Tomorrow’s Tech Treepowered by Astra

Interfaces & HCI · Recorded milestone

Light pen

Recorded year1955

Operators of MIT's Whirlwind computer pick items by pointing a pen at the screen, a trick soon used on SAGE radar consoles.

Explore this milestone on the interactive map

Built on

RadarRecorded · 1935enables
Stored-program computerRecorded · 1948requires

Led to

Computer-aided designRecorded · 1963enables
SketchpadRecorded · 1963enables
Computer mouseRecorded · 1964enables
TouchscreenRecorded · 1965enables
Pressure-sensitive pen tabletRecorded · 1988enables

Sources & evidence

Additional source

Dataset updated 2026-10-18. This individual record has not been separately re-reviewed.