Nowadays when we look at the mouse of our computer we do not pay much attention to it, we are so used to it that we do not give it any importance but it has an exciting history, which is directly related to advances in computing, especially in terms of that the graphical interfaces are concerned. How about you join us on this trip?
We use the mouse on a daily basis on our PCs, it is an indispensable piece and we cannot imagine operating our computer without it, but it is directly related to the graphical user interface and has evolved alongside it until it reaches the contemporary PC.
The first mouse in history
If you want to know whose idea was to create the mouse, it was created by one of the pioneers of modern computing, Douglas Engelbert, who brought to the table a series of concepts that are still used in computer programs today. It was an invention that made use of two wheels to provide movement in two axes, so it was different from the ball mice that appeared years later.
Actually, the first ball-based control mechanism was invented in 1952 by the Canadian Royal Navy, it was the classic 5-hole bowling ball mounted on a mechanism, which followed the movement in which the ball was turned and transferred said information to movements on the screen, the invention was never patented but the concept of using a ball to move the screen cursor was.
An example is this Telefunken model, which was used as the input mechanism for the creation of vector graphics in the DEC PDP-1, it was in the 60s when the essential foundations of the hardware of generation and creation of computer graphics were built
The Xerox Alto and the first graphical interface in history
In 1968 Douglas Engelbert made what is considered the mother of all demos, this influenced many computer scientists of the time, but especially the Xerox development laboratories, who created the Alto, a mini-computer made up of hundreds of chips from the TTL type, but it was the first not only to capture Engelbert’s ideas but also the first graphical interface in history.
The potential of the Xerox Alto was completely ignored by Xerox executives, who never understood the potential it was going to have in the computer world, so much so that they let a certain Steve Jobs take a tour of the Xerox facilities Parc and could see the potential
As a curiosity, Xerox released a low-cost version of the Xerox Alto in the form of the Xerox Star in 1980, which included the first mouse that was sold to the mass market.
The talented copy, the geniuses steal
In 1981 Apple had a huge problem, its Apple III that was designed to face IBM in the corporate market was a fiasco and the sales of the IBM PC in that market were going very well. Apple wanted to leave the domestic market due to the fact that it was not where the money was but in selling computers to companies, but for this they needed a coup.
Jobs had seen the graphical user interface in 1979, which at that time had the code name of Apple IV although in the end it was called Apple Lisa, which was the direct precursor of the Macintosh and the idea that Apple had was the construction of a Xerox Alto, but ten years later and much cheaper
The Apple Lisa was released in 1983 as the first home computer with a graphical interface, but its $ 10,000 made it a huge commercial fiasco.
Friend Microsoft
What many people do not know is that Bill Gates’ first great contract was not MS-DOS but the inclusion of his BASIC in a ROM integrated in the Apple II + onwards, which would cement a great commercial relationship with Steve Jobs. When the founder of Apple was expelled from the Apple Lisa project, he decided to take over the Macintosh project and transform it into a low-cost Lisa.
Jobs gave Gates all the information and a contract, which stated that they could not get anything for PC before the launch date of the Apple Macintosh, which would be in 1982, Apple could not meet the date and this gave him free rein Microsoft to launch the first PC application that would make use of the mouse, Microsoft Word, the mouse had come to the PC for the first time.
The mouse is standardized on the PC
During the 80s, the mouse on the PC was used in some specific applications but not in the main interface of the operating system. which was still a text interface.
In 1992, Microsoft decided to standardize the PC by selling its Windows 3.1 and the latest version of MS-DOS as an inseparable package, from that moment the mouse became part of all PCs and stopped being an optional peripheral for certain applications, a situation that hasn’t changed since then.
This was taken advantage of by PC games where new genres were born such as first person shooter games and real time strategy games, which were the first in history to use the mouse to control movement during the game or to select and move troops.
Other ephemeris in mouse history
The first wireless PC mouse was released by Logitech in 1991, and Cordless MouseMan was the first to use radio signals to communicate with the PC.
Logitech itself was also the first to launch the first laser-based mouse, the MX1000, it did so in 2004 and it was an important evolution for optical mice, since until then they depended on the way the mouse LEDs illuminated. the surface, making them impossible to use on certain surfaces.
Variants of the mouse appeared during its history
A very famous variant of the mouse is the addition of a gyroscope and / or an accelerometer so that the mouse can follow the movements in a complete three-dimensional space, but for this it needs an origin point to orient itself. The controller of the Nintendo Wii console was based on that principle but the ability to move a cursor in a space in three dimensions was never used in a serious way, especially due to the mathematical complexity involved.
This concept is used in tracking systems for Virtual Reality, reality helmets with Outside-In tracking make use of the same technological principles as that type of mouse, but because it has not been accompanied by an adequate user interface and the failure of the control of movements by consoles has remained in a niche technology.
