DouglasEngelbart
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50 years ago, 'the mother of all demos' foretold our tech future
Innovation usually happens in slow, measured steps over many years, but a demo in 1968 transformed the world of personal computers in just 90 minutes. In a presentation dubbed "the mother of all demos," Douglas Engelbart showed off technology that would lead directly to Apple's Macintosh, the internet, Windows, Google Docs, the computer mouse and much, much more. The most insane part was that it happened 50 years ago in 1968, when microchips were just a gleam in scientists' eyes.
Time Machines: The military sphere
Welcome to Time Machines, where we offer up a selection of mechanical oddities, milestone gadgets and unique inventions to test out your tech-history skills. If you've ever played the arcade version of Missile Command or used a mechanical mouse, then you've sampled technology that originated in a secret Canadian military research project back in the '50s. The device was a key component in a radar display interface that allowed operators to maneuver an on-screen cursor with speed and accuracy to identify targets. Roll on past the break for the full story behind this device.
Douglas Engelbart, thank you for your great mind
Douglas Engelbart died on July 2 at age 88. If that name doesn't ring a bell, then look at your computer mouse and give thanks to this World War II radar technician who came up with the idea in the 1960s. Engelbart also influenced computer use in other ways, such as working on the use of multiple windows, network computing technologies. In addition, his lab helped develop ARPANet, which was the government network that predated the Internet. Engelbart had a long history in electronics, electrical engineering, innovation and design. He had a burning desire to boost "our collective capability to solve important problems intelligently, for which he coined the term Collective IQ," as noted through his web site. He holds 21 patents in his name; some shared with associates. Multiple sources cite that Engelbert's work and thought processes on computing, as it relates to human cognition, was significantly influenced at the young age of 20. While in the Philippines in 1945, he read an article in "The Atlantic" by Dr. Vannevar Bush, "As We May Think." The New York Times notes that Bush "described a universal information retrieval system called Memex. The idea stuck with Engelbart, and he made it his life's work." John Markoff of The New York Times writes that "It was his great insight that progress in science and engineering could be greatly accelerated if researchers, working in small groups, shared computing power. He called the approach "bootstrapping." According to the Associated Press, SRI International CEO Curtis Carlson said "Engelbart brought tremendous value to society." Engelbart worked at SRI from 1957 to 1977, when it was called the Standford Research Institute. Carlson further states that "Doug's legacy is immense. Anyone in the world who uses a mouse or enjoys the productive benefits of a personal computer is indebted to him." CNN reports that Engelbart's first mouse prototype was a simple wooden block with wheels and a tiny red button, as shown above. His mouse invention was patented in 1970, but that patent passed into the public domain in 1987. As you know, it was Apple that initially made the use of a computer mouse commonplace. Engelbart won what is known as the "Oscar for Inventors" in 1997. This $500,000 Lemelson-MIT Prize is awarded to outstanding inventors who have developed a patented product or process that is of significant value to society. The Associated Press also states that in 2000, President Bill Clinton bestowed Engelbart with the National Medal of Technology "for creating the foundations of personal computing." A testament to his innovations is Engelbart's 1968 demo of his mouse and video teleconferencing system to the Fall Joint Computer Conference in San Francisco. He gave the demo with a homemade modem, with his staff connected through his laboratory's infant online system. Engelbart is survived by Karen Engelbart, his wife; his four children, and nine grandchildren. His work lives on through the The Doug Engelbart Institute, which was co-founded by and is under the leadership of his daughter, Christina Engelbart.
Engelbart's chorded keyboard reborn as stunning red jellyfish
In December 1968, Douglas C. Engelbart introduced the world to two brand-new computer peripherals of his own invention.The first was his invention, the computer mouse -- which, as you're well aware, revolutionized user input two decades later. The second, the chorded keyboard, still has yet to take off outside the Braille community. But after forty years, Doug Engelbart hasn't given up on the latter device; he recently commissioned an industrial designer, Erik Campbell, to modernize the antiquated keyset into this lovely jellyfish-inspired, five-fingered keyboard replacement. Made of silicon rubber and recycled plastics, the concept peripheral uses pressure-sensitive pads at each fingertip to detect key-presses, turns combinations of presses (the "chords") into letters and words, and sends them over wireless USB to the host computer. Sure, chorded computing isn't for everyone (else we'd all be sporting iFrogs and typing gloves), but if this concept ever comes to fruition, we just might be tempted to learn. Update: Though Doug Engelbart brought us the computer mouse, he did not invent the chorded keyboard, merely demonstrated it at the same 1968 event. Thanks, MAS! [Thanks, Semfifty]
Happy birthday, mouse!
It was 40 years ago this week that Douglas Engelbart gave the first public demonstration of what would become the modern computer mouse, affectionately called "The mother of all demos." With that in mind, we've decided to take a look at the evolution of the Apple Mouse.The current version is the Mighty Mouse, of course. With its scroll wheel and touch sensitive clicking surfaces, it's loved by some and despised by others. I'll admit that a wired Mighty Mouse is my main mouse, which will undoubtedly make some of you gasp. Still, we can't fully appreciate the Mighty Mouse without acknowledging its predecessors.When you think of old Apple mice, you probably think of the ADB (Apple Desktop Bus) variety. But even those were preceded by the DB-9 connector mice that shipped with the Apple Lisa. In fact, those were the first commercially available mice. They were clunky, square-ish affairs that featured a single button -- a design decision that Apple has refused to abandon all these years (yes, the Mighty Mouse isn't a single-button mouse, but certainly looks it from an overhead perspective).The boxy shape was kept largely intact until 1993, when Apple released the Apple Desktop Bus Mouse II. I can remember using one of these with a Performa and being amazed by it. "it's not square! It fits in my hand! This is incredible!"Also "incredible" was the amount of time I spent removing the ball and scraping the gunk off of the rollers. The design stayed pretty much the same until the "hockey puck" was released with the iMac in 1998. Apple's first USB mouse, the hockey puck divided the Mac community. Some declared it the best thing since copy and paste. Others, like me, considered it an abomination.Just two years later, Apple got the message, retired the hockey puck and introduced the Pro Mouse. The lozenge-shaped device was the immediate predecessor to the Mighty Mouse we all know and love (or despise) today.There are Apple mouse fanboys, and those who'd never touch one. In fact, even your favorite TUAW bloggers are divided. Below is a gallery of our favorite and current mice, plus a few vintage examples. Finally, we threw in a few alternate input devices as well.%Gallery-39027%
Logitech serves one-billionth mouse
Look, we're not going to go and get all sappy about Logitech shipping it's billionth mouse. After all, we still prefer our fingers for pointing and keyboards for quick navigation around the ol' computer. Still, a claim of one billion served is always notable, be it computer peripherals or hamburgers. Logitech's very first mouse was the Logitech P4 introduced in 1982. For the very first mouse ever, you'll have to contact Douglas Engelbart, its inventor. Or just click on over the break for pics of the P4 and Engelbarts original toothless sawblade.
