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A mousepad, or mouse mat, is a surface for enhancing the movement of a computer mouse.

History of the mousepad

Douglas Engelbart's original 1968 demo video of mouse usage shows a keyboard/mouse "tray" special-made for the purpose. According to Alex Pang, Jack Kelley, the Herman Miller office furniture designer, invented the first mousepad while working in Engelbart's lab; this claim is also made on the Herman Miller site. This "pad" was probably the "tray" seen in the video.

The first publication showing the mousepad is in the Xerox Disclosure Journal, 1979, by Armando M. Fernandez, a technician at Xerox at that time, with the description:

CRT CURSER CONTROL MECHANISM PAD – To assist the operation of a cathode ray tube pointer 10 wherein a metal ball is rolled on a hard surface, the disclosed pad may be utilized. A resilient, rubber-like material 12 is bonded or otherwise attached to a hard base material 14 which keeps the rubber-like material flat. The base has four rubber-like pads 16 on the opposite side from the resilient material to refrain the pad from sliding on the surface of a table, for instance.

Fernandez's mousepad was made of silicone surface over, and feet under, a clipboard; the silicone feet kept the pad from sliding on the surface of the desk. The silicone surface provided traction to the steel ball of the roller ball mouse thus making the mouse have a long useful life. The pad provided comfort for the user. This principle was transfered to the silicone coated roller ball mouse over a fabric-padded surface. The pad concept was later adapted to the optical mouse and laser mouse, allowing gamers and designers to drive the mouse to the edge of its performance, and challenging mouse designers to make improvements.

The computer mouse at the time of Fernandez's mousepad had been improved to incorporate a rolling steel ball as an upside-down trackball. However, the steel ball still collected debris, causing the internal rollers to stick and skip, and thereby causing the pointer movement to become jittery and inaccurate on the display; this sticking problem was solved by the traction of rolling on a customized surface mousepad.

After the 1979 Xerox disclosure of the invention by Fernandez, the mousepad became a key element of office computers, proving itself on pre-existing computers such as the Xerox Alto (built and using mice since 1973); later, on Xerox Star 8010 office workstation in the 1980s and the Apple Macintosh.

Benefits of the mousepad

The three most important benefits of the introduction of the mousepad were higher speed, more precision, and comfort for the user. A secondary benefit was keeping the desk or table surface from being scratched and worn by continuous hand and mouse rubbing motion. Another benefit was reduction of the collection of debris under the mouse, which resulted in reduced jitter of the pointer on the display.

When optical mice, which use image sensors to detect movement, were first introduced into the market, they required special mousepads with optical patterns printed on them. Modern optical mice can function to an acceptable degree of accuracy on plain paper and other surfaces. However, some optical mouse users may prefer a mousepad for comfort, speed and accuracy, and to prevent wear to the desk or table surface.

Types of mousepads

A variety of mousepads exist with many different textured surfaces to fit various different types of mouse technologies. Vinyl board cover, because of its tackiness, was a popular mousepad surface around 1980.

After the rubberized silicon surface was incorporated onto the surface of the steel roller ball mouse, the popular fabric-surface mousepad was found to be the most appropriate. It helped keep the rubberized roller-ball surface cleaner and with better tracking, speed and accuracy than just a desk surface, which collected dirt and slowed the mouse's motion.

Optical mice have the problem of not working well on shiny reflective surfaces and on surfaces with variously located shiny spots. These surfaces, which often include desk and table surfaces, cause jitter and loss of tracking on the display pointer as the mouse moves over these shiny spots. The use of mousepads with precision surfaces eliminates shiny spot jitter effects of modern optical mice.

Designs

Originally, mousepads were available in a simple rectangular shape. In recent years, though, they have been available in many shapes and designs. Ergonomic designs are available with built-in wrist rests made of silicone gel, foamed and beaded materials.

Companies often give away mousepads for promotional reasons, and computer manufacturers often include a mousepad with their logo on it, usually with technical support information. Many artists have published work on mousepads.

There is now a fairly large variety of high quality "gaming grade" mousepads. In the beginning there were only a few such manufacturers: Everglide (arguably the first to come onto the market), fUnc Industries, Icemat, SteelSeries and Ratpadz (made by ard|OCP). In 2005 several more companies followed suit, including Razer, Qpad, Corepad, Xtracpads, X-Ray, Gamerzstuff, Ideazon, and Allsop. These pads are available in a wide variety of sizes to suit the different sensitivity settings that gamers choose. The Corepad Deskpad XXXL, possibly the largest pad on the market, is a massive 90cm x 45cm.

Mousepad materials

Modern mousepads are typically made of foam rubber with fabric bonded to the upper surface. However, many other types of material have been used, including fabric, plastics, recycled rubber tires, silicone rubber, leather, glass, cork, wood, aluminum, stone and stainless steel, for example. High-quality gaming mats are usually made from plastic or high-tech fibers.

References

1. "THE DEMO (article on Engelbart's demo)". Retrieved 2007-02-26.
2. "Doug Engelbart: The Demo (movie)". Retrieved 2007-02-26.
3. Alex Pan (Alex Soojung-Kin Pang). "The Making of the Mouse". Retrieved 2007-02-26. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
4. "Jack Kelley (Herman Miller page)". Retrieved 2007-02-26.
5. "CRT Cursor Control Mechanism Pad". Xerox Disclosure Journal. Nov/Dec 1979. Retrieved 2007-02-26. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)

• Pointing devices
• Computing input devices
• History of human-computer interaction
• Video game control methods