René Sommer, one of the inventors of the computer mouse, has died at the age of 58 in St Légier in the canton of Vaud.

The modern mouse took shape at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne in the 70s, under the guidance of Professor Jean-Daniel Nicoud and André Guignard.

René Sommer was responsible for making the mouse more ‘intelligent’ by putting a micro-processor in the design in 1985.

He’s been described by Logitech, which manufactured the mouse, as a ‘brilliant and impassioned engineer’.