Apple Computer, Human Interface Group
1992
Project Description:
At Apple I also experimented with object movies. Capturing an an object rather
than a scene in an interactive photograph requires a more elaborate mechanism
for moving the camera. I built a couple of rigs on my desk but eventually I was
put in touch with John Borden of Peace River Films who had already designed such
a mechanism for photgraphing Myan artifacts in connection with his important work
on the Palenque project with Bank Street College. Joy Mountford and Mike Mills,
my bosses at Apple, agreed to commission John Borden to actually build a large
scale object maker. I participated the early design of this machine and wrote
the software for displaying the resulting movie but the bulk of the design and
all the construction was done through Peace River Films. The schematic above was
created by John Borden. A person could sit in this rig and a few moments later
the machine would create a virtual picture of their entire head. Essentially,
this is still the same method used for QTVR objects. This was made into a booth
and featured at an exhibit and paper at SIGCHI '92. Several companies, including
John Borden's company, Peace River Studios, and Kaidan, turned this concept into
a product. I worked with John Borden of Peace River Films, Mike Mills, Ian Small,
Michael Chen, Louis Knapp and Eric Hulteen.
Technical Notes:
The control and display software were both written in Hypercard. John Borden (now
president of Peace River Studios) designed and constructed the rig