In today’s fast paced computing age famous personalities like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Tim Berners-Lee and others are known for their revolutionary contribution that changed the entire world of computing completely. But there are some ingenious contributors who are accountable for the invention and development of mouse and keyboards that we practically use on a daily basis. Do you know who invented the mouse and how was it designed? Do you know who was the person behind the invention of the QWERTY keyboard? Read on to know about all of this and more.
- Before the mouse, computers all used text interfaces — every command had to be typed in, and it was very time consuming. If you wanted to point at something, you had to use a laser light pen.
- The idea for the computer mouse came to Douglas Engelbart in 1961 at a conference, while thinking about how to make graphical computer interfaces more efficient. The idea is sort of based on the planimeter, a tool used by engineers and geographers to measure the distance on a map.
- The first mouse prototype was made out of wood, a circuit board, and two metal wheels that did not come into contact with the surface it was on.
Douglas Engelbart First Mouse
- Douglas Engelbart would go on to refine this prototype in 1972, when he created the ball mouse that was the standard type of computer mouse until 1998. However, it was very easy for the ball to get clogged with dirt and debris, and in 1980 the optical mouse was created, which completely eliminated the ball from the mouse’s design. Unfortunately, this solution was way too expensive for the mass market at the time, and the optical mouse did not come into common household usage until around 1998. Now, the optical mouse has completely replaced the ball mouse.
- The first computer to come standard with the mouse was the Xerox PARC in 1970. This was also the first computer to use a graphical user interface.
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There are three types of the mouse, the mechanical, the optomechanical and the optical. The first has a ball on the underside to help it move, the second has optical sensors to detect motion of the mouse with the help of a surface like mouse pad and the third uses a laser to detect movement.
Mechanical Optomechanical Optical
Although the facts on computer mouse is pretty interesting the facts on keyboards are equally captivating.
- Did you know that QWERTY keyboard structure is over 100 years old and was invented to by Christopher Shole, to slow down the typing speed of the typist as faster typing would often cause the typewriter to jam. Although It’s outdated and outclassed by several alternatives, yet it’s still the most popular keyboard layout in the world.
- Have you noticed a slight bump (a small horizontal line) on the J and F keys on a QWERTY keyboard? have you ever wondered why are they present? the fact is these bumps make it easier to type. You can even try it by yourself – (Place your left hand index finger on F and the right on J then you will notice that your three fingers are covering the A,S ,D keys on the left and the K,L keys on the right while your thumbs are resting on the space bar). This design helps to easily recognize keys especially while typing looking at the screen.
- The ‘Backspace’ button is the third most used on your average keyboard. Just behind ‘e’ and the spacebar.
- The “@” sign was very close to being eliminated from the standard keyboard until 1971, when Ray Tomlinson wrote it into the code used to send the first email.
Ray Tomlinson
- The “#” symbol on the keyboard is called an octothorpe.
- Though most people are right-handed, but when using a computer keyboard, on an average, our left hands are responsible for 56 per cent of the keystrokes.
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