WhatsUpWithJacob

In the midst of everything this last month, we shipped a prototype of a new datasuit called OpticFlex II. It went to NASA, for eventual use with a remote manipulator in a zero gravity environment.

The prototype was built in Young's "spare" time, thus reducing us to stressed out jelly the week before the deadline. He's working full time at Zazzle.com, and, though Alex Louie and I did a lot, Young built damn near the whole thing himself, nights and weekends.

Young designed the circuits and figured out how to surface mount components by converting a Cuisinart toaster oven to a reflow oven. He designed the housings in Rhinoceros, and had them fabricated. He invented new sensors, new self-calibration process, and wrote all the code from the lowest level firmware up.

Here's Alex L. in the suit. You have to click on the video to start it - the first frame is black...



What's a datasuit? A few years ago (well, nearly 20) Young and I worked with an incredible team of people at VPL Research, developing the hardware and software for the first networked virtual reality. First there was the DataGlove, designed by Tom Zimmerman, which sensed hand and finger motion. Then Young came up with new sensors that were smaller and more accurate for measuring many joints on the hand at the same time. I led the team that applied the technology to the whole body: hence the DataSuit.

Here's a picture of brave Adrianna modeling the first prototype in 1988:



And here's Lou Ellen in the shipping version circa 1990:



Now days, these technologies is mostly used for motion capture for movies, or biomechanics. Pretty cool, huh?