René Sommer (engineer)

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Douglas C. Engelbart and René Sommer (right)

René Sommer (* 1951 ; † October 5, 2009 in Blonay ) was a Swiss electronics engineer . He was decisive in the development of Logitech - mice involved.

life and work

As a high school student in 1968 he won a prize for an electronic Nim game at Schweizer Jugend forscht with a game machine . He studied at the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), where he worked as an assistant to Jean-Daniel Nicoud in the Laboratoire de Microinformatique (LAMI).

From 1982 he worked with Logitech. He was the company's first engineer and soon became a consulting director . He developed the first mouse with an integrated microprocessor ; previously, the unprocessed electrical signals were passed directly to the computer. He has also been instrumental in other developments such as the wireless mouse , the optomechanical mouse and wireless device connections.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Une histoire de l'informatique en Suisse, Ordinateurs au LAMI-EPFL, Premiers développements, 1966–1973 (French)
  2. ↑ Patent EP0505126 : Wireless peripheral interface. Inventors: Aldo Bussien, René Sommer. ‌
  3. ↑ Patent US5854621 : Wireless mouse. Inventors: Philippe Junod, Breni Joss, Nicolas Sasselli, Aldo Bussien, René Sommer. ‌
  4. ↑ Patent US5256913 : Low power optoelectronic device and method. Inventor: René Sommer. ‌
  5. ↑ Patent EP0310230 : Optoelectronic device and method. Inventor: René Sommer. ‌
  6. ↑ Patent US2008294815 : System and method for transmitting bidirectional signals over a cable antenna. Inventors: René Sommer, Pierre Chênes, Philippe Junod. ‌
personal data
SURNAME Summer, René
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss electronics engineer
DATE OF BIRTH 1951
DATE OF DEATH October 5, 2009
Place of death Blonay