|
<
back to articles
|
|
Doug Engelbart's original 1968 demo video of mouse usage shows
some kind of cloth pad being used under his mouse. 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.
But the first known publication mentioning a mouse mat is in the
Xerox Disclosure Journal, 1979, by Armando M. Fernandez, a technician
at Xerox at that time. The computer mouse at that time 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.
The mouse mat soon became a symbiotic element of office computers,
proving itself on computers such as the Xerox Alto (built about
1973), and Xerox Star 8010 office workstation in the 1980s. The
first mouse mats consisted of a silicone rubber sheet surface
material secured to a rectangular clipboard with the same silicone
rubber sheet material secured at the bottom of the clipboard as
anti-slide feet. The silicone rubber surface was required to develop
the needed traction for the steel roller-ball to perform effectively.
At a later time the rubberised silicone surface was incorporated
as a covering over the steel roller ball in order to improve needed
traction.
Benefits of the mouse mat
The three most important benefits of the introduction of the mouse
mat 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 were introduced into the market, they required
special mouse mats with appropriate optical patterns, as distinct
from the mechanical properties of mouse mats for ball mice.
Types of mouse mats
A variety of mouse mats exist with many different textured surfaces
to fit various different types of mouse technologies. Vinyl board
cover, because of its tackiness, was a popular mouse mat surface
around 1980.
When the first optical mouse appeared in the mid-1980s, it required
a mouse mats with printed hexagons in order to improve accuracy,
speed and comfort; it was incapable of functioning on any other
surface. After the rubberised silicon surface was incorporated
onto the surface of the steel roller ball mouse, the popular fabric-surface
mouse mat was found to be the most appropriate. It helped keep
the rubberised 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.
The hexagon-printed mouse mats gave way to more accurate and speedy
ones, with fabric material which provided a microscopically textured
surface. Some mouse mats for optical mice are shiny and gridded;
although, newer optical mice do not require mouse mats on most
surfaces when precision, speed and comfort is not needed by the
user. Specialised pads are used when extra accuracy is needed.
Additionally, a number of paddings placed on various places on
the mouse mat increases comfort to the user.
Designs
Originally, mouse mats 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 mouse mats 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 mouse mats.
There is now a fairly large variety of high quality "gaming grade"
mouse mats. 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 [H]ard|OCP). In 2005
several more companies followed suit, including Razer, Qpad, Corepad,
Xtracpads, X-Ray, Gamerzstuff, 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
mouse mat on the market, is a massive 90cm x 45cm.
Mouse mat materials
Typically, modern mouse mats are made with foam rubber. However,
other types are available; some are made from fabric or recycled
rubber tires, silicone rubber, leather, glass, wood, aluminum,
steel, plastics, foamed rubber, stone, stainless steel, metals,
for example.
High-quality gaming mouse mats are usually made from plastic.
However, some companies manufacture gaming mats from other materials,
such as glass, aluminium and steel.
We at Ideasbynet are here to help you with
your promotional mouse mats requirements. Call us: 0870 787
5527 - Our Promotional Staff are highly experience and will
provide you with the dedicated professional service you would
expect from a major corporation.
Browse our massive online range of Promotional
Mouse Mats for a diverse selection
of products all at great low prices.
|
