The earliest known written use of the term mouse in reference to a computer pointing device is in Bill English's July 1965 publication, 'Computer-Aided Display Control', likely originating from its resemblance to the shape and size of a mouse, a rodent, with the cord resembling its tail.

Mice often also feature other elements, such as touch surfaces and scroll wheels, which enable additional control and dimensional input.Ī computer mouse is named for its resemblance to the rodent. In addition to moving a cursor, computer mice have one or more buttons to allow operations such as the selection of a menu item on a display. Though originally all mice were connected to a computer by a cable, many modern mice are cordless, relying on short-range radio communication with the connected system. Most modern mice use optical sensors that have no moving parts. Later, the standard design shifted to utilize a ball rolling on a surface to detect motion. Mice originally used two separate wheels to track movement across a surface: one in the X-dimension and one in the Y. The first public demonstration of a mouse controlling a computer system was in 1968.

This motion is typically translated into the motion of a pointer on a display, which allows a smooth control of the graphical user interface of a computer. A computer mouse (plural mice, also mouses) is a hand-held pointing device that detects two-dimensional motion relative to a surface.

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