The Best Computer Technology Devices

The Mouse
At present, it is difficult to imagine a desktop computer without its iconic sidekick: the mouse.Developed 41 years ago by Douglas Engelbart at the Stanford Research Institute, in California, the mouse is closely linked to the development of modern computer and also play an important role in the rise of a graphical user interface. Engelbart demonstrated the mouse, along with several other key innovations, including hypertext and shared-screen collaboration, at a ceremony in San Francisco in 1968.Early computer mouse comes in many shapes and forms, many of which will be almost unrecognizable today. However, by the time mouses became commercially available in the 1980s, the mold set. Three decades on and despite some modifications (including lost its tail), the mouse remained unchanged. That's not to say that the company does not try to add all kinds of extras, including mini joystick and an air ventilator to keep your hands free and a cold sweat.Logitech alone has sold more than a billion of these tools, but some believe that the mouse is on its last leg. Another resurgence, more intuitive interface may eventually loosen the grip of the mouse it to us.

The Touchpad
Despite stiff competition from track balls and button joysticks, the touchpad has emerged as the most popular interface for laptop computers.
With most touchpads, a user’s finger is sensed by detecting disruptions to an electric field caused by the finger’s natural capacitance. It’s a principle that was employed as far back as 1953 by Canadian pioneer of electronic music Hugh Le Caine, to control the timbre of the sounds produced by his early synthesizer, dubbed the Sackbut.
The touchpad is also important as a precursor to the touch-screen interface. And many touchpads now feature multitouch capabilities, expanding the range of possible uses. The first multitouch touchpad for a computer was demonstrated back in 1984, by Bill Buxton, then a professor of computer design and interaction at the University of Toronto and now also principle researcher at Microsoft

The Multitouch Screen
Mention touch screen computers, and most people will think of Apple’s iPhone or Microsoft’s Surface. In truth, the technology is already a quarter of a century old, having debuted in the HP-150 computer in 1983. Long before desktop computers became common, basic touch screens were used in ATMs to allow customers, who were largely computer illiterate, to use computers without much training.
However, it’s fair to say that Apple’s iPhone has helped revive the potential of the approach with its multitouch screen. Several cell-phone manufacturers now offer multitouch devices, and both Windows 7 and future versions of Apple’s Macbook are expected to do the same. Various techniques can enable multitouch screens: capacitive sensing, infrared, surface acoustic waves, and, more recently, pressure sensing.
With this renaissance, we can expect a whole new lexicon of gestures designed to make it easier to manipulate data and call up commands. In fact, one challenge may be finding means to reproduce existing commands in an intuitive way, says August de los Reyes, a user-experience researcher who works on Microsoft’s Surface.


Sources by  Duncan Graham-Rowe