E 'dead Doug Engelbart invented the mouse but never became rich - The Messenger

ROME – Without him, the computer would not become tools for everyone. He died at age 88 Doug Engelbart, inventor of the mouse the visionary who built the first model, made of wood and metal, in the sixties.

But it never became rich because of this, since the patent expired before the worldwide spread object. Engelbart, assigned to radar during the Second World War, was born in Portland, Oregon in 1925 and was a graduate in engineering. Visionary and innovator, has had a great impact on the evolution of computer science and in particular human-machine interaction.

His research and his work are the basis of concepts such as graphical user interfaces, l ‘ hypertext, computer networks, without which the way we use PCs would be very different. It was perhaps one of the last scientists who have really changed the way we live and work. In the nineties he also founded the Bootstrap Institute: the basic idea of ??a collaboration that we find in the open source movement.

The first prototype of the mouse, Englebart had built in 1964, later came the patent. Looked like a small wooden box with two metal wheels. He was baptized as XY position indicator for the display. The name mouse, little mouse, arrived later and was just Engelbart give it to him because it reminded him of the thread the tail of a mouse. The June 21, 1967 Engelbart obtained a patent for the mouse.

The following year, in 1968, at the Joint Computer Conference at the Convention Center in San Francisco, took place the public demonstration of the project. Later produced the Xerox Star, the first computer with mouse: Steve Jobs saw the project stole it on the fly and perfected the idea. Thus were born the Apple Lisa and especially the Macintosh, the first personal computer with a graphical interface and mouse to have great commercial success.

Englebart has not only worked on the mouse, but also on early forms of e-mail, processors and video conferencing.

Despite the stroke of genius invention of the mouse, Doug Englebart has never enriched for it. Its patent, in fact, expired before the finish accessory in homes and offices around the world.