The Birth of the Bluetooth Mouse
The Optical Bluetooth Mouse is the most convenient computer mouse for laptop computers and can make use of a laptops built-in Bluetooth transmitter or a tiny plug-in dongle. Before the Bluetooth mouse became available, there had been a long history of computer mouse development. In this article you will read a history of how the Bluetooth Mouse evolved from the very first computer mouse to its current format and how it has overcome so many of the frustrations we experienced with earlier generation mice. For more information on any of the displayed mice (apart from the first one) please click on image.
The First Computer Mouse
The
first computer mouse was born in 1963. It was invented by
Douglas Englebart and Bill English. It was constructed from a
block of woos and a metal wheel which turned as it was pushed
over the surface of a desk. It was extremely unreliable and was
not commercialised.
It took almost 9 years before the first mouse to see commercial
success was created. This was also invented by English and was
know as the roller ball mouse. Instead of wheels, this mouse
made use of a central ball that rotated freely in a socket as
the mouse was pushed in any direction over a surface. Tiny
rollers in contact with the ball would translate movements in
the X and Y directions into electrical signals which were
converted by software in the computer to corresponding movements
of the cursor. The early versions had only one clickable button
for communicating with the computer.
One huge frustration with the roller ball mice was their
propensity to pick up dust and grease which would eventually
clog up the rollers and would require a thorough cleaning to
remove; a very tedious procedure. Despite this, roller ball mice
are still available commercially, which must make them one of
the longest lasting of all modern electronic gadgets.
The Optical Mouse
The next stage in mouse evolution was the optical mouse. In an
optical mouse the 
There were two major types: one required the use of a special
mouse-mat printed with grid lines whilst the other could be used
on any surface. The first type used four sensors, whilst the
second type tracked the motion of projected light pixels. The
first type gradually faded away and the second type was
developed further into today's optical mouse.
This works by taking pictures of the surface over which it is
moving illuminated by an LED. Advanced processing algorithms are
incorporated within the mouse. This technique also enabled the
sensitivity (in terms of DPI) of the mouse to be increased.
The Laser Mouse
In addition to their increased sensitivity, a major advantage of
both optical and laser mice were that they did not clog up as
did the roller ball versions and so are much more reliable.
Computer Connection
Initially mice were connected to a computer using wire and many
still are, but many users find it much more convenient to
connect a mouse to a computer wirelessly. This is particularly
the case with laptop computers. There are three ways to connect
a mouse to a computer without using a wire. These are using an
optical Infra-red (IR) link; using a radio frequency (RF) Wi-Fi
wireless connection; or using Bluetooth, and alternative RF
technology.
Infra-red connectivity,
whilst doing away with the wire, does
require a line of sight connection between the mouse and the
computer, and this is not convenient in most instances, and the
technology never became very popular.
Wi-Fi wireless mice have a radio transmitter inside the mouse
that transmits the mouse movements to a receiver attached to the
computer. The receiver decodes the signal and inputs the
appropriate data into the computer. The Wi-Fi mice use the
802.11g standard which operates at 2.4 GHz.
Final Words
The evolution of the computer mouse has been a long process
which has finally resulted in the Bluetooth mouse of which
numerous variants are available. Mouse technology will continue
to develop and already there are 3D mice available which add a
dimension to activities such as games and design, but it is
unlikely that Bluetooth as a mouse communications protocol will
ever disappear.
Author: Gary Shorthouse
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