When was the world's first computer mouse born?

The earliest mouse in the world was born in 1964. It was invented by American Doug Engelbarth. The invention of the mouse has been listed as one of the most important events in the 50 years since the birth of the computer by IEEE (the world's largest professional and technical society).

Four years after the invention of the mouse,19681February 9, 968, Engelbarth showed the world's first mouse (there was no such thing as "mouse" at that time). It's a small wooden box with only one button and two vertical rollers. Its working principle is that the roller drives the shaft to rotate.

This device with a long tail like a mouse was nicknamed "mouse" by Dr. Engelbarth and his colleagues. Later, Dr. Engelbarth realized that the mouse might be widely used, so he applied for a patent and named it "X-Y position indicator of display system". But because the name "mouse" is concise and vivid, the name "mouse" has been handed down. Of course, the mouse at that time was not only very different from today's, but also needed external power supply.

However, Engelbass did not make a fortune by inventing the mouse, nor was he an entrepreneur, but a visionary scholar. He is 76 years old and lives a quiet life in Anston, California. He is the inventor of mouse and window software, and is known as the first person who foresaw computer networking.

All this happened in the 1950s and 1960s. At that time, most of us had no contact with computers. At that time, the computer was still a big guy, with a scroll that could be rolled up, usually in a room without windows. The technology created by Engelbarth later developed into Macintosh, followed by Microsoft and the Internet. It stands to reason that Eckerbert should be a super-rich man with the same fame as Gates and Yang Zhiyuan, but in fact, Engelbass has spent most of his life working for think tanks and McDonnell Douglas to make a living. He has never run a company or promoted his ideas. Although he invented the mouse, the patent right belongs to his boss. He only got a reward of 1984 dollars when the patent right expired.

After World War II, Engelbass retired from the navy and worked in Amos Laboratory, but he was soon dissatisfied. He said: "I was going to get married, but I felt I couldn't find my goal." I need to devote myself to a career. " For a while, I wanted to make a lot of money, but later I felt that what I really wanted to do was something that could benefit mankind. "

As early as 195 1, Engelbarth thought that if the world develops faster and faster, our ability to understand and solve problems can't keep up, then computers can help us. He almost intuitively believes that the computer will become a tool to display the required information on the screen. He decided to pursue a doctorate in electronic engineering at Berkeley University, and chose the course of computer design, even though there were no computers in the school at that time. He told his colleagues that people will work together through computers, others can print out your articles and others can participate in your research work. However, because his ideas could not be proved, his views were not universally recognized. After leaving Berkeley University, he went to Stanford University, but nobody cared. Although Stanford University now has a world-class computer department, it was not the case in the 1950s. Engelbarth was told that computers are only used for business, and schools will not spend academic resources on them.

Finally, he found a job in Stanford Research Institute, which is today's SRI international think tank, and did early research on batch processing of computer files. From 65438 to 0960, the Ministry of National Defense connected domestic scientists engaged in computer protocol research into a national network through the Advanced Research Center (ARPA), which is the foundation of the Internet now.

Using this ARPA protocol, Engelbarth led a group of engineers to design an operating system named NLS, which allows * * * to enjoy data, has a graphical interface and can be controlled by a mouse. At that time, the mouse was still a small polished wooden box with wheels, which looked like an ancient navigation instrument. His operating system (Augment) established word processing, advanced links and information transmission between multiple files and users for the first time. The window cannot be minimized, but it can be moved left or right and restored to its original state. Although the system looks rough today, some functions of Augment system can still be applied to Microsoft's word processing system.

1968, Engelbarth announced his achievements at the annual computer conference held in San Francisco, and publicly displayed the graphical interface, mouse, advanced links and e-mail for the first time. Fortunately, the situation at that time was made into a documentary, which is still welcomed by computer students.

Inventors didn't get rich at the wrong time.

15 years have passed, and the developing computer technology has been widely used for commercial purposes. However, in today's hero's story of getting rich overnight, Engelbass's name is not seen.

As we all know, the development of science and technology today is amazing, but it will take at least 20 years from invention to practical application. As a result, many inventors didn't get their due rewards because of their time, and some even got nothing.

Looking at the development of computer technology and Internet, there are many geniuses who have the same experience as Engelbarth H. For example, the three scientists who made great achievements in the field of microelectronics in the 1950s and 1960s would have no chips or mobile phones without their achievements. Several scientists also devoted themselves to the research of HTTP protocol in the late 1980s. Without their efforts, there would be no internet today, but they are neither rich nor famous. Instead, I made a lot of money on Internet technology.