Input Origins
Monthly editorials exploring innovative, curious, and sometimes weird ways people interact with machines—past, present, and future.
The 3D Mouse - Input Origins #21
It went to space. It drove a rover across Mars. But today it only has a small, fiercely loyal following...
The Light pen - Input Origins #20
From the light pen to spatial computing, one idea keeps moving forward: we want to point, select, and shape the...
The Trackpad - Input Origins #19
Invented years too early, the trackpad languished until 1994, when laptops and graphical interfaces aligned—replacing trackballs overnight and eventually evolving...
When Lightning Strikes Twice (Or Thrice) - Input Origins #18
Great ideas rarely strike once; concepts reappear across minds, shaped by shared challenges, evolving technology, and parallel discoveries refining progress.
Input Origins: The Spark - Mater artium necessitas (#17)
Great innovations often begin with a simple spark: a frustration, an observation, a question. From the scroll wheel to the...
Input Origins: Gaze Tracking - Controlling With Your Eyes (#16)
Eye tracking has leapt from early research into a core XR control method. Intuitive but imperfect, it struggles with accidental...
Input Origins: the Trackball (#15)
Welcome back to Input Origins - your monthly time machine through the evolution of control! And this time, we're rolling...
Input Origins: Gun Company Standardized Your Keyboard's Layout (#14)
This month, we're spotlighting the most widely used input device in human history, the Keyboard! The very tool on which...
