Gallery: The Engineer of the Original Apple Mouse Talks About His Remarkable Career

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    Ariel Zambelich/WIRED
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    Jim Yurchenco, one of the earliest employees at the design firm Ideo, retired recently after a celebrated 35-year career.
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    Ideo
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    Apple-Mouse-Edit

    The Apple Lisa mouse. The same guts were later used in the Macintosh mouse.
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    Ideo
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    Mouse-Prototype-Edit

    An early prototype.
  • The original patent for the mouse held by Yurchenco Dean Hovey James Sachs and William Lapson. The idea was inspired by...
    Ideo
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    Mouse-IDEO

    The original patent for the mouse, held by Yurchenco, Dean Hovey, James Sachs, and William Lapson. The idea was inspired by an Atari Arcade roller-ball, flipped upside down, so that the ball faced downward.
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    Ideo
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    Mouse-Inside-Edit

    That design dramatically reduced the complexity required to build the device, and brought its price down to realistic consumer levels.
  • A patent held by Yurchenco and Michael J. Nuttall for a computer with an ergonomically tiltable screen.
    Ideo
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    Computer-IDEO-Edit

    A patent held by Yurchenco and Michael J. Nuttall, for a computer with an ergonomically tiltable screen.
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    Ideo
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    Metaphor-Ideo-Edit

    A prototype of the computer, which also featured slots for the peripherals, that would allow it all to be easily bundled up.
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    Ideo
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    Palm-Edit

    The Palm V, which took gadget lust to new levels with its thin design.
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    Ideo
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    Cutter-IDEO-edit

    Another of Yurchenco's co-patents, for a more ergonomic pizza slicer.
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    Ideo
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    Stackable-CD-IDEO

    A patent for a stackable CD case, which allowed for the individual CD's to stack, with enough of a lip between them so that the CD's could be easily picked up.
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