Get an entry level programming job and work on a computer engineering or software engineering masters degree. Or try for an MBA.
Getting into IT can be a one way trip. It is hard to get back to programming/cs aspects after you get labeled as a network tech or help desk person. See previous threads on topic here on/.
My experience was working for several years while struggling to get an MS. I did work IT/support (got stuck) and it was only happy serendipity (and good connections) that got me back into software development. Getting my masters was more for the resume build than learning. I did learn, but the MS was a lot more important when it came to finding contracts and working DARPA projects.
Alice and StoryTelling Alice "Alice is an innovative 3D programming environment that makes it easy to create an animation for telling a story, playing an interactive game, or a video to share on the web. Alice is a teaching tool for introductory computing. It uses 3D graphics and a drag-and-drop interface to facilitate a more engaging, less frustrating first programming experience." Thank you Randy Pauch. We miss you.
or Pyro which was the non-MS precursor to Myro... program bots in Python with either real bots or simulation.
Either way, the graphical environments and real bots give kids a great way to SEE and TOUCH their results, which is more how they learn. You can cover all the important software constructs (variables, loops, events, data structs, etc) and avoid some of the abstract conceptualization required in more conventional languages/applications. They will learn the concepts through doing & using them. Then once they are hooked, they can dig into other languages.
Works great for middle school & college kids.... Pyro's got years of track record teaching intro to AI - to liberal arts majors!
Most languages dont give much back quickly. You need something that will catch and hold their attention. 3D graphics and Robotics are cool to kids (and many of us geeks) and actually not that hard to break into. In fact both are used very effectively to introduce middle school and older students to programming - even high level stuff like AI (or autonomous behaviors). And the links below are Open Source!
"Alice is an innovative 3D programming environment that makes it easy to create an animation for telling a story, playing an interactive game, or a video to share on the web. Alice is a teaching tool for introductory computing. It uses 3D graphics and a drag-and-drop interface to facilitate a more engaging, less frustrating first programming experience."
One of (if not the) earliest commerical clients on the Net was a small computer graphics company called Omnibus Computer Graphics. Back in 1985 we had three sites - Toronto Canada, NYC and on the Paramount Studio lot in Hollywood. These three sites were connected by X.25 and later became clients on NSFNet... I think we got there by virtu of being partially funded by Arts Council of Canada.
We had developers and animators (sales & mgmt too) in all three locations. We had a distributed software development setup that collected local information every night, shipped it to the Toronto node, rebuilt it and shipped bytes & RCS back. Developers (such as myself) sometimes dialed in from home (Venice Beach) to work on our Vaxes, PDP-10, SGI, and The Foonly (a strange beast that rendered many of the early movie CGI - Tron, Westworld, etc.)
The company later (1986) bought two of the other top 5 CGI houses (Robert Able Assoc & Digital Productions) and proceeded to go bankrupt. That led to the explosion of CGI houses like Rythm & Hues, etc.
The lace keyboard is interesting. For a long while I was working on various wearable projects and always thought it would be great to have a one-handed keyboard (ala Twiddler) built into a garment - say the sleeve or pant leg. there might be some issues avoiding spurious keypresses when you bump into things (eg. dive into a foxhole) but it the keyboard would always be readily available, and hard to misplace.
You could put it into the pocket too, but you would get a lot of strange looks when you are typing.
I mentioned the idea a number of times to people at MIT, and other places doing fabric switches, but havent seen one yet.
If someone ever builds one of these, drop me an email!
Animation and 3d are great ways to show the concepts. Beats the heck out of static reading/powerpoints, especially for modern high schoolers. Jim Blinn & cohorts at Cal tech did a pair of great works on Physics (The Mechanical Universe, circa 1987) and Project Mathmeatics (much more recent). Then try your own lessons (or have the kids do some) using Alice 3D
Project MATHEMATICS! videos explore basic topics in high school mathematics in ways that cannot be done at the chalkboard or in a textbook. They bring mathematics to life with imaginative computer animation, live action, music, special effects, and a sense of humor.
The Mechanical Universe...and Beyond is a critically-acclaimed series of 52 thirty-minute videotape programs covering the basic topics of an introductory university physics course. The series was originally produced as a broadcast telecourse by the California Institute of Technology and Intelecom, Inc. with program funding from the Annenberg/CPB Project.
Sea-Code has a former cruise ship they plan to station off the coast of So. Cal (San Diego) and staff with programmers, etc. The idea is to make the staff closer to US based clients, who wont have to travel days for meetings.
Having staff stuck on a ship might also keep them from 'jumping ship'?
The Pyrobotics software has been out for several years. It was originally developed by Doug under a grant from NSF. That grant ran out last year and I am very glad to see MS has picked up the ball. Doug has been using Robotics to teach CS as part of the NSF grant. I got to sit in on one of his classes this spring and it was quite interesting to see sophmores, etc discussing high level AI concepts. Those who are writing to compare Pyrobot with the Lego Mindstorm or AI/engineering classes would do well to go read the papers posted on the pyrobotics.com web site. They specifically address issues with those other approaches: languages unusable outside the one robot, spending too much time getting the b#&$! hardware to work and not enough on CS issues.
The Pyrobot system is also not just for CS teaching. It makes a very nice system for working with robot control, especially when using a simulator instead of a real bot. I have been using Pyrobot in conjunction with the Delta3d OSS simulation system. Delta3d provides realistic rendering on real terrain for multiple robots while Pyrobot lets us experiment with very high level 'Brains' to control the bots (UAVs, UGVs, etc.) Python makes it very nice for the AI folks with lots of support libraries, rapid development, etc.
The downside of using Python for Intro CS, IMHO, is that it sidesteps so many basic Software Engineering and other basic software potty training issues. I look forward to seeing how Doug and his associates at GATech integrate those into their classes... and perhaps picking up an intern to work out here in Malibu some summer.
The Orange SA/Kopin displays look stylish, have to see them in person to give em a real Human Factors review. The wearability of Head Mounted Displays (HMDs) has been one of their major downfalls in the past. These seem pretty light weight, etc. May not need *much* behind the ears to hold em in place.
The QVGA resolution is a drawback - sure this is near what the PSP does, but that is hardly a 12" screen. True viewable quality remains to be seen (siggraph?)
What really tweaked me on this is calling it 'nanotechnology'. High density AMLCD is a neat tech, but is this really working at the nanometer scale?
I've been a dad for 13 years (2 boys) and a programmer for well over 30yrs. Being involved in your kids lives is the biggest help you can give them. It can be very tough - especially if you are a geek. Quite easy to get over involved in work... especially when The Boss says we gotta deliver and work comes first - arent you just so happy to be in the movie/game/??? biz?
The early diaper years are NOT easy. Also it is not a good time for them to have lots of tech -especially pure screen tech. Kids need lots of input from lots of senses to develop well. Give they exposure to lots of different stuff - music is good, but be careful there are proven differences in effect of types of music. Your favorite head banger stuff is probably not what they need early on.... later maybe. Languages get imprinted early - if they hear the words at early ages, they often have an easier time picking up the language later in life.
Play with em young and get em outside, socializing (wow - you might meet people too!)
Later, look into various parent-child activities. The YMCA had a great 75+ year run with the Y-Indian programs whose main purpose was to get Dad to spend time with kids (especially outdoors). Lately the Indian theme has come under PC attack and been abandoned by most of the Y. They still have the basic program, but without the Indian theme (for better or worse - there is a lot that can be learned from those cultures, and not the least is treating other people's culture with respect)
As for games, video and tech - definately expose your kids to those too. It is part of their world and (hopefully) future. My boys are now learning to make their own web sites and video games. I play games with em - and also take em camping, biking hiking, etc.
A decade+ ago IBM was producing a similar box called the 360P (odd twist on the IBM 360 mainframe numbering!). That screen didnt do the neat swivel thing, but it would fold down over the keyboard so you could use it as a tablet computer (win 3.1x).
It was nice tablet box for it's day. I used it on a DARPA-SIMITAR project taht fielded the first portable commercial Internet/email enabled C4I system (PENCIL). The tablet mode was great for annotating maps, etc. The National Guard guys loved em. Heck we gave em email - back in '95.
Fluid computer in Cold War?
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Fluid Logic Chips
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· Score: 3, Informative
I recall there was a ballistics computer built back during the cold war. The idea was that it was immune to radiation effects (EMPulse). I cant find a reference to it in a quick web search.
The main computer used for TLS was a Cray XMP... one of the first (double headed) Cray machines outside a govt installation. There was a DEC VAX 782, a double headed VAX, that fed the Cray - there wasnt a really good way to work on the Cray directly. Digital Productions, the animation company,also used a farm of Evans and Southerland PS300s for digitizing/modeling and IMI 500s for motion. A couple RasterTech boxes were also used as frame buffers for test images. A specialized film printer was also used - one originally developed for Tron. The same hardware was used on a number of other films from that era (2010, Ice Pirates, Labyrinth, etc) and numerous commercials.
The IMI 500 was a UNIX box and the VAX ran Interactive's Unix On VMS. The Cray had a small permanent on-site support staff to keep it alive.... along with some BIG AC units.
DP was bought by Omnibus Computer Graphics in 1986. Shortly afterwards Omnibus bought Robert Able Associates, thus merging 3 of the top 5 computer animation houses of the time.... and promptly went bankrupt. BofA had a 11mil loan on the Cray, and discovered that Cray had one in storage they couldnt unload for $3mil. They found out the landlords had taken the keys and the security company stopped sending guards 'cause of non-payment. This being the neighborhood where the LA Riots were several years later, BofA immeadiately sent a truck and crew to yank out the Cray.... Some of the animators pleaded with the workers to let it run just an hour more so they could complete some pieces...
Btw, Omnibus was the first commercial company not doing network development to have an Internet connection. Of course back then it wasnt called the Internet.
its a bit odd to have lots of 20-somethings tell me how much they loved that movie... i still remember creating the short proof-of-concept animation that got DP the job.
EEG Spectrum is a group of practitioners and researchers. They have a page on the application of the technology for ADHD type treatments. Also a variety of other articles and links on the tech there.
The EEG Spectrum uses hardware and software from NeuroCybernetics which includes some games you play by brain wave control. I tried some of these out a few years ago while looking into EEG tech for Virtual Reality applications.
The $10K setup described uses polarized projection, which is pretty good but requires a straight optical path. To make a 6' image you need 8-10 feet of throw distance - no mirrors allowed. A full wall (8-10ft) requires even more (I dont have the ratio handy, see projector specs). Front projection means you can cast shadows on the screen, which might be used for tracking/interaction but interfere with the 3d immersion/presence effect. Multi-walled setups require a LOT of space - or active stereo, which means more expensive projectors ($50k+) and gen-lock sync between video sources (not available for nvidia, ati, matrox 3d cards - sorta see links below)
Tracking is another big problem left out in this implemenation. Mag trackers mentioned in another comment are one solution, although the interference problems are a big pain. My choice is the Intersense IS900, but it starts out at around $20k.
Dr Flaxon and FAIT's SADE
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To The Pain
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Back in 1997 Flaxon Alternative Interface Technology announced "the development of a new standard for the human-interface field, the Sade, the basic unit of measurement for discomfort levels in an interface scheme, named in tribute to the infamous French author whose works represent the seminal literary study in discomfort."
This was derived from the Evil Dr. Flaxon's work on the Baseball Bat Haptic Feedback Device, the Peptic Feedback Probe and other projects. The Digitally-Enforced Midi-Operated Neurocontroller (DEMON) was another early project that met with some success.
Be sure to check out the details on his lab location. It is quite an interesting facility.
Pharm companies giving Visor/Palm to MDs
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Digital Doctoring
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My MD has one of the early Palms and has been very interested in my Visor every time we meet. Last time he told me one of the pharmacutical reps was offering him a brand new color Visor just as soon as they can get them. Seems they figure its a good way to get more branded info infront of the MD and get on their good side - so they write perscriptions for the Real Stuff not some cheap Generic Equiv.
My doc wasnt too keen on taking it, since he already has one and doesnt use it a whole lot (office, billing, schedule not tied in, etc.) But since its free he might just take one for each of the MDs in his group.
Sam and Blakestah are pretty much correct in this being an EEG type device. The Play Attention is one of several such devices used in ADDS and related treatments. This partcular device uses the helmet to quickly and easily position the electrodes. Other systems have to strap them on. Most use some conductive gel as well (messes up the hair a bit, especially if you already got gel and spikes!)
Generally when you are concentrating on the task at hand your brain settles into some rythms. The systems monitor how long/well you hit the marks. Some systems, like those from NeuroCybernetics use the brainwaves to control video games. The more you conentrate or hit the right frame of mind, the better your scores.
I met Karl wey back in '81 when I joined INTERactive Systems (first commerical vendor of UN*X). Karl knows his tech stuff and was a good person too. He has taken on a very tough roll for a radical reformer - working from the inside.
As SubtleNuance says, a real value to Karl's membership will be having his eyes and ears inside. And as Troodon and SubtleNuance point out Karl will NOT be the lone free ranger on the board. I hope Karl, Andy and the other members-at-large can work to open the system. We should all give them our support.
One big way to do this is to get your butt out and VOTE in the regular political elections (USA or elsewhere)! YOU can make a difference.
One of the great places doing computer interface work for the disabled is Pulsar.org ( http://www.pulsar.org ) which is actually a collection of companies, researchers and other good folks. One of the lead personalities behind it is Dr Dr Dave Warner (PhD, MD) - a VERY dynamic individual with a lot of great ideas. Dave often gets accused of "stunt research" with his application of high (and low) tech in quick demos that dont become products, but most of the work is stuff you can rebuild yourself.
Like, did you know the Velostat(tm) that provides static shielding for chips and boards makes a great pressure sensor? Put some leads on it and push - you get a resistance change proportional to pressure. Makes a good cheap switch. The pulsar folks have demoed an RC car controlled by a pad placed in a shoe.
They (http://mindtel.com side of Pulsar)have a nice interface box called the TNG (Totally Neat Gadget). It provides A/D and Digital IO via a serial port. Primary progamming uses NeatTools - a true visual programming environment (connect the boxes). Very powerful for very little effort.
As for X10 - BAH! They spam way too much and their service is terrible. However, the products can go a long way towards automating a home with remote and PC control. If you watch their site, you can get some decent deals, but DO NOT USE THEIR E-COMMERCE side for any specials advertised in email - the site doesnt know about the email specials. Use the phone instead.
As for speech recog - its not really all that good, but it can be better than nothing!
As for brain interfaces - they are getting better but are still very expensive. Muscle sensors can be used nicely for therapy feedback devices. One pulsar.org app used them to drive MIDI synths and nintendos. Kids that would not do their physical therapy exercises before could not be dragged away from the drums/games.
Eye trackers are also pretty expensive and poor. I tried several at the Cal State Northridge Technology and Persons with Disabilities conference and was disappointed. IF you hold your head perfectly still, the video based eye trackers can do fairly well, but if you move around, they lose the pupil. Eyeglasses and contacts also screw up the tracking.
The whole realm of interface usability should inform those trying to design new systems. Norman's "The Psychology of Everyday things" and Nielsen's "Usability Engineering" should be required reading. After that its a whole lot of experience (personal and learning from others).
One aspect of why mom (or dad) has trouble with the GUI is the "affordances". These are the clues inherent in the design (visual, etc) as to what the UI will do. Us of the WIMP generation are pretty handy figuring out new WIMPs. The older cmd ln interfaces gave fewer affordances but those with experience know just what cryptic cmd str 2 use | whr 2 fnd hlp.
As we move beyond the conventional WIMP GUIs we have even more troubles. VR systems look so much like the real world you think you should be able to touch, feel and manipulate them, but have to use some sort of encumberence (wand, mouse, etc). MS Research has done some interesting work in the area of 3D desktop interfaces (Task Gallery, Data Mountain). Read their stuff, then rebuild a better one in an OpenSource UI!!
Netscape 6 Permiere at Internet World
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Netscape 6
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I got an invitation last week to "the World Premiere of Netscape 6" on Wed 5 April at Internet World in Los Angeles. Steve Case is giving a keynote at 9:30am and there is a press conf at 10:15. The browser will be on display in the netscape booth (exhibits run wed 10am - friday 4pm).
Also the Brave New Unwired World (aka wearable computer) fashion technology show will be in the exhibit hall on wed and thurs at 1pm.
Conference web site is: http://events.internet.com/spring2000
Exhibits + Keynotes is free, if you register by 31 March. $50 afterwards.
The MicroOptical glasses are nice and hopefully I'll get to check them out later this year. There are some problems with them: - brightness, hard to see the image in daylight. The Microvision VRD is the only decently daylight readable, see through I've seen. The MO and MV folks should team up. - fixed image location, makes it hard to do the IPD adjustments needed for good binocular HMD
Still they might be nice for a borg setup. I dont hold a lot of near-term hope for the registered-image uses (overlay directly on real objects). The head and position tracking issues are a long way from being solved, except in tightly controlled environments.
For more HMD links, check out http://vr.isdale.com/HMD_Vendors.htm Thats where I keep my list, developed originally for my Tech Review articles for VR News magazine (http://www.vrnews.com)
Slashdot Mirror
Get an entry level programming job and work on a computer engineering or software engineering masters degree. Or try for an MBA.
Getting into IT can be a one way trip. It is hard to get back to programming/cs aspects after you get labeled as a network tech or help desk person. See previous threads on topic here on /.
My experience was working for several years while struggling to get an MS. I did work IT/support (got stuck) and it was only happy serendipity (and good connections) that got me back into software development. Getting my masters was more for the resume build than learning. I did learn, but the MS was a lot more important when it came to finding contracts and working DARPA projects.
Alice and StoryTelling Alice
"Alice is an innovative 3D programming environment that makes it easy to create an animation for telling a story, playing an interactive game, or a video to share on the web. Alice is a teaching tool for introductory computing. It uses 3D graphics and a drag-and-drop interface to facilitate a more engaging, less frustrating first programming experience."
Thank you Randy Pauch. We miss you.
Or try
Myro using Microsoft Robotics Studio
or Pyro which was the non-MS precursor to Myro... program bots in Python with either real bots or simulation.
Either way, the graphical environments and real bots give kids a great way to SEE and TOUCH their results, which is more how they learn. You can cover all the important software constructs (variables, loops, events, data structs, etc) and avoid some of the abstract conceptualization required in more conventional languages/applications. They will learn the concepts through doing & using them. Then once they are hooked, they can dig into other languages.
Works great for middle school & college kids.... Pyro's got years of track record teaching intro to AI - to liberal arts majors!
Most languages dont give much back quickly. You need something that will catch and hold their attention. 3D graphics and Robotics are cool to kids (and many of us geeks) and actually not that hard to break into. In fact both are used very effectively to introduce middle school and older students to programming - even high level stuff like AI (or autonomous behaviors). And the links below are Open Source!
Check out Alice.org
"Alice is an innovative 3D programming environment that makes it easy to create an animation for telling a story, playing an interactive game, or a video to share on the web. Alice is a teaching tool for introductory computing. It uses 3D graphics and a drag-and-drop interface to facilitate a more engaging, less frustrating first programming experience."
Or how about Robotics?
Myro and Institute for Robotics Education
or its pure python predecessor Pyro Robotics
One of (if not the) earliest commerical clients on the Net was a small computer graphics company called Omnibus Computer Graphics. Back in 1985 we had three sites - Toronto Canada, NYC and on the Paramount Studio lot in Hollywood. These three sites were connected by X.25 and later became clients on NSFNet... I think we got there by virtu of being partially funded by Arts Council of Canada.
We had developers and animators (sales & mgmt too) in all three locations. We had a distributed software development setup that collected local information every night, shipped it to the Toronto node, rebuilt it and shipped bytes & RCS back. Developers (such as myself) sometimes dialed in from home (Venice Beach) to work on our Vaxes, PDP-10, SGI, and The Foonly (a strange beast that rendered many of the early movie CGI - Tron, Westworld, etc.)
The company later (1986) bought two of the other top 5 CGI houses (Robert Able Assoc & Digital Productions) and proceeded to go bankrupt.
That led to the explosion of CGI houses like Rythm & Hues, etc.
J.Isdale
The lace keyboard is interesting. For a long while I was working on various wearable projects and always thought it would be great to have a one-handed keyboard (ala Twiddler) built into a garment - say the sleeve or pant leg. there might be some issues avoiding spurious keypresses when you bump into things (eg. dive into a foxhole) but it the keyboard would always be readily available, and hard to misplace.
You could put it into the pocket too, but you would get a lot of strange looks when you are typing.
I mentioned the idea a number of times to people at MIT, and other places doing fabric switches, but havent seen one yet.
If someone ever builds one of these, drop me an email!
Animation and 3d are great ways to show the concepts. Beats the heck out of static reading/powerpoints, especially for modern high schoolers. Jim Blinn & cohorts at Cal tech did a pair of great works on Physics (The Mechanical Universe, circa 1987) and Project Mathmeatics (much more recent). Then try your own lessons (or have the kids do some) using Alice 3D
Project Mathematics Home Page
Project MATHEMATICS! videos explore basic topics in high school mathematics in ways that cannot be done at the chalkboard or in a textbook. They bring mathematics to life with imaginative computer animation, live action, music, special effects, and a sense of humor.
Mechanical Universe Home
The Mechanical Universe...and Beyond is a critically-acclaimed series of 52 thirty-minute videotape programs covering the basic topics of an introductory university physics course. The series was originally produced as a broadcast telecourse by the California Institute of Technology and Intelecom, Inc. with program funding from the Annenberg/CPB Project.
see see Jim Blinn's title list
Sea-Code has a former cruise ship they plan to station off the coast of So. Cal (San Diego) and staff with programmers, etc. The idea is to make the staff closer to US based clients, who wont have to travel days for meetings. Having staff stuck on a ship might also keep them from 'jumping ship'?
The Pyrobotics software has been out for several years. It was originally developed by Doug under a grant from NSF. That grant ran out last year and I am very glad to see MS has picked up the ball. Doug has been using Robotics to teach CS as part of the NSF grant. I got to sit in on one of his classes this spring and it was quite interesting to see sophmores, etc discussing high level AI concepts. Those who are writing to compare Pyrobot with the Lego Mindstorm or AI/engineering classes would do well to go read the papers posted on the pyrobotics.com web site. They specifically address issues with those other approaches: languages unusable outside the one robot, spending too much time getting the b#&$! hardware to work and not enough on CS issues.
The Pyrobot system is also not just for CS teaching. It makes a very nice system for working with robot control, especially when using a simulator instead of a real bot. I have been using Pyrobot in conjunction with the Delta3d OSS simulation system. Delta3d provides realistic rendering on real terrain for multiple robots while Pyrobot lets us experiment with very high level 'Brains' to control the bots (UAVs, UGVs, etc.) Python makes it very nice for the AI folks with lots of support libraries, rapid development, etc.
The downside of using Python for Intro CS, IMHO, is that it sidesteps so many basic Software Engineering and other basic software potty training issues. I look forward to seeing how Doug and his associates at GATech integrate those into their classes... and perhaps picking up an intern to work out here in Malibu some summer.
The Orange SA/Kopin displays look stylish, have to see them in person to give em a real Human Factors review. The wearability of Head Mounted Displays (HMDs) has been one of their major downfalls in the past. These seem pretty light weight, etc. May not need *much* behind the ears to hold em in place.
The QVGA resolution is a drawback - sure this is near what the PSP does, but that is hardly a 12" screen. True viewable quality remains to be seen (siggraph?)
What really tweaked me on this is calling it 'nanotechnology'. High density AMLCD is a neat tech, but is this really working at the nanometer scale?
I've been a dad for 13 years (2 boys) and a programmer for well over 30yrs. Being involved in your kids lives is the biggest help you can give them. It can be very tough - especially if you are a geek. Quite easy to get over involved in work... especially when The Boss says we gotta deliver and work comes first - arent you just so happy to be in the movie/game/??? biz?
The early diaper years are NOT easy. Also it is not a good time for them to have lots of tech -especially pure screen tech. Kids need lots of input from lots of senses to develop well. Give they exposure to lots of different stuff - music is good, but be careful there are proven differences in effect of types of music. Your favorite head banger stuff is probably not what they need early on.... later maybe. Languages get imprinted early - if they hear the words at early ages, they often have an easier time picking up the language later in life.
Play with em young and get em outside, socializing (wow - you might meet people too!)
Later, look into various parent-child activities. The YMCA had a great 75+ year run with the Y-Indian programs whose main purpose was to get Dad to spend time with kids (especially outdoors). Lately the Indian theme has come under PC attack and been abandoned by most of the Y. They still have the basic program, but without the Indian theme (for better or worse - there is a lot that can be learned from those cultures, and not the least is treating other people's culture with respect)
As for games, video and tech - definately expose your kids to those too. It is part of their world and (hopefully) future. My boys are now learning to make their own web sites and video games. I play games with em - and also take em camping, biking hiking, etc.
be involved!
A decade+ ago IBM was producing a similar box called the 360P (odd twist on the IBM 360 mainframe numbering!). That screen didnt do the neat swivel thing, but it would fold down over the keyboard so you could use it as a tablet computer (win 3.1x).
It was nice tablet box for it's day. I used it on a DARPA-SIMITAR project taht fielded the first portable commercial Internet/email enabled C4I system (PENCIL). The tablet mode was great for annotating maps, etc. The National Guard guys loved em. Heck we gave em email - back in '95.
I recall there was a ballistics computer built back during the cold war. The idea was that it was immune to radiation effects (EMPulse). I cant find a reference to it in a quick web search.
The main computer used for TLS was a Cray XMP... one of the first (double headed) Cray machines outside a govt installation. There was a DEC VAX 782, a double headed VAX, that fed the Cray - there wasnt a really good way to work on the Cray directly. Digital Productions, the animation company,also used a farm of Evans and Southerland PS300s for digitizing/modeling and IMI 500s for motion. A couple RasterTech boxes were also used as frame buffers for test images. A specialized film printer was also used - one originally developed for Tron.
The same hardware was used on a number of other films from that era (2010, Ice Pirates, Labyrinth, etc) and numerous commercials.
The IMI 500 was a UNIX box and the VAX ran Interactive's Unix On VMS. The Cray had a small permanent on-site support staff to keep it alive.... along with some BIG AC units.
DP was bought by Omnibus Computer Graphics in 1986. Shortly afterwards Omnibus bought Robert Able Associates, thus merging 3 of the top 5 computer animation houses of the time.... and promptly went bankrupt. BofA had a 11mil loan on the Cray, and discovered that Cray had one in storage they couldnt unload for $3mil. They found out the landlords had taken the keys and the security company stopped sending guards 'cause of non-payment. This being the neighborhood where the LA Riots were several years later, BofA immeadiately sent a truck and crew to yank out the Cray.... Some of the animators pleaded with the workers to let it run just an hour more so they could complete some pieces...
Btw, Omnibus was the first commercial company not doing network development to have an Internet connection. Of course back then it wasnt called the Internet.
its a bit odd to have lots of 20-somethings tell me how much they loved that movie... i still remember creating the short proof-of-concept animation that got DP the job.
not bad, still an expensive purchase to start with ($950US+).
What about hardware hacking? Anyone tried to hack a GPS into a camera? (or vice versa?)
EEG Spectrum is a group of practitioners and researchers. They have a page on the application of the technology for ADHD type treatments. Also a variety of other articles and links on the tech there.
The EEG Spectrum uses hardware and software from NeuroCybernetics which includes some games you play by brain wave control. I tried some of these out a few years ago while looking into EEG tech for Virtual Reality applications.
BioFeedback Home Therapy is the home page for a couple doctors using biofeedback.
The $10K setup described uses polarized projection, which is pretty good but requires a straight optical path. To make a 6' image you need 8-10 feet of throw distance - no mirrors allowed. A full wall (8-10ft) requires even more (I dont have the ratio handy, see projector specs). Front projection means you can cast shadows on the screen, which might be used for tracking/interaction but interfere with the 3d immersion/presence effect. Multi-walled setups require a LOT of space - or active stereo, which means more expensive projectors ($50k+) and gen-lock sync between video sources (not available for nvidia, ati, matrox 3d cards - sorta see links below)
Tracking is another big problem left out in this implemenation. Mag trackers mentioned in another comment are one solution, although the interference problems are a big pain. My choice is the Intersense IS900, but it starts out at around $20k.
For more on low cost immersive projection environments see Dave Pape's course notes
For more info check out my Siggraph2002 report and my vr info site
Jerry Isdale
This was derived from the Evil Dr. Flaxon's work on the Baseball Bat Haptic Feedback Device, the Peptic Feedback Probe and other projects. The Digitally-Enforced Midi-Operated Neurocontroller (DEMON) was another early project that met with some success.
Be sure to check out the details on his lab location. It is quite an interesting facility.
My MD has one of the early Palms and has been very interested in my Visor every time we meet. Last time he told me one of the pharmacutical reps was offering him a brand new color Visor just as soon as they can get them. Seems they figure its a good way to get more branded info infront of the MD and get on their good side - so they write perscriptions for the Real Stuff not some cheap Generic Equiv.
My doc wasnt too keen on taking it, since he already has one and doesnt use it a whole lot (office, billing, schedule not tied in, etc.) But since its free he might just take one for each of the MDs in his group.
The PDR on springboard looks pretty interesting!
Sam and Blakestah are pretty much correct in this being an EEG type device. The Play Attention is one of several such devices used in ADDS and related treatments. This partcular device uses the helmet to quickly and easily position the electrodes. Other systems have to strap them on. Most use some conductive gel as well (messes up the hair a bit, especially if you already got gel and spikes!)
a lBackground
Generally when you are concentrating on the task at hand your brain settles into some rythms. The systems monitor how long/well you hit the marks. Some systems, like those from NeuroCybernetics use the brainwaves to control video games. The more you conentrate or hit the right frame of mind, the better your scores.
More background and company links can be found at:
http://vr.isdale.com/AlternativeIO_Links.htm#Neur
I met Karl wey back in '81 when I joined INTERactive Systems (first commerical vendor of UN*X). Karl knows his tech stuff and was a good person too. He has taken on a very tough roll for a radical reformer - working from the inside.
As SubtleNuance says, a real value to Karl's membership will be having his eyes and ears inside. And as Troodon and SubtleNuance point out Karl will NOT be the lone free ranger on the board. I hope Karl, Andy and the other members-at-large can work to open the system. We should all give them our support.
One big way to do this is to get your butt out and VOTE in the regular political elections (USA or elsewhere)! YOU can make a difference.
One of the great places doing computer interface work for the disabled is Pulsar.org ( http://www.pulsar.org ) which is actually a collection of companies, researchers and other good folks. One of the lead personalities behind it is Dr Dr Dave Warner (PhD, MD) - a VERY dynamic individual with a lot of great ideas. Dave often gets accused of "stunt research" with his application of high (and low) tech in quick demos that dont become products, but most of the work is stuff you can rebuild yourself.
Like, did you know the Velostat(tm) that provides static shielding for chips and boards makes a great pressure sensor? Put some leads on it and push - you get a resistance change proportional to pressure. Makes a good cheap switch. The pulsar folks have demoed an RC car controlled by a pad placed in a shoe.
They (http://mindtel.com side of Pulsar)have a nice interface box called the TNG (Totally Neat Gadget). It provides A/D and Digital IO via a serial port. Primary progamming uses NeatTools - a true visual programming environment (connect the boxes). Very powerful for very little effort.
As for X10 - BAH! They spam way too much and their service is terrible. However, the products can go a long way towards automating a home with remote and PC control. If you watch their site, you can get some decent deals, but DO NOT USE THEIR E-COMMERCE side for any specials advertised in email - the site doesnt know about the email specials. Use the phone instead.
As for speech recog - its not really all that good, but it can be better than nothing!
As for brain interfaces - they are getting better but are still very expensive. Muscle sensors can be used nicely for therapy feedback devices. One pulsar.org app used them to drive MIDI synths and nintendos. Kids that would not do their physical therapy exercises before could not be dragged away from the drums/games.
Eye trackers are also pretty expensive and poor. I tried several at the Cal State Northridge Technology and Persons with Disabilities conference and was disappointed. IF you hold your head perfectly still, the video based eye trackers can do fairly well, but if you move around, they lose the pupil. Eyeglasses and contacts also screw up the tracking.
The whole realm of interface usability should inform those trying to design new systems. Norman's "The Psychology of Everyday things" and Nielsen's "Usability Engineering" should be required reading. After that its a whole lot of experience (personal and learning from others).
One aspect of why mom (or dad) has trouble with the GUI is the "affordances". These are the clues inherent in the design (visual, etc) as to what the UI will do. Us of the WIMP generation are pretty handy figuring out new WIMPs. The older cmd ln interfaces gave fewer affordances but those with experience know just what cryptic cmd str 2 use | whr 2 fnd hlp.
As we move beyond the conventional WIMP GUIs we have even more troubles. VR systems look so much like the real world you think you should be able to touch, feel and manipulate them, but have to use some sort of encumberence (wand, mouse, etc). MS Research has done some interesting work in the area of 3D desktop interfaces (Task Gallery, Data Mountain). Read their stuff, then rebuild a better one in an OpenSource UI!!
I got an invitation last week to "the World Premiere of Netscape 6" on Wed 5 April at Internet World in Los Angeles. Steve Case is giving a keynote at 9:30am and there is a press conf at 10:15. The browser will be on display in the netscape booth (exhibits run wed 10am - friday 4pm).
Also the Brave New Unwired World (aka wearable computer) fashion technology show will be in the exhibit hall on wed and thurs at 1pm.
Conference web site is: http://events.internet.com/spring2000
Exhibits + Keynotes is free, if you register by 31 March. $50 afterwards.
its 800x600 and there are higher res small devices out there. Kaiser has a HMD offering 1024x768 with a 30 or 60 deg FOV.
As an alternative display setup, check out Micro Optical http://www.microopticalcorp.com
with their eyeglass displays.
other info on HMD vendors at http://isdale.com/jerry/VR/HMD_Vendors.htm
The MicroOptical glasses are nice and hopefully I'll get to check them out later this year. There are some problems with them:
- brightness, hard to see the image in daylight. The Microvision VRD is the only decently daylight readable, see through I've seen. The MO and MV folks should team up.
- fixed image location, makes it hard to do the IPD adjustments needed for good binocular HMD
Still they might be nice for a borg setup. I dont hold a lot of near-term hope for the registered-image uses (overlay directly on real objects). The head and position tracking issues are a long way from being solved, except in tightly controlled environments.
For more HMD links, check out http://vr.isdale.com/HMD_Vendors.htm
Thats where I keep my list, developed originally for my Tech Review articles for VR News magazine (http://www.vrnews.com)