These connectors later become a standard in the PC-clone world.ġ991: Logitech releases the world’s first wireless mouse to use radio frequency (RF) transmission, the Cordless MouseMan. Not surprisingly, Apple releases a new wedge-shaped mouse for the bus called the Apple Desktop Bus Mouse.ġ987: IBM introduces the PS/2 line of PCs, which feature the world’s first PS/2 mouse connectors.
Various companies try a similar IR technique over the years, but it never takes off.ġ986: Apple introduces a new way of connecting mice and keyboards-Apple Desktop Bus (ADB)-with the launch of the Apple IIgs, and on the Mac SE a year later.
The battery-powered mouse uses infrared light (like a TV remote control) to communicate with a base receiver unit. Logitech designs the world’s first cordless mouse as part of the obscure Metaphor computer system. Functionally, the mouse operates nearly identically to its Lisa predecessor. It features a nine pin DE-9 connector with thumb screws to secure the connector in place. 1984: Apple ships a one-button mouse with the original Macintosh featuring a new exterior redesign.
The two-button mouse initially requires a special peripheral card for use but later supports connection through a PC’s serial port.
Microsoft ships its first IBM PC mouse, retailing for $195. This design breakthrough sets the stage for cheap, reliable consumer mice that everyone can afford. Its key components include optical encoder wheels, a free-moving tracking ball, and a precision injection-molded inner frame. Under contract, design firm Hovey-Kelley creates the first inexpensive, mass-producible, reliable mouse for Apple. However, the entire Star system sells for over $20,000, dooming it and its mouse to relative obscurity. It features two buttons and ball tracking. A similar tracking design (albeit with a few drastic modifications), would be used in most mice for the next 27 years.ġ981: Xerox produces a commercial mouse for its expensive 8010 Information System (aka the “Star”). It also contains the first mouse ball, a metal ball bearing pressed against two rollers to track movement. This new mouse does not require an analog-to-digital converter but instead sends digital positional information directly to the computer. Among other things, it showcases a refined SRI mouse with three buttons.ġ972: Jack Hawley and Bill English, inspired by Engelbart’s work, design a digital mouse for Xerox PARC. The first mouse has only one button, but more are to come.ġ968: Douglas Engelbart gives a 90-minute demonstration on December 9 at the Fall Joint Computer Conference in San Francisco. This mouse uses two perpendicular wheels attached to analog potentiometers to track movement.
(Read senior editor Dan Frakes’ picks for the five best current input devices.)ġ963: Bill English constructs first mouse prototype based on Douglas Engelbart’s sketches.
Forty years later, the mouse has become an indispensable tool for computer input, and its excellence at certain tasks means that it will likely be with us for some time to come. But as long as computers require hands-on input from humans, we’ll probably have a nook on our desks reserved for our small electronic friends. With the coming of this anniversary, some pundits have been quick to forecast the looming demise of the mouse at the hands of touch screens and speech recognition.
But despite four decades of commercial evolution, computer users today handle the mouse in much the same way Engelbart did 40 years ago: as an ingeniously efficient and easy-to-use pointing device. Since then, a handful of companies (namely Xerox, Apple, Microsoft, and Logitech) have poured millions into refining the form and function of the mouse: they’ve changed its number of buttons, changed the interfaces by which mice connect to computers, and tinkered with new methods of tracking movement. During that unveiling, Engelbart presented what some have called “the mother of all demos,” outlining concepts that would presage the next 40 years of computing, including the use of a three-button palm-sized contraption called a “mouse.” Douglas Engelbart created the first prototypes of the now-familiar device in 1963 at Stanford Research Institute, but he first displayed his creation to the public in 1968 forty years ago Tuesday. From the halls of a university research lab to the desks of hundreds of millions of computer users, the computer mouse has come a long way.