Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!husc6!cs.utexas.edu!rutgers!phri!roy
From: roy@phri.UUCP (Roy Smith)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: My favorite thing at MacWorld: A 6-D Mouse
Keywords: 3d
Message-ID: <3948@phri.UUCP>
Date: 20 Aug 89 22:49:13 GMT
References: <15124@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU>
Reply-To: roy@phri.UUCP (Roy Smith)
Organization: Public Health Research Inst. (NY, NY)
Lines: 32

In <15124@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU> thomas@eleazar.dartmouth.edu
(Thomas Summerall) writes:
> [HyperSpace] is a new product [...] like a 6 dimensional mouse used for
> inputting data from actual 3d models. [...] is available for $7500.

	This may be new as a commercially available product, but the idea
certainly goes back many years.  I can remember having lunch with Richard
Feldman (of the NIH computer modeling lab) when he described what he called
a joystring.  It was a 6 degree of freedom gizmo which you could grab with
your hands (he envisioned a pair of them being used to manipulate molecules
for docking studies).

	The handles that you held were supported by 6 strings.  As you
moved the handles, the various strings were pulled and released.  By doing
some snazzy calculations, you could translate the linear motion of the 6
strings into the 6 degree of freedom motion of the handle.  But, the really
neat part was that it was an output device as well.  Under program control,
you could adjust the tension in the strings.  The idea was that as the
potential energy increased as you pushed two molecules together, you would
feel it get harder and harder to move them.  A proof-of-concept pair was
built, I believe, but the cost was pretty high, like several $10k.  Not out
of line with the $7.5k you mention (without programable feedback).

	I don't remember exactly when we discussed this, but I also
remember talking at the same lunch about the newly announced 68000.
Richard couldn't wait to get his hands on a 68k board to plug into his
Apple-II!
-- 
Roy Smith, Public Health Research Institute
455 First Avenue, New York, NY 10016
{att,philabs,cmcl2,rutgers,hombre}!phri!roy -or- roy@alanine.phri.nyu.edu
"The connector is the network"