IT 333: OPERATING SYSTEM CONCEPTS AND APPLICATION (MOUSE)

(HISTORY)

A mouse is a small device that a computer user pushes across a desk surface in order to point to a place on a
display screen and to select one or more actions to take from that position. The mouse first became a widely-used
computer tool when Apple Computer made it a standard part of the Apple Macintosh. Today, the mouse is an
integral part of the graphical user interface (GUI) of any personal computer. The mouse apparently got its name
by being about the same size and color as a toy mouse.

A computer mouse is a pointing device (hand control) that detects two-dimensional motion relative to a surface.
This motion is typically translated into the motion of appointer on a display, which allows a smooth control of
the graphical user interface.

The earliest known publication of the term mouse as a computer pointing device is in Bill English's 1965
publication "Computer-Aided Display Control".

The computer mouse as we know it today was invented and developed by Douglas Engel Bart, with the
assistance of Bill English, during the 1960's and was patented on November 17, 1970.

While creating the mouse, Douglas was working at the Stanford Research Institute, a think tank sponsored by
Stanford University. The mouse was originally referred to as an "X-Y 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 demonstrate
moving a mouse cursor on the Alto computer in The Mother of All Demos. However, because of its lack of
success, the first widely used mouse is the mouse found on the Apple Lisa computer.

The first computer mouse was taken by Maracin Wichary at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and
Science.

(OPERATION)

A mouse typically controls the motion of a pointer in two dimensions in a graphical user interface (GUI). The
mouse turns movements of the hand backward and forward, left and right into equivalent electronic signals that in
turn are used to move the pointer.

(TYPES OF MOUSE)

MECHANICAL MOUSE - In 1972, Bill English (builder of Engelhards original mouse) invented the ball mouse,
while working for Xerox PARC. In this, a single mouse was replaced by the external wheels, which could roll in
any direction. Mechanical mouse is a device integrated with an internal metal or rubber ball, which can spin in all
directions (left, right, up and down). Thus, the display cursor moves as the mouse detects the direction. The ball in
the mechanical mouse spins when it comes in contact with surface on which it is placed.
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The ball mouse has two freely rotating rollers. They are located 90 degrees apart. One roller detects the
forwardbackward motion of the mouse and other the leftright motion. Opposite the two rollers is a third

one (white, in the photo, at 45 degrees) that is spring-loaded to push the ball against the other two rollers.
Each roller is on the same shaft as an encoder wheel that has slotted edges; the slots interrupt infrared
light beams to generate electrical pulses that represent wheel movement. Each wheel's disc, however,
has a pair of light beams, located so that a given beam becomes interrupted, or again starts to pass light
freely, when the other beam of the pair is about halfway between changes.
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The ball is mostly steel, with a precision spherical rubber surface. The weight of the ball, given an
appropriate working surface under the mouse, provides a reliable grip so the mouse's movement is
transmitted accurately. Ball mice and wheel mice were manufactured for Xerox by Jack Hawley, doing
business as The Mouse House in Berkeley, California, starting in 1975. Based on another invention by
Jack Hawley, proprietor of the Mouse House, Honeywell produced another type of mechanical mouse.
Instead of a ball, it had two wheels rotating at off axes. Key Tronic later produced a similar product. This
new design incorporated a single hard rubber mouse ball and three buttons, and remained a common
design until the mainstream adoption of the scroll-wheel mouse during the 1990s. In 1985, Ren
Sommer added a microprocessor to Nicoud's and Guignard's design. Another type of mechanical mouse,
the "analog mouse" (now generally regarded as obsolete), uses potentiometers rather than encoder
wheels, and is typically designed to be plug compatible with an analog joystick. The "Color Mouse",
originally marketed by RadioShack for their Color Computer (but also usable on MS-DOS machines
equipped with analog joystick ports, provided the software accepted joystick input) was the best-known
example.

OPTICAL MOUSE - An optical mouse is a computer pointing device that uses a light-emitting diode an optical
sensor, and digital signal processing (DSP).This mouse doesnt have mouse ball and electromechanical
transducer. Movement is detected by sensing changes in reflected light, instead of interpreting the motion of a
rolling sphere. An optical mouse does not have moving parts thats why there is no need of cleaning. Also there is
no mechanical fatigue and failure in this type of mice. The optical mouse takes microscopic snapshots of the
working surface at a rate of more than 1,000 images per second. If the mouse moved, the image changes. The
best surfaces reflect but scatter light; an example is a blank sheet of white drawing paper. Some surfaces do not
allow the sensor and DSP to function properly because the irregularities are too small to be detected. An example
of a poor optical-moussing surface is unfrosted glass.

INERTIAL AND GYROSCOPIC MICE (AIR MOUSE) - They do not require a surface to operate, inertial mice use
a tuning fork or other accelerometer to detect rotary movement for every axis supported. The most common
models (manufactured by Logitech and Gyration) work using 2 degrees of rotational freedom and are insensitive
to spatial translation. The user requires only small wrist rotations to move the cursor, reducing user fatigue or
"gorilla arm". Usually cordless, they often have a switch to deactivate the movement circuitry between uses,
allowing the user freedom of movement without affecting the cursor position. A patent for an inertial mouse claims
that such mice consume less power than optically based mice, and offer increased sensitivity, reduced weight and
increased ease-of-use. In combination with a wireless keyboard an inertial mouse can offer alternative ergonomic
arrangements which do not require a flat work surface, potentially alleviating some types of repetitive motion
injuries related to workstation posture.

3D MICE (BATS, FLYING MICE, WANDS) - These devices generally function through ultrasound and provide at
least three degrees of freedom. Probably the best known example would be 3Dconnexion/Logitech's Space

Mouse from the early 1990s. In the late 1990s Kantek introduced the 3D Ring Mouse. This wireless mouse was
worn on a ring around a finger, which enabled the thumb to access three buttons. The mouse was tracked in three
dimensions by a base station.
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A recent consumer 3D pointing device is the Wii Remote. While primarily a motion-sensing device (that is,
it can determine its orientation and direction of movement), Wii Remote can also detect its spatial position
by comparing the distance and position of the lights from the IR emitter using its integrated IR camera
(since the nunchuk accessory lacks a camera, it can only tell its current heading and orientation). The
obvious drawback to this approach is that it can only produce spatial coordinates while its camera can
see the sensor bar.

A mouse-related controller called the Space Ball has a ball placed above the work surface that can easily
be gripped. With spring-loaded centering, it sends both translational as well as angular displacements on
all six axes, in both directions for each. In November 2010 a German Company called Axsotic introduced
a new concept of 3D mouse called 3D Spheric Mouse. This new concept of a true six degree-of-freedom
input device uses a ball to rotate in 3 axes without any limitations.

TACTILE MICE - In 2000, Logitech introduced a "tactile mouse" that contained a small actuator to make the
mouse vibrate. Such a mouse can augment user-interfaces with haptic feedback, such as giving feedback when
crossing a window boundary. To surf by touch requires the user to be able to feel depth or hardness; this ability
was realized with the first electrorheological tactile mice but never marketed.

ERGONOMIC MICE - As the name suggests, this type of mouse is intended to provide optimum comfort and
avoid injuries such as carpal tunnel syndrome, arthritis and other repetitive strain injuries. It is designed to fit
natural hand position and movements, to reduce discomfort.

GAMING MICE - These mice are specifically designed for use in computer games. They typically employ a wide
array of controls and buttons and have designs that differ radically from traditional mice. It is also common for
gaming mice, especially those designed for use in real-time strategy games such as StarCraft, or in multiplayer
online battle arena games such as Dota 2 to have a relatively high sensitivity, measured in dots per inch (DPI).
Gaming mice are held by gamers in three styles of grip:
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Palm Grip: the hand rests on the mouse, with extended fingers.

Claw Grip: palm rests on the mouse, bent fingers.

Finger-Tip Grip: bent fingers, palm doesn't touch the mouse.

(CONNECTIVITY AND COMMUNICATION PROTOCOLS)

To transmit their input, typical cabled mice use a thin electrical cord terminating in a standard connector, such
as RS-232C(a standard for serial communication transmission of data.), PS/2, ADB or USB. Cordless mice
instead transmit data via infrared radiation (see IrDA) or radio (including Bluetooth), although many such cordless
interfaces are themselves connected through the aforementioned wired serial buses. While the electrical interface

and the format of the data transmitted by commonly available mice is currently standardized on USB, in the past it
varied between different manufacturers. A bus mouse used a dedicated interface card for connection to an IBM
PC or compatible computer. Mouse use in DOS applications became more common after the introduction of the
Microsoft mouse, largely because Microsoft provided an open standard for communication between applications
and mouse driver software.

SERIAL INTERFACE AND PROTOCOL - Standard PC mice once used the RS-232C serial port via a Dsubminiature connector, which provided power to run the mouse's circuits as well as data on mouse movements.
The Mouse Systems Corporation version used a five-byte protocol and supported three buttons. The Microsoft
version used a three-byte protocol and supported two buttons. Due to the incompatibility between the two
protocols, some manufacturers sold serial mice with a mode switch: "PC" for MSC mode, "MS" for Microsoft
mode.

PS/2 INTERFACE AND PROTOCOL - With the arrival of the IBM PS/2 personal-computer series in 1987, IBM
introduced the eponymous PS/2 interface for mice and keyboards, which other manufacturers rapidly adopted.
The most visible change was the use of a round 6-pin mini-DIN, in lieu of the former 5-pin connector. In default
mode (called stream mode) a PS/2 mouse communicates motion, and the state of each button, by means of 3byte packets.

Byte 1

Bit 7

Bit 6

Bit 5

Bit 4

Bit 3

Bit 2

YV

XV

YS

XS

MB

Byte 2

X movement

Byte 3

Y movement

Here, XS and YS represent the sign bits of the movement vectors, XV and YV indicate an overflow in the
respective vector component, and LB, MB and RB indicate the status of the left, middle and right mouse
buttons (1 = pressed). PS/2 mice also understand several commands for reset and self-test, switching between
different operating modes, and changing the resolution of the reported motion vectors. A Microsoft
IntelliMouse relies on an extension of the PS/2 protocol: the Imps/2 or IMPS/2 protocol (the abbreviation
combines the concepts of "IntelliMouse" and "PS/2"). It initially operates in standard PS/2 format, for backwards
compatibility. After the host sends a special command sequence, it switches to an extended format in which a
fourth byte carries information about wheel movements. The IntelliMouse Explorer works analogously, with the
difference that its 4-byte packets also allow for two additional buttons (for a total of five).

APPLE DESKTOP BUS - In 1986 Apple first implemented the Apple Desktop Bus allowing the daisy-chaining
together of up to 16 devices, including arbitrarily many mice and other devices on the same bus with no

Bit

RB

configuration whatsoever. Featuring only a single data pin, the bus used a purely polled approach to
computer/mouse communications and survived as the standard on mainstream models (including a number of
non-Apple workstations) until 1998 when iMac joined the industry-wide switch to using USB. Beginning with the
Bronze Keyboard PowerBook G3 in May 1999, Apple dropped the external ADB port in favor of USB, but retained
an internal ADB connection in the PowerBook G4 for communication with its built-in keyboard and trackpad until
early 2005.

USB - The industry-standard USB (Universal Serial Bus) protocol and its connector have become widely used for
mice; it is among the most popular types.

CORDLESS OR WIRELESS MOUSE - Cordless or wireless mice transmit data via infrared radiation (see IrDA)
or radio(including Bluetooth and Wi-Fi). The receiver is connected to the computer through a serial or USB port, or
can be built in (as is sometimes the case with Bluetooth and Wi-Fi). Modern non-Bluetooth and non-Wi-Fi wireless
mice use USB receivers. Some of these can be stored inside the mouse for safe transport while not in use, while
other, newer mice use newer "Nano" receivers, designed to be small enough to remain plugged into a laptop
during transport, while still being large enough to easily remove.
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The transmitter is housed in the mouse. It sends an electromagnetic (radio) signal that encodes the
information about the mouses movements and the buttons you click.

The receiver, which is connected to your computer, accepts the signal, decodes it and passes it on to the
mouse driver software and your computers operating system.

The receiver can be a separate device that plugs into your computer, a special card that you place in an
expansion slot, or a built-in component.

BUTTONS - Mouse buttons are micro switches which can be pressed to select or interact with an element of

a graphical user interface, producing a distinctive clicking sound. Since around the late 1990s, the threebutton scroll mouse has become the de facto standard. Users most commonly employ the second button to
invoke a contextual menu in the computer's software user interface, which contains options specifically
tailored to the interface element over which the mouse cursor currently sits. By default, the primary mouse
button sits located on the left-hand side of the mouse, for the benefit of right-handed users; left-handed
users can usually reverse this configuration via software.

SCROLLING - Nearly all mice now have an integrated input primarily intended for scrolling on top, usually a

single-axis digital wheel or rocker switch which can also be depressed to act as a third button. Though less
common, many mice instead have two-axis inputs such as a tiltable wheel, trackball, or touchpad.

MOUSE SPEED - Mickeys per second is a unit of measurement for the speed and movement direction of a

computer mouse, where direction is often expressed as "horizontal" versus "vertical" mickey count.
However, speed can also refer to the ratio between how many pixels the cursor moves on the screen and
how far the mouse moves on the mouse pad, which may be expressed as pixels per mickey, pixels per inch,
or pixels per centimeter.