TECH

At age 50, the second most famous mouse faces possible extinction

On December 9, 1968, the American computer engineer Douglas Englebart ran a research center for the increase of human intelligence, a subsidiary of Stanford University, and in an hour and a half made before about two thousand people a public presentation that would come to During this hour and a half, Engelbart and his team, some in the laboratory several kilometers away, demonstrated for the first time technology that is nowadays commonplace, from mouse to hypertext, through video conferencing and processing. text.
Mark as the mouse and the dissemination of personal computers brought people closer to computing to the point that it is now "seen as a basic science, such as Mathematics, Biology, Chemistry or Physics," Lusa told the coordinator of the degree in Computer Engineering of Instituto Superior Técnico, Inês Lince.
For Inês Lince, the appearance of the computer mouse is just as important as the tendency to become obsolete, since it defines computing as "the greatest technological revolution ever lived," in constant change.
"For 20 years, I had not imagined this," he said, referring to the ubiquity of the Internet, mobile phones and other technologies that have become commonplace.
While computers were essentially static objects on desktops, the mouse was indispensable, but with the increasing mobility of electronic devices, from smartphones to tablets, the way of the future should be "more natural, more intuitive."
In tactile screens that are nowadays the standard of devices, the contact between the user's finger and the machine "is much more intuitive, it is like an extension of the body itself" and a generation of educated children using tablets since childhood.
In 2008, when it was debated how long the mouse would last until it became obsolete, the Swiss company Logitech manufactured its mouse "billion."
From a purely functional beginning - a piece of wood with wheels -, the shape of the mouse became over the years more ergonomic, changed the ball that rotated in the inferior part to determine the movement of the cursor by optical sensors, maintaining in the essential point and select function.
It gained buttons to move up and down a page, eventually drop the "tail" that gave it the name to become wireless and the next step in the evolution of the mouse and technology may even be extinction.
Inês Lince points to the experiences that are already being made in the incorporation of electronic circuits in the human body - "a pacemaker" is that "- as a possible next step in the interaction between humans and machines, but stresses that the market has its own whims , a reflection of human behavior, "which is difficult to predict and manage."
Other "interfaces" launched by computer brands over the years have come and gone without giving way to them and "the same business may not have the health to revenge in a moment and succeed next."
Fifty years ago, at the end of what became known as "the mother of all demonstrations," Douglas Engelbart thanked the family who endured their "monomania" and the team that shared the "crazy dream" that turned out to be prophetic.
This text about Engelbart and one of his most famous creations was written with the aid of a mouse. In 50 years, who knows?
Engelbart knew one thing for sure and even made it a law with his name: humans exponentially increase their ability to invent and learn, that is, only humans are able to improve their ability to be better. Technology in the following decades . Lusa Agency