Editing Computer mouse (section)

=== Mechanical mice ===
{{Infobox|imagestyle = text-align: left
| image = [[File:Mouse mechanism diagram.svg|frameless]]
| caption = Operating an opto-mechanical mouse
# Moving the mouse turns the ball.
# X and Y rollers grip the ball and transfer movement.
# Optical [[Incremental encoder|encoding]] disks include light holes.
# Infrared [[Light-emitting diode|LEDs]] shine through the disks.
# Sensors gather light pulses to convert to X and Y vectors.
}}
The German company [[Telefunken]] published on their early ball mouse on 2 October 1968.<ref name="Bülow_2009_Rollkugel" /> Telefunken's mouse was sold as optional equipment for their computer systems. [[William English (computer engineer)|Bill English]], builder of Engelbart's original mouse,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.superkids.com/aweb/pages/features/mouse/mouse.html |title=Doug Engelbart: Father of the Mouse (interview) |access-date=2007-09-08}}</ref> created a ball mouse in 1972 while working for [[PARC (company)|Xerox PARC]].<ref>{{cite journal |author-last=Wadlow |author-first=Thomas A. |title=The Xerox Alto Computer |journal=[[BYTE]] |date=September 1981 |volume=6 |issue=9 |pages=58–68 |url=<!-- https://guidebookgallery.org/articles/thexeroxaltocomputer -->}}</ref>

The ball mouse replaced the external wheels with a single ball that could rotate in any direction. It came as part of the hardware package of the [[Xerox Alto]] computer. Perpendicular [[optical chopper|chopper wheels]] housed inside the mouse's body chopped beams of light on the way to light sensors, thus detecting in their turn the motion of the ball. This variant of the mouse resembled an inverted [[trackball]] and became the predominant form used with [[personal computer]]s throughout the 1980s and 1990s. The Xerox PARC group also settled on the modern technique of using both hands to type on a full-size keyboard and grabbing the mouse when required.

[[File:Logitechms48.jpg|thumb|left|A mechanical mouse with the top cover removed. The scroll wheel is gray, to the right of the ball.]]

The ball mouse has two freely rotating rollers. These are located 90 degrees apart. One roller detects the forward-backward motion of the mouse and the other the left-right 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 [[incremental encoder|encoder]] wheel that has slotted edges; the slots interrupt infrared light beams to generate electrical pulses that represent wheel movement. Each wheel's disc 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.

Simple logic circuits interpret the relative timing to indicate which direction the wheel is rotating. This [[incremental encoder|incremental rotary encoder]] scheme is sometimes called quadrature encoding of the wheel rotation, as the two optical sensors produce signals that are in approximately [[quadrature phase]]. The mouse sends these signals to the computer system via the mouse cable, directly as logic signals in very old mice such as the Xerox mice, and via a data-formatting IC in modern mice. The driver software in the system converts the signals into motion of the mouse cursor along X and Y axes on the computer screen.

[[File:HawleyMarkIImice.jpg|thumb|left|Hawley Mark II Mice from the Mouse House]]

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.<ref name="hawley">{{cite web |url=http://library.stanford.edu/mac/primary/images/hawley1.html |title=The Xerox Mouse Commercialized |work=Making the Macintosh: Technology and Culture in Silicon Valley |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100721013847/http://library.stanford.edu/mac/primary/images/hawley1.html |archive-date=2010-07-21}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.oldmouse.com/mouse/hawley/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050405164040/http://www.oldmouse.com/mouse/hawley/ |url-status=usurped |archive-date=5 April 2005 |title=Hawley Mark II X063X Mouses |work=oldmouse.com}}</ref> Based on another invention by Jack Hawley, proprietor of the Mouse House, [[Honeywell]] produced another type of mechanical mouse.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bergen.org/AAST/Projects/Engineering_Graphics/_EG2001/mouse/improvements.html#honeywell |title=Honeywell mechanical mouse |access-date=2007-01-31 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070428032201/http://www.bergen.org/AAST/Projects/Engineering_Graphics/_EG2001/mouse/improvements.html#honeywell <!-- Bot retrieved archive --> |archive-date=2007-04-28}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=4628755.PN.&OS=PN/4628755&RS=PN/4628755 |title=Honeywell mouse patent |access-date=2007-09-11}}</ref> Instead of a ball, it had two wheels rotating at off axes. [[Key Tronic]] later produced a similar product.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.keytronic.com/home/products/specs/2hw73-1es.htm |title=Keytronic 2HW73-1ES Mouse |access-date=2007-01-31 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927092356/http://www.keytronic.com/home/products/specs/2hw73-1es.htm |archive-date=2007-09-27}}</ref>

Modern computer mice took form at the [[École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne]] (EPFL) under the inspiration of Professor [[Jean-Daniel Nicoud]] and at the hands of [[engineer]] and [[watchmaker]] [[André Guignard]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://news.softpedia.com/news/Of-Mice-and-Men-and-PCs-43129.shtml |title=Of Mice and Men... and PCs|publisher=News.softpedia.com |date=1970-11-17 |access-date=2017-11-27}}</ref> This new design incorporated a single hard rubber mouseball and three buttons, and remained a common design until the mainstream adoption of the scroll-wheel mouse during the 1990s.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2004/explorers/interactive/profiles/computer.mouse/content.html |title=Inventions, computer mouse – the CNN site |website=[[CNN]] |access-date=2006-12-31 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050424150438/http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2004/explorers/interactive/profiles/computer.mouse/content.html |archive-date=2005-04-24}}</ref> In 1985, [[René Sommer]] added a [[microprocessor]] to Nicoud's and Guignard's design.<ref name="wrs">{{cite news |title=Computer mouse inventor dies in Vaud |url=http://worldradio.ch/wrs/news/wrsnews/computer-mouse-inventor-dies-in-vaud.shtml?16283 |work=[[World Radio Switzerland]] |date=2009-10-14 |access-date=2009-10-28 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110707010602/http://worldradio.ch/wrs/news/wrsnews/computer-mouse-inventor-dies-in-vaud.shtml?16283 |archive-date=2011-07-07}}</ref> Through this innovation, Sommer is credited with inventing a significant component of the mouse, which made it more "intelligent";<ref name="wrs" /> though optical mice from [[Mouse Systems]] had incorporated microprocessors by 1984.<ref>{{cite magazine |magazine=[[InfoWorld]] |title=People |author-first=Denise |author-last=Caruso |volume=6 |issue=20 |publisher=[[InfoWorld Media Group, Inc.]] |page=16 |issn=0199-6649 |date=1984-05-14 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sy4EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA16}}</ref>

Another type of mechanical mouse, the "analog mouse" (now generally regarded as obsolete), uses [[potentiometer]]s 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 [[TRS-80 Color Computer|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.