schwerin@milton.u.washington.edu (Stan Schwerin) (09/18/90)
I found this on applelink and thought it may be of interest to someone thinking
about power gloves and macs.
Stan Schwerin (schwerin@milton.u.washington.edu)
Yo
\
Yo dude
Contact: Donald E. Eastlake, III
Transfinite Systems Company, Inc.
P. O. Box N, MIT Branch P. O.
Cambridge, MA 02139
(617) 969-9570
AppleLink: D2002
New Inexpensive Customizable 3-D ADB Input Device
Boston, MA--August 14, 1990--Gold Brick*, an entirely new type of human
input-output interface for the Apple Macintosh(, was introduced last week at
MACWORLD Exposition Boston by Transfinite Systems Company, Inc.
Model 1 of Gold Brick is the first device to provide three-dimensional input
using AppleUs recently published standard memory structure for
three-dimensional input (see Apple Macintosh Tech Note #266) and can also be
used as a mouse and/or keyboard substitute. Transfinite Systems anticipates
that within a few months many three dimensional graphics applications for the
Macintosh will adopt the new Apple standard and be usable with Gold Brick.
Gold Brick plugs into the Apple Desktop Bus, available on any Macintosh since
the SE. A wide variety of controllers, including a simple eight button
controller shipped with the product, can be plugged into Gold Brick and used as
input devices to the Macintosh. Software supplied with Gold Brick (requires
System 6.0.5 or later) permits easy customization of the interpretation of the
controller sensors as two or three dimensional motion and/or rotation, type in
of arbitrary characters, as modifiers such as the mouse button, shift, command,
etc., or as inputs that change the meaning of other sensors. Sets of
parameters for controller sensor interpretation can be stored into and loaded
from files.
To find a variety of rugged, inexpensive, and easily available controllers to
connect to the Macintosh via Gold Brick, Transfinite Systems chose controllers
that are compatible with the Nintendo Entertainment System(. Release 1.0 of
Gold Brick supports the following:
% a wide variety of eight button standard controllers,
% the Br?derbund UFORCE*, which senses proximity to various sensor points, in
both its standard and extended modes,
% the Mattel Power Glove*, which senses the location of your hand
ultrasonically, in standard mode, and
% the twelve floor-sensor Nintendo Power Pad*.
To demonstrate the capabilities of Gold Brick, Transfinite Systems is shipping
with it a demonstration application that moves and rotates a cube in
perspective. Full source code for this application, including the three
dimensional rotation and hidden surface elimination logic, written in MPW C, is
included.
Gold Brick can also be plugged into the Apple Desktop Bus on an Apple IIGS;
however, Apple IIGS software to support customization is not currently
available.
The Gold Brick hardware also supports byte-level communication with a Nintendo
game deck and controller and the monitoring of interactions between a
controller and a game deck.
Transfinite Systems is currently selling Gold Brick, Model 1, for $195.00. It
comes with a 90 day warranty and a 30 day money back guarantee.
Gold Brick is Transfinite SystemsU second product for the Macintosh. Its first
was Ft.Knox*, a software security package oriented to the needs of US
Government contracts, and agencies and others concerned with meeting security
requirements similar to those mandated by the US Government.
(Gold Brick is a trademark of Transfinite Systems Company, Inc. Apple Desktop
Bus is a trademark and Macintosh and Apple IIGS are registered trademarks of
Apple Computer, Inc. UFORCE is a trademark of Br?derbund Software, Inc. Power
Glove is a trademark used by Mattel, Inc., under license. Power Pad is a
trademark and Nintendo Entertainment System is a registered trademark of
Nintendo of America, Inc. MACWORLD Exposition is a registered trademark of
World Expo Co., Inc. -- Gold Brick is designed and manufactured in the United
States of America by Transfinite Systems Company, Inc. It is not designed,
manufactured, sponsored, or endorsed by Nintendo of America, Inc.)
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This information is provided to the Apple Developer Group by the productUs
developer. Apple cannot warrant any third partyUs product. Please consult the
Apple Products & Ref Library, MENU/Software Library, or Redgate BuyerUs Guide
Library on AppleLink, or contact the third-party company directly for more
information.
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3rd Party Connection
Press Releases
8-21-90
Anagle@uunet.UU.NET (John Nagle) (09/22/90)
Note the words "in standard mode" regarding the Power Glove. They
haven't been able to get full position information from the glove as
yet, apparently. Nevertheless, a Mac adapter for Nitendo peripherals
has got to be good for something.
John Nagle