Computer Mouse, Kalman Filter Trace Origins to Air Force Basic Research Funding

  • Published
  • By Lt. Col. Darren L. Rice
  • AFOSR Public Affairs
ARLINGTON, Va --  More than four decades after development, most technologies become distant memories after having been replaced by generations of newer and better products.

Two developments from the early 1960s, however, brought about with the help of Air Force Office of Scientific Research funding, are still going strong.

The computer mouse, which almost everyone knows, and the Kalman filter, which may be unfamiliar to many and yet a device everyone relies on for modern jet aircraft travel, were both made possible more than 40 years ago through insight and funding by AFOSR. AFOSR's mission is to support Air Force goals of control and maximum utilization of air and space.

AFOSR accomplishes its mission by investing in basic research efforts for the Air Force in relevant scientific areas. Central to AFOSR's strategy is the transfer of the fruits of basic research to industry, the supplier of Air Force acquisitions; to the academic community, which can lead the way to still more accomplishment; and to the other directorates of the Air Force Research Laboratory that carry the responsibility for applied and development research leading to acquisition.

In 1960 Dr. Douglas Englebart foresaw that computers were destined to become incredibly powerful tools in augmenting the decision-making capability of humans. Englebart shared a vision with other researchers that a room full of digital computer equipment would eventually be compressed into complete computers a fraction of their size. To bring this vision to reality, Englebart felt a more efficient means needed to be developed for people to interact with computers. He submitted numerous proposals to various organizations to get his work funded -but only AFOSR decided to invest in the research.

His paper, Augmenting Human Intellect, "took many, many months to work out. There is no way it would have been possible had not AFOSR given me the space and time to do it," he said.

Englebart said he developed the mouse "as part of an explicit search for optimum screen selection techniques in association with an online application framework." Ultimately, he envisioned "several people working together from working stations that can provide inter-communications via their computer or computers."

His initial concept for the interactive device was a hand-held, pencil-like stylus that would be sensed by the screen to move the cursor around. His first goal was to enable the stylus to manipulate text. Today, people recognize this procedure as 'highlight, copy, and paste.' This initial concept then migrated to a single-button device in 1965 that more resembles what we today's computer mouse.

It took a long time for Englebart's accomplishment to be rewarded officially. He finally received the Turing Award in 2002, which is the Nobel Prize equivalent in the computer science world. He was also inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

Another AFOSR success story, the Kalman Filter, significantly enhanced post World War II jet aircraft performance and navigation by eliminating unwanted noise out of data streams. It revolutionized the field of estimation and had an enormous impact on the design and development of precise navigation systems. Its development followed a logical path. With the arrival of the jet age and supersonic flight, so did requirements for more advanced and sophisticated navigation and flight control mechanisms. The control systems for these aircraft needed to process a huge amount of incoming data streaming from multiple aircraft sensors. Additionally, the data was often imprecise and needed to be integrated between different sensors to get a true picture of what the aircraft was doing.

Trying to answer this requirement, AFOSR saw promise in Dr. Rudolf E. Kalman's work in numerical filtering and started supporting his research in 1954. By 1961 Kalman's efforts, along with those of Dr. Richard Bucy who had joined the team in 1960, had produced results that could be put to the test. This newly developed tool progressed from research to application very quickly and was soon embraced by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. NASA saw the filter as a means to solve the problems associated with determining satellite orbits and the filter was crucial in allowing the Apollo 11 space mission to land on the moon in 1969.

The Kalman Filter became indispensable in precise navigational systems such as those used in missiles, aircraft, and submarines. The filter makes autopilot possible on both commercial and military aircraft and its use in precision guided munitions has had significant impact on Air Force warfighting capabilities. One of the filter's potential applications is to enable large volumes of traffic to one day move in close proximity at high speeds.

The computer mouse and the Kalman Filter share basic research core values and goals supported by AFOSR program managers daily: what begins as an idea to solve some problems can become a tool with unlimited potential.