the first computer mouse...

The first computer mouse was conceived of in the early 1960’s by Douglas Engelbart (see biography of Douglas Engelbart), then a Director of Augmentation Research Center (ARC) at Stanford Research Institute (SRI), in Menlo Park, California.

The mouse was just a tiny piece of a much larger project, started in 1962, aimed at augmenting human intellect (see a 1968 paper for the project). At the time of the invention of the mouse, Engelbart had already been exploring possible ways for people to increase their capability to solve complex problems for almost a dozen years. Engelbart and William (Bill) English (a colleague of Engelbart and the maker of the mouse) envisioned problem-solvers using computer-aided working stations to augment their efforts. They required the ability to interact with information displays using some sort of device to move a cursor around the screen. There were several devices then in use, or being considered for use: the light pen, joysticks, etc. The authors however were looking for the best and the most efficient device. 
They approached NASA in 1966, and said, let’s test them, and determine the answer once-and-for-all. With NASA funding, the team developed a set of simple tasks, and timed a group of volunteers in doing those tasks with the various devices. For example, the computer would generate an object in a random position on the screen, and a cursor somewhere else. They timed how long it took the users to move the cursor to the object. It quickly became clear that the mouse out-performed all the others. Devices like the light pen simply took too much time, by repeatedly requiring the user to pick up the pointer, and reach all the way to the screen, which was very tiresome.

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So here i end up my first blog ... hope you guys will like it 😄