preview

Essay The Invention and Impact of The Computer Mouse

Decent Essays
Open Document

The Invention and Impact of The Computer Mouse

If you ask people to name one of the most important technologies of the twentieth century, one of the answers would most certainly be the computer. A computer, however, is not a technology all to itself. Many other technologies went into the modern home computers of today, including the mouse. Douglas C. Engelbart, a worker at the SRI (Stanford Research Institute), invented the mouse in 1964. However, the process of the invention of the mouse was not instantaneous and without effect on the realm of computing and society. In this paper I will be examining the problems that had to be overcome and the technologies that had to be invented for the mouse to become a reality. It also …show more content…

That is when Bob Taylor, a representative of NASA, stepped in and collected enough money from NASA to keep the lab running. Bob Taylor once again helped the lab by getting more than adequate funding from ARPA (Advanced Research Projects Agency) to support the work of Engelbart to its conclusion.
During the time when the mouse debuted computers had just arrived into the small business market. They were still costly and not economically viable for home computer users. Because of the great expense involved there was no need to cater to the needs of the general public, which requires user-friendly computers. User-friendly means that the computer's operating system and interface are easy-to-learn. The change to using the mouse was also uneconomical for computer manufacturers of the time because there was no demand for them except for the editing of text. Some computers of the time were equipped with mouse support, specifically the Amstrad PC 1512, but the mouse remained unpopular due to its limited uses. The first commercial mouse was not released until 1982.
Hardware and software support is another problem the mouse had to overcome. As mentioned previously, the mouse was released before most computer systems had hardware support for it. Therefore, even if the computer used a program that incorporated a mouse, there was nowhere to connect the mouse with the motherboard. Also there was no code for the CPU (central processing unit) to understand the signals

Get Access