This wonderful machine has been sitting in our lab for the entire time we have been open. Released in 1984, this was not Apple’s first computer; the Apple I released almost a decade earlier in 1976 as Apple’s first computer. However, this computer is most notable for being the very first in the “Macintosh” or Mac line of computers. Like modern iMacs, the computer, monitor, and disk reader are integrated into one package, and if you booted it up and looked at its user interface, it might look familiar if you’re a user of modern MacOS versions. It’s one of our favorite computers of the lab, so be sure to marvel at it next time you stop by 😉
The Comdyna GP-6 is an analog computer from the late 1960s. The first question you might ask after looking at it is “how am I supposed to use this?” After looking up the operator’s manual as well as several YouTube videos, from what I could gather you would use various banana connectors to input information about the different variables involved in an equation, each variable set to a different “channel” of the computer, and the Comdyna GP-6 would compute the result and send it to output. Most applications I’ve found online of this computer seem to be for solving differential equations. To visualize the result of the program, you would often connect an oscilloscope to the computer (shown in this paper by Ray Spiess, the inventor the computer, on page 69).
Looking at it, you may think its relevancy ended after other non-analog computers, such as the Apple Lisa or TRS-80, were produced, but according to Ray Speiss it was in production for at least 36 years after its initial creation (p. 68). The previously linked paper goes into more detail, but essentially it was a very popular machine for teaching control systems to students in universities, as well as for a few other very specialized lines of work (Speiss p.70).
It was one of the earlier examples of a touchscreen laptop; released in 1997 (which you might notice is extremely close to the release date of the iMac G3 in 1999), it is kind of similar to a Microsoft Surface laptop today. However, unlike the Surface, the eMate was not all that powerful, and was actually intended mostly for use in schools by young children. This is the main reason for its striking appearance, which even back in the time it was originally released looked more like a plastic toy than a laptop.
You may be surprised to learn that despite looking like a cheap toy, the Florida police department had plans to replace their computers with the eMate due to it being cheap and user friendly, as described in this article from MacWorld by Benj Edwards.
(Psst. You might also be interested to learn about the rest of the Apple Newton line of devices; where the eMate 300 is an early predecessor for a touchscreen laptop, the other Newtons were a predecessor for what we would call a tablet today. 😉)
This is an Object of the Week post from the newsletter, originally posted November 13, 2023. I believe one of the lab members owned a Famicon at the time, but I do not think we have one inventoried.
The Famicon, the shortened nickname given to the Nintendo Family Computer and more famously known in the United States as the Nintendo Entertainment System (aka the NES), was one of Nintendo’s first video game consoles.
However, as you might notice, the Famicon is strikingly different in appearance from the NES. Despite being the same console as the NES, it has a completely different design. Why is that? During the Famicon’s initial release in Japan, the video game industry in the US was actually undergoing a massive recession.
This Wikipedia article and this article have more information, but during 1983, the US video game market was severely struggling. There were too many video game consoles on the market and most of the games for them were awful. Additionally, while this was happening, the Famicon was not meeting immediate success in Japan; its launch was riddled with a few critical issues, and so it had to be recalled and revised before it started meeting demand. As a result of both of these things, initially, Nintendo did not plan to release the Famicon to American audiences at all. However, after the Famicon’s technical issues were resolved and it became a hit in Japan, Nintendo started slowly releasing versions of it in American arcades and, seeing its success there, started thinking once more of a US release. They eventually decided to release a completely re-designed version of the Famicon as the NES, to smashing success.
Every decade or so a new technological breakthrough will come up, one that often fascinates our collective imagination. The year 1961 launched one of these collective dreams, one in which humanity could break through the outermost layers of our stratosphere and have human bodies (as well as dogs and monkeys), whimsically facing the lack of our planet’s gravitational pull. That was the one of the very first milestones in the space race, which culminated in the Apollo 11 moon landing in July of 1969.
Human fascination with space rocket technology then filled our collective imagination and spread out to consumer goods as the aesthetics of Space Age futurism were designed into household appliances, architecture, and cars in order to create the impression of technological advancement. Panasonic was one of the many companies that took advantage of this aesthetic.
In 1966, Panasonic launched the TR-005, also known as the Orbitel. A five-inch CRT screen encased by two silver plastic hemispheres, the Orbitel was designed to look Space Age, resembling an astronaut helmet or an alien spaceship. It was built using cutting edge “solid state” technology, which meant that its futuristic case was filled with circuit boards instead of the more, at the time, common nixie/vacuum tubes. In its ads, Panasonic would boast that the TV would not need to be “warmed up” before a bright, greyscale, clear image would form on its CRT screen.
While not currently located in our lab, you can still view this dreamy television set sitting proudly in one of our display cabinets at the ATEC building.
An oscilloscope is an instrument that graphically displays voltage electrical signals and shows how those signals change over time. It measures these signals by connecting with a sensor, which is a device that creates an electrical signal in response to physical stimuli like sound, light, and heat. For instance, a microphone is a sensor that converts sound into an electrical signal. They are often used when designing, manufacturing, or repairing electronic equipment. Engineers use an oscilloscope to measure electrical phenomena and solve measurement challenges quickly and accurately to verify their designs or confirm that a sensor is working properly.
Here at the lab, we use older CRT versions of the devices to display music in ways not often seen before. Oscilloscope Music is audiovisual music, where the visuals are drawn by the sound. In order to get the closest possible correlation between image and sound, the exact same signal that is connected to the left and right speakers is also connected to an analog oscilloscope’s X and Y inputs, producing complex Lissajous images. For the past 10 years, Jerobeam Fenderson and Hansi3D have been creating Oscilloscope Music and techniques in the largely uncharted field of audiovisual music. You can find more about Oscilloscope Music here.
If you’re interested in the Oscilloscope in particular, come to the lab and ask for Kyle. Several of our researchers also generally know how to turn it on and focus it, so if you simply want it on, feel free to ask!
Created by Tandy Radio Shack (TRS!) and released in August 1977, the TRS-80 was one of the most popular home computers of the early 80s. It was designed to be cheap and accessible, so that the average person would be able to use it. The computer itself is located inside the keyboard. You can click here to read more about it.
The Power Glove, originally released in 1989, was an accessory for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It was officially licensed by Nintendo, but was designed and distributed by Mattel. You might be familiar with it from the movie “The Wizard,” which was also released in 1989 and gave us the iconic clip linked above.
Although most remember it as cheap, ineffectual, and indeed “bad,” the development process behind the Power Glove is actually quite interesting. This article by Mental Floss’s Jake Rossen goes into much more detail, but essentially the Power Glove was originally based on a $8800 NASA glove called the “Data Glove,” which was initially envisioned for helping astronauts “control robots in space.” If that excerpt piqued your interest, then I 100% recommend giving Rossen’s article a read.
Our lab has a Power Glove in a display case near the main entrance to the ATEC building. Make sure to look out for it next time you stop by!
