Mouse marks 40 years of pointing the way

The humble computer mouse celebrates 40 years of clicking and pointing today.

The device is credited to hi-tech inventor Douglas Engelbart, who demonstrated a mouse with researchers from the Stanford Research Institute on December 9th, 1968, in San Francisco, California.

The appearance of the mouse, which was wooden and had one red button, at the American Federation of Information Processing Societies' Fall Joint Computer Conference stunned the computing world.

Mr Engelbart’s demonstration came at a time when computers were little more than huge number calculators, and two years later, in November 1970, he was granted patent 3,541,541 for an “X-Y position indicator for a display system”.

Today, despite concerns over repetitive-strain injuries and rage levels that an erratic mouse can generate, the device remains fundamental to people’s interaction with computers.

The first prototype, built in 1964, was carved out of a block of wood; and had two wheels - one to sense left/right movement, the other to sense forward/backward moves. The device was linked to the computer with a wire. "It was sitting on the table with a tail coming out of it," said computer engineer Bill English, who took part in the original presentation.

However, speaking at the 1968 conference, Mr Engelbart said: "I don't know why we call it a mouse . . . it started that way and we never did change it."

Since then, there has been only one "profound addition" to the original mouse - the scroll wheel, Mr English said.

The mouse was only one of several novel ways of working with computers shown off at the Fall Joint Computer Conference, and it has since become known as the “mother of all demos”. As well as the mouse, video conferencing, e-mail, hypertext and teleconferencing were also demonstrated.

A celebration is being held at Stanford Research Institute in Menlo Park, California, today to mark the 40th anniversary of that first public demonstration of interactive computing.

A video of the Fall Joint Computer Conference is available on the Stanford University website.