence of characters, as well as edit the image for each separate layout.

A similar keyboard was once patented in the United States by Apple.

Among the promising areas of development in recent years, one can single out adaptation of text input for portable devices. On phones and smartphones, traditional keyboards are compressed to twelve keys, each of which is responsible for a mass of characters. To speed up typing, systems like T9 (introduced in 1996) are used, capable of choosing the right word from a dictionary. Of the full-size touchscreen keyboards, the Latin QWERTY keyboard layout is currently the most popular. Its name comes from the 6 left characters of the top row of the layout. On the basis of such a keyboard, layouts for many other languages ​​of the world have been created today. The Shark (Shorthand-Aided Rapid Keyboarding) experimental system, developed in 2004 by IBM, was a form of shorthand that allowed words to be entered into a mobile device by marking them letter by letter on a virtual keyboard. For example, to enter the word word, the user did not press four separate virtual keys with the stylus, but simply drew a straight line from the letter "w" to the letter "d". Such a system allowed typing on a virtual keyboard without taking the stylus off the screen, however, the massive introduction of such extensions did not begin.

Another variety is projection keyboard... The idea of ​​implementing a virtual keyboard without wires and buttons was born about a decade ago within the walls of the Israeli company Developer VKB Inc. Presented at CeBIT 2002 by Siemens Procurement Logistics Services, the first virtual keyboard without a single mechanical or electrical element was the first practical implementation of this idea. The creators of the laser interface of the virtual keyboard assumed that their development in practice could be integrated into any mobile device - phone, laptop, tablet PC, and even sterile medical equipment. However, during the entire existence of the concept, only one model has been developed (iTECH Bluetooth Virtual Keyboard), which is a small box from which an image of the keyboard is projected onto any smooth surface using a laser, and pressing of the virtual keys is recorded by a special infrared sensor.

Evolution of the computer mouse

The history of the computer mouse begins with the appearance trackball.

The device was developed for the needs of the military, but the customers were unhappy with the sample provided, and they forgot about the invention until the appearance of the first laptop models, but in these devices, the use of trackballs was subsequently abandoned.

Functionally, the trackball is an inverted mechanical (ball-point) mouse. The ball is located on top or on the side, and the user can rotate it with his palm or fingers without moving the device body. Despite the external differences, the trackball and the mouse are structurally similar - when moving, the ball rotates a pair of rollers or, in a more modern version, it is scanned by optical movement sensors (like in an optical mouse).

Currently, trackballs are not used in home and office computers, however, they have found application in industrial and military computing installations, ultrasound diagnostic devices, where the user has to work in conditions of lack of space and in the presence of vibration. In general, the first computer mouse (in the functionality we are used to) was invented in 1964 by Douglas Karl Engelbart, an employee of the Stanford Research Institute. The information input device looked like a wooden box with a button that moved around the table on wheels, and, counting their turns and turns, entered information into the computer and thus controlled the movement of the cursor on the screen.

Originally mouse was intended by no means for personal computers, but for more accurate control of the point on the radar screen. Note that Engelbart was not alone in creating the manipulator: he was the author of the idea and developer of the concept, but the device itself was not technically manufactured by him. The first mouse was made by the hands of graduate student Bill English, and Jeff Rulifson, who later joined them, significantly improved the design of the mouse and developed software for it.

Subsequently, the creators of the first mouse received a grant for the serial production of their devices, and at the end of 1968 the first full-fledged mouse appeared, which, unlike the prototype, had not one button, but three.

The next stage in the evolution of computer mice dates back to the 70s of the twentieth century, when engineers began to think about the convenience of using computers for complex technical calculations. So, the first patented computer, which included a mouse, was the Xerox 8010 Star Information System minicomputer, presented to the general public in 1981, and already in 1983 Apple released its own model of a one-button mouse for the Lisa computer. this device configuration has been maintained for many years. The computer mouse gained wide popularity due to its use in Apple Macintosh computers and later in Windows OS for IBM PC compatible computers.

Soon, the GUI (Graphic User Interface) pushed text I / O into the realm of specific tasks. By this time, instead of inconvenient wheels, mice began to be equipped with balls.

The next stage in the evolution of computer mice was the emergence optical manipulators, and later, since the creation in 2004 of the Logitech MX1000 mouse (Fig. 6), their laser wireless analogs with optical and radio interfaces, as well as with induction power supply (devices manufactured by A4Tech).

Another version of this manipulator is 3D mouse capable of working in three-dimensional space.

As conceived by the designers, the use of such devices will enable the user to move freely in three-dimensional space, which can be useful both in games and when working with three-dimensional graphics. The manipulator automatically adjusts to the used 3D editor (AutoCAD, Autodesk Inventor, Autodesk 3ds Max). Clicking, moving, rotating or tilting, zooming and rotating the model can all be done at the same time. The main element of a 3D mouse is a motion controller, which has the same operating principle in all models. Six degrees of freedom (three linear and three angular) provide movement and rotation of the model in all directions. In this case, you can turn off the degrees of freedom, invert the axes, swap the functions Zoom in / out and Up / Down. The travel / rotation speed depends on the force applied to the motion controller. Force sensitivity is configurable via the settings panel.

Noteworthy and graphic tablets(devices from Wacom, Genius, etc.), which are especially appreciated by artists and architects working on a computer. No other manipulator allows you to achieve such a believable imitation of a pencil or brush. The pen of graphic tablets is designed to compensate for the "clumsiness" of the mouse in artistic matters. For example, the system from Genius WizardPad distinguishes 256 degrees of pressure on the pen. Tablet resolution reaches 2540 lines per inch, and its working surface area is 4-5 inches.

The tablet has a serial interface. The device is supplied with drivers for most Microsoft operating systems, including DOS and Windows 3.xx / 95.

Notebook manipulators can be distinguished into a separate group. As you know, mice are not always suitable for working on the road, and trackballs are quite difficult to integrate into the slim body of the device. Here they are replaced by touchpads(TouchPad - touch panel).

The touchpad was invented in 1988 by George Gerfeide. Later, Apple Corporation licensed his project and, starting in 1994, began to use it in PowerBook laptops. Since then, the touchpad has become the most common cursor control device for notebook computers. Touchpads work by measuring the capacitance of a finger or measuring the capacitance between sensors. Capacitive sensors are located along the vertical and horizontal axes of the touchpad, which allows you to determine the position of your finger with the desired accuracy. The TouchWriter is a kind of touchpads; it differs in that it is capable of perceiving pressing with both fingers and any objects (pencil base, stylus).

Previously, laptop manufacturers used instead of touchpads mini joysticks (trackpoints) located in the center of the keyboard and trackballs. Trackpoint - Pointing stick was invented by research scientist Ted Selker, and subsequently registered by IBM under the TrackPoint trademark. Traditionally, such a joystick has had a replaceable rubber casing, which is made of a rough material for the convenience of the user. The cursor is controlled by determining the applied force (hence the name strain gauge joystick) by using a pair of resistive strain gauges (resistive strain gauges). The cursor movement vector is determined according to the applied force. The main disadvantage of the device was cursor drift, which required frequent recalibration. Therefore, over time, its implementation was abandoned.

In order for the use of the manipulators built into the laptop not to become a serious stress for the user, manufacturers have invented all the new devices. One such solution was the Mouse Tablet kit (model MT-604C) from WinPal Electronics. It consisted of a graphics tablet, an electronic pen, and a three-button, ballless mouse. Note that the kit consumed impressive amounts of power during use, and the Mouse Tablet comes with an impressive package of drivers and software. The change of the active device (that is, the transition from the pen to the mouse and vice versa) was carried out by pressing any button of the corresponding manipulator. Say, when you press the tip of the pen, the latter becomes active; the same effect is achieved by pressing the left mouse button. The graphics tablet and pen could work in both direct interaction with the monitor screen (absolute coordinator) and indirect (relative). The Mouse Tablet driver menu also allowed you to calibrate the pen and mouse, set the area of ​​the working surface, and adjust the pen-mouse according to the user's preferences.

Significant disadvantages of the device were: 1. Due to the use of electromagnetic technology in the Mouse Tablet, the tablet could be affected by interference from other elements of the computer (for example, a monitor). In addition, he could not stand temperatures above 40 ° C, so a hot cup of coffee on the table could easily be "fatal" for him. Another serious drawback: incompatibility with standard manipulators supported by Windows: if you entered safe mode, the Mouse Tablet stopped functioning, and, moreover, it could drag the keyboard along, which significantly slowed down the process of work.

Technologies of our days

As for modern technologies, we note that recently users prefer touch screens, created specifically to reduce the size of the PDA. They can be found in pocket computers, smartphones, Tablet PCs, and all kinds of terminals. One of the main disadvantages of touchpads has always been the lack of tactile feedback, making them impossible to use blindly. However, the US company Immersion has come up with a solution and developed TouchSense, which adds feedback to sensitive screens, which was first demonstrated on a 19-inch screen in 2005, and its long-awaited transfer to mobile devices is planned for 2010-2011.

The touch screen is often operated using stylus, device, made in the form of a small thin pen with a special tip. The ancestor of the stylus is light pen(English light pen).

Externally, the device looked like a ballpoint pen or pencil connected by a wire to one of the computer's I / O ports. Typically, a light pen had one or more buttons that were pressed by the hand holding the pen. Data entry using a light pen was carried out by drawing lines with a pen on the surface of the monitor screen. A photocell was installed in the tip of the pen, which registered the change in the brightness of the screen at the point with which the pen touched, due to which the corresponding software calculated the position "indicated" by the pen on the screen. The buttons on the light pen were used in the same way as the buttons on a mouse - to perform additional operations and enable additional modes.

Thanks to touch screens, technology has developed multitouch(eng. multi-touch) is a function of touch input systems that simultaneously determine the coordinates of two or more touch points. Multi-touch screens allow several users to work with the device simultaneously, as well as determine the coordinates of touch points with maximum accuracy. Correct recognition of all touch points increases the capabilities of the touch input system interface. The most popular forms of multitouch devices are mobile devices (iPhone, iPad, iPod touch), multitouch tables (ex: Microsoft Surface), and multitouch walls.

The use of technology began with touchscreens to control electronic devices. The creators of the first synthesizers and electronic instruments, Hugh Le Caine and Bob Moog experimented with using capacitive touch sensors to control the sounds made by their instruments.

A multi-touch table is a pedestal with a glass surface-table top that serves as a screen for a projector located in its base, which can display various multimedia content: presentations, videos, slideshows. Communication between the user and the system is provided by an interactive film (touch screen) glued to the glass surface, and with the help of special software, it allows you to manage content.

In contrast to touch screens, a multitouch table gives wider and more flexible control over objects: the user can use multi-touch functions, as well as change multimedia objects, for example, enlarge, reduce, rotate, and move images. Another advantage of multitouch tables is the ability for several users to work simultaneously within a single system, managing a large amount of information.

A separate group should include game manipulators... These include joysticks, gamepads, computer wheels and steering wheels, dance platforms, kinect, etc.

It is interesting that some modern game manipulators have a feedback effect (Force Feedback technology). The first such devices appeared in the 90s in the United States, when the Immersion company, having received an order from government agencies to create a simulator for surgeons, decided to try to transfer one of the created technologies to the game space. The military became interested in the invention. Subsequently, the US War Department acquired a batch of new manipulators for training pilots. So in early 1996 Immersion released the first serial Force-FX joystick.

After that, active mass production of game wheels, steering wheels, etc. began. Another interesting technology in the field of game manipulators has become gyroscopes, with the help of which it is possible to determine the change in the position of the joystick in space. Their mass adoption began with the next-generation Nintendo Wii and Sony PlayStation 3 consoles.

An interesting modern input device is the Kinect (formerly Project Natal).

A controller-less game for the Xbox 360 is developed by Microsoft. Based on the addition of a peripheral to the Xbox 360 game console, Kinect allows the user to interact with it without the aid of a game controller through verbal commands, body postures, and displayed objects or drawings. The device was first presented on June 1, 2009 at E³, where Microsoft demonstrated several techniques for using the technology: Ricochet - Breakout-like game that uses the whole body to hit balls to break blocks and Paint Party - in which the player can throw paint on the wall ... The player can choose the color by voice and use body poses to create stencils. Visually, the Kinect looks like this: it is a horizontally located box on a small round base, which is placed above or below the display. Its dimensions are approximately 23 cm long and 4 cm high.

The device consists of two depth sensors, a color video camera and a microphone array. Proprietary software provides full 3D recognition of body movements, facial expressions and voice. The microphone array allows the Xbox 360 to localize the sound source and suppress noise, which makes it possible to speak without headphones and an Xbox Live microphone. The depth sensor consists of an infrared projector combined with a monochrome CMOS sensor, which allows the Kinect sensor to acquire a three-dimensional image in any natural light. The depth range and project program automatically calibrate the transducer based on playing and environmental conditions such as furniture in a room.

How manipulators will evolve in the near future - we can only speculate. In the near future, the systems for recognizing human speech by a computer will become perfect and almost all technical devices can be controlled using voice; it is possible that full-fledged tactile interfaces will appear, allowing, for example, gamers everything that happens to their hero during the game.

Neural interfaces are also being developed. There are already several known cases when people confined to a wheelchair agreed to participate in an experiment to implant a special implant in the brain, thanks to which they were able to control the cursor on the monitor screen exclusively with the help of the "power of thought." In general, the plot of the film "Surrogates" may soon come true.

However, I note that, as in life, innovations in working with manipulators are good only as long as the program runs like clockwork. The slightest malfunction in the operation of the operating system - and all non-standard devices with their proprietary drivers instantly "fly off", and an ordinary user will only have to admire the graphical interface, frantically remember (if he knows) "hot keys" and regret that he did not take a regular computer mouse.

One of the main accessories for a stationary computer, and a laptop too, is a computer mouse. With its help, all the functions and capabilities of the device are controlled, so it is rather difficult to do without it. And although laptops differ in that they have a touchscreen control panel, not everyone finds it convenient.

That is why most users prefer to purchase a computer mouse so that the operation of the device is as comfortable and understandable as possible. But do you know in what year the very first mice were invented and who invented them? Why exactly this design seemed to the manufacturers the most convenient and acceptable for managing computers? You can find out about all this in this article. In addition, it is very interesting to trace the evolution of this device - the way mice have changed over time is really amazing.

Who is the inventor of the computer mouse pad?

The first such manipulator was presented on December 9, 1968. Its inventor was Douglas Engelbert, who received a patent only in 1970. The mouse was shown at the interactive devices show in California, where it immediately attracted the attention of most visitors.

Who is Douglas Engelbert? Among his inventions are not only the mouse familiar to everyone, but also other things that we are used to using in the modern world. For example, text editor, hypertext, graphical user interface.

This American scientist has a huge number of patents for a variety of inventions. He made a huge contribution to the development of computers, thanks to which modern models are equipped with an intuitive interface and many functions and applications. Douglas Engelbert also has awards for his technological development. The scientist lived to be 88 years old and died quite recently, in 2013.

All of these discoveries were made at a time when the general public did not use computers. No one had them, and they were present exclusively at any production or factories. The first mouse consisted of a wooden case and had two metal wheels.

The name, which is so widespread now and is firmly entrenched behind the device, is explained by the fact that the wire, which was its obligatory attribute, very much resembles a mouse's tail. And although nowadays more and more wireless mice, headphones and other accessories are used, no one is going to change their name.

The history of the creation and development of a computer mouse

Now let's consider the further fate of the device. It gained popularity immediately, back in the seventies of the last century, because it was convenient and compact, and the control of any devices for which it was intended was greatly simplified.

The computer with the addition of a mouse was the Alto. Despite the fact that practicality and ease of use were immediately recognized by a huge number of people, the mouse had to undergo some changes. Firstly, this is the fact that the body began to be made of plastic - it is cheaper and the device turns out to be lighter. Currently, almost all models are made from this material.

The wire, which so strongly influenced the name of the manipulator, has moved to the fore. That is why it is now more difficult for us to unravel the nature of such a nickname - now the device does not look as much like a real mouse as the original version.

Buttons, which are one of the main elements, have become more user-friendly. And the roller discs used before have given way to balls, which are still common today.

Then the optical mouse appeared. Its work takes place using an optical sensor. But wireless models appeared not so recently as it seems - back in the distant 1991. But then they did not receive much distribution - the transmission of a signal not by wire, but by means of infrared waves slowed down the operation of the device too much. Therefore, the overwhelming majority of computers were equipped with ordinary mice with a "tail" from the usual cable.

By the way, the inventor himself did not participate too much in improving the gadget he invented - all the developments were made mainly by other inventors. Douglas had health problems at the time, which forced him to take a break from working in this area. He also received a small fee. This indicates that inventions were his vocation and were not created for the sake of money or profit.

Nowadays, you cannot imagine a single stationary computer without a mouse, although they are very different from what was shown at the exhibition in California in 1968. Let's look at the primary version and determine how else it differs from the mouse that you are currently holding in your hands.

After the first mouse was introduced, most scientists realized that all the existing control methods were not as effective as they previously thought.

This device had practically nothing but a control dial, a protruding wire and a very bulky case. The mouse movement sensor, which has changed most over time and has become almost unrecognizable in our time, was presented in such an invention in the form of two perpendicular wheels, they protruded from the body. When moving, they spun in their dimension, which made it possible to control the computer.

This model had quite a few shortcomings, so this part of the mouse was one of the first to be changed for the sake of comfort in using the device.

For a very long time after that, a ball drive was used, but this design was far from ideal. There was constant contamination of the mouse element, which led to its jamming and required regular cleaning of the device.

After that, there were many more different ways to move the mouse so that it was convenient and the design did not greatly affect the functionality and performance of the accessory.

The most modern development, which has not yet become widespread due to its high cost, is a mouse that can be used regardless of the availability of a surface where it can be placed. This means that you can control it even in the air - a great option for those who refuse to use a full-fledged mouse in favor of a touchscreen, working in bed or other not very suitable place for this.

These devices are incredibly small and weigh no more than 13 grams, which makes them a very attractive manipulator to control your device. But this invention will not reach the general public soon - now the technology is at the development stage and is used exclusively for professional purposes.

The number of buttons on the mouse is also of great importance. Initially, various manufacturers produced either two-button models, then three-button models, which made it impossible to connect one mouse to a computer of another company. But with the advent of the well-known wheel, which now plays the role of that very third button, this problem was solved.

Conclusion

Thus, the invention of the computer mouse, which dates back to about 1968, when the mouse was introduced to the circle of scientists, was an important moment in the development of computers. And although then they did not yet have such a huge impact on the life of society, which they have now and were not so widespread, the mouse made the control of the device as simple and understandable as possible. Now any user can buy a computer at home and use it for their own purposes, and he does not have to study a huge operating manual, as it might be the case with a keyboard.

The first device, which became the prototype of all currently existing mice, significantly differed from modern ones not only in appearance, but also in functionality and ease of use. The mouse has come a long way of development, thanks to which it is now an integral part of the complete set of any PC on the market.