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INVENTOR'S HALL OF FAME

 

 

Engelbart

 

Patent No. 3,541,541
X-Y Position Indicator 
for a Display System 
Computer Mouse

 

Douglas Engelbart was born and grew up near Portland, Oregon. He served in the Navy as an electronics technician during World War II, and received his B.S. from Oregon State University. After working for NASA's Ames Research Laboratory, he received a Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley. He then joined the Stanford Research Institute (SRI), earning a number of patents related to computer components.

In the 1970s and 1980s, Engelbart was a Senior Scientist at Tymshare, Inc., later acquired by McDonnell-Douglas. In 1989, he founded The Bootstrap Institute, which promotes the development of collective IQ through worldwide computer networks.

Engelbart's patent for the mouse is only a representation of his pioneering work in designing modern interactive computer environments.

A main concern for Engelbart was how the computer could be used as a tool in tomorrow's office. While at SRI, he developed a hypermedia groupware system called NLS (oN-Line System). NLS utilized two-dimensional computerized text editing, and the mouse, used to position a pointer into text, was a critical component.

During a 1968 demonstration, Engelbart first introduced NLS. This was the world debut of the mouse, hypermedia, an on-screen video teleconferencing. His project became the second host on Arpanet, predecessor of the Internet.

The above information was supplied by the National Inventors Hall of Fame Foundation, Inc., Room 1D01-Crystal Plaza 3, 2021 Jefferson Davis Highway, Arlington, Virginia 22202. Videotapes and printed materials are currently available. For more information, visit the Foundation's web site at http://www.invent.org

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