Robert Swirsky
Encyclopedia
Kilobaud Microcomputing
Kilobaud Microcomputing was a magazine dedicated to the computer homebrew hobbyists from the end of the 1970s until the beginning of the 1980s.-How kilobaud started:...
, and Interface Age to Creative Computing
Creative Computing
Creative Computing was one of the earliest magazines covering the microcomputer revolution. Published from 1974 until December 1985, Creative Computing covered the whole spectrum of hobbyist/home/personal computing in a more accessible format than the rather technically-oriented BYTE. The magazine...
.
Robert Swirsky holds Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Computer Science from Hofstra University
Hofstra University
Hofstra University is a private, nonsectarian institution of higher learning located in the Village of Hempstead, New York, United States, about east of New York City: less than an hour away by train or car...
, and is one of Hofstra's Alumni of Distinction. At Hofstra University, he met VOIP pioneer Jeff Pulver
Jeff Pulver
Jeffrey L. Pulver is an American Internet entrepreneur known for his work as founder and chief executive of pulver.com. He has written extensively on the need to develop an alternative to government regulation of the applications layer of Voice over Internet Protocol telephony.-Biography:Jeff...
who attended Hofstra as an undergraduate student . After graduating, he worked on projects ranging from aircraft avionics
Avionics
Avionics are electronic systems used on aircraft, artificial satellites and spacecraft.Avionic systems include communications, navigation, the display and management of multiple systems and the hundreds of systems that are fitted to aircraft to meet individual roles...
to one of the first all-software digital radio receivers for a VLF submarine
Submarine
A submarine is a watercraft capable of independent operation below the surface of the water. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability...
application.
In 1989, Swirsky moved to California, and joined Olivetti
Olivetti
Olivetti S.p.A. is an Italian manufacturer of computers, printers and other business machines.- Founding :The company was founded as a typewriter manufacturer in 1908 in Ivrea, near Turin, by Camillo Olivetti. The firm was mainly developed by his son Adriano Olivetti...
Advanced Technology's Unix group. He was a frequent speaker at Uniforum, Usenix
USENIX
-External links:* *...
, and other Unix shows, and hosted parties where he entertained people with song parodies about the Unix
Unix
Unix is a multitasking, multi-user computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs, including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Brian Kernighan, Douglas McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna...
computer operating system, some of which were featured in a special Evatone Soundsheet issue of Interface Age magazine. Mr. Swirsky studied music and piano at Hofstra University
Hofstra University
Hofstra University is a private, nonsectarian institution of higher learning located in the Village of Hempstead, New York, United States, about east of New York City: less than an hour away by train or car...
with professor Morton Estrin
Morton Estrin
Morton Estrin, the noted American pianist, was born in Burlington, Vermont in 1923. His career began in 1949 with a well-received recital at Town Hall. He studied with the noted teacher Vera Maurina-Press and others....
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After Olivetti, Swirsky went to Adobe Systems and was a member of the core PostScript
PostScript
PostScript is a dynamically typed concatenative programming language created by John Warnock and Charles Geschke in 1982. It is best known for its use as a page description language in the electronic and desktop publishing areas. Adobe PostScript 3 is also the worldwide printing and imaging...
team, and the team that developed the first versions of Photoshop for Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
, including Win32s
Win32s
Win32s is a 32-bit application runtime environment for the Microsoft Windows 3.1 and 3.11 operating systems. It allowed some 32-bit applications to run on the 16-bit operating system using call thunks.- Concept and Characteristics :...
on Microsoft Windows for Workgroups 3.11. His work made him a participant in many industry standards committees, such as TWAIN
TWAIN
TWAIN is a standard software protocol and applications programming interface that regulates communication between software applications and imaging devices such as scanners and digital cameras....
, and was a frequent speaker and contributor at ACM SIGGRAPH
SIGGRAPH
SIGGRAPH is the name of the annual conference on computer graphics convened by the ACM SIGGRAPH organization. The first SIGGRAPH conference was in 1974. The conference is attended by tens of thousands of computer professionals...
events and meetings. Before leaving Adobe in 1998, he worked with Will Harvey
Will Harvey
Will Harvey is a Silicon Valley entrepreneur who, at the age of 15, achieved fame for writing Music Construction Set, the first commercial sheet music processor for home computers...
on HTML rendering technology.
The Disney years
In 1998, Robert Swirsky started working for Walt Disney ImagineeringWalt Disney Imagineering
Walt Disney Imagineering is the design and development arm of the Walt Disney Company, responsible for the creation and construction of Disney theme parks worldwide...
R&D as Director, Creative technology, under Bran Ferren
Bran Ferren
Bran Ferren is a co-founder and Chief Creative Officer of Applied Minds and is an American designer of movie and theater special effects.Bran Ferren is the former president of research and development of Walt Disney Imagineering, as well as the co-founder of Associates and Ferren, a visual effects...
, developing electronic games and digital imaging systems. He developed technology to play interactive games synchronized with live television shows, and electronic toys including Disney's Magical Moments Pin. Digital Photography projects included systems to synchronize picture taking with ride vehicles, and active infrared badges to identify picture-takers.
Mr. Swirsky was a major technical contributor to ABC's Enhanced TV, an Emmy Award
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
winning technology that allows television viewers to play along with game shows, sporting events, and answer live polls during talk shows.
Swirsky's interactive media research also involved working with nerdcore rapper Monzy, then an intern at Walt Disney Imagineering, on a variety of cutting edge display technologies, including the display of digital data on a spherical surface.
Mr. Swirsky continues to work as a consultant for the themed entertainment industry, for Disney and other amusement enterprises.
3D photography
Swirsky is best known for his work in 3DStereoscopy
Stereoscopy refers to a technique for creating or enhancing the illusion of depth in an image by presenting two offset images separately to the left and right eye of the viewer. Both of these 2-D offset images are then combined in the brain to give the perception of 3-D depth...
digital photography
Digital photography
Digital photography is a form of photography that uses an array of light sensitive sensors to capture the image focused by the lens, as opposed to an exposure on light sensitive film...
. He has developed algorithms for generating full-color anaglyph
Anaglyph
Anaglyph may refer to:* Anaglyph image, a method of encoding a three-dimensional image in a single picture by superimposing a pair of pictures* Ornament carved in low relief...
images from stereo pairs that can be viewed through red/cyan glasses. A popular freeware
Freeware
Freeware is computer software that is available for use at no cost or for an optional fee, but usually with one or more restricted usage rights. Freeware is in contrast to commercial software, which is typically sold for profit, but might be distributed for a business or commercial purpose in the...
program, Callipygian 3D is widely used and has been featured on TechTV
TechTV
TechTV was a 24-hour cable and satellite channel based in San Francisco featuring news and shows about computers, technology, and the Internet. In 2004, it merged with the G4 gaming channel which ultimately dissolved TechTV programming...
's The Screen Savers
The Screen Savers
The Screen Savers was a live American TV show on TechTV. The show launched concurrently with the channel ZDTV on May 11, 1998. The Screen Savers originally centered around computers, new technologies, and their adaptations in the world...
show several times, with Swirsky demonstrating its use. The popularity of anaglyph images from Mars
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after the Roman god of war, Mars. It is often described as the "Red Planet", as the iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance...
, and in anaglyph movies like Spy Kids 3D introduced new people to the anaglyph technique. Swirsky's software played a major role in letting people create their own anaglyph images.