Douglas Engelbart, Father of the Computer Mouse, Dies at Age 88

Doug Engelbart, inventor of the computer mouse, circa 1998. (Michael Ochs Archives/ Images)

By JOANNA STERN (@joannastern)

July 3, 2013

Douglas C. Engelbart, one of the inventors of the computer mouse and a computer visionary, has died at the age of 88, ABC News has confirmed. Engelbart died on Tuesday evening at his home in Atherton, Calif. 

Engelbart, who served as a U.S. Navy electronic radar technician during World War II, began working at the Stanford Research Institute (SRI) in the late 1950s. It was there that he worked on some of the first graphic user interface computers and the idea of the computer mouse. In 1970 he received a patent for the mouse, which was at the time a thick wooden device with two wheels and three buttons.


"This invention relates to visual display systems, and more particularly, to device for alternating the display at selected locations," the patent, filed by Engelbart on June 21, 1967, reads. The mouse, of course, wasn't popularized until Xerox PARC began experimenting with the device and then Apple began to ship the mouse with the Apple's Lisa in 1983.

Englebart had said that he did not, however, come up with the name "mouse." When asked in an interview with Stanford about the name in December 1986, Engelbart said, "No one can remember [who came up with the name]. In the lab, the very first one we built had the cord coming out the back. It wasn't long before we realized that it would get in the way, and then we changed it to the front. But when it was trailing out the back like that, sitting there, just its funny little shape."

But Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak believes Engelbart's greatest contributions go way beyond the mouse.

"I have admired him so much. Everything we have in computers can be traced to his thinking," Wozniak told ABC News on Wednesday afternoon. "To me, he is a god. He gets recognized for the mouse, but he really did an awful lot of incredible stuff for computer interfaces and networking."

Engelbart worked on the ARPANET, a network of computers that preceded the Internet in the late 1960s and early 1970s. He also worked on the concept of "groupware," or digital collaboration. In 1968 he was one of the first to demonstrate on-screen video teleconferencing.

"The networking ideas were even more significant than the mouse," Wozniak said. "He did this way before the Internet. He was thinking about how computers could solve some of the main problems for mankind before many."

Top Benefits of Video Conferening for Business

Cutting down travel expenses

In the globalized economy of today in order to accomplish new market opportunities traveling often is unavoidable. Live interactions have a immediate impact though journeying to distant places is time consuming but imortant to have face to face interactions with customers, partners and colleagues. But frequent and simple interactions can be done online which reduces traveling and expenses incurred in the business. There is a drastic improvements in quality, availability and usage of high definition video conferencing software which is close to face to face interactions. Travel reduction is the expense reduction when calcultion the ROI of video conferencing investment.

Increasing Productivity by improving connectivity between the teams

Scattered work forces and team members face lot many challenges, more due to lack of proper communication between the members located in different locations. They communicate with each other using phone, texting messages, emails and instant messaging techniques. Most techniques used are nonverbal which do not give a clear idea of what the other person wants to express. Conversing with live video images will surely enhance the clarity of thought among the team. Facial expressions of satisfaction, confusion, concern and understanding can immediatly be attended through Video conversation.

Improved Hiring and Retention of Top Talent

Locating talented candidates and conducting interviews is a lenghty process if the candidates reside in different cities. Interviews can be conducted over video conferencing both in person and over voice by bringing the candidates to the nearest location of video conferencing facility. These interviews can be recorded which helps in the evalution of efficient candidates. Retention of eminent and trained employees important, video conversations helps a lot in improving communiction between the employees and management and helps in employee retention.

Sustained Competitive Advantage

Knowing about the competetors aids in a clear competetor analysis. Using technology like video conferencing software audio, video and data collaboration is easy and a uptodate informtion can be shared among the team members and employees.

Go Green Support For Environment

Eliminating traveling surely reduces the usage of vehicles and in turn helps in preservation of environment so we can say that usage of Desktop Videoconferencing software is a “green” technology,

The author Shelly Desuza works with Peoplelink Corporate Solutions Pvt Ltd, which is leader in Video conferencing software and also sells audio conferencing and multimedia products.   

Uses Of Video Conferencing In Telemedicine

Relaying upon Integration of Information and Communication Technology for various implementations  in medicine has become very much necessary. One of the most eminent tool i Video conferencing which is used for Tele-medicine.  The core purposes of the usage of Video Conferencing has been exemplified in the following context.

Physicians in the present day want to utilize Video conferencing, for its high quality audio/video interaction for Tele medicine, individual care, under cover research and other programs.  Video conference meetings removes the access, performance on the whole and the cost involved in the traditional systems that demand expensive MCU(Multipoint Control Unit) equipment and dedicated Qos systems. 
A perfect Video conferencing solution can is required for major applications like Telemedicine.  It helps the patients from far of places living in non-urban places,  to acquire appropriate medical advices without traveling long distances.  Tele-medicine features provides services to the patients with medical care records, pictures, outcome from medical care devices and two way music and audio which two-way. 

Various purposes of Video conferencing in the field of Tele-medicine are listed as follows:

Illness Surveillance
At time of epidemics the professionals have to notice, estimate and reduce the ill results of the outbreak, where in the government authorities and healthcare committees take up the technique of Illness Surveillance through video conferencing.  The telemedicine programs are used to produce immediate situation reviews.
Catastrophe and Illness management
Healthcare features cannot be set-up easily in the situations of mishaps like earthquakes, floods etc where telemedicine features incredibly come into use.  In such situations telemedicine service help professionals as they need to analyze the disaster struck area.  This highly reduces the transport expenses of medical facilities and physicians.
Distant Consultation
 In the remote places where full-blown features have not been set-up, the program of tele-medicine is very useful in offering assessment. In the non-urban places where medical organizations do not believe that it is successful enough to set-up models which offer all medical features, telemedicine plays incredibly crucial role .

Second Opinion:
After the patients are already clinically identified of a particular illness and the main physician wants to take the viewpoint from another professional for another area telemedicine comes into use.  The physician or the patient him/herself can take the second opinion about the analysis offered by the primary, which build up the confidence, without going to far of places, which is possible by the use of telemedicine.  
Telementored procedures
When the professional physician is unable to perform medical techniques due to his/her lack of ability to be a the involved telementored procedures are used, where the professional can guide his/her sub-ordinate physicians in doing the process.   
Home Care
This service is most useful for the patients who required advert post operative care and advice from home.  They can connect to the hospital/institute through tele consultation unit and get reviews and clinically diagnosed.  

Medical knowledge and community awareness
 Telemedicine programs can bring out awareness and common attention to the public especially during calamities where the need of medical health is most required and the physicians can get connected to these places and advice public in large numbers using telemedicine. 

 

The author shelly desuza works with Peoplelink Corporate Solutions Pvt Ltd, a leader in Video Conferencing Software , a company which implemented video conferencing in telemedice and healthcare in many hospitals.