![]() ![]() And this one was much higher powered than SIMON. Young Ivan’s first program “taught” SIMON to divide, requiring eight-feet of tape.Īs a graduate student in engineering at MIT, Sutherland once again had the luck to be one of the few young people in the nation to have a computer available for his research. More importantly, it could be programmed-by punching holes into paper tape and then feeding that into a tape reader. SIMON, a mechanical relay based computer, was so “powerful” that it was capable of adding all the way up to 15. His engineer father had borrowed it from work. Most of the pioneers of digital media were inspired by Sutherland’s Sketchpad, particularly by the concept that a computer could be designed for use by ordinary people and artists, rather than remain the domain of a select group of technology experts.īorn in Hastings, Nebraska in 1938, Ivan Sutherland was probably the only high school student in the 1950s who had a computer to play with. The software also was able to save the images created on the screen for later use. The width of the TX-2’s small screen was treated by Sutherland’s program as a “window,” so when one zoomed in on a form its outer parts would go beyond the edges of the screen. Sketchpad animation: Winking girl, “Nefertite,” and her component parts. But it is merely a footnote in the life of the man known as “Father Ivan,” since he is the person who gave birth to computer graphics and who, along with his many students, helped usher in the Computer Age. The Trojan Cockroach was the first computer controlled robot that could carry a human being. Without the fun, none of us would go on.” If the technology you do isn’t fun for you, you may wish to seek other employment. I have turned down several lucrative administrative jobs because they would deny me that fun. I believe that technology is fun, especially when computers are involved, a sort of grand game or puzzle with ever so neat parts to fit together. When denied my minimum daily adult dose of technology, I get grouchy. Fun has always been Sutherland’s inspiration. His students at Carnegie Mellon Institute called the eight foot long machine “The Trojan Cockroach.” To Sutherland it was as an “electric animal,” which he made because he thought it would be fun. In 1982, Ivan Sutherland got on a six-legged walking robot he had built and took his first ride. Ivan Sutherland and his robot crawler, 1983 ![]()
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