Computers today. Гурьянова В.И. - 20 стр.

       wireless mice
       IR or radio-frequency technologies
       the main button
       to call a list of options
      3. Is there anything in the text that you find particularly interesting
or that you didn’t know before? What is it?
      4. Note down all the facts connected with different periods of mice
development and tell the rest of the class about them.
      5. The last sentences of the text have been blanked out. What do you
think they can be?
                                     Input system
      A mouse is a hand-held pointing device used in computing. It is designed
to sit under one hand of the user so as to detect movement. It usually has buttons
and/or other devices which allow the user to perform different system-dependent
operations. Douglas Engelbart of Stanford Research Institute invented the mouse
pointing-device in 1963. This mouse used 2 gear-wheels perpendicular to each
other. The name “mouse” was derived from the resemblance of early models to
the rodent with the same name. These early models had a cord attached to the
rear part of the device which looked like the tail of the mouse.
      Since those early days, several types of mice have evolved. One of these types
is the mechanical mouse. The so-called ball mouse was invented in the early 1970s
and became the predominant form used with personal computers throughout the
1980s and 1990s. Another type of mechanical mouse had two plastic “feet” on the
bottom which sensed movement. Optical mice which used a light-emitting diode and
photodiodes to detect movement were developed in the early 1980s. Due to its ability
to embed more powerful image processing chips inside, the mouse was able to detect
motion on a wide variety of surfaces, which also eliminated the need for a special
mouse-pad. Nowadays, optical mice work by using an optoelectronic sensor to take
pictures of the surface on which the mouse operates. Laser mice came out as early as
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