Robert Swirsky (born December, 1962, Brooklyn, NY) is a computer scientist, author and pianist. In the early 1980s, he was one of the first regular contributors to the nascent computer magazine industry, including Popular Computing,

Kilobaud Microcomputing ''Kilobaud Microcomputing'' was a magazine dedicated to the computer homebrew hobbyists from 1977 to 1983. It was one of the three influential computer magazines of the 1970s, along with ''BYTE'' and ''Creative Computing''. It focused mostly o ...

, and

Interface Age ''Interface Age'', "published for the home computerist", was a computer magazine aimed at the early microcomputer and home computer market. Its first issue was published in August 1976 and the last one in September 1984. It had a technical focus ...

Creative Computing ''Creative Computing'' was one of the earliest magazines covering the microcomputer revolution. Published from October 1974 until December 1985, the magazine covered the spectrum of hobbyist/home/personal computing in a more accessible format t ...

. Swirsky holds bachelor's and master's degrees in computer science from

Hofstra University Hofstra University is a Private university, private research university in Hempstead, New York, United States. It originated in 1935 as an extension of New York University and became an independent college in 1939. Comprising ten schools, includ ...

, and is one of Hofstra'
Alumni of Distinction
While there, he met

VOIP Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), also known as IP telephony, is a set of technologies used primarily for voice communication sessions over Internet Protocol (IP) networks, such as the Internet. VoIP enables voice calls to be transmitted as ...

pioneer

Jeff Pulver Jeff Pulver is an American Internet entrepreneur and futurist known for his work as an innovator in the field of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). Pulver's early work in VoIP with his company Free World Dialup led to a significant regulatory ...

who attended Hofstra as an undergraduate student. After graduating, Swirsky worked on projects ranging from aircraft

avionics Avionics (a portmanteau of ''aviation'' and ''electronics'') are the Electronics, electronic systems used on aircraft. Avionic systems include communications, Air navigation, navigation, the display and management of multiple systems, and the ...

to one of the first all-software digital radio receivers for a

VLF Very low frequency or VLF is the ITU designation for radio frequencies (RF) in the range of 3–30 kHz, corresponding to wavelengths from 100 to 10 km, respectively. The band is also known as the myriameter band or myriameter wave ...

submarine A submarine (often shortened to sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. (It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability.) The term "submarine" is also sometimes used historically or infor ...

application. In 1989, Swirsky moved to California and joined

Olivetti Olivetti S.p.A. is an Italian manufacturer of computers, tablets, smartphones, printers and other such business products as calculators and fax machines. Headquartered in Ivrea, in the Metropolitan City of Turin, the company has been owned b ...

Advanced Technology's Unix group. He was a frequent speaker at Uniforum,

Usenix USENIX is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit membership organization based in Berkeley, California and founded in 1975 that supports advanced computing systems, operating system (OS), and computer networking research. It organizes several confe ...

, and other Unix shows, and hosted parties where he entertained people with song parodies about the

Unix Unix (, ; trademarked as UNIX) is a family of multitasking, multi-user computer operating systems that derive from the original AT&T Unix, whose development started in 1969 at the Bell Labs research center by Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, a ...

computer operating system, some of which were featured in a special Evatone Soundsheet issue of ''Interface Age'' magazine. He studied music and piano at Hofstra University with professor Morton Estrin. After Olivetti, Swirsky went to Adobe Systems, where he was a member of the core

PostScript PostScript (PS) is a page description language and dynamically typed, stack-based programming language. It is most commonly used in the electronic publishing and desktop publishing realm, but as a Turing complete programming language, it c ...

team, and the team that developed the first versions of

Photoshop Adobe Photoshop is a raster graphics editor developed and published by Adobe for Windows and macOS. It was created in 1987 by Thomas and John Knoll. It is the most used tool for professional digital art, especially in raster graphics editin ...

for

Microsoft Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

, including

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. A beta version of Win32s was available in ...

on Microsoft Windows for Workgroups 3.11. His work made him a participant in many industry standards committees, such as

TWAIN TWAIN and TWAIN Direct are application programming interfaces (APIs) and communication protocols that regulate communication between software and digital imaging devices, such as image scanners and digital cameras. TWAIN is supported on Microso ...

, and he was a frequent speaker and contributor at ACM

SIGGRAPH SIGGRAPH (Special Interest Group on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques) is an annual conference centered around computer graphics organized by ACM, starting in 1974 in Boulder, CO. The main conference has always been held in North ...

events. Before leaving Adobe in 1998, he worked with

Will Harvey Will Harvey (born 1966 or 1967) is an American software developer and Silicon Valley entrepreneur. He wrote '' Music Construction Set'' (1984) for the Apple II, the first commercial sheet music processor for home computers. ''Music Construction ...

on HTML rendering technology.

The Disney years

In 1998, Swirsky began working for

Walt Disney Imagineering Walt Disney Imagineering Research & Development, Inc.—commonly referred to as Walt Disney Imagineering, Imagineering, or WDI—is the research and development arm of The Walt Disney Company, responsible for the creation, design, and construc ...

R&D as Director, Creative Technology,Theme Park Photo, LLC
/ref> under

Bran Ferren Bran Ferren (born January 16, 1953) is an American technologist, artist, architectural designer, vehicle designer, engineer, lighting and sound designer, visual effects artist, scientist, lecturer, photographer, entrepreneur, and inventor. Ferre ...

, developing electronic games and digital imaging systems. He developed technology to play interactive games synchronized with live television shows, and electronic toys includin
Disney's Magical Moments Pin
His digital photography projects included systems to synchronize picture-taking with ride vehicles, and active infrared badges to identify picture-takers. Swirsky was a major technical contributor to ABC's Enhanced TV, an

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award categor ...

-winning technology that allowed television viewers to play along with game shows and sporting events, and to answer live polls during talk shows. His interactive media research also involved working with

nerdcore Nerdcore is a genre of hip hop music characterized by subject matter considered of interest to nerds and geeks. Self-described nerdcore musician MC Frontalot has the earliest known recorded use of the term (to describe this genre) in the 2000 ...

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. Swirsky continues to work as a consultant for the themed entertainment industry, including Disney.

3D photography

Swirsky is known for his work in 3D

digital photography Digital photography uses cameras containing arrays of electronic photodetectors interfaced to an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) to produce images focused by a lens, as opposed to an exposure on photographic film. The digitized image is ...

. He has developed algorithms for generating full-color anaglyph images from stereo pairs that can be viewed through red/cyan glasses. A popular

freeware Freeware is software, often proprietary, that is distributed at no monetary cost to the end user. There is no agreed-upon set of rights, license, or EULA that defines ''freeware'' unambiguously; every publisher defines its own rules for the free ...

program
Callipygian 3D
is widely used and has been featured on

TechTV TechTV was an American cable television channel with a focus on technology. It was launched as ZDTV on May 11, 1998, by computer magazine publisher Ziff Davis, Ziff-Davis following two short-lived technology-based programs by the company. Init ...

's ''

The Screen Savers ''The Screen Savers'' is an American TV show that aired on TechTV from 1998 to 2005. The show launched concurrently with the channel ZDTV (later known as TechTV) on May 11, 1998. ''The Screen Savers'' originally centered on computers, new techn ...

'' show several times, with Swirsky demonstrating it. The popularity of anaglyph images from

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. It is also known as the "Red Planet", because of its orange-red appearance. Mars is a desert-like rocky planet with a tenuous carbon dioxide () atmosphere. At the average surface level the atmosph ...

, and of anaglyph movies like Spy Kids 3D, introduced new audiences to anaglyph technology. Swirsky's software played a major role in enabling people to create their own anaglyph images.

Production company

In 2003, Swirsky started a production company, ''Thrill Science, Inc.'' , to produce and distribute short films and related media for the portable media player market. The company has a lot adjacent to

Walt Disney World The Walt Disney World Resort is an destination resort, entertainment resort complex located about southwest of Orlando, Florida, United States. Opened on October 1, 1971, the resort is operated by Disney Experiences, a division of the Wa ...

in Florida. The property, known as Swampworth, is used as a filming location for productions, and as a studio for Swirsky's other projects.

Code used in ''The Terminator''

Some of Swirsky's computer code, from the May 1984 issue of '' 73 Magazine'', was used in the movie ''

The Terminator ''The Terminator'' is a 1984 American science fiction action film directed by James Cameron, written by Cameron and Gale Anne Hurd and produced by Hurd. It stars Arnold Schwarzenegger as the Terminator, a cybernetic assassin sent back in t ...

'' in a scene where

COBOL COBOL (; an acronym for "common business-oriented language") is a compiled English-like computer programming language designed for business use. It is an imperative, procedural, and, since 2002, object-oriented language. COBOL is primarily ...

code was briefly displayed.

References

External links

US Patents for Robert Swirsky
*[http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=8316033.PN.&OS=PN/8316033&RS=PN/8316033 Method and system for managing the lifecycles of media assets ]
Method and system for managing media assets
{{DEFAULTSORT:Swirsky, Robert 1962 births Living people American computer scientists Hofstra University alumni 20th-century American pianists American male pianists 21st-century American pianists 20th-century American male musicians 21st-century American male musicians