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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."
Apple IIe in 1978?! It was probably an Apple II (released in 1977). The Apple IIe wasn't released until 1983. See Timeline and History of the Apple II series
Still, it's impressive that he was doing this on a IIe 5 years before they were released.
>>>something was running on an Apple product before it was on a Microsoft product
LOTS of things first saw the light of day on those old 8-bit machines:
- windows/mouse interfaces (Apple, Atari, Commodore)
- security cameras & alarms run by my Commodore=64
- 128-color porn on Ataris
- music & voice coming from the 1977 Atari console
- full-scale video on my C=64
- ripped music from the radio, or downloaded off the net, playing back on the Commodore SID and Amiga Paula
- and on and on and on.
There's very little that is truly new. Most of it was invented in the late 70s and 80s, but it was not widely adopted until later.
My AC stalker: " I personally agree with your posts most of the time, but that won't keep me from modding you troll"
Reminds me of this other informative early computer related video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IgF6_jVaj8
"Enjoy what you're doing! If it becomes drudgery, you're doing it wrong!" - Jim Butterfield
Phantomation: Kinect, I am your Father.
Kinect: That's impossible!
Phantomation: Look into your source code, you know it to be true!
Kinect: Nooooooo!!!!!
I just can't resist boasting that I was selling a commercial product, "LIVE!", for the Amiga. A video input board, it was used at the Amiga launch.
Later a Canadian/Seattle company called VeryVivid wrote some very beautiful software for that board using the same principles as deWitt demonstrates. You could have birds fly to your hand, play virtual cymbals and drums, and may other effects.
If anybody can locate video of that, I'd love to see it again
PRIOR ART???
I use irony whenever I can, but my shirts are still wrinkled...
Reading his paper reveals that the hologram in use is an interference pattern taken from a live subject, then immediately read into the computer. It is not a 3DTV holo that floats in your living room for you to watch.
Still awesomely cool though. Why did evolution never invent this method to let human vision capture depth more directly?
I remember seeing some of this as part of an elementary school field trip in the late 70's. Maybe to the LA Museum of Modern Art? It was neat, and all, but I wasn't a fan of modern art - even back then.
When I clicked on the link my computer spontaneously rebooted. Apparently it's still ahead of my time too.
While you are correct, you are grossly undervaluing the work of pioneers at each milestone. No one worked in a vacuum back then.
You would have really earned some "geek points" if you mentioned that Douglas Engelbart was inspired by Ivan Sutherland's Sketchpad program from 1963 when he created NLS (what your video link was about). NLS had several modes of operations, but none of them resemble what we have today.
The modern desktop evolved from many years of work and research by pioneers in their field.
1952 - The trackball was invented by Tom Cranston, Fred Longstaff and Kenyon Taylor working on the Royal Canadian Navy's DATAR project.
1963 - The computer mouse was invented by Douglas Engelbart and Bill English.
1963 - Ivan Sitherland's Sketch program was created.
1969 - Douglas Engelbart demonstrated NLS (oNLine System)
1970 - David A. Evans created a primitive hypertext-based groupware program that ran on NLS
1972 - Xerox Alto was conceptionalized
1979 - Apple's McIntosh project began.
1982 - Xerox Star was introduced to the market. ($75,000 base + $16,000 for each additional workstation).
1982 - Commodore begins development on the Amiga which was originally intended to be a next-generation game computer. (Jay Miner was originally with Atari).
1983 - Apple markets the Lisa the first GUI based personal computer ($9,995).
1983 - Chase Bishop starts "Interface Manager" and is announced by Microsoft as Windows (after Lisa was released)
1984 - Apple introduced the Macintosh a much more affordable GUI based personal computer ($1,995).
1985 - The Commodore Amiga was released ($1,295)
1985 - The Atari ST was released ($999).
1985 - DRI releases GEM/1
1985 - Microsoft Windows 1.0 was released.
1987 - Microsoft Windows 2.0 was released.
1990 - Microsoft Windows 3.0 was released and Microsoft finally begins its transition from CLI to GUI products.
I know I left some milestones out, but I just wanted to illustrate that the modern desktop was an evolutionary process with many innovations taking place between 1952 and 1984. Of course, Microsoft catches up when all the hard work is finished :P. I'm joking of course. In fact I'll clarify 1990 for them.
1990 - Microsoft Windows 3.0 was released which becomes a significant milestone for GUI on the x86. It may have not been the first, or the best, but it did bring the GUI desktop to the masses. After all with Apple, Xerox, DRI, Commodore, and Atari using GUI, Microsoft had no choice and would have ceased to exist if they hadn't caught up with questionable tactics that led to a settlement with the DOJ in 2001.
These comments are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of my employer or colleagues...
The mini-computer they talk about in this video is the PDP-8/L, not an Apple II, although the system was later ported to Apple II in the early 80s.
It's worth noting that the original Apple II (and most other microcomputers from the early 70s) would have been much more powerful, cheaper, and easier to program than the PDP-8, and the Apple II would have been an excellent choice for a project like this, due to its expandable and well-documented hardware architecture. However, I'm sure they started development of this system well before the original Apple II would have been well known or even available.
ENDUT! HOCH HECH!