graphic computer system – Created by Doug Engelbart in the 1960s, controlled by a special keyboard and something called a mouse, that would let people work together on documents, manipulate complex ideas, even from far-flung locales.
The idea of the graphic computer, in 1950. “It just went together within an hour or two, about what computers could do,” Engelbart remembers. “Because I’d been a radar technician I knew how radar made images on the oscilloscope, and also how radar electronics could change things on the screen. I knew that if a computer could punch cards or print on paper, it could draw things on the screen.”
Mouse
- innovation described in Doug Engelbart’s biography
- X-Y Position Indicator for a Display System – Patent 3541541, Issued November 17, 1970 – U.S. patent for the computer mouse, which Engelbart called an “X-Y Position Indicator.” – drawing
Keyboard
Monitor, display
human computer interaction
Engineering ideas
- input, output, display
Show and Tell
Now it is your turn. Here are some challenges for you to work on…
- design your own human computer interaction device. How would you communicate with a computer? How would the computer communicate with you?
Learn more…
- Doug Engelbart – biography
- MouseSite – background information
engineering 4 kids 