[Art]

Their creator, Mr. Robert S. Shaw. It seems that he really made a mark with the Haptek program, People Putty that gave us so many great 3D characters and the possibility for creating many new ones as well.

Mr. Shaw is not your ordinary basement hacker...on the contrary, he is quite a learned fellow. Read about him here:

https://www.macfound.org/fellows/348/

[squarebear]

I thought he was called Christopher Shaw?

[Art]

Interesting point and yes, I did as well. Perhaps it is Chris who is the "other" co-founder as mentioned in the article. Perhaps Robert was the physics brain of the pair.

The article clearly states that Robert was the co-founder of Haptek, and to my knowledge, there was only one company with that name.

Perhaps someone with more info will contribute.

[Art]

OK...I found more info as follows:

  In early 1995, Haptek Inc. co-founders Chris Shaw, Robert Shaw,  Ph.D. and Jack Wiley started a company in Santa Cruz, California to build the ultimate, most radically realistic “virtual reality” game for the arcade market. Little did they know that the software created by Haptek’s founders and team of gifted programmers and artists would revolutionize Internet content by bringing a human touch to computer interactivity. More than just a game, they had created a software capable of transforming the computer itself into a feeling, emoting, responsive artificial human.

    It wasn't the first time the three partners would take on a project at the “edge of science.” Six years previously, they had worked together on Split, an independent feature film written and directed by Chris Shaw that the Boston Globe called “a fresh, stimulating, eye-grabbing, brain-rattling sci-fi film.” Split featured the “dazzling” computer-generated special effects of Shaw’s brother Rob, a physicist and recipient of a MacArthur Foundation genius grant for his groundbreaking research on chaos theory. With Wiley, a patent-holding inventor and veteran of film production, the three partners created the most sensational multi-user arcade game experience ever--a  virtual reality suit that allowed players to "become" virtual characters and actually feel virtual objects and other characters in their vibrant virtual worlds. Guiding the Haptek team was the science of haptics—adding the human sense of touch to mechanical systems and computer-simulated realities—from which the company derives its name.

      Soon, the company's growing team of programmers and graphic artists realized the infinitely responsive characters they built for virtual reality had applications far beyond gaming: the vast frontier of the human/machine interface for all computer-based functionalities.

    Today, Haptek's seven years of boot- strapping research and development have put the company ahead of the pack in the race to bring vitality, beauty and true interactivity to artificial characters with its patented Automated Personalities: highly realistic, emoting, 3-D artificial human characters so convincing and engaging you could swear they were real.

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Now moving forward with the Spontanimation project.

[fbing1]

OK...I found more info as follows:

  In early 1995, Haptek Inc. co-founders Chris Shaw, Robert Shaw,  Ph.D. and Jack Wiley started a company in Santa Cruz, California to build the ultimate, most radically realistic “virtual reality” game for the arcade market. Little did they know that the software created by Haptek’s founders and team of gifted programmers and artists would revolutionize Internet content by bringing a human touch to computer interactivity. More than just a game, they had created a software capable of transforming the computer itself into a feeling, emoting, responsive artificial human.

    It wasn't the first time the three partners would take on a project at the “edge of science.” Six years previously, they had worked together on Split, an independent feature film written and directed by Chris Shaw that the Boston Globe called “a fresh, stimulating, eye-grabbing, brain-rattling sci-fi film.” Split featured the “dazzling” computer-generated special effects of Shaw’s brother Rob, a physicist and recipient of a MacArthur Foundation genius grant for his groundbreaking research on chaos theory. With Wiley, a patent-holding inventor and veteran of film production, the three partners created the most sensational multi-user arcade game experience ever--a  virtual reality suit that allowed players to "become" virtual characters and actually feel virtual objects and other characters in their vibrant virtual worlds. Guiding the Haptek team was the science of haptics—adding the human sense of touch to mechanical systems and computer-simulated realities—from which the company derives its name.

      Soon, the company's growing team of programmers and graphic artists realized the infinitely responsive characters they built for virtual reality had applications far beyond gaming: the vast frontier of the human/machine interface for all computer-based functionalities.

    Today, Haptek's seven years of boot- strapping research and development have put the company ahead of the pack in the race to bring vitality, beauty and true interactivity to artificial characters with its patented Automated Personalities: highly realistic, emoting, 3-D artificial human characters so convincing and engaging you could swear they were real.

###########
Now moving forward with the Spontanimation project.

>> Haptek, Inc . is still an active, listed CA company showing Chris Shaw as principal and Jack Wiley as the registered agent in 2017. Haptek, Inc.'s patents are still active to date. The above mentioned names and Rob Shaw formed the co. in 1995 and with other shareholder developed Hatpek's patented "tech" which appears to have reared it's head again @ expressive AI in Oakland, CA. A look at Haptek's website will give backwards looking info, some still relevant today.