Master Electronics

Plug-in frameworks

2010-12-26T09:14:00.000-08:00

Software developers can use the following plug-in frameworks (organized here by programming language) to add plug-in capability to their applications:

[edit] C++

Boost Extension- Boost C++ plug-in framework, available from boost sandbox
FxEngine Framework—Open C++ dataflow processing framework for audio, video, signal, etc.
Qt Plug-Ins—part of Nokia's Qt Framework
OmniPeek Plug-in Wizard—creates plug-ins for WildPackets' OmniPeek Network Analyzer
Pugg open Source C++ framework for plug-in management
OFX an open standard for visual effects plug-ins.
A cross-platform plug-in framework accompanying a series of articles by Gigi Sayfan in Dr. Dobb's Journal.
- Java Plug-in Framework (JPF), a plug-in mechanism adapted from Eclipse's plug-in mechanism from its pre-OSGi era.
- OSGi, a standardized dynamic component system suited for plug-in programming, used in Eclipse, many commercial Java EE application servers, Spring Framework, and embedded applications.
- Rich Client Platform (RCP), platform for applications adapted from Eclipse, applications are written as plug-ins and may themselves have further plug-ins
- jin-plugin a minimalistic plugin framework for Java and PHP
- Netbeans Platform Most commonly known for the Netbeans IDE, which in fact is an application that is built on the Netbeans Platform. The netbeans platform is a framework that allows developers to make modules, plugins for other NB applications (usually a group of interacting modules) and complete applications like the netbeans IDE.
- concats 00923224479031

Plug-in frameworks

2010-12-26T09:06:00.000-08:00

Software developers can use the following plug-in frameworks (organized here by programming language) to add plug-in capability to their applications:

[edit] C++

Boost Extension- Boost C++ plug-in framework, available from boost sandbox
FxEngine Framework—Open C++ dataflow processing framework for audio, video, signal, etc.
Qt Plug-Ins—part of Nokia's Qt Framework
OmniPeek Plug-in Wizard—creates plug-ins for WildPackets' OmniPeek Network Analyzer
Pugg open Source C++ framework for plug-in management
OFX an open standard for visual effects plug-ins.
A cross-platform plug-in framework accompanying a series of articles by Gigi Sayfan in Dr. Dobb's Journal.

[edit] Delphi Plug-ins appeared as early as the mid 1970s, when the EDT text editor running on the Unisys VS/9 operating system using the Univac 90/60 series mainframe computer provided the ability to run a program from the editor and to allow such a program to access the editor buffer, thus allowing an external program to access an edit session in memory. The plug-in program could make calls to the editor to have it perform text-editing services upon the buffer that the editor shared with the plug-in. The Waterloo Fortran compiler used this feature to allow interactive compilation of Fortran programs edited by EDT.
Very early PC software applications to incorporate plug-in functionality included HyperCard and QuarkXPress on the Macintosh, both released in 1987. In 1988, Silicon Beach Software included plug-in functionality in Digital Darkroom and SuperPaint, and Ed Bomke coined the term plug-in.
Currently^[update], programmers typically implement plug-in functionality using shared libraries compulsorily installed in a place prescribed by the host application. HyperCard supported a similar facility, but more commonly included the plug-in code in the HyperCard documents (called stacks) themselves. Thus the HyperCard stack became a self-contained application in its own right, distributable as a single entity that end-users could run without the need for additional installation-steps.concats 00923224479031

plug History

2010-12-26T08:59:00.000-08:00

Plug-ins appeared as early as the mid 1970s, when the EDT text editor running on the Unisys VS/9 operating system using the Univac 90/60 series mainframe computer provided the ability to run a program from the editor and to allow such a program to access the editor buffer, thus allowing an external program to access an edit session in memory. The plug-in program could make calls to the editor to have it perform text-editing services upon the buffer that the editor shared with the plug-in. The Waterloo Fortran compiler used this feature to allow interactive compilation of Fortran programs edited by EDT.
Very early PC software applications to incorporate plug-in functionality included HyperCard and QuarkXPress on the Macintosh, both released in 1987. In 1988, Silicon Beach Software included plug-in functionality in Digital Darkroom and SuperPaint, and Ed Bomke coined the term plug-in.
Currently, programmers typically implement plug-in functionality using shared libraries compulsorily installed in a place prescribed by the host application. HyperCard supported a similar facility, but more commonly included the plug-in code in the HyperCard documents (called stacks) themselves. Thus the HyperCard stack became a self-contained application in its own right, distributable as a single entity that end-users could run without the need for additional installation-steps.
Firefox also supports plug-ins using NPAPI. When the browser encounters references to content a plug-in specializes in, the data is handed off to be processed by that plug-in. Since there is generally a clear separation between the browser and the plug-in, the results are discrete objects embedded within a webpage. The same distinction between plug-ins and extensions is in use by other web browsers, such as Microsoft Internet Explorer, where a typical extension might be a new toolbar, and a plug-in might embed a video player on the page. Since plug-ins and extensions both increase the utility of the original application, Mozilla uses the term "add-on" as an inclusive category of augmentation modules that consists of plug-ins, themes, and search engines...concats 00923224479031

plug Purpose and examples

2010-12-26T08:54:00.000-08:00

Applications support plug-ins for many reasons. Some of the main reasons include:

to enable third-party developers to create capabilities which extend an application
to support easily adding new features
to reduce the size of an application
to separate source code from an application because of incompatible software licenses.

Specific examples of applications and why they use plug-ins:

Email clients use plug-ins to decrypt and encrypt email (Pretty Good Privacy)
Graphics software use plug-ins to support file formats and process images (Adobe Photoshop)
Media players use plug-ins to support file formats and apply filters (foobar2000, GStreamer, Quintessential, VST, Winamp, XMMS)
Microsoft Office uses plug-ins (better known as add-ins) to extend the capabilities of its application by adding custom commands and specialized features
Packet sniffers use plug-ins to decode packet formats (OmniPeek)
Remote sensing applications use plug-ins to process data from different sensor types (Opticks)
Software development environments use plug-ins to support programming languages (Eclipse, jEdit, MonoDevelop)
Venue, a digital mixing console architecture developed by Digidesign and owned by Avid Technology, allows third party plug-ins
Web browsers use plug-ins to play video and presentation formats (Flash, QuickTime, Microsoft Silverlight, 3DMLW)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

Typical list of Web Browser Plug-ins

In computing, a plug-in (or plugin) is a set of software components that adds specific capabilities to a larger software application. If supported, plug-ins enable customizing the functionality of an application. For example, plug-ins are commonly used in web browsers to play video, scan for viruses, and display new file types. Well-known plug-ins examples include Adobe Flash Player and QuickTime.
Add-on is often considered the general term comprising snap-ins, plug-ins, extensions, and themes.^[1]

[hide]

[edit] Purpose and examples

Applications support plug-ins for many reasons. Some of the main reasons include:

to enable third-party developers to create capabilities which extend an application
to support easily adding new features
to reduce the size of an application
to separate source code from an application because of incompatible software licenses.

Specific examples of applications and why they use plug-ins:

Email clients use plug-ins to decrypt and encrypt email (Pretty Good Privacy)
Graphics software use plug-ins to support file formats and process images (Adobe Photoshop)
Media players use plug-ins to support file formats and apply filters (foobar2000, GStreamer, Quintessential, VST, Winamp, XMMS)
Microsoft Office uses plug-ins (better known as add-ins) to extend the capabilities of its application by adding custom commands and specialized features
Packet sniffers use plug-ins to decode packet formats (OmniPeek)
Remote sensing applications use plug-ins to process data from different sensor types (Opticks)
Software development environments use plug-ins to support programming languages (Eclipse, jEdit, MonoDevelop)
Venue, a digital mixing console architecture developed by Digidesign and owned by Avid Technology, allows third party plug-ins
Web browsers use plug-ins to play video and presentation formats (Flash, QuickTime, Microsoft Silverlight, 3DMLW)

[edit] Mechanism

Example Plug-In Framework

As shown in the figure, the host application provides services which the plug-in can use, including a way for plug-ins to register themselves with the host application and a protocol for the exchange of data with plug-ins. Plug-ins depend on the services provided by the host application and do not usually work by themselves. Conversely, the host application operates independently of the plug-ins, making it possible for end-users to add and update plug-ins dynamically without needing to make changes to the host application.^[1]^[2]
Open application programming interfaces (APIs) provide a standard interface, allowing third parties to create plug-ins that interact with the host application. A stable API allows third-party plug-ins to continue to function as the original version changes and to extend the life-cycle of obsolete applications. The Adobe Photoshop and After Effects plug-in APIs have become a standard^[3] and competing applications such as Corel Paint Shop Pro have adopted them.concats 00923224479031

elctric Plug

2010-12-26T08:46:00.000-08:00

to enable third-party developers to create capabilities which extend an application
to support easily adding new features
to reduce the size of an application
to separate source code from an application because of incompatible software licenses.

Specific examples of applications and why they use plug-ins:

Email clients use plug-ins to decrypt and encrypt email (Pretty Good Privacy)
Graphics software use plug-ins to support file formats and process images (Adobe Photoshop)
Media players use plug-ins to support file formats and apply filters (foobar2000, GStreamer, Quintessential, VST, Winamp, XMMS) concats 009232244790321

Electric Motors automatically magnetic?

2010-12-13T11:25:00.000-08:00

Some metals are composed of microscopic permanent magnets, all lumped together. Such metals include iron, nickel, and cobalt. This magnetism is often masked by the fact that the tiny magnets in these metals are randomly oriented and cancel one another on a large scale. But the magnetism is revealed whenever you put one of these magnetic metals in an external magnetic field. The tiny magnets inside these metals then line up with the external field and the metal develops large scale magnetism.

However, most metals don't have any internal magnetic order at all and there is nothing to line up with an external field. Metals such as copper and aluminum have no magnetic order in them—they don't have any tiny magnets present. The only way to make aluminum or copper magnetic is to run a current through it.
In general, a motor has a spinning component called the rotor that is surrounded by a stationary component called the stator. The simplest brushless DC motor has a rotor that contains permanent magnets and a stator that consists of electromagnets. The magnetic poles on the stator and rotor can attract or repel one another, depending on whether they like or opposite poles—like poles repel; opposite poles attract.
Since the electronics powering the stator's electromagnets can choose which of the stator's poles are north and which are south, those electronics determine the forces acting on the rotor's poles and therefore the direction of torque on the rotor. To twist the rotor forward, the electronics make sure that the stator's poles are always acting to pull or push the rotor's poles in the forward direction so that the rotor experiences forward torque. To twist the rotor backward, the electronics reverses all those force.
plese concats 00923224479031

Electric Motors10 Most Recent

2010-12-13T11:18:00.000-08:00

Some metals are composed of microscopic permanent magnets, all lumped together. Such metals include iron, nickel, and cobalt. This magnetism is often masked by the fact that the tiny magnets in these metals are randomly oriented and cancel one another on a large scale. But the magnetism is revealed whenever you put one of these magnetic metals in an external magnetic field. The tiny magnets inside these metals then line up with the external field and the metal develops large scale magnetism.

However, most metals don't have any internal magnetic order at all and there is nothing to line up with an external field. Metals such as copper and aluminum have no magnetic order in them—they don't have any tiny magnets present. The only way to make aluminum or copper magnetic is to run a current through it.principle behind regenerative braking—the vehicle's kinetic energy is used to recharge the batteries during braking.
With suitable electronics, your friend's electric scooter can take advantage of the elegant interplay between electric power and mechanical power that brushless DC motors make possible. Those motors can handle torque reversals easily and they can even save energy in the process. There are limits, however, to the suddenness of some of the processes because huge flows of energy necessitate large voltages and powers in the motor/generators and their electronics. The peak power and voltage ratings of all the devices come into play during the most abrupt and strenuous changes in the motion of the scooter. If your friend wants to be able to go from 0 to 60 or from 60 to 0 in the blink of eye, the motor/generators and their electronics will have to handle big voltages and powers. plese concats 00923224479031

Electric Motors

2010-12-13T11:13:00.000-08:00

Modern brushless DC motors are amazing devices that can handle torque reversals instantly. In fact, they can even generate electricity during those reversals!

Instant reversals of direction, however, aren't physically possible (because of inertia) and aren't actually what your friend wants anyway. I'll say more about the distinction between torque reversals and direction reversals in a minute.
In general, a motor has a spinning component called the rotor that is surrounded by a stationary component called the stator. The simplest brushless DC motor has a rotor that contains permanent magnets and a stator that consists of electromagnets. The magnetic poles on the stator and rotor can attract or repel one another, depending on whether they like or opposite poles—like poles repel; opposite poles attract.
Since the electronics powering the stator's electromagnets can choose which of the stator's poles are north and which are south, those electronics determine the forces acting on the rotor's poles and therefore the direction of torque on the rotor. To twist the rotor forward, the electronics make sure that the stator's poles are always acting to pull or push the rotor's poles in the forward direction so that the rotor experiences forward torque. To twist the rotor backward, the electronics reverses all those forces.
Just because you reverse the direction of torque on the rotor doesn't mean that the rotor will instantly reverse its direction of rotation. The rotor (along with the rider of the scooter) has inertia and it takes time for the rotor to slow to a stop and then pick up speed in the opposite direction. More specifically, a torque causes angular acceleration; it doesn't cause angular velocity. During that reversal process, the rotor is turning in one direction while it is being twisted in the other direction. The rotor is slowing down and it is losing energy, so where is that energy going? It's actually going into the electronics which can use this electricity to recharge the batteries. The "motor" is acting as a "generator" during the slowing half of the reversal!
That brushless DC motors are actually motor/generators makes them fabulous for electric vehicles of all types. They consume electric power while they are making a vehicle speed up, but they generate electric power while they are slowing a vehicle down. That's the principle behind regenerative braking—the vehicle's kinetic energy is used to recharge the batteries during braking.
With suitable electronics, your friend's electric scooter can take advantage of the elegant interplay between electric power and mechanical power that brushless DC motors make possible. Those motors can handle torque reversals easily and they can even save energy in the process. There are limits, however, to the suddenness of some of the processes because huge flows of energy necessitate large voltages and powers in the motor/generators and their electronics. The peak power and voltage ratings of all the devices come into play during the most abrupt and strenuous changes in the motion of the scooter. If your friend wants to be able to go from 0 to 60 or from 60 to 0 in the blink of eye, the motor/generators and their electronics will have to handle big voltages and powers. plese concats 00923224479031

Mouse Tactile mice

2010-12-03T12:07:00.000-08:00

3D mice
Also known as bats,^[24] flying mice, or wands,^[25] these devices generally function through ultrasound and provide at least three degrees of freedom. Probably the best known example would be 3DConnexion/Logitech's SpaceMouse from the early 1990s.
In the late 1990s Kantek introduced the 3D RingMouse. This wireless mouse was worn on a ring around a finger, which enabled the thumb to access three buttons. The mouse was tracked in three dimensions by a base station.^[26] Despite a certain appeal, it was finally discontinued because it did not provide sufficient resolution.
A recent consumer 3D pointing device is the Wii Remote. While primarily a motion-sensing device (that is, it can determine its orientation and direction of movement), Wii Remote can also detect its spatial position by comparing the distance and position of the lights from the IR emitter using its integrated IR camera (since the nunchuk accessory lacks a camera, it can only tell its current heading and orientation). The obvious drawback to this approach is that it can only produce spatial coordinates while its camera can see the sensor bar.
In February, 2008, at the Game Developers' Conference (GDC), a company called Motion4U introduced a 3D mouse add-on called "OptiBurst" for Autodesk's Maya application. The mouse allows users to work in true 3D with 6 degrees of freedom.^{[citation needed]} The primary advantage of this system is speed of development with organic (natural) movement.
A mouse-related controller called the SpaceBall™ ^[27] has a ball placed above the work surface that can easily be gripped. With spring-loaded centering, it sends both translational as well as angular displacements on all six axes, in both directions for each.Often called "air mice" since they do not require a surface to operate, inertial mice use a tuning fork or other accelerometer (US Patent 4787051) to detect rotary movement for every axis supported. The most common models (manufactured by Logitech and Gyration) work using 2 degrees of rotational freedom and are insensitive to spatial translation. The user requires only small wrist rotations to move the cursor, reducing user fatigue or "gorilla arm". Usually cordless, they often have a switch to deactivate the movement circuitry between use, allowing the user freedom of movement without affecting the cursor position. A patent for an inertial mouse claims that such mice consume less power than optically based mice, and offer increased sensitivity, reduced weight and increased ease-of-use.^[23] In combination with a wireless keyboard an inertial mouse can offer alternative ergonomic arrangements which do not require a flat work surface, potentially alleviating some types of repetitive motion injuries related to workstation concats 00923224479031

Mouse Inertial and gyroscopic mice

2010-12-03T12:03:00.000-08:00

Often called "air mice" since they do not require a surface to operate, inertial mice use a tuning fork or other accelerometer (US Patent 4787051) to detect rotary movement for every axis supported. The most common models (manufactured by Logitech and Gyration) work using 2 degrees of rotational freedom and are insensitive to spatial translation. The user requires only small wrist rotations to move the cursor, reducing user fatigue or "gorilla arm". Usually cordless, they often have a switch to deactivate the movement circuitry between use, allowing the user freedom of movement without affecting the cursor position. A patent for an inertial mouse claims that such mice consume less power than optically based mice, and offer increased sensitivity, reduced weight and increased ease-of-use.^[23] In combination with a wireless keyboard an inertial mouse can offer alternative ergonomic arrangements which do not require a flat work surface, potentially alleviating some types of repetitive motion injuries related to workstation posture.
Also known as bats,^[24] flying mice, or wands,^[25] these devices generally function through ultrasound and provide at least three degrees of freedom. Probably the best known example would be 3DConnexion/Logitech's SpaceMouse from the early 1990s.
In the late 1990s Kantek introduced the 3D RingMouse. This wireless mouse was worn on a ring around a finger, which enabled the thumb to access three buttons. The mouse was tracked in three dimensions by a base station.^[26] Despite a certain appeal, it was finally discontinued because it did not provide sufficient resolution.
A recent consumer 3D pointing device is the Wii Remote. While primarily a motion-sensing device (that is, it can determine its orientation and direction of movement), Wii Remote can also detect its spatial position by comparing the distance and position of the lights from the IR emitter using its integrated IR camera (since the nunchuk accessory lacks a camera, it can only tell its current heading and orientation). The obvious drawback to this approach is that it can only produce spatial coordinates while its camera can see the sensor bar.
In February, 2008, at the Game Developers' Conference (GDC), a company called Motion4U introduced a 3D mouse add-on called "OptiBurst" for Autodesk's Maya application. The mouse allows users to work in true 3D with 6 degrees of freedom.^{[citation needed]} The primary advantage of this system is speed of development with organic (natural) movement concats 00923224479031

Mouse Optical mice

2010-12-03T11:58:00.000-08:00

An optical mouse uses a light-emitting diode and photodiodes to detect movement relative to the underlying surface, rather than internal moving parts as does a mechanical mouseOften called "air mice" since they do not require a surface to operate, inertial mice use a tuning fork or other accelerometer (US Patent 4787051) to detect rotary movement for every axis supported. The most common models (manufactured by Logitech and Gyration) work using 2 degrees of rotational freedom and are insensitive to spatial translation. The user requires only small wrist rotations to move the cursor, reducing user fatigue or "gorilla arm". Usually cordless, they often have a switch to deactivate the movement circuitry between use, allowing the user freedom of movement without affecting the cursor position. A patent for an inertial mouse claims that such mice consume less power than optically based mice, and offer increased sensitivity, reduced weight and increased ease-of-use.^[23] In combination with a wireless keyboard an inertial mouse can offer alternative ergonomic arrangements which do not require a flat work surface, potentially alleviating some types of repetitive motion injuries related to workstation posture
Based on another invention by Jack Hawley, proprietor of the Mouse House, Honeywell produced another type of mechanical mouse.^[16]^[17] Instead of a ball, it had two wheels rotating at off axes. Keytronic later produced a similar product.^[18]
Modern computer mice took form at the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) under the inspiration of Professor Jean-Daniel Nicoud and at the hands of engineer and watchmaker André Guignard.^[19] This new design incorporated a single hard rubber mouseball and three buttons, and remained a common design until the mainstream adoption of the scroll-wheel mouse during the 1990s.^[20] In 1985, René Sommer added a microprocessor to Nicoud's and Guignard's design.^[21] Through this innovation, Sommer is credited with inventing a significant component of the mouse, which made it more "intelligent;"^[21] though optical mice from Mouse Systems had incorporated microprocessors by 1984.^{[22] concats 00923224479031}

Mouse Mechanical mice

2010-12-03T11:52:00.000-08:00

The ball-mouse replaced the external wheels with a single ball that could rotate in any direction. It came as part of the hardware package of the Xerox Alto computer. Perpendicular chopper wheels housed inside the mouse's body chopped beams of light on the way to light sensors, thus detecting in their turn the motion of the ball. This variant of the mouse resembled an inverted trackball and became the predominant form used with personal computers throughout the 1980s and 1990s. The Xerox PARC group also settled on the modern technique of using both hands to type on a full-size keyboard and grabbing the mouse when required.

Mechanical mouse, shown with the top cover removed

The ball mouse has two freely rotating rollers. They are located 90 degrees apart. One roller detects the forward–backward motion of the mouse and other the left–right motion. Opposite the two rollers is a third one (white, in the photo, at 45 degrees) that is spring-loaded to push the ball against the other two rollers. Each roller is on the same shaft as an encoder wheel that has slotted edges; the slots interrupt infrared light beams to generate electrical pulses that represent wheel movement.
Each wheel's disc, however, has a pair of light beams, located so that a given beam becomes interrupted, or again starts to pass light freely, when the other beam of the pair is about halfway between changes. Simple logic circuits interpret the relative timing to indicate which direction the wheel is rotating. (This scheme is sometimes called "quadrature encoding" or some similar term by technical people.) The mouse sends these signals to the computer system via a data-formatting IC and the mouse cable. The driver software in the system converts the signals into motion of the mouse cursor along X and Y axes on the screen.
The ball is mostly steel, with a precision spherical rubber surface. The weight of the ball, given an appropriate working surface under the mouse, provides a reliable grip so the mouse's movement is transmitted accurately.
Ball mice and wheel mice were manufactured for Xerox by Jack Hawley, doing business as The Mouse House in Berkeley, California, starting in 1975.^[14]^[15]
Based on another invention by Jack Hawley, proprietor of the Mouse House, Honeywell produced another type of mechanical mouse.^[16]^[17] Instead of a ball, it had two wheels rotating at off axes. Keytronic later produced a similar product.^[18]

Modern computer mice took form at the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) under the inspiration of Professor Jean-Daniel Nicoud and at the hands of engineer and watchmaker André Guignard.^[19] This new design incorporated a single hard rubber mouseball and three buttons, and remained a common design until the mainstream adoption of the scroll-wheel mouse during the 1990s.^[20] In 1985, René Sommer added a microprocessor to Nicoud's and Guignard's design.^[21] Through this innovation, Sommer is credited with inventing a significant component of the mouse, which made it more "intelligent;"^[21] though optical mice from Mouse Systems had incorporated microprocessors by 1984.^{[22]concats 00923224479031}

mouse Variants

2010-12-03T11:47:00.000-08:00

Several other experimental pointing-devices developed for Engelbart's oN-Line System (NLS) exploited different body movements – for example, head-mounted devices attached to the chin or nose – but ultimately the mouse won out because of its simplicity and convenience. The first mouse, a bulky device (pictured) used two gear-wheels perpendicular to each other: the rotation of each wheel translated into motion along one axis. Engelbart received patent US3,541,541 on November 17, 1970 for an "X-Y Position Indicator for a Display System".^[7] At the time, Engelbart envisaged that users would hold the mouse continuously in one hand and type on a five-key chord keyset with the other.^[8] The concept was preceded in the 19th century by the telautograph, which also anticipated the fax machine
Just a few weeks before Engelbart released his demo in 1968, a mouse has already been developed and published by the German company Telefunken. Unlike Engelbarts mouse, the Telefunken model had a ball, as it can be seen in most later models until today. Since 1970 it was shipped as a part and sold together with Telefunken Computers. Some models from the year 1972 are still well preserved^[9]
The second marketed integrated mouse – shipped as a part of a computer and intended for personal computer navigation – came with the Xerox 8010 Star Information System in 1981. However, the mouse remained relatively obscure until the appearance of the Apple MacIntosh, including an updated version of the original Lisa Mouse. In 1984 PC columnist John C. Dvorak dismissively commented on the newly-released computer with a mouse: "There is no evidence that people want to use these things".^[10]^{[11] concats 00923224479031}

Early mice

2010-12-03T11:41:00.000-08:00

The trackball was invented by Tom Cranston, Fred Longstaff and Kenyon Taylor working on the Royal Canadian Navy's DATAR project in 1952. It used a standard Canadian five-pin bowling ball. It was not patented, as it was a secret military project.^[2]
Independently, Douglas Engelbart at the Stanford Research Institute invented the first mouse prototype in 1963,^[3] with the assistance of his colleague Bill English. They christened the device mouse as early models had a cord attached to the rear part of the device suggesting a tail and generally resembling the common mouse.^[4] Engelbart never received any royalties for it, as his patent ran out before it became widely used in personal computers.^[5]
The invention of the mouse was just a small part of Engelbart's much larger project, aimed at augmenting human intellect.^[6]Several other experimental pointing-devices developed for Engelbart's oN-Line System (NLS) exploited different body movements – for example, head-mounted devices attached to the chin or nose – but ultimately the mouse won out because of its simplicity and convenience. The first mouse, a bulky device (pictured) used two gear-wheels perpendicular to each other: the rotation of each wheel translated into motion along one axis. Engelbart received patent US3,541,541 on November 17, 1970 for an "X-Y Position Indicator for a Display System".^[7] At the time, Engelbart envisaged that users would hold the mouse continuously in one hand and type on a five-key chord keyset with the other.^[8] The concept was preceded in the 19th century by the telautograph, which also anticipated the fax machine.concats 00923224479031

Keyboard/mouse interface

2010-12-01T11:43:00.000-08:00

PS/2 systems introduced a new specification for the keyboard and mouse interfaces, which are still in use today and are thus called "PS/2" interfaces. The PS/2 keyboard interface was electronically identical to the long-established AT interface, but the cable connector was changed from the 5-pin DIN connector to the smaller 6-pin mini-DIN interface. The same connector and a similar synchronous serial interface was used for the PS/2 mouse port. Additionally, the PS/2 introduced a new software data area known as the Extended BIOS Data Area (EBDA). Its primary use was to add a new buffer area for the dedicated mouse port. This also required making a change to the "traditional" BIOS Data Area (BDA) which was then required to point to the base address of the EBDA.

[edit] Graphics

Most of the initial range of PS/2 models were equipped with a new frame buffer known as the Video Graphics Array, or VGA for short. This effectively replaced the previous EGA standard. VGA increased graphics memory to 256 KiB and provided for resolutions of 640×480 with 16 colors, and 320×200 with 256 colors. VGA also provided a palette of 262,144 colors (as opposed to the EGA palette of 64 colors). The IBM 8514 and later XGA computer display standards were also introduced on the PS/2 line. Although the design of these adapters did not become an industry standard as VGA did, their 1024×768 pixel resolution was subsequently widely adopted as a standard by other manufacturers, and "XGA" became a synonym for this screen resolution. The PS/2 Model 25 and Model 30, however, did not include VGA. On these budget models, IBM opted to use MCGA, which was a stepping stone between CGA and VGA, but unfortunately lacked EGA compatibility.

pc mouse Technology

2010-12-01T11:40:00.000-08:00

IBM's PS/2 was designed to remain software compatible with their PC/AT/XT line of computers upon which the booming PC clone market was built, but the hardware was quite different. PS/2 had two BIOSes — one was named ABIOS (Advanced BIOS) which provided a new protected mode interface and was used by OS/2; the other was named CBIOS (Compatible BIOS) which was included in order for the PS/2 to be software compatible with the PC/AT/XT.The IBM Personal System/2 line introduced the Micro Channel Architecture (MCA for short), which was technically superior to the ISA bus and allowed for higher speed communications within the system. The MCA bus featured many advances that would not be seen in other interface standards until several years later. Transfer speeds were on par with the much later introduced PCI bus standard. MCA allowed one-to-one, card to card, and multi-card to processor simultaneous transaction management which is a feature of the PCI-X bus format. Bus mastering capability, bus arbitration, and true plug-and-play BIOS management of hardware were all benefits of the MCA bus. Despite all of these technical advantages, the Micro Channel Architecture never gained wide acceptance outside of the PS/2 line due to IBM's anti-clone practices and incompatibilities with ISA. IBM offered to sell a Micro Channel license to anyone who could afford the royalty, but they not only required a royalty for every MCA-compatible machine sold, but also a payment for every IBM-compatible machine the particular maker had ever made in the past.^{[citation needed] concats 00923224479031}

IBM mouse Personal System/2

2010-12-01T11:35:00.000-08:00

The Personal System/2 or PS/2 was IBM's third generation of personal computers. The PS/2 line, released to the public in 1987, was created by IBM in an attempt to recapture control of the PC market by introducing an advanced proprietary architecture. Although IBM's considerable market presence ensured the PS/2 would sell in relatively large numbers, the PS/2 architecture ultimately failed in its bid to return control of the PC market to IBM. Due to the higher costs of the closed architecture, customers preferred competing PCs that extended the existing PC architecture instead of abandoning it for something new. However, many of the PS/2's innovations, such as the 16550 UART, 1440 KB 3.5-inch floppy disk format, 72-pin SIMMs, the PS/2 keyboard and mouse ports, and the VGA video standard, went on to become standards in the broader PC market.
The OS/2 operating system was announced at the same time as the PS/2 line and was intended to be the primary operating system for models with Intel 286 or later processors. However, at the time of the first shipments, only PC-DOS was available, with OS/2 1.0 (text-mode only) available several months later. IBM also released AIX PS/2, a UNIX operating system for PS/2 models with Intel 386 or later processors. Windows was another option for PS/2.concats 00923224479031

keyboard Alphabetic

2010-11-29T09:29:00.000-08:00

There are a number of different arrangements of alphabetic, numeric, and punctuation symbols on keys. These different keyboard layouts arise mainly because different people need easy access to different symbols, either because they are inputting text in different languages, or because they need a specialized layout for mathematics, accounting, computer programming, or other purposes. Most of the more common keyboard layouts (QWERTY-based and similar) were designed in the era of the mechanical typewriters, so their ergonomics had to be slightly compromised in order to tackle some of the mechanical limitations of the typewriter.
As the letter-keys were attached to levers that needed to move freely, inventor Christopher Sholes developed the QWERTY layout to reduce the likelihood of jamming. With the advent of computers, lever jams are no longer an issue, but nevertheless, QWERTY layouts were adopted for electronic keyboards because they were widely used. Alternative layouts such as the Dvorak Simplified Keyboard are not in widespread use.
The QWERTZ layout is widely used in Germany and much of Central Europe. The main difference between it and QWERTY is that Y and Z are swapped, and most special characters such as brackets are replaced by diacritical characters.
Another situation takes place with “national” layouts. Keyboards designed for typing in Spanish have some characters shifted, to release the space for Ñ ñ; similarly, those for French and other European languages may have a special key for the character Ç ç . The AZERTY layout is used in France, Belgium and some neighbouring countries. It differs from the QWERTY layout in that the A and Q are swapped, the Z and W are swapped, and the M is moved from the right of N to the right of L (where colon/semicolon is on a US keyboard). The digits 0 to 9 are on the same keys, but to be typed the shift key must be pressed. The unshifted positions are used for accented characters.
Keyboards in many parts of Asia may have special keys to switch between the Latin character set and a completely different typing system. In Japan, keyboards often can be switched between Japanese and the Latin alphabet, and the character ¥ (the Yen currency) is used instead of "\"^{[citation needed]}. In the Arab world, keyboards can often be switched between Arabic and Latin characters.
In bilingual regions of Canada and in the French-speaking province of Québec, keyboards can often be switched between an English and a French-language keyboard; while both keyboards share the same QWERTY alphabetic layout, the French-language keyboard enables the user to type accented vowels such as "é" or "à" with a single keystroke. Using keyboards for other languages leads to a conflict: the image on the key does not correspond to the character. In such cases, each new language may require an additional label on the keys, because the standard keyboard layouts do not share even similar characters of different languages (see the example in the figure above).
concats 00923224479031

Projection/Laser

2010-11-29T09:21:00.000-08:00

Projection keyboards project an image of keys, usually with a laser, onto a flat surface. The device then uses a camera or infrared sensor to "watch" where the user's fingers move, and will count a key as being pressed when it "sees" the user's finger touch the projected image. Projection keyboards can simulate a full size keyboard from a very small projector. Because the "keys' are simply projected images, they cannot be felt when pressed. Users of projected keyboards often experience increased discomfort in their fingertips because of the lack of "give" when typing. A flat, non-reflective surface is also required for the keys to be projected onto. Most projection keyboards are made for use with PDAs due to their small form factor.
Also known as photo-optical keyboard, light responsive keyboard, Photo-electric keyboard and optical key actuation detection technology.
An optical keyboard technology utilizes light emitting devices and photo sensors to optically detect actuated keys. Most commonly the emitters and sensors are located in the perimeter, mounted on a small PCB. The light is directed from side to side of the keyboard interior and it can only be blocked by the actuated keys. Most optical keyboards require at least 2 beams (most commonly vertical beam and horizontal beam) to determine the actuated key. Some optical keyboards use a special key structure that blocks the light in a certain pattern, allowing only one beam per row of keys (most commonly horizontal beam).concats 00923224479031

keyboard Software

2010-11-29T09:14:00.000-08:00

A foldable keyboard.

Foldable (also called flexible) keyboards are made of soft plastic or silicone which can be rolled or folded on itself for travel.^[2] When in use, these keyboards can conform to uneven surfaces, and are more resistant to liquids than standard keyboards. These can also be connected to portable devices and smartphones. Some models can be fully immersed in water, making them popular in hospitals and laboratories, as they can be disinfected.Projection keyboards project an image of keys, usually with a laser, onto a flat surface. The device then uses a camera or infrared sensor to "watch" where the user's fingers move, and will count a key as being pressed when it "sees" the user's finger touch the projected image. Projection keyboards can simulate a full size keyboard from a very small projector. Because the "keys' are simply projected images, they cannot be felt when pressed. Users of projected keyboards often experience increased discomfort in their fingertips because of the lack of "give" when typing. A flat, non-reflective surface is also required for the keys to be projected onto. Most projection keyboards are made for use with PDAs due to their small form factor.
Also known as photo-optical keyboard, light responsive keyboard, Photo-electric keyboard and optical key actuation detection technology.
An optical keyboard technology utilizes light emitting devices and photo sensors to optically detect actuated keys. Most commonly the emitters and sensors are located in the perimeter, mounted on a small PCB. The light is directed from side to side of the keyboard interior and it can only be blocked by the actuated keys. Most optical keyboards require at least 2 beams (most commonly vertical beam and horizontal beam) to determine the actuated key. Some optical keyboards use a special key structure that blocks the light in a certain pattern, allowing only one beam per row of keys (most commonly horizontal beam).concats 00923224479031

keyboard Chorded

2010-11-29T09:06:00.000-08:00

While other keyboards generally associate one action with each key, chorded keyboards associate actions with combinations of key presses. Since there are many combinations available, chorded keyboards can effectively produce more actions on a board with fewer keys. Court reporters' stenotype machines use chorded keyboards to enable them to enter text much faster by typing a syllable with each stroke instead of one letter at a time. The fastest typists (as of 2007) use a stenograph, a kind of chorded keyboard used by most court reporters and closed-caption reporters. Some chorded keyboards are also made for use in situations where fewer keys are preferable, such as on devices that can be used with only one hand, and on small mobile devices that don't have room for larger keyboards. Chorded keyboards are less desirable in many cases because it usually takes practice and memorization of the combinations to become proficient.Software keyboards or On-Screen Keyboards often take the form of computer programs that display an image of a keyboard on the screen. Another input device such as a mouse or a touchscreen can be used to operate each virtual key to enter text. Software keyboards have become very popular in touchscreen enabled cell phones, due to the additional cost and space requirements of other types of hardware keyboards. Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, and some varieties of Linux include on-screen keyboards concats 00923224479031

Non-standard or special-use types

2010-11-29T08:59:00.000-08:00

keyboaed golden Numeric

2010-11-29T08:55:00.000-08:00

Numeric keyboards contain only numbers, mathematical symbols for addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, a decimal point, and several function keys. They are often used to facilitate data entry with smaller keyboards that do not have a numeric keypad, commonly those of laptop computers. These keys are collectively known as a numeric pad, numeric keys, or a numeric keypad, and it can consist of the following types of keys:

arithmetic operators such as +, -, *, /
numeric digits 0–9
cursor arrow keys
navigation keys such as Home, End, PgUp, PgDown, etc.
Num Lock button, used to enable or disable the numeric pad
enter key

[edit] Non-standard or special-use types

[edit] Chorded

[edit] Software

Software keyboards or On-Screen Keyboards often take the form of computer programs that display an image of a keyboard on the screen. Another input device such as a mouse or a touchscreen can be used to operate each virtual key to enter text. Software keyboards have become very popular in touchscreen enabled cell phones, due to the additional cost and space requirements of other types of hardware keyboards. Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, and some varieties of Linux include on-screen keyboards that can be controlled with the mouse.concats 00923224479031

keyboard Numeric

2010-11-29T08:48:00.000-08:00

arithmetic operators such as +, -, *, /
numeric digits 0–9
cursor arrow keys
navigation keys such as Home, End, PgUp, PgDown, etc.
Num Lock button, used to enable or disable the numeric pad
enter keyWhile other keyboards generally associate one action with each key, chorded keyboards associate actions with combinations of key presses. Since there are many combinations available, chorded keyboards can effectively produce more actions on a board with fewer keys. Court reporters' stenotype machines use chorded keyboards to enable them to enter text much faster by typing a syllable with each stroke instead of one letter at a time. The fastest typists (as of 2007) use a stenograph, a kind of chorded keyboard used by most court reporters and closed-caption reporters. Some chorded keyboards are also made for use in situations where fewer keys are preferable, such as on devices that can be used with only one hand, and on small mobile devices that don't have room for larger keyboards. Chorded keyboards are less desirable in many cases because it usually takes practice and memorization of the combinations to become proficient.Software keyboards or On-Screen Keyboards often take the form of computer programs that display an image of a keyboard on the screen. Another input device such as a mouse or a touchscreen can be used to operate each virtual key to enter text. Software keyboards have become very popular in touchscreen enabled cell phones, due to the additional cost and space requirements of other types of hardware keyboards. Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, and some varieties of Linux include on-screen keyboards that can be controlled with the mou concats 00923224479031

keyboard Thumb-sized

2010-11-29T08:44:00.000-08:00

Smaller keyboards have been introduced for laptops, PDAs, smartphones, or users who have a limited workspace. The size of a standard keyboard is dictated by the practical consideration that the keys must be large enough to be easily pressed by fingers. To reduce the size of the keyboard, the numeric keyboard to the right of the alphabetic keyboard can be removed, or the size of the keys can be reduced, which makes it harder to enter text.
Another way to reduce the size of the keyboard is to reduce the number of keys and use chording keyer, i.e. pressing several keys simultaneously. For example, the GKOS keyboard has been designed for small wireless devices. Other two-handed alternatives more akin to a game controller, such as the AlphaGrip, are also used as a way to input data and text. Another way to reduce the size of a keyboard is to use smaller buttons and pack them closer together. Such keyboards, often called a "thumbboard" (thumbing) are used in some personal digital assistants such as the Palm Treo and BlackBerry and some Ultra-Mobile PCs such as the OQO.
Numeric keyboards contain only numbers, mathematical symbols for addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, a decimal point, and several function keys. They are often used to facilitate data entry with smaller keyboards that do not have a numeric keypad, commonly those of laptop computers. These keys are collectively known as a numeric pad, numeric keys, or a numeric keypad, and it can consist of the following types of keys:

arithmetic operators such as +, -, *, /
numeric digits 0–9
cursor arrow keys
navigation keys such as Home, End, PgUp, PgDown, etc.
Num Lock button, used to enable or disable the numeric pad
enter key concats 00923224479031

Master Electronics

Plug-in frameworks

[edit] C++

Plug-in frameworks

[edit] C++

plug History

plug Purpose and examples

Contents

[edit] Purpose and examples

[edit] Mechanism

elctric Plug

Electric Motors automatically magnetic?

Electric Motors10 Most Recent

Electric Motors

Mouse Tactile mice

Mouse Inertial and gyroscopic mice

Mouse Optical mice

Mouse Mechanical mice

mouse Variants

Early mice

Keyboard/mouse interface

[edit] Graphics

pc mouse Technology

IBM mouse Personal System/2

keyboard Alphabetic

Projection/Laser

keyboard Software

keyboard Chorded

Non-standard or special-use types

keyboaed golden Numeric

[edit] Non-standard or special-use types

[edit] Chorded

[edit] Software

keyboard Numeric

keyboard Thumb-sized