How did the mouse evolve? Let's take a look

When talking about the mouse, we have to mention the computer. As early as the invention of the computer, operations were basically completed on the keyboard through cumbersome instructions.

The mouse appeared 18 years after the invention of the computer. It was invented in 1964 by Douglas Engelbart, a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. The purpose was to replace the cumbersome commands entered by keyboard with the simplest means.

Next, let’s take a look at the development history of the mouse.

The origin of the mouse

The device Douglas made was a small wooden box with two rollers inside but only one button. Its working principle was that the rollers drove the shaft to rotate, causing the rheostat to change its resistance value. The change in resistance value generated a displacement signal, which was processed by the computer and the cursor indicating the position on the screen could be moved.

Because the device dragged a long wire like a mouse, Douglas and his colleagues in the laboratory nicknamed it "Mouse", and this affectionate nickname became the official name of the mouse.

Mouse with ball

The next step seems to be the ball-positioned mouse that we are all familiar with, also known as the scroll wheel mouse. Its most notable feature is the ball at the bottom.

Compared with the mouse prototype, the wheel is changed to a ball to drive the two axes in the figure below to rotate, so the accuracy will be higher. This kind of ball-positioned mouse is now basically eliminated, mainly because the accuracy is too low and the bottom of the mouse needs to be cleaned frequently.

Before the optical mouse became popular, there was a trackball mouse that was popular among professionals, but was largely ignored by game enthusiasts. Trackball mice are generally more handsome in appearance, and the principle is basically the small ball in the wheel mouse above is placed on the top. The advantage of this type of mouse is that you don't have to grab it and move it around like the above mouse, which can minimize the user's fatigue.

Users of graphic design and 3D design like to use this type of mouse because it has accurate positioning and is not prone to shaking. However, due to its design, it is basically insulated from fast-switching game users.

When I was a kid, I almost thought that trackball mice were the end, but at first glance the optical mouse has revolutionized computer interaction.

The current mouse

It can be said that 95% of the computers on the market are using optical mice, and the remaining 5% are probably users of touchpads, touch screens, etc. The positioning principle of optical mice is very simple, that is, the CMOS lens on the mouse takes pictures 100-1000 times per second, and each new picture is compared with the previous one. If the image position changes, it means that the mouse has moved.

With the strong development of CMOS and the emergence of red light, blue light and laser mice, I believe that all kinds of ultra-high DPI mice have been played out by everyone. The advantages of optical mice are high precision, high resolution and flexible movement, while the disadvantages are large wrist movement, which can cause "mouse hand" after long-term use.

In addition to optical mice, there are also drawing tablets that are often used in professional fields. Their advantages are high precision and most of them have 1024 levels of force control. Their disadvantages are that they are not easy to use and have little meaning other than drawing.

Of course, the simplest and most crude way to replace the mouse is the touch screen that is popular in mobile phones, which has more or less affected the interaction method of personal computers. Just look at the operating systems Windows and Mac, which have successively supported touch control, and you will know that maybe one day the touch screen will completely replace the mouse.

Looking back suddenly, the mouse has disappeared, leaving only a weathered mouse hand.