With trueSpace, though, I had an affordable program with an amazingly simple and natural feeling 3D interface. I could actually draw the ideas I had floating around in my head. It was a great feeling seeing and showing my drawings to others for the first time in my life!

Interview:
I also had the opportunity to ask Ed some questions, with some interesting answers from this long-time trueSpace user!

Tom: What was the first version of trueSpace that you used?

Ed: I first used the program on the Amiga when it was called Caligari, and the company was called Octree! I ran the training department at DEC and used it to create an animated video instructor, to teach people how to follow processes throughout the plant. It was a big hit as the employees were educated AND entertained! The software made it very easy to animate the little professor, and we could never have done it with any other program at that time.

Of course, as soon as trueSpace was written and released for the PC, I ordered it!

Tom: You used trueSpace to design the mouse bungee - what were the advantages that lead you to choose trueSpace? Ed: Because I loved the 3d interface and felt at home using it. I was very pleased with speed that I could get a product design off the ground. I also drew my first invention in Caligari. It was the Venus Flylite product, an environmentally friendly, indoor flying insect controller. The picture on the right shows the first concept drawings, and the finished product. The renders may look crude today, but this is from 1989! The Flylite went on to be a big hit, sold and patented in several countries. You may not recognize the interface but Roman will! (editor's note : click the image for the larger version, and check the top left to see that interface!)

Tom:. Tell us a little (without giving away trade secrets!) about how you came up with the idea for the mouse bungee, and how you moved from idea to actually producing and selling it.

Ed: It was drawing in trueSpace that inspired it! My mouse became a real nuisance, as I was constantly yanking on my mouse cord while trying to do precise work. trueSpace gave me that capability, but my mouse was getting in the way!

I tried many things to eliminate the cord drag and snagging, even using tape to attach the cord to the monitor! I got one of the first cordless mice ever, but it was infra-red and you had to aim the mouse at the receiver, just like an old TV remote control, or it would stop tracking. That was worse than the cord problem so I switched back to my corded mouse.

I decided to try to come up with a device to solve the problem. I remembered raising the cord up in the air by taping it to my monitor had helped, so part of the solution was to get the cord up out of the way. I made a little clay ball and stuck a rod into it at 45 degree angle and connected my cord to it. It worked! That eliminated the cord drag, now what about the snagging?

I gave my mouse cord a few inches of slack and connected it firmly to the back of the clay ball, and that gave me enough cord to roam around with, and prevented the cord from getting caught on anything on or behind the desk. The clay ball was heavy enough to stay put on my desk when I moved the mouse, so it worked great! I made several concept drawings with trueSpace and met with some investors to try to sell the idea using those renders. They agreed the product had merit and that they would invest in it. We then made a

working model from the trueSpace concept drawings and our testers liked it so much that we went forward and planned on our first production run of 10,000.

Well that was 10 years ago and we have now sold over 300,000 Mouse Bungee products!

Company Information:

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