UCB and DT, Inc. = University of California at Berkeley (UCB) and Digital Techniques, Inc (DT). Engelbart's doctoral research on computer storage devices, conducted 1952-1955 at UC Berkeley School of Engineering, Dept. of Electrical Engineering (EE), resulted in eight patents, in addition to his PhD dissertation A Study of High-Frequency Gas-Conduction Electronics in Digital Computers. In 1956 he formed the startup Digital Techniques, Inc. to commercialize that research, but soon found a better home at Stanford Research Institute (SRI).
SRI, AMLC and AMP, Inc. = Stanford Research Institute (SRI) and Aircraft Marine Products (AMP). Engelbart's first major research assignment at SRI 1957-1960 was on the All-Magnetic Logic Computer (AMLC), which earned him another dozen patents. Technology from this program was commercialized by Aircraft Marine Products (AMP) Inc., under license from SRI, and used primarily in the rapid transit system of New York City and at railroad switching yards, where electro-magnetic interference made electronic computers unfeasible. Based on this success, in 1959 Engelbart got the green light to pursue his own research on Augmenting the Human Intellect, beginning half time, and growing to full time once his funding came through.
X-Y Position Indicator and SRI ARC = technical name for the computer mouse and the Augmentation Research Center (ARC) at SRI. Engelbart's final patent was for the invention of the computer mouse in 1964, filed in 1967 and awarded in 1970. SRI licensed the technology to Apple, Xerox, and other companies, but the invention was not commercially viable until 1984 when Apple release the Macintosh, three years before the patent's expiration. See The Mouse Patent below, and visit SRI's The Computer Mouse and Interactive Computing and our Father of the Mouse for online exhibits and links to more. This invention was a small part of a larger research program on Augmenting the Human Intellect, which Engelbart conceived and directed at the SRI ARC 1959-1977. A constellation of groundbreaking pioneering firsts emerged – such as the mouse and interactive computing, display editing, outline processing, linking and in-file object addressing, use of multiple windows, hypermedia and context-sensitive help, shared screen teleconferencing, the Mother of All Demos, networked digital libraries and online communities, and more – but only the mouse was deemed patentable.
"An X-Y position indicator control for movement by the hand over any surface to move a cursor over the display on a cathode ray tube, the indicator control generating signals indicating its position to cause a cursor to be displayed on the tube at the corresponding position. The indicator control mechanism contains X and Y position wheels mounted perpendicular to each other, which rotate according to the X and Y movements of the mechanism, and which operate rheostats to send signals along a wire to a computer which controls the CRT display."
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