Ted Selker works for IBM's Almaden Research Center http://www.almaden.ibm.com/ in San Jose, California. While an undergraduate, Selker built an artificial eye. Later, he studied brain modeling and artificial intelligence.

He then went to work for American video game pioneer Atari as a researcher when that company led the world in personal computer research.

When Atari began to decline, he went to Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center (PARC). Selker left to go to IBM when he realized that PARC wasn’t leveraging its researchers' inventions into products.

Selker’s big break came when he realized that people using computers were slowed down by always having to reach for a mouse. He decided they needed a pointing device that would let them operate a windows system while keeping their hands on the keyboard.

He settled on a square, plastic pointer that people could control with the tips of their fingers. Selker realized that to succeed, he had to have his device placed onto one of IBM's notebook computer products. He pursued Satoru Yamada, the head engineer in charge of IBM laptops, who was looking for an alternative pointing device.

Selker's initial device was quite stiff to operate and left marks on users' fingers. Yamada thought Selker's device was not suitable and felt the software code required for its operation was too difficult to write.

Selker, however, refused to be beaten. He contacted his father, who had worked in the runner industry in the 1940s. His father found Selker a company that could make non-stiff rubber cheaply enough for IBM.

He modified his device using the new rubber and wrote the software code himself. The result was the TrackPoint®.

Analysts call the TrackPoint® the biggest single improvement in computer pointing devices since the invention of the mouse in the 1960s. Its development enabled IBM to triple its notebook production every month for four months following its introduction. IBM notebooks without the TrackPoint® were discontinued.

Today, Selker has free rein to dream up new technologies for IBM. Drive, inspiration and luck allowed his intrapreneurial skills to succeed within one of the largest companies in the world.