Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!dgp.toronto.edu!mccool
Newsgroups: comp.human-factors
From: mccool@dgp.toronto.edu (Michael McCool)
Subject: Re: Thing ICON
Message-ID: <1991Jun19.145248.10030@jarvis.csri.toronto.edu>
Keywords: wanted - graphical representation for generic objects
References: <1991Jun17.111116.810@syd.dit.CSIRO.AU> <1991Jun18.181536.14156@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
Date: 19 Jun 91 18:52:49 GMT
Lines: 13

msp33327@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Michael S. Pereckas) writes:

>>One of the representations I need is for a THING, a generic object. At best,
>>all I can think of is a hand coming out of a small wooden box, from the
>>Addams Family TV series.  This is hardly intuitive!

How about a teapot?  I may not be intuitive for the average user, but it
IS a generic object, and computer folklore (in graphics, anyways), identifies
it with a generic object.  In Mathematics! (James Blinn), he uses as, 
"Take any object, say... a teapot...".  This occurs again and again as 
a running gag.

Michael McCool@dgp.utoronto.ca