2010 saw some of the most fantastic blockbusters ever produced and digital technology was paramount in their success.
When I was a child and my parents took us home to my Grand Parents in Waycross GA. I never thought the little portable computer that my Uncle Roy Reach demonstrated to us that year, would effect me as much as it did, not only me, but many more people throughout the world.
Uncle Roy and two of his friends had designed the first programmable desktop computer called the Mathatron and I had a front row seat to this private demonstration. I was small enough to be easily looked over by my parents, aunts and uncles and was just to the left of Uncle Roy to see every key he punched. How we all fit into Grand Pa Barrows hallway in the little house on reed street was a feat in itself.
This little computer was about the size of a portable typewriter and had a small keypad. On top were two rubber cups of which you could place the handset of the one phone in the house. This wired phone was strategically placed in the hallway so that it was easily reached from any room when an incoming call rang in.
Uncle Roy dialed the mainframe in Boston and quickly placed the handset on the computer to complete the connection. Since the computer only dealt with mathematical problems he typed in a long complex problem and pressed the button for the solution. In seconds the computer transmitted the problem to Boston over the phone and then received the results soon after. A half inch wide paper strip started printing out the problem and answer, with more numbers I had ever seen at one time. The strip ended up being a foot or more long. I was totally amazed and thus began my awareness of the possibilities of computers and technology.
Yesterday I was taken by my father to a Diagnostic Center to have my legs checked for blood clots. The technician squirted some warm gel on my legs and rubbed a magical wand along my veins to see where the clots were. The inside of my leg was painlessly displayed on a computer monitor beside the bed of which I comfortably lay on. The sound of the blood being pumped through my legs played as background music while the technician searched. A few minutes latter my clots were revealed and their location and severity pinpointed.
On the way home after telling my father how the test was performed, my father explained that at my age he also had clots and was strapped to a table which held him at an uncomfortable angle while the technician injected a dye into the top of his big toe. XRays were then performed over a period of time to reveal how the blood flowed through his veins.
I could see the pain in his eyes as he revealed how traumatic and painful it was. I was once again reminded how technology can have such a positive influence in our lives. Computers and technology are tools and like any tool they can be used to build or destroy the choice is up to you.
Today my computer is much larger than Uncle Roy's Mathatron, but does a whole lot more. When I sit down in front of it, I don’t even have to log on. It recognizes my face and springs to life. I talk to it and it understands my commands, opening and closing programs searching for information and other task such as typing an email, business document or even this very article. It can create virtual worlds such as used in the movie Avatar, create characters and animate their actions completely synchronized to prerecorded audio or digitize the audio itself.
Granted I have spent many years developing this system using hardware and software tools, some tools are only available to a select few but others are readily available today, to anyone with a decent computer and internet connection. How would you like to have the same software that was used to create the wonderfully colorful plants on avatar? To put yourself into the cockpit of the multirotor choppers and fly through the floating mountains on Pandora? 2011 is now upon us and your opportunity awaits.
Download a free copy of Vue Pioneer and explore the possibilities.
Design your own world and bring it to life in ways you never thought possible.
This year I will be focusing more on revealing and sharing the tools which I have come to love and attempt to spark your imagination, as mine was sparked by my Uncle Roy Reach many years ago. You never know how a seed of information will blossom into a whole new world of possibilities and I can’t wait to see the positive results you can achieve, not only in your life, but in the lives of others as well.
Happy New Year!
Kenny Barrow
