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Computer mouse
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This article is about the item of computer hardware. For the pointer or cursor it
controls, see Pointer (user interface).

A computer mouse with the most common features: two buttons (left and right) and a
scroll wheel (which also functions as a button)

A typical wireless computer mouse

A computer mouse (plural mice, rarely mouses)[1] is a hand-held pointing device
that detects two-dimensional motion relative to a surface. This motion is typically
translated into the motion of a pointer on a display, which allows a smooth control
of the graphical user interface of a computer.

The first public demonstration of a mouse controlling a computer system was in

1968. Mice originally used a ball rolling on a surface to detect motion, but modern
mice mostly have optical sensors that have no moving parts. Originally wired to a
computer, many modern mice are cordless, relying on short-range radio communication
with the connected system.

In addition to moving a cursor, computer mice have one or more buttons to allow
operations such as selection of a menu item on a display. Mice often also feature
other elements, such as touch surfaces and scroll wheels, which enable additional
control and dimensional input.

Contents
1 Etymology
2 History
3 Operation
3.1 Gestures
3.2 Specific uses
4 Types
4.1 Mechanical mice
4.2 Optical and laser mice
4.3 Inertial and gyroscopic mice
4.4 3D mice
4.5 Tactile mice
4.6 Pucks
4.7 Ergonomic mice
4.8 Gaming mice
5 Connectivity and communication protocols
5.1 Early mice
5.2 Serial interface and protocol
5.3 Apple Desktop Bus
5.4 PS/2 interface and protocol
5.5 USB
5.6 Cordless or wireless
6 Operating system support
7 Multiple-mouse systems
8 Buttons
9 Scrolling
10 Speed
11 Mousepads
12 In the marketplace
13 Use in games
13.1 First-person shooters
13.2 Home consoles
14 See also
15 References
16 Further reading
17 External links
Etymology

A computer mouse is named for its resemblance to the rodent.

The earliest known written use of the term mouse in reference to a computer
pointing device is in Bill English's July 1965 publication, "Computer-Aided Display
Control" likely originating from its resemblance to the shape and size of a mouse,
a rodent, with the cord resembling its tail.[2][3][4] The popularity of wireless
mice without cords makes the resemblance less obvious.

The plural for the small rodent is always "mice" in modern usage. The plural for a
computer mouse is either "mice" or "mouses" according to most dictionaries, with
"mice" being more common.[5] The first recorded plural usage is "mice"; the online
Oxford Dictionaries cites a 1984 use, and earlier uses include J. C. R. Licklider's
"The Computer as a Communication Device" of 1968.[6]

History

Inventor Douglas Engelbart holding the first computer mouse,[7] showing the wheels
that make contact with the working surface
The trackball, a related pointing device, was invented in 1946 by Ralph Benjamin as
part of a post-World War II-era fire-control radar plotting system called the
Comprehensive Display System (CDS). Benjamin was then working for the British Royal
Navy Scientific Service. Benjamin's project used analog computers to calculate the
future position of target aircraft based on several initial input points provided
by a user with a joystick. Benjamin felt that a more elegant input device was
needed and invented what they called a "roller ball" for this purpose.[8][9]

The device was patented in 1947,[9] but only a prototype using a metal ball rolling
on two rubber-coated wheels was ever built, and the device was kept as a military
secret.[8]

Another early trackball was built by Kenyon Taylor, a British electrical engineer
working in collaboration with Tom Cranston and Fred Longstaff. Taylor was part of
the original Ferranti Canada, working on the Royal Canadian Navy's DATAR (Digital
Automated Tracking and Resolving) system in 1952.[10]

DATAR was similar in concept to Benjamin's display. The trackball used four disks
to pick up motion, two each for the X and Y directions. Several rollers provided
mechanical support. When the ball was rolled, the pickup discs spun and contacts on
their outer rim made periodic contact with wires, producing pulses of output with
each movement of the ball. By counting the pulses, the physical movement of the
ball could be determined. A digital computer calculated the tracks and sent the
resulting data to other ships in a task force using pulse-code modulation radio
signals. This trackball used a standard Canadian five-pin bowling ball. It was not
patented, since it was a secret military project.[11][12]

Early mouse patents. From left to right: Opposing track wheels by Engelbart,
November 1970, U.S. Patent 3,541,541. Ball and wheel by Rider, September 1974, U.S.
Patent 3,835,464. Ball and two rollers with spring by Opocensky, October 1976, U.S.
Patent 3,987,685
Douglas Engelbart of the Stanford Research Institute (now SRI International) has
been credited in published books by Thierry Bardini,[13] Paul Ceruzzi,[14] Howard
Rheingold,[15] and several others[16][17][18] as the inventor of the computer
mouse. Engelbart was also recognized as such in various obituary titles after his
death in July 2013.[19][20][21][22]

By 1963, Engelbart had already established a research lab at SRI, the Augmentation
Research Center (ARC), to pursue his objective of developing both hardware and
software computer technology to "augment" human intelligence. That November, while
attending a conference on computer graphics in Reno, Nevada, Engelbart began to
ponder how to adapt the underlying principles of the planimeter to inputting X- and
Y-coordinate data.[13] On November 14, 1963, he first recorded his thoughts in his
personal notebook about something he initially called a "bug," which in a "3-point"
form could have a "drop point and 2 orthogonal wheels."[13] He wrote that the "bug"
would be "easier" and "more natural" to use, and unlike a stylus, it would stay
still when let go, which meant it would be "much better for coordination with the
keyboard."[13]

In 1964, Bill English joined ARC, where he helped Engelbart build the first mouse
prototype.[3][23] They christened the device the mouse as early models had a cord
attached to the rear part of the device which looked like a tail, and in turn
resembled the common mouse.[24] As noted above, this "mouse" was first mentioned in
print in a July 1965 report, on which English was the lead author.[2][3][4] On 9
December 1968, Engelbart publicly demonstrated the mouse at what would come to be
known as The Mother of All Demos. Engelbart never received any royalties for it, as
his employer SRI held the patent, which expired before the mouse became widely used
in personal computers.[25] In any event, the invention of the mouse was just a
small part of Engelbart's much larger project of augmenting human intellect.[26]
[27]

The Engelbart mouse

Several other experimental pointing-devices developed for Engelbart's oN-Line
System (NLS) exploited different body movements – for example, head-mounted devices
attached to the chin or nose – but ultimately the mouse won out because of its
speed and convenience.[28] The first mouse, a bulky device (pictured) used two
potentiometers perpendicular to each other and connected to wheels: the rotation of
each wheel translated into motion along one axis.[29] At the time of the "Mother of
All Demos", Engelbart's group had been using their second generation, 3-button
mouse for about a year.

On October 2, 1968, a mouse device named Rollkugel (German for "rolling ball") was
described as an optional device for its SIG-100 terminal. It was developed by the
German company Telefunken.[30] As the name suggests and unlike Engelbart's mouse,
the Telefunken model already had a ball. It was based on an earlier trackball-like
device (also named Rollkugel) that was embedded into radar flight control desks.
This trackball had been developed by a team led by Rainer Mallebrein at Telefunken
Konstanz for the German Bundesanstalt für Flugsicherung (Federal Air Traffic
Control) as part of their TR 86 process computer system with its SIG 100-86[30][31]
vector graphics terminal.

The ball-based computer mouse with a Telefunken Rollkugel RKS 100-86 for the TR 86
computer system
When the development for the Telefunken main frame TR 440 [de] began in 1965,
Mallebrein and his team came up with the idea of "reversing" the existing Rollkugel
into a moveable mouse-like device, so that customers did not have to be bothered
with mounting holes for the earlier trackball device. Together with light pens and
trackballs, it was offered as an optional input device for their system since 1968.
Footage exists from January 1969, filmed at Abbey Road studios, of Ringo Starr
holding what appears to be a mouse, possibly using it as a remote, to start or stop
a recording machine. Some Rollkugel mouses installed at the Leibniz-Rechenzentrum
in Munich in 1972 are well preserved in a museum.[30][32] Telefunken considered the
invention too unimportant to apply for a patent on it.

HP-HIL Mouse from 1984

The Xerox Alto was one of the first computers designed for individual use in 1973
and is regarded as the first modern computer to utilize a mouse.[33] Inspired by
PARC's Alto, the Lilith, a computer which had been developed by a team around
Niklaus Wirth at ETH Zürich between 1978 and 1980, provided a mouse as well. The
third marketed version of an integrated mouse shipped as a part of a computer and
intended for personal computer navigation came with the Xerox 8010 Star in 1981.

By 1982, the Xerox 8010 was probably the best-known computer with a mouse. The Sun-
1 also came with a mouse, and the forthcoming Apple Lisa was rumored to use one,
but the peripheral remained obscure; Jack Hawley of The Mouse House reported that
one buyer for a large organization believed at first that his company sold lab
mice. Hawley, who manufactured mice for Xerox, stated that "Practically, I have the
market all to myself right now"; a Hawley mouse cost $415.[34] In 1982, Logitech
introduced the P4 Mouse at the Comdex trade show in Las Vegas, its first hardware
mouse.[35] That same year Microsoft made the decision to make the MS-DOS program
Microsoft Word mouse-compatible, and developed the first PC-compatible mouse.
Microsoft's mouse shipped in 1983, thus beginning the Microsoft Hardware division
of the company.[36] However, the mouse remained relatively obscure until the
appearance of the Macintosh 128K (which included an updated version of the single-
button[37] Lisa Mouse) in 1984,[38] and of the Amiga 1000 and the Atari ST in 1985.

Operation
Further information: Point and click
A mouse typically controls the motion of a pointer in two dimensions in a graphical
user interface (GUI). The mouse turns movements of the hand backward and forward,
left and right into equivalent electronic signals that in turn are used to move the
pointer.

The relative movements of the mouse on the surface are applied to the position of
the pointer on the screen, which signals the point where actions of the user take
place, so hand movements are replicated by the pointer.[39] Clicking or hovering
(stopping movement while the cursor is within the bounds of an area) can select
files, programs or actions from a list of names, or (in graphical interfaces)
through small images called "icons" and other elements. For example, a text file
might be represented by a picture of a paper notebook and clicking while the cursor
hovers this icon might cause a text editing program to open the file in a window.

Different ways of operating the mouse cause specific things to happen in the GUI:
[39]

Click: pressing and releasing a button.

(left) Single-click: clicking the main button.
(left) Double-click: clicking the button two times in quick succession counts as a
different gesture than two separate single clicks.
(left) Triple-click: clicking the button three times in quick succession counts as
a different gesture than three separate single clicks. Triple clicks are far less
common in traditional navigation.
Right-click: clicking the secondary button. In modern applications, this frequently
opens a context menu.
Middle-click: clicking the tertiary button.
Drag: pressing and holding a button, and moving the mouse before releasing the
button. This is frequently used to move or copy files or other objects via drag and
drop; other uses include selecting text and drawing in graphics applications.
Mouse button chording:
Combination of right-click then left-click.
Combination of left-click then right-click or keyboard letter.
Combination of left or right-click and the mouse wheel.
Clicking while holding down a modifier key.
Moving the pointer a long distance: When a practical limit of mouse movement is
reached, one lifts up the mouse, brings it to the opposite edge of the working area
while it is held above the surface, and then replaces it down onto the working
surface. This is often not necessary, because acceleration software detects fast
movement, and moves the pointer significantly faster in proportion than for slow
mouse motion.
Multi-touch: this method is similar to a multi-touch touchpad on a laptop with
support for tap input for multiple fingers, the most famous example being the Apple
Magic Mouse.
Gestures
Main article: Pointing device gesture
Users can also employ mice gesturally; meaning that a stylized motion of the mouse
cursor itself, called a "gesture", can issue a command or map to a specific action.
For example, in a drawing program, moving the mouse in a rapid "x" motion over a
shape might delete the shape.

Gestural interfaces occur more rarely than plain pointing-and-clicking; and people
often find them more difficult to use, because they require finer motor control
from the user. However, a few gestural conventions have become widespread,
including the drag and drop gesture, in which:

The user presses the mouse button while the mouse cursor hovers over an interface
object
The user moves the cursor to a different location while holding the button down
The user releases the mouse button
For example, a user might drag-and-drop a picture representing a file onto a
picture of a trash can, thus instructing the system to delete the file.

Standard semantic gestures include:

Crossing-based goal
Drag and drop
Menu traversal
Pointing
Mouseover (hovering)
Selection
Specific uses
Other uses of the mouse's input occur commonly in special application-domains. In
interactive three-dimensional graphics, the mouse's motion often translates
directly into changes in the virtual objects' or camera's orientation. For example,
in the first-person shooter genre of games (see below), players usually employ the
mouse to control the direction in which the virtual player's "head" faces: moving
the mouse up will cause the player to look up, revealing the view above the
player's head. A related function makes an image of an object rotate, so that all
sides can be examined. 3D design and animation software often modally chords many
different combinations to allow objects and cameras to be rotated and moved through
space with the few axes of movement mice can detect.

When mice have more than one button, the software may assign different functions to
each button. Often, the primary (leftmost in a right-handed configuration) button
on the mouse will select items, and the secondary (rightmost in a right-handed)
button will bring up a menu of alternative actions applicable to that item. For
example, on platforms with more than one button, the Mozilla web browser will
follow a link in response to a primary button click, will bring up a contextual
menu of alternative actions for that link in response to a secondary-button click,
and will often open the link in a new tab or window in response to a click with the
tertiary (middle) mouse button.

Types
Mechanical mice
Mouse mechanism diagram.svg
Operating an opto-mechanical mouse
Moving the mouse turns the ball.
X and Y rollers grip the ball and transfer movement.
Optical encoding disks include light holes.
Infrared 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.[30] Telefunken's mouse was sold as optional equipment for their computer
systems. Bill English, builder of Engelbart's original mouse,[40] created a ball
mouse in 1972 while working for Xerox PARC.[41]

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 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 computers 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.

Mechanical mouse, shown 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 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 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 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.

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.[42][43] Based on another invention by Jack
Hawley, proprietor of the Mouse House, Honeywell produced another type of
mechanical mouse.[44][45] Instead of a ball, it had two wheels rotating at off
axes. Key Tronic later produced a similar product.[46]

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.[47] 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.[48] In 1985, René
Sommer added a microprocessor to Nicoud's and Guignard's design.[49] Through this
innovation, Sommer is credited with inventing a significant component of the mouse,
which made it more "intelligent";[49] though optical mice from Mouse Systems had
incorporated microprocessors by 1984.[50]

Another type of mechanical mouse, the "analog mouse" (now generally regarded as
obsolete), uses potentiometers 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 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.

Optical and laser mice

The underside of an optical mouse.

Main article: Optical mouse
Early optical mice relied entirely on one or more light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and
an imaging array of photodiodes to detect movement relative to the underlying
surface, eschewing the internal moving parts a mechanical mouse uses in addition to
its optics. A laser mouse is an optical mouse that uses coherent (laser) light.

The earliest optical mice detected movement on pre-printed mousepad surfaces,

whereas the modern LED optical mouse works on most opaque diffuse surfaces; it is
usually unable to detect movement on specular surfaces like polished stone. Laser
diodes provide good resolution and precision, improving performance on opaque
specular surfaces. Later, more surface-independent optical mice use an
optoelectronic sensor (essentially, a tiny low-resolution video camera) to take
successive images of the surface on which the mouse operates. Battery powered,
wireless optical mice flash the LED intermittently to save power, and only glow
steadily when movement is detected.

Inertial and gyroscopic mice

Often called "air mice" since they do not require a surface to operate, inertial
mice use a tuning fork or other accelerometer (US Patent 4787051[51]) to detect
rotary movement for every axis supported. The most common models (manufactured by
Logitech and Gyration) work using 2 degrees of rotational freedom and are
insensitive to spatial translation. The user requires only small wrist rotations to
move the cursor, reducing user fatigue or "gorilla arm".

Usually cordless, they often have a switch to deactivate the movement circuitry
between use, allowing the user freedom of movement without affecting the cursor
position. A patent for an inertial mouse claims that such mice consume less power
than optically based mice, and offer increased sensitivity, reduced weight and
increased ease-of-use.[52] In combination with a wireless keyboard an inertial
mouse can offer alternative ergonomic arrangements which do not require a flat work
surface, potentially alleviating some types of repetitive motion injuries related
to workstation posture.

3D mice
"SpaceBall" redirects here. For other uses, see Spaceball (disambiguation).
This section may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. The
specific problem is: conflation of devices that you wave around above the desk with
devices that remain on the desk while you apply forces and torques to them. Please
help improve this section if you can. (April 2020) (Learn how and when to remove
this template message)
Also known as bats,[53] flying mice, or wands,[54] these devices generally function
through ultrasound and provide at least three degrees of freedom. Probably the best
known example would be 3Dconnexion ("Logitech's SpaceMouse") from the early 1990s.
In the late 1990s Kantek introduced the 3D RingMouse. This wireless mouse was worn
on a ring around a finger, which enabled the thumb to access three buttons. The
mouse was tracked in three dimensions by a base station.[55] Despite a certain
appeal, it was finally discontinued because it did not provide sufficient
resolution.

One example of a 2000s consumer 3D pointing device is the Wii Remote. While
primarily a motion-sensing device (that is, it can determine its orientation and
direction of movement), Wii Remote can also detect its spatial position by
comparing the distance and position of the lights from the IR emitter using its
integrated IR camera (since the nunchuk accessory lacks a camera, it can only tell
its current heading and orientation). The obvious drawback to this approach is that
it can only produce spatial coordinates while its camera can see the sensor bar.
More accurate consumer devices have since been released, including the PlayStation
Move, the Razer Hydra and the controllers part of the HTC Vive virtual reality
system. All of these devices can accurately detect position and orientation in 3D
space regardless of angle relative to the sensor station.[citation needed]

A mouse-related controller called the SpaceBall[56] has a ball placed above the
work surface that can easily be gripped. With spring-loaded centering, it sends
both translational as well as angular displacements on all six axes, in both
directions for each. In November 2010 a German Company called Axsotic introduced a
new concept of 3D mouse called 3D Spheric Mouse. This new concept of a true six
degree-of-freedom input device uses a ball to rotate in 3 axes without any
limitations.[57]

Logitech spacemouse 3D. On display at the Bolo Computer Museum, EPFL, Lausanne

Silicon Graphics SpaceBall model 1003 (1988), allowing manipulation of objects with
six degrees of freedom.

Logitech 3D Mouse (1990), the first ultrasonic mouse

A modern six-degrees-of-freedom (6 DOF) 3D mouse (2007)

Mechanism of the modern 6 DOF mouse consisting of infrared LEDs and detectors with
occluders that move with the ball

Tactile mice
In 2000, Logitech introduced a "tactile mouse" known as the "iFeel Mouse" developed
by Immersion Corporation that contained a small actuator to enable the mouse to
generate simulated physical sensations.[58][59] Such a mouse can augment user-
interfaces with haptic feedback, such as giving feedback when crossing a window
boundary. To surf the internet by touch-enabled mouse was first developed
in1996[60] and first implemented commercially by the Wingman Force Feedback Mouse.
[61] It requires the user to be able to feel depth or hardness; this ability was
realized with the first electrorheological tactile mice[62] but never marketed.

Pucks
Tablet digitizers are sometimes used with accessories called pucks, devices which
rely on absolute positioning, but can be configured for sufficiently mouse-like
relative tracking that they are sometimes marketed as mice.[63]

Ergonomic mice

A vertical mouse
As the name suggests, this type of mouse is intended to provide optimum comfort and
avoid injuries such as carpal tunnel syndrome, arthritis and other repetitive
strain injuries. It is designed to fit natural hand position and movements, to
reduce discomfort.

When holding a typical mouse, the ulna and radius bones on the arm are crossed.
Some designs attempt to place the palm more vertically, so the bones take more
natural parallel position.[64] Some limit wrist movement, encouraging arm movement
instead, that may be less precise but more optimal from the health point of view. A
mouse may be angled from the thumb downward to the opposite side – this is known to
reduce wrist pronation.[65] However such optimizations make the mouse right or left
hand specific, making more problematic to change the tired hand. Time has
criticized manufacturers for offering few or no left-handed ergonomic mice:
"Oftentimes I felt like I was dealing with someone who’d never actually met a left-
handed person before."[66]

Keyboard with roller bar mouse

Another solution is a pointing bar device. The so-called roller bar mouse is
positioned snugly in front of the keyboard, thus allowing bi-manual accessibility.
[67]

Gaming mice

A Logitech G703 gaming mouse, with two buttons at the front and two buttons on the
side
These mice are specifically designed for use in computer games. They typically
employ a wider array of controls and buttons and have designs that differ radically
from traditional mice. They may also have decorative monochrome or programmable RGB
LED lighting.[68] The additional buttons can often be used for changing the
sensitivity of the mouse[69] or they can be assigned (programmed) to macros (i.e.,
for opening a program or for use instead of a key combination)[70] It is also
common for game mice, especially those designed for use in real-time strategy games
such as StarCraft, or in multiplayer online battle arena games such as Dota 2 to
have a relatively high sensitivity, measured in dots per inch (DPI),[71] which can
be as high as 25,600.[72] Some advanced mice from gaming manufacturers also allow
users to adjust the weight of the mouse by adding or subtracting weights to allow
for easier control.[73][74] Ergonomic quality is also an important factor in gaming
mice, as extended gameplay times may render further use of the mouse to be
uncomfortable. Some mice have been designed to have adjustable features such as
removable and/or elongated palm rests, horizontally adjustable thumb rests and
pinky rests. Some mice may include several different rests with their products to
ensure comfort for a wider range of target consumers.[75] Gaming mice are held by
gamers in three styles of grip:[76][77]
Palm Grip: the hand rests on the mouse, with extended fingers.[78]
Claw Grip: palm rests on the mouse, bent fingers.[79]
Finger-Tip Grip: bent fingers, palm doesn't touch the mouse.[80]
Connectivity and communication protocols

A Microsoft wireless Arc Mouse, marketed as "travel-friendly" and foldable but

otherwise operated exactly like other 3-button wheel-based optical mice
To transmit their input, typical cabled mice use a thin electrical cord terminating
in a standard connector, such as RS-232C, PS/2, ADB or USB. Cordless mice instead
transmit data via infrared radiation (see IrDA) or radio (including Bluetooth),
although many such cordless interfaces are themselves connected through the
aforementioned wired serial buses.

While the electrical interface and the format of the data transmitted by commonly
available mice is currently standardized on USB, in the past it varied between
different manufacturers. A bus mouse used a dedicated interface card for connection
to an IBM PC or compatible computer.

Mouse use in DOS applications became more common after the introduction of the
Microsoft Mouse, largely because Microsoft provided an open standard for
communication between applications and mouse driver software. Thus, any application
written to use the Microsoft standard could use a mouse with a driver that
implements the same API, even if the mouse hardware itself was incompatible with
Microsoft's. This driver provides the state of the buttons and the distance the
mouse has moved in units that its documentation calls "mickeys",[81]

Early mice

Xerox Alto mouse

In the 1970s, the Xerox Alto mouse, and in the 1980s the Xerox optical mouse, used
a quadrature-encoded X and Y interface. This two-bit encoding per dimension had the
property that only one bit of the two would change at a time, like a Gray code or
Johnson counter, so that the transitions would not be misinterpreted when
asynchronously sampled.[82]

The earliest mass-market mice, such as on the original Macintosh, Amiga, and Atari
ST mice used a D-subminiature 9-pin connector to send the quadrature-encoded X and
Y axis signals directly, plus one pin per mouse button. The mouse was a simple
optomechanical device, and the decoding circuitry was all in the main computer.

The DE-9 connectors were designed to be electrically compatible with the joysticks
popular on numerous 8-bit systems, such as the Commodore 64 and the Atari 2600.
Although the ports could be used for both purposes, the signals must be interpreted
differently. As a result, plugging a mouse into a joystick port causes the
"joystick" to continuously move in some direction, even if the mouse stays still,
whereas plugging a joystick into a mouse port causes the "mouse" to only be able to
move a single pixel in each direction.

Serial interface and protocol

Signals XA and XB in quadrature convey X-direction motion, while YA and YB convey

Y-dimension motion; here the pointer (cursor) is shown drawing a small curve.
Because the IBM PC did not have a quadrature decoder built in, early PC mice used
the RS-232C serial port to communicate encoded mouse movements, as well as provide
power to the mouse's circuits. The Mouse Systems Corporation version used a five-
byte protocol and supported three buttons. The Microsoft version used a three-byte
protocol and supported two buttons. Due to the incompatibility between the two
protocols, some manufacturers sold serial mice with a mode switch: "PC" for MSC
mode, "MS" for Microsoft mode.[83]

Apple Desktop Bus

Apple Macintosh Plus mice: beige mouse (left), platinum mouse (right), 1986
In 1986 Apple first implemented the Apple Desktop Bus allowing the daisy chaining
of up to 16 devices, including mice and other devices on the same bus with no
configuration whatsoever. Featuring only a single data pin, the bus used a purely
polled approach to device communications and survived as the standard on mainstream
models (including a number of non-Apple workstations) until 1998 when Apple's iMac
line of computers joined the industry-wide switch to using USB. Beginning with the
Bronze Keyboard PowerBook G3 in May 1999, Apple dropped the external ADB port in
favor of USB, but retained an internal ADB connection in the PowerBook G4 for
communication with its built-in keyboard and trackpad until early 2005.

PS/2 interface and protocol

Further information: PS/2 connector

Color-coded PS/2 connection ports; purple for keyboard and green for mouse
With the arrival of the IBM PS/2 personal-computer series in 1987, IBM introduced
the eponymous PS/2 port for mice and keyboards, which other manufacturers rapidly
adopted. The most visible change was the use of a round 6-pin mini-DIN, in lieu of
the former 5-pin MIDI style full sized DIN 41524 connector. In default mode (called
stream mode) a PS/2 mouse communicates motion, and the state of each button, by
means of 3-byte packets.[84] For any motion, button press or button release event,
a PS/2 mouse sends, over a bi-directional serial port, a sequence of three bytes,
with the following format:

Bit 7 Bit 6 Bit 5 Bit 4 Bit 3 Bit 2 Bit 1 Bit 0

Byte 1 YV XV YS XS 1 MB RB LB
Byte 2 X movement
Byte 3 Y movement
Here, XS and YS represent the sign bits of the movement vectors, XV and YV indicate
an overflow in the respective vector component, and LB, MB and RB indicate the
status of the left, middle and right mouse buttons (1 = pressed). PS/2 mice also
understand several commands for reset and self-test, switching between different
operating modes, and changing the resolution of the reported motion vectors.

A Microsoft IntelliMouse relies on an extension of the PS/2 protocol: the ImPS/2 or

IMPS/2 protocol (the abbreviation combines the concepts of "IntelliMouse" and
"PS/2"). It initially operates in standard PS/2 format, for backwards
compatibility. After the host sends a special command sequence, it switches to an
extended format in which a fourth byte carries information about wheel movements.
The IntelliMouse Explorer works analogously, with the difference that its 4-byte
packets also allow for two additional buttons (for a total of five).[85]

Mouse vendors also use other extended formats, often without providing public
documentation. The Typhoon mouse uses 6-byte packets which can appear as a sequence
of two standard 3-byte packets, such that an ordinary PS/2 driver can handle them.
[86] For 3-D (or 6-degree-of-freedom) input, vendors have made many extensions both
to the hardware and to software. In the late 1990s, Logitech created ultrasound
based tracking which gave 3D input to a few millimeters accuracy, which worked well
as an input device but failed as a profitable product. In 2008, Motion4U introduced
its "OptiBurst" system using IR tracking for use as a Maya (graphics software)
plugin.[relevant?]

USB
[icon]
This section needs expansion with: information on how USB is used by mice, such as
details of the USB protocol. You can help by adding to it. (April 2020)
The industry-standard USB (Universal Serial Bus) protocol and its connector have
become widely used for mice; it is among the most popular types.[87]

Cordless or wireless
Cordless or wireless mice transmit data via radio.[88] Some mice connect to the
computer through Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, while others use a receiver that plugs into
the computer, for example through a USB port.

Many mice that use a USB receiver have a storage compartment for it inside the
mouse. Some "nano receivers" are designed to be small enough to remain plugged into
a laptop during transport, while still being large enough to easily remove.[89]

The Logitech Metaphor, the first wireless mouse (1984). On display at the Musée
Bolo, EPFL

An older Microsoft wireless mouse made for notebook computers

Microsoft Bluetooth Mobile Mouse 3600

A wireless Apple mouse

Operating system support

MS-DOS and Windows 1.0 support connecting a mouse such as a Microsoft Mouse via
multiple interfaces: BallPoint, Bus (InPort), Serial port or PS/2.[90]

Windows 98 added built-in support for USB Human Interface Device class (USB HID),
[91] with native vertical scrolling support.[92] Windows 2000 and Windows Me
expanded this built-in support to 5-button mice.[93]

Windows XP Service Pack 2 introduced a Bluetooth stack, allowing Bluetooth mice to

be used without any USB receivers.[94] Windows Vista added native support for
horizontal scrolling and standardized wheel movement granularity for finer
scrolling.[92]

Windows 8 introduced BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) mouse/HID support.[95]

Multiple-mouse systems
Some systems allow two or more mice to be used at once as input devices. Late-1980s
era home computers such as the Amiga used this to allow computer games with two
players interacting on the same computer (Lemmings and The Settlers for example).
The same idea is sometimes used in collaborative software, e.g. to simulate a
whiteboard that multiple users can draw on without passing a single mouse around.

Microsoft Windows, since Windows 98, has supported multiple simultaneous pointing
devices. Because Windows only provides a single screen cursor, using more than one
device at the same time requires cooperation of users or applications designed for
multiple input devices.

Multiple mice are often used in multi-user gaming in addition to specially designed
devices that provide several input interfaces.
Windows also has full support for multiple input/mouse configurations for multi-
user environments.

Starting with Windows XP, Microsoft introduced an SDK for developing applications
that allow multiple input devices to be used at the same time with independent
cursors and independent input points. However, it no longer appears to be
available.[96]

The introduction of Windows Vista and Microsoft Surface (now known as Microsoft
PixelSense) introduced a new set of input APIs that were adopted into Windows 7,
allowing for 50 points/cursors, all controlled by independent users. The new input
points provide traditional mouse input; however, they were designed with other
input technologies like touch and image in mind. They inherently offer 3D
coordinates along with pressure, size, tilt, angle, mask, and even an image bitmap
to see and recognize the input point/object on the screen.

As of 2009, Linux distributions and other operating systems that use X.Org, such as
OpenSolaris and FreeBSD, support 255 cursors/input points through Multi-Pointer X.
However, currently no window managers support Multi-Pointer X leaving it relegated
to custom software usage.

There have also been propositions of having a single operator use two mice
simultaneously as a more sophisticated means of controlling various graphics and
multimedia applications.[97]

Buttons
Main article: Mouse button

Mouse with additional buttons

Mouse buttons are microswitches which can be pressed to select or interact with an
element of a graphical user interface, producing a distinctive clicking sound.

Since around the late 1990s, the three-button scrollmouse has become the de facto
standard. Users most commonly employ the second button to invoke a contextual menu
in the computer's software user interface, which contains options specifically
tailored to the interface element over which the mouse cursor currently sits. By
default, the primary mouse button sits located on the left-hand side of the mouse,
for the benefit of right-handed users; left-handed users can usually reverse this
configuration via software.

Scrolling
Main article: Scroll wheel
Nearly all mice now have an integrated input primarily intended for scrolling on
top, usually a single-axis digital wheel or rocker switch which can also be
depressed to act as a third button. Though less common, many mice instead have two-
axis inputs such as a tiltable wheel, trackball, or touchpad. Those with a
trackball may be designed to stay stationary, using the trackball instead of moving
the mouse.[98]

Speed
Mickeys per second is a unit of measurement for the speed and movement direction of
a computer mouse,[81] where direction is often expressed as "horizontal" versus
"vertical" mickey count. However, speed can also refer to the ratio between how
many pixels the cursor moves on the screen and how far the mouse moves on the mouse
pad, which may be expressed as pixels per mickey, pixels per inch, or pixels per
centimeter.

The computer industry often measures mouse sensitivity in terms of counts per inch
(CPI), commonly expressed as dots per inch (DPI) – the number of steps the mouse
will report when it moves one inch. In early mice, this specification was called
pulses per inch (ppi).[42] The mickey originally referred to one of these counts,
or one resolvable step of motion. If the default mouse-tracking condition involves
moving the cursor by one screen-pixel or dot on-screen per reported step, then the
CPI does equate to DPI: dots of cursor motion per inch of mouse motion. The CPI or
DPI as reported by manufacturers depends on how they make the mouse; the higher the
CPI, the faster the cursor moves with mouse movement. However, software can adjust
the mouse sensitivity, making the cursor move faster or slower than its CPI. As of
2007, software can change the speed of the cursor dynamically, taking into account
the mouse's absolute speed and the movement from the last stop-point. In most
software, an example being the Windows platforms, this setting is named "speed,"
referring to "cursor precision". However, some operating systems name this setting
"acceleration", the typical Apple OS designation. This term is incorrect. Mouse
acceleration in most mouse software refers to the change in speed of the cursor
over time while the mouse movement is constant.[clarification needed][citation
needed]

For simple software, when the mouse starts to move, the software will count the
number of "counts" or "mickeys" received from the mouse and will move the cursor
across the screen by that number of pixels (or multiplied by a rate factor,
typically less than 1). The cursor will move slowly on the screen, with good
precision. When the movement of the mouse passes the value set for some threshold,
the software will start to move the cursor faster, with a greater rate factor.
Usually, the user can set the value of the second rate factor by changing the
"acceleration" setting.

Operating systems sometimes apply acceleration, referred to as "ballistics", to the

motion reported by the mouse. For example, versions of Windows prior to Windows XP
doubled reported values above a configurable threshold, and then optionally doubled
them again above a second configurable threshold. These doublings applied
separately in the X and Y directions, resulting in very nonlinear response.[99]

Mousepads
Main article: Mousepad
Engelbart's original mouse did not require a mousepad;[100] the mouse had two large
wheels which could roll on virtually any surface. However, most subsequent
mechanical mice starting with the steel roller ball mouse have required a mousepad
for optimal performance.

The mousepad, the most common mouse accessory, appears most commonly in conjunction
with mechanical mice, because to roll smoothly the ball requires more friction than
common desk surfaces usually provide. So-called "hard mousepads" for gamers or
optical/laser mice also exist.

Most optical and laser mice do not require a pad, the notable exception being early
optical mice which relied on a grid on the pad to detect movement (e.g. Mouse
Systems). Whether to use a hard or soft mousepad with an optical mouse is largely a
matter of personal preference. One exception occurs when the desk surface creates
problems for the optical or laser tracking, for example, a transparent or
reflective surface, such as glass.

Some mice also come with small "pads" attached to the bottom surface, also called
mouse feet or mouse skates, that help the user slide the mouse smoothly across
surfaces.[101]

In the marketplace

Computer mice built between 1986 and 2007

Around 1981, Xerox included mice with its Xerox Star, based on the mouse used in
the 1970s on the Alto computer at Xerox PARC. Sun Microsystems, Symbolics, Lisp
Machines Inc., and Tektronix also shipped workstations with mice, starting in about
1981. Later, inspired by the Star, Apple Computer released the Apple Lisa, which
also used a mouse. However, none of these products achieved large-scale success.
Only with the release of the Apple Macintosh in 1984 did the mouse see widespread
use.[102]

The Macintosh design,[103] commercially successful and technically influential, led

many other vendors to begin producing mice or including them with their other
computer products (by 1986, Atari ST, Amiga, Windows 1.0, GEOS for the Commodore
64, and the Apple IIGS).[104]

The widespread adoption of graphical user interfaces in the software of the 1980s
and 1990s made mice all but indispensable for controlling computers. In November
2008, Logitech built their billionth mouse.[105]

Use in games

Logitech G5 laser mouse designed for games, with adjustable weights (on left)
The Classic Mac OS Desk Accessory Puzzle in 1984 was the first game designed
specifically for a mouse.[106] The device often functions as an interface for PC-
based computer games and sometimes for video game consoles.

First-person shooters

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this
article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be
challenged and removed. (August 2012) (Learn how and when to remove this template
message)
FPSs naturally lend themselves to separate and simultaneous control of the player's
movement and aim, and on computers this has traditionally been achieved with a
combination of keyboard and mouse. Players use the X-axis of the mouse for looking
(or turning) left and right, and the Y-axis for looking up and down; the keyboard
is used for movement and supplemental inputs.

Many shooting genre players prefer a mouse over a gamepad analog stick because the
wide range of motion offered by a mouse allows for faster and more varied control.
Although an analog stick allows the player more granular control, it is poor for
certain movements, as the player's input is relayed based on a vector of both the
stick's direction and magnitude. Thus, a small but fast movement (known as "flick-
shotting") using a gamepad requires the player to quickly move the stick from its
rest position to the edge and back again in quick succession, a difficult maneuver.
In addition the stick also has a finite magnitude; if the player is currently using
the stick to move at a non-zero velocity their ability to increase the rate of
movement of the camera is further limited based on the position their displaced
stick was already at before executing the maneuver. The effect of this is that a
mouse is well suited not only to small, precise movements but also to large, quick
movements and immediate, responsive movements; all of which are important in
shooter gaming.[107] This advantage also extends in varying degrees to similar game
styles such as third-person shooters.

Some incorrectly ported games or game engines have acceleration and interpolation
curves which unintentionally produce excessive, irregular, or even negative
acceleration when used with a mouse instead of their native platform's non-mouse
default input device. Depending on how deeply hardcoded this misbehavior is,
internal user patches or external 3rd-party software may be able to fix it.[108]
Individual game engines will also have their own sensitivities.[109] This often
restricts you from taking one games existing sensitivity, transferring it to
another, and acquiring the same 360 rotational measurements. A sensitivity
converter is required in order to translate rotational movements properly.[110]

Due to their similarity to the WIMP desktop metaphor interface for which mice were
originally designed, and to their own tabletop game origins, computer strategy
games are most commonly played with mice. In particular, real-time strategy and
MOBA games usually require the use of a mouse.

The left button usually controls primary fire. If the game supports multiple fire
modes, the right button often provides secondary fire from the selected weapon.
Games with only a single fire mode will generally map secondary fire to aim down
the weapon sights. In some games, the right button may also invoke accessories for
a particular weapon, such as allowing access to the scope of a sniper rifle or
allowing the mounting of a bayonet or silencer.

Players can use a scroll wheel for changing weapons (or for controlling scope-zoom
magnification, in older games). On most first person shooter games, programming may
also assign more functions to additional buttons on mice with more than three
controls. A keyboard usually controls movement (for example, WASD for moving
forward, left, backward and right, respectively) and other functions such as
changing posture. Since the mouse serves for aiming, a mouse that tracks movement
accurately and with less lag (latency) will give a player an advantage over players
with less accurate or slower mice. In some cases the right mouse button may be used
to move the player forward, either in lieu of, or in conjunction with the typical
WASD configuration.

Many games provide players with the option of mapping their own choice of a key or
button to a certain control. An early technique of players, circle strafing, saw a
player continuously strafing while aiming and shooting at an opponent by walking in
circle around the opponent with the opponent at the center of the circle. Players
could achieve this by holding down a key for strafing while continuously aiming the
mouse towards the opponent.

Games using mice for input are so popular that many manufacturers make mice
specifically for gaming. Such mice may feature adjustable weights, high-resolution
optical or laser components, additional buttons, ergonomic shape, and other
features such as adjustable CPI. Mouse Bungees are typically used with gaming mice
because it eliminates the annoyance of the cable.

Many games, such as first- or third-person shooters, have a setting named "invert
mouse" or similar (not to be confused with "button inversion", sometimes performed
by left-handed users) which allows the user to look downward by moving the mouse
forward and upward by moving the mouse backward (the opposite of non-inverted
movement). This control system resembles that of aircraft control sticks, where
pulling back causes pitch up and pushing forward causes pitch down; computer
joysticks also typically emulate this control-configuration.

After id Software's commercial hit of Doom, which did not support vertical aiming,
competitor Bungie's Marathon became the first first-person shooter to support using
the mouse to aim up and down.[111] Games using the Build engine had an option to
invert the Y-axis. The "invert" feature actually made the mouse behave in a manner
that users now regard as non-inverted (by default, moving mouse forward resulted in
looking down). Soon after, id Software released Quake, which introduced the invert
feature as users now know it.

Home consoles

Sega Dreamcast mouse

In 1988, the VTech Socrates educational video game console featured a wireless
mouse with an attached mouse pad as an optional controller used for some games. In
the early 1990s, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System video game system featured
a mouse in addition to its controllers. The Mario Paint game in particular used the
mouse's capabilities[112] as did its successor on the N64. Sega released official
mice for their Genesis/Mega Drive, Saturn and Dreamcast consoles. NEC sold official
mice for its PC Engine and PC-FX consoles. Sony released an official mouse product
for the PlayStation console, included one along with the Linux for PlayStation 2
kit, as well as allowing owners to use virtually any USB mouse with the PS2, PS3,
and PS4. Nintendo's Wii also had this added on in a later software update, retained
on the Wii U. Currently the lightest mouse designed for games is Finalmouse
Ultralight 2 which weighs 48g.[113]

See also
icon Electronics portal
Computer accessibility
Footmouse
Graphics tablet
Gesture recognition
Human–computer interaction (HCI)
List of wireless mice with nano receivers
Mouse keys
Mouse tracking
Pointing stick
Rotational mouse
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Further reading
Pang, Alex Soojung-Kim, "Mighty Mouse: In 1980, Apple Computer asked a group of
guys fresh from Stanford's product design program to take a $400 device and make it
mass-producible, reliable and cheap. Their work transformed personal computing",
Stanford University Alumni Magazine, March/April 2002.
Stanford University MouseSite with stories and annotated archives from Doug
Engelbart's work
Doug Engelbart Institute mouse resources page includes stories and links
Fire-Control and Human-Computer Interaction: Towards a History of the Computer
Mouse (1940–1965), by Axel Roch
50 Jahre Computer mit der Maus - Öffentliche Veranstaltung am 5. Dezember auf dem
Campus Vaihingen (Invitation to a plenum discussion) (in German), Informatik-Forum
Stuttgart (infos e.V.), GI- / ACM-Regionalgruppe Stuttgart / Böblingen, Institut
für Visualisierung und Interaktive Systeme der Universität Stuttgart and SFB-TRR
161, 2016-11-28, archived from the original on 2017-11-15, retrieved 2017-11-15
Borchers, Detlef (2016-12-10), 50 Jahre Mensch-Maschine-Interaktion: Finger oder
Kugel? (in German), Heise Online, archived from the original on 2017-11-15,
retrieved 2017-11-15
Yacoub, Mousa; Turfa, Majd; Maurer, Fabian (2016-08-19). Reverse Engineering of the
Computer Mouse RKS 100 (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-11-15.
Retrieved 2017-11-15. (NB. Contains some historical photos.)
External links
Wikiversity has learning resources about Mouse (computing)
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Computer mice.
The video segment of The Mother of All Demos with Doug Engelbart showing the device
from 1968
vte
Basic computer components
vte
Video game controllers
Authority control Edit this at Wikidata
GND: 4225191-6LCCN: sh93009624
Categories: American inventionsComputer miceComputer-related introductions in
1964Computing input devicesHistory of human–computer interactionPointing
devicesVideo game control methods
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