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Cyhist Mar 08 1997 B
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Date: Sat, 8 Mar 1997 22:46:44 -0500
Reply-To: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU> Sender: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU> From: andrew stellman <roo@ANON.RAZORWIRE.COM>
Subject: Re: 3-D display -- NOT!
In-Reply-To: <199703090418.UAA06222@proxy1.ba.best.com> MIME-Version: 1.0
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Community Memory: Discussion List on the History of Cyberspace ______________________________________________________________________
On Sat, 8 Mar 1997, Bob Bickford wrote:
>This is not a "3-D display". What you've described is a *stereoscopic* display system. There is a _huge_ difference. A true 3-D display would have the characteristic that you could move your head and/or walk around it to see more information.
i don't see why you're placing this restriction on the definition of "3-d display". and i'd hasten to add that how you move your head or walk around has nothing to do with the display; you're referring to the input device, and an input device has nothing to do with a display system. it would be like saying that a monitor doesn't count as a display device if it doesn't come with a mouse.
as for early 3-d displays, i know that when my father was a chemistry grad student in the sixties (sorry, don't know the year offhand), he worked with an extremely clever 3-d system for displaying and rotating molecules that worked with the LDS-1 line-drawing graphics system. the input device consisted of three potentiometers, one for each axis of rotation. they needed to see colors, and had a wonderful hack to add color to an otherwise monochrome system. there was a disc that was sectioned into three sections -- red, green, blue -- rotating at a fixed speed in front of the monitor, fast enough to become a blur to the human eye. the system was programmed to display only colors in sync with the spinning disc, so the end result was a color display.
it don't think the system was stereoscopic, although i'm sure it was quite within their capability if they had thought it necessary. but it did render 3-d line drawings with enough accuracy to be useful for chemistry research, and it had enough control to be extremely robust.
andrew
______________________________________________________________________
Reply-To: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU> Sender: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU> From: andrew stellman <roo@ANON.RAZORWIRE.COM>
Subject: Re: 3-D display -- NOT!
In-Reply-To: <199703090418.UAA06222@proxy1.ba.best.com> MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
______________________________________________________________________
Community Memory: Discussion List on the History of Cyberspace ______________________________________________________________________
On Sat, 8 Mar 1997, Bob Bickford wrote:
>This is not a "3-D display". What you've described is a *stereoscopic* display system. There is a _huge_ difference. A true 3-D display would have the characteristic that you could move your head and/or walk around it to see more information.
i don't see why you're placing this restriction on the definition of "3-d display". and i'd hasten to add that how you move your head or walk around has nothing to do with the display; you're referring to the input device, and an input device has nothing to do with a display system. it would be like saying that a monitor doesn't count as a display device if it doesn't come with a mouse.
as for early 3-d displays, i know that when my father was a chemistry grad student in the sixties (sorry, don't know the year offhand), he worked with an extremely clever 3-d system for displaying and rotating molecules that worked with the LDS-1 line-drawing graphics system. the input device consisted of three potentiometers, one for each axis of rotation. they needed to see colors, and had a wonderful hack to add color to an otherwise monochrome system. there was a disc that was sectioned into three sections -- red, green, blue -- rotating at a fixed speed in front of the monitor, fast enough to become a blur to the human eye. the system was programmed to display only colors in sync with the spinning disc, so the end result was a color display.
it don't think the system was stereoscopic, although i'm sure it was quite within their capability if they had thought it necessary. but it did render 3-d line drawings with enough accuracy to be useful for chemistry research, and it had enough control to be extremely robust.
andrew
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