Douglas Engelbert, American inventor of computer mouse, died peacefully in his sleep, owing to poor
health, at the age of 88.
Douglas Engelbart was known to endeavor several Silicon Valley projects, majority of them belonging to human- computer interaction. He is respected for his vision to provide the best of technology when it came to internet usage much before anyone brought the same before the world.
Not only the advent of mouse comes to his kitty but even creation of hypertext and graphical interactions do also mention his name.
It was in 1968 that Douglas delivered an hour long presentation telling about his ideas that were referred to decades later.
Doulas says that during that time, light pen was more into use as it was the only gadget to point on the screen. This gadget was invented as a result of radar program during the war. Although people considered this device as the standard program, however, Douglas didn’t find it suitable enough.
He started off with his experiments and came out with the invention of mouse as this gadget was much faster and would have made people make fewer mistakes.
However, Douglas didn’t get his share of wealth that was otherwise enjoyed by Silicon Valley IT giants. In fact, he never received royalties for the invention of mouse as it was patented by SRI and then licensed to Apple Computer.
Douglas’s first wife died after 47 years of marriage and he married second wife in 2008. He is survived by four children and nine grandchildren.
