Inventor of the "mouse" has died at age 88 - Público.pt

Doug Engelbart, the visionary engineer in computer science who developed the instrument that became famous as “mouse” and changed the way many people work, died Tuesday night at age 88 in California .

According moved his daughter Diana Engelbart Mangan, quoted by San Francisco Chronicle , the computer died at his home in Atherton, in the heart of Silicon Valley, following a bankruptcy kidney and after several years fighting Alzheimer’s disease.

Born in Oregon, Doug Engelbart settled in California to become a researcher at Stanford Research Institute, after having graduated in electronic engineering and computer science in the ’50s, when a single computer still occupied a division, recalls Lusa. The work of the engineer and his team helped to lay the foundations upon which arose the modern computer. His research focused on videoconferencing, teleconferencing, electronic mail, the “windows” and hypertext links, but was particularly known for having invented the “mouse”.

Patent “Mouse”, which appeared initially as a wooden box with two metal wheels, was ordered in 1967 and granted in 1970, describes the same agency. His research team also created the Arpanet, precursor to the Internet. Engelbart led to 21 patents and received, in 2000, the National Medal of Technology, the highest distinction of the sector. Before, in 1997, had received the highest financial award for researchers in the United States, the Lemelson-MIT Prize, worth $ 500,000.

However, realization of the idea of ??working in a computer with an object that is out of it was sold only in 1984, when Apple revolutionized the world with its Macintosh computer and a few years before Engelbart have seen the patent “Mouse” expires, so only benefited earnings just over three years.

responsible for the Stanford Research Institute pointed out in a statement quoted by CNN, which Engelbart saw all his work as a “way of augmenting human intellect”, so always focused on people looking for ways to share ideas and solve problems which at the time seemed impossible. “He brought tremendous value to society and will miss his wit, warmth and charm. His legacy is immense. Anyone in the world that uses a “mouse” benefits from many potential computer thanks to him “, said Curtis R. Carlson.

Already

the founder and curator of the program in the history of the Internet in the Computer History Museum, Marc Weber, the same newspaper, said that “there are only a handful of people who have been as influential as” pioneering engineer. “He had a full view of what computers could prove to be a very early stage. Began to think about these things when computers were only used for calculations. There were all interactive, so it was very radical at the time, “he added.

In 2007, CNN, Engelbart said that sometimes reflect “on how it takes someone can be so naive to be visionary and overcome obstacles to be successful,” while many others with visions eventually fall and be on the way.

Engelbart leaves his wife, Karen O’Leary Engelbart, and four children: Diana, Christina Norman and Greda.