A Brief Synopsis On How We Got Started.
The "MOUSE-TRAK" Tail
In 1984, Charles Robert “Bob” McLaughlin was using a program called P-CAD to lay out high-temperature hybrid circuits using a Mouse Systems 3-button mouse on his computer. Bob began to experience severe pain, which started with his wrist, then worked its way up his entire arm and into his neck. This pain is now referred to as Repetitive Stress Injury (RSI). After several days of continuous pain, he determined that it was from using the mouse, hour after hour on a daily basis. As the pain became increasingly worse, Bob became more and more concerned that it would eventually cause a permanent injury.
Since Bob had a private airplane and flew on a regular basis, he remembered seeing a trackball being used in an air traffic control center before. He began inquiring as to where he could purchase a trackball for personal use, only to find out that no trackballs had been programmed to work with a PC yet. Due to this fact, Bob had trouble finding someone to sell him a trackball. Finally, after searching for weeks, Bob found a person who would let him purchase a trackball. It was a costly purchase, but well worth the money if it would relieve some of the pain he was in.
Bob began working on a way to wire a trackball and a mouse together. Basically, he had to trick the computer into believing that the pulses and optical sensors were coming from the mouse, when they were really coming from the trackball. Once this was accomplished, Bob found that it was still not comfortable to use and that it did not relieve the pain like he thought it would. Bob then hired a mechanical engineer to consult on a design that would accommodate comfort and ease the pain.
The engineer developed prototype after prototype. Finally, they found a prototype that was not only comfortable but Bob began to notice that the pain was not as severe at night. After only one week, Bob announced that he was not experiencing any pain after a full day of work on the trackball! Some of Bob’s friends began to notice and ask questions about this “different looking structure” on Bob’s desk. Bob explained about the pain he was experiencing, only to find out that he was not the only one to have this problem. He began to sell the trackballs with the thought, “if I can sell at least a thousand of them, I will be able to break even. Hence, MOUSE-TRAK was invented.
The one thing that makes this so unique is: