Dr. Douglas C. Engelbart, an American inventor whose team developed hypertext and networked computers, is best known for inventing the computer mouse in a joint effort with Bill English.
In 1967, Dr. Engelbart applied for a patent for a wooden shell with two metal wheels, describing it in the patent application as an "X-Y position indicator for a display system". In 1970, he received a patent for the computer mouse (U.S. Patent 3,541,541) , later revealing that it was given the adept nickname the "mouse" because of the long tail that came out the end. Click on the link above to see the image of the original computer mouse design.
Talk about humble beginnings!
In this picture, it actually looks a lot like a mouse.
A glimpse of things to come ...
It just looks so chic and stylish - well not REALLY, but it looks like it would feel quite comfortable resting in the palm of your hand.
The Ball Mouse
Bill English, one of the builders of Engelbart's original mouse, invented the "ball mouse" in 1972 which replaced the external wheels with a single ball that could then rotate in any direction. This mouse originally came out with the Xerox Alto computer.
The Smaky Mouse
Another mouse from the past came from the Swiss company Smaky, a line of mostly 8-bit personal computers that was developed by Professor Jean-Daniel Nicoud and others at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne in Switzerland beginning in 1974.
Apple Macintosh Plus Mouse
In 1986, Apple debuted the Apple Desktop Bus which allowed the daisy-chaining together of up to 16 computers, and included this simplistic little plastic box mouse design. Here are some of those minimalistic Apple Macintosh Plus mice, circa 1986.
Technological applications usually go through a period of development before they finally turn into to the tool that we can't do without. As much as we may look back at these early prototypes and chuckle, we look at the newest versions and tell ourselves that we HAVE to get one of those...
A Computer Mouse with Plenty of Bling Effect
And no matter what you design, someone is going to come along and say to themselves " Those are nice, but if we covered them with diamonds, they would be awesome."
A Computer Mouse with Booty!
This is the kind of mouse that some guys would love to get hold of. Left click, right click, left click...
This is a mouse, but it thinks it's a beetle.
Even though that insect is sealed in plastic, I don't know how comfortable I would feel having my hand wrapped around this small creature all day.
Solid, solid as a rock!
This is for those that like a more solid mouse - made from stone.
A mouse that knows exactly what it is. A mouse.
Just don't let your cat see it. He might think that it is one of HIS toys.
The clean mouse. A germ-resistant, fingerprint-scanner-enabled mouse.
It is well known that the computer mouse can be one of the filthiest areas of your house as far as germs are concerned. This mouse takes it all in stride and has a special surface for dealing with those pesky germs as well as a fingerprint scanner built in. Now THAT is clean...
The finger optical mouse for those that like it small. Really small...
Free style USB optical mouse strapped on your finger, and ready to go.
Bamboo computer mouse
