gordon@idca.tds.PHILIPS.nl (Gordon Booman) (10/25/88)
Remember the Data Glove? It was a glove that reported hand position, finger curl, etc. to the Mac for **only** $8500. Does anyone have any info on the product or the company? I haven't heard anything since last year. Is it still available on the Mac? Is it still $8500? Is the company still alive? Thanks, -- Gordon Booman SSP/V3 Philips TDS Apeldoorn, The Netherlands +31 55 432785 domain: gordon@idca.tds.philips.nl uucp: ...!mcvax!philapd!gordon
tim@hoptoad.uucp (Tim Maroney) (10/26/88)
In article <114@ssp17.idca.tds.philips.nl> gordon@idca.tds.PHILIPS.nl (Gordon Booman) writes: >Remember the Data Glove? It was a glove that reported hand position, finger >curl, etc. to the Mac for **only** $8500. > >Does anyone have any info on the product or the company? I haven't heard >anything since last year. Is it still available on the Mac? Is it still >$8500? Is the company still alive? Thanks, The price is right, but that's about it. I never heard of one with a Mac interface, though of course it's possible. For more information, see the article on advanced computer interfaces in the September 1988 Scientific American. That Dataglove only worked with a supercomputer that was also driving a heads-up (goggle-type) 3-D display. It takes a lot of computing power to do that with any acceptable speed, and without a 3-D heads-up display, it's hard to see what a Dataglove would be good for. Touch screens, not to mention mice, are just as good and a lot cheaper for 2-D displays. You could do it with a 3-D projection onto a 2-D display (providing an image of the glove in the projection) but you'd lose the kinesthetic benefits. And the display would still take more power than a 68K is going to give you. Maybe with a transputer card or five.... If you do get any information on a Mac Dataglove, please let me know. -- Tim Maroney, Consultant, Eclectic Software, sun!hoptoad!tim "Those who restrain desire, so so because theirs is weak enough to be restrained; and the restrainer or reason usurps its place & governs the unwilling." - Blake, "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell"
mkb@rover.ri.cmu.edu (Mike Blackwell) (10/27/88)
Contrary to a previous reply, the Data Glove does not need a supercomputer interface, and indeed works just fine with a Macintosh. It has a simple serial line interface, and comes with a Mac application called Gesture Editor which lets you record and define various hand positions and gestures to control tasks. We have one (serial number 2, I believe) - it runs through a Mac-Plus with a Radius accelerator. Works great, and is lots of fun to play with, but the number of distinguishable and repeatable gestures is limited. Now all we need is a head-up display... Mike Blackwel mkb@rover.ri.cmu.edu The Robotics Institute, Carnegie-Mellon University
tim@hoptoad.uucp (Tim Maroney) (10/28/88)
In article <3393@pt.cs.cmu.edu> mkb@rover.ri.cmu.edu (Mike Blackwell) writes: >Contrary to a previous reply, the Data Glove does not need a supercomputer >interface, and indeed works just fine with a Macintosh. If you'll recall, I said the combination of Dataglove and heads-up display with a 3-D artificial reality required a supercomputer, not the glove by itself. And I speculated that it probably wasn't very useful without a heads-up display et al. >It has a simple >serial line interface, and comes with a Mac application called Gesture >Editor which lets you record and define various hand positions and gestures >to control tasks. So it doesn't image the glove on the screen? Or does it? Does it also substitute for a mouse? The way you describe it, it sounds more like Mac mudra than the device described in Scientific American last fall. >We have one (serial number 2, I believe) - it runs through >a Mac-Plus with a Radius accelerator. Works great, and is lots of fun to >play with, but the number of distinguishable and repeatable gestures is >limited. Company? Price? Is it really useful or just a toy? >Now all we need is a head-up display... Just put your head REALLY REALLY close to the screen.... -- Tim Maroney, Consultant, Eclectic Software, sun!hoptoad!tim "Gorbachev is returning to the heritage of the great Lenin" - Ronald Reagan