What is a hardware?
- A hardware is a physical component of a computer. There are lots of hardware or devices for a computer such as keyboard, mouse, monitor, processor, CD, DVD, and Hard disk.
We can divide hardware or devices under four categories.
1.Input Devices: We use these devices to input data such as keyboard, mouse, digital camera, joystick, microphones and graphic tablet.
Graphic tablet
Digital camera
Joystick
2.Output Devices: We use these devices to get information such as monitor, speaker, multimedia projector and printer
Monitor
Printer
Speaker
3.Storage Devices: We use these devices to store data and information such as hard disk, pen drives, CD, DVD, floppy disks, magnetic tapes and SSD.
SSD
Floppy Disk
Hard Disk
Magnetic Tape
CD and DVD
- We can divide these storage devices under 3 categories by the technology
1).Magnetic Media- hard disk, floppy disk, magnetic tape
2).Solid media- pen drives, memory cards, SSD
3).Optical Media- CD, DVD, Blue Ray
4.Processing devices: We use processors to process data
Processor
History of Hardware
History of keyboard
The history of the modern computer keyboard begins with a direct inheritance from the invention of the typewriter. It was Christopher Latham Sholes who, in 1868, patented the first practical modern typewriter. Soon after, in 1877, the Remington Company began mass marketing the first typewriters. After a series of technological developments, the typewriter gradually evolved into the standard computer keyboard your fingers know so well today.
Christopher Latham Sholes and his typewriter.
The QWERTY Keyboard
There are several legends around the development of the QWERTY keyboard layout, which was patented by Sholes and his partner James Densmore in 1878. The most compelling explanation is that Sholes developed the layout to overcome the physical limitations of mechanical technology at the time. Early typists pressed a key which would, in turn, push a metal hammer that rose up in an arc, striking an inked ribbon to make a mark on a paper before returning to its original position. Separating common pairs of letters minimized the jamming of the mechanism.
As machine technology improved, other keyboard layouts were invented that claimed to be more efficient, including as the Dvorak keyboard patented in 1936. Although there are dedicated Dvorak users today, they remain a tiny minority compared to those who continue to use the original QWERTY layout, which remains the most popular keyboard layout on devices of many types throughout the English-speaking world. QWERTY's current acceptance has been attributed to the layout being "efficient enough" and "familiar enough" to hinder the commercial viability of competitors.
James Densmore
The history of mouse
Trackballs, light pens, and other clever pointing devices were widespread. Then the mouse was invented. Twice. (Well, at least twice.)
Doug Engelbart reportedly conceived the mouse during a conference lecture in 1961. His first design, in 1963, used rolling wheels inspired by mechanical area-measuring devices called planimeters invented in the 1800s.
Engineers at Germany’s Telefunken also invented a mouse in the mid-1960s. First described in 1968, their version used a rolling ball essentially a small, upside-down trackball which became the standard for decades.
Doug Engelbart and his mouse
The word “mouse” does not appear in Engelbart’s patent for the computer pointing device that became ubiquitous within 20 years. The knife-edged wheels each rolled in just one direction, transmitting movement information for that direction. Each slid without turning when the mouse was moved in the other direction.
The Telefunken Rollkugel may have been the first rolling-ball mouse.
By 1968, SRI had provided Doug Engelbart with commercially produced three-button mice to use in his famous “Mother of all Demos.”
Who Named the Mouse?
When asked who named his most famous invention, Doug Engelbart recalled, “No one can remember. It just looked like a mouse with a tail, and we all called it that.” The wire “tail” originally came out under the user’s wrist.
Using a ball from the Canadian 5-pin bowling game, this was likely the first trackball. It controlled radar plotters in a computerized multi-ship defense system designed in Canada.
Bill English at the ARC office
Bill English built the original wooden Engelbart mouse prototype. He is seen here working at an SRI ergonomic workstation.
Rolling ball mouse for Alto computer
Bill English moved to Xerox PARC in 1971. His group developed PARC’s first mouse, a rolling-ball design like that of the 1968 Telefunken mouse.
A Menagerie of Mice
The basic idea of the mouse is simple, but there are many variations on the theme. Engineers have experimented with different shapes, numbers of buttons, internal mechanisms, and aesthetics -- as well as with the part of the human body that activates it.
Three-button Depraz mouse
Shortly after its founding, Logitech sold this rolling-ball mouse design by André Guignard in the U.S.
View Artifact Detail
Multi-button mouse
How many buttons should a mouse have? For 20 years, Apple said “one.” Video-editing system maker Quantel, however, found many buttons helpful for operating its sophisticated systems.
Bili Foot Mouse Programmable Pedal
Foot mouse users include people with hand and arm problems, and people who want to keep their hands on the computer keyboard or other control devices.
Jouse Sip Puff mouse system
Users move this joystick with their mouths. Short inhalations and exhalations signal “mouse clicks.”
The name “mouse” inevitably led to quirky accessories and packaging.
Wooden optical mouse
This wooden mouse combines up-to-date technology with old-world craftsmanship.
Mouse interior mechanism
This is the internal mechanism of a modern rolling-ball mouse, with the ball removed.
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