Kinect's Grandaddy Running On an Apple IIe In 1978

An anonymous reader writes "30 years before words like performance capture, augmented reality, or avatars were around — let alone commonplace — experimental film and video artist Tom DeWitt created a system that features aspects of all of them. Pantomation let users interact in real-time with a digital environment and props. It was built using Apple IIe's, analog video gear, and lots of custom hacking and patching. He's currently working on a holographic 3D system that's similarly ahead of its time."

Comments

Re:The Circle is Complete

[gstoddart]

Wow, something was running on an Apple product before it was on a Microsoft product before the iPhone existed?

I believe lots of things fall into that category.

Xerox may have invented the mouse and the concept of on-screen "windows", but these things were widely used on Apple machines before Microsoft had fully sorted out Windows V 1.0. Hell, I think even USB and Firewire are covered by being on an Apple machine before windows and before the iPhone existed.

Say what you will about about Apple, but they have really been bringing new technology to users for a long time.