Pioneering EE Patents: The Computer Mouse
Ed Suominen
"X-Y Position Indicator for a Display System"
Issued 1970 to Stanford Research Institute for the computer mouse.
Get a free copy of this historic patent (or just view a summary)
at http://eepatents.com/feature
Nearly every desktop personal computer now includes the "simple
and improved X-Y position locating device" described in this
patent. Douglas Englebart was a bit ahead of his time on this
invention, because the patent expired in 1987. Unfortunately for
SRI, this was just before the personal computer revolution made
the mouse an indispensable input device for "controlling
indications of positions on a cathode ray tube (CRT) display,
by movement along a surface [mouse pad] which can be other than
the face of the CRT."
Upcoming bi-monthly features will include the original patents
for the transistor and the negative feedback amplifier. For the
last half of February, the featured patent was "Method of
Receiving High Frequency Oscillations", issued 1920, for the
superheterodyne receiver. It's archived at
http://eepatents.com/feature?m02d29
Ed Suominen
Registered Patent Agent
Former R&D Engineer, RF/DSP
Web Site: http://eepatents.com