Human-Machine Interface

Douglas Engelbart of SRI invented the computer mouse as part of an ARPA-funded experiment to improve how humans interact with computers.

DARPA’s Information Processing Techniques Office (IPTO) was born in 1962 and for nearly 50 years was responsible for DARPA’s information technology programs. IPTO did not itself perform research, but rather invested in breakthrough technologies and seminal research projects that led to significant developments in computer hardware and software.

A groundbreaking computer framework known as oN-Line System (NLS) got off the ground thanks to funding from DARPA and the U.S. Air Force. Conceived by Douglas Engelbart and developed by him and colleagues at the Stanford Research Institute (SRI), the NLS system was the first to feature hypertext links, a mouse, raster-scan video monitors, information organized by relevance, screen windowing, presentation programs and other modern computing concepts. In what became known as "The Mother of All Demos," because it demonstrated the revolutionary features of NLS as well as never-before-seen video presentation technologies, Engelbart unveiled NLS in San Francisco on December 9, 1968, to a large audience at the Fall Joint Computer Conference.

One of the first major efforts supported by ARPA's Information Processing Techniques Office (IPTO) was Project MAC, the world’s first large-scale experiment in personal computing, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Orchestrated within the general context of broad-based command and control research suggested by the Office of the Secretary of Defense, and based on the vision of the founding IPTO Director, J.C.R. Licklider, MAC was oriented toward achieving a new level of human-computer interaction.