Almost every computer comes bundled with a mouse. In fact, the mouse has become an ubiquitous symbol of the modern computer industry. In this week’s feature, we’ll look at the history and technology of the mouse, how to choose a mouse to replace the bargain-basement special which came bundled with your computer, and we’ll take a look at alternatives to the traditional mouse.
Mouse History
The mouse as we know it today was conceived by Douglas Englebart at the Stanford Research Institute in the 1960s. Englebart was responsible for a number of new computing concepts, such as hypertext and windowing systems. The original mouse was a boxy wood construction which was popular in test groups because it was easy to handle and more accurate than the trackballs and joysticks which previous researchers had experimented with. Light pens and digitizing tablets were still strong contenders, but the mouse was popular and easy to build.
Sometime in 1979, Steve Jobs took a tour of the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center and saw many of the experimental devices that had been designed there, including many mice. It is no coincidence that the first mass-market personal computer to feature a mouse was the original Apple Macintosh, introduced in 1984. The one-button box proved eminently popular. In fact, Microsoft had shipped the first PC mouse in 1983, but without a windowing system, the mouse was not adopted as an input device by regular users until much later in PC history.
Mouse Operation
Most modern mice work by tracking the movement of a ball in the bottom of the mouse as it rolls against the mousing surface. If you were to open up a mouse and look at the guts, you would see something like the diagram below. Don’t worry, this isn’t freshman biology, so there isn’t any blood.
The mouse ball is in physical contact with two rollers, each of which moves in a different direction. As the mouse is moved across the surface, the data collected from the rollers is sent via the serial port or mouse port to the operating system, which moves the cursor across the screen.
The simplicity of the common mechanical mouse is also its downfall. As the mouse is moved over the surface, the mouse ball picks up dust, hair and other debris. This debris then collects on the rollers, which results in skipping and sticking. Mouse dirt can get so bad that even daily cleaning is barely enough to keep the ball rolling.
There are basically two ways to deal with this problem: clean the mouse, or get a mouse that’s not dependent on traditional technology. There are at least two other types of mice. Optical mice use a low-intensity light source (usually a red LED) on the bottom of the mouse which shines on a special mousepad, which is imprinted with a grid of lines. The mouse reads movement as the light shines on the lines and is reflected (or not) back into the mouse. A competing technology is the Honeywell mouse, which was developed by Honeywell but which is now owned and manufactured by Key Tronic as the Key Tronic Lifetime Mouse. The Honeywell mouse uses two oblique disks to sense movement in the horizontal and vertical directions. Since there is no path for dust to enter the mouse, the mechanism doesn’t need cleaning.
Choosing a New Mouse
If you are a heavy computer user, it probably won’t be long before you’re ready to chuck your mouse in the garbage. The mice that are bundled with many computers today are cheaply made and quickly fall victim to dust contamination. A conscientious cleaning program can keep such a mouse in operating condition until the pads wear off the bottom or the mouse buttons stop working, but eventually it will be time for replacement. Here are some issues to consider.
Cord Length
Don’t pick a mouse with a short cord. Most mouse makers have the sense to put a 6 foot (2 meter) cord on their mice, but some cheapies come with a short cord.
Resolution
Resolution is the smallest movement that the mouse can distinguish, usually measured in dots per inch. Hence, a 300dpi mouse can detect movements of as little as 1/300th of an inch, while a 525dpi mouse can detect movements of 1/525th of an inch. Most modern mice fall between 350dpi and 600dpi; higher resolutions mean that you can tune the mouse up to a faster speed and get cleaner, higher precision cursor placement.
Number of Buttons
Most PC mice have two buttons, which are required for use with Windows 95, while Mac mice have one button. Some PC mice add a third button between the first two, and others include a gimmicky roller or trackball on top of the mouse. You can decide which is best for you, but if you use applications which are able to use a middle button or a roller, you may find that such a mouse is more useful.