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What are the mechanics of the basic mouse?

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The mouse gets its name from the long cord attached to most mice, which looked like a tail to a lot of users. Ironically, the original mouse was actually called the “bug,” but that name was dropped because of marketing benefits from a cuter name. The original mouse had two large wheels set perpendicular to each other and a separate box with 5 buttons for the other hand. It was big and bulky, and next to impossible to move diagonally. Before this idea was adopted the inventors tried different ideas for a drag and drop tool. They thought that the device could be placed on the head or on the chin. Personally, I’m glad that they stuck with the hand-controlled device – could you imagine shared public devices with a chinstrap.

The next step in the early 1970’s was the thought of the mouse ball. This basically moved the wheels on to sensors inside the mouse. But it allowed the mouse to be moved quickly and in vary directions rapidly. Sometime in this scientific journey, the public as well as the inventors decided to put buttons on the top of the mouse. This is pretty much were the mouse has stayed for the past 30 years. Though there has been adjustments made to the sensors, ball material, and circuits inside the mouse – the idea pretty much stayed the same. The most recent adjust has come with the invention of optic mice. These get rid of the mechanical aspect of the mouse and move everything into the world of light. Light beams are sent out of the bottom of the mouse instantly and know where you are moving the mouse. This could get a little too technical so that is about how far we are going to go with that.

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