When and who invented the first computer mouse?

The computer mouse as we know it today was invented and developed by Douglas Engelbart, with the help of Bill English, in the 1960s and patented on November 17, 1970.

Douglas was working at the Stanford Research Institute in Menlo Park, California, a group of researchers sponsored by Stanford University. The mouse was originally called the "XY Position Indicator for a Display System" and was first used with the Xerox Alto computer system in 1973. Using the mouse, Douglas was able to move the mouse cursor on all the demos. However, because of its lack of success, the first widely used mouse is the Apple Lisa computer mouse.

The photo on the right was taken by Maracin Wichary at the New Mexico Museum of History and Natural Science and is an example of the first computer mouse. First Mouse Invented As you can see in the photo, the mouse was made of wood, much larger than today's mouse, rectangular in size and with a small button in the upper right corner.

Today, the mouse is still used on all desktops and has influenced other input devices such as touchpad on a laptop and touch screens on smartphones and tablets.

Why is the computer mouse called a mouse?

With the cord coming out of the mouse, Douglas says that the device reminded him of the mouse and that the name was stuck. It is much easier to remember than an "X-Y position indicator for a display system".