In 1970 a patent for an obscure computer device was granted - and it changed personal computing forever

In November 1970 a patent was granted for a device dubbed an “X-Y position indicator for a display system”.

Amidst the plethora of patents granted that year, you would’ve been forgiven for not realizing its importance, but the newly-patented device would transform personal computing forever, giving users a more accessible means of navigating computer interfaces.

The computer mouse was on its way.

Enter the mouse

Developed by a team of researchers led by Douglas Engelbart at the Stanford Research Institute, some had already seen this device in action years prior.

The ‘mouse’ was initially designed in 1964 by Bill English, a fellow computer engineer at the research institute. Made from redwood, it was a primitive device but did the job.

English later went on to work for Xerox’s Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), where he also developed a ball mouse for the company’s personal computer device. His work here would prove vital in years to come when an up-and-coming tech mogul came knocking.

The ‘mother of all demos’

Circling back to Engelbart’s patent and the dawn of the computer mouse, an early demo by the team showed exactly how revolutionary the device would eventually be.

A video excerpt from a presentation by Engelbart at a computing conference in 1968, which can be found on YouTube, detailed how the device would work in action.

The demo showed attendees a rather clunky, not exactly ergonomic device, but one that nonetheless would transform human-computer interaction.

Researchers at the institute had been using it in their daily activities, Engelbart noted, and it had delivered marked benefits in terms of accessibility and ease of use for staff.

The mouse takes off

With the huge rise of personal computing in the late 1970s and 80s, the computer mouse quickly became a staple bit of kit for any computing device. Apple, in particular, led the charge on this front, with Steve Jobs keen to equip Macintosh’s with the handy devices.

His interest in this handy little device came from a demo he saw at Xerox some years earlier, with English having gone on to help pioneer the development of the mouse at the company.

In Walter Isaacson’s biography of the tech visionary, “Steve Jobs”, he noted that Jobs wanted to build on Xerox’s device with a more simplistic, user-friendly design.

“The Xerox mouse had three buttons, was complicated, and cost $300 apiece, and didn’t roll around smoothly,” Isaacson wrote. “A few days after his second Xerox PARC visit, Jobs went to a local industrial design firm, IDEO, and told one of its founders, Dean Hovey, that he wanted a simple single button model that cost $15.”

When Apple launched its Lisa computer in 1983, this marked the first time a commercial computer device was released complete with a mouse, per reports from Wired.

While the Lisa device wasn’t exactly a hit - cost was a major factor in its failure - later computers released by the blossoming tech giant featured a mouse, setting in stone its place as a staple in the world of personal computing.