Sorcerer's Apprentice
Sorcerer's Apprentice was an interactive computer graphics system built at the University of Utah in the early 1970s. It used a spatially-tracked head-mounted display and a wand. The system was published in a paper by Donald Lee Vickers in 1974.[1]
The system allows three-dimensional interaction with line drawings displayed through the display, displayed in real time, at about 20 frames per second. The display, worn like a pair of eyeglasses, gives an impression to the observer that he is surrounded by three-dimensional, computer-generated objects. The observer's view is continuously modified to compensate for his motion, allowing the objects to appear stationary as he walks among them.[1]
It used Ivan Sutherland's head-mounted 3D display.
The system was the first hand-interactive augmented reality system ever built.
It was said that using the wand for interaction gives the impression of sorcery to onlookers, leading to the system's formal name.[2]
It used acoustic spatial tracking.
It ran on a PDP-10.
A hand-held wand lets the observer interact with the objects by touching them, moving them, or changing their shapes.[1] With the wand the observer can create new objects and add to existing ones. The major activity that the project focused on dealt with communication from the user to the computer.[1]
Donald Lee Vickers noted that the ability to observe and modify three-dimensional objects in real time and in natural manner was very striking and realistic.[1]
The wand only had 3DOF: position in X, Y, and Z.
References[edit]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Lee, Vickers, Donald (1974). Sorcerer's apprentice: head-mounted display and wand. https://collections.lib.utah.edu/ark:/87278/s65d99bt.
- ↑ Grover, D. (1977). "Hardware for visual information". Computer-Aided Design 9 (4): 223–232. doi:10.1016/0010-4485(77)90002-1. https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/0010448577900021.