Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!mcvax!ukc!axion!hfserver!nigel
From: nigel@hfserver.hfnet.bt.co.uk (Nigel Cliffe)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: My favorite thing at MacWorld: A 6-D Mouse
Summary: Reference
Keywords: 3d
Message-ID: <614@hfserver.hfnet.bt.co.uk>
Date: 22 Aug 89 07:39:00 GMT
References: <15124@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU> <3948@phri.UUCP>
Organization: British Telecom Research Labs, Martlesham Heath, Ipswich, Suffolk UK
Lines: 34

In article <3948@phri.UUCP>, roy@phri.UUCP (Roy Smith) writes:
- 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. [.......] 

I seem to recall an issue of a magazine of about a year ago covering this,
I think it was Scientific American, with a front cover picture of a data-glove
(glove covered in movement sensors that could control software). Also
discussed was a "data suit" for a whole body.
No doubt someone else can fill in the details of exactly which issue
(I don't have a set here, and it's a long walk to our library).

-- 
   Nigel Cliffe  - 

     British Telecom Research Labs, Martlesham Heath, Ipswich, IP5 7RE, UK
   voice: +44 473 645275   fax: +44 473 637557   email: nigel@hfnet.bt.co.uk