The Disney Years
In 1998, Robert Swirsky started working for Walt Disney Imagineering R&D as Director, Creative technology , under Bran Ferren, 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 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 3D digital photography. He has developed algorithms for generating full-color anaglyph images from stereo pairs that can be viewed through red/cyan glasses. A popular freeware program, Callipygian 3D is widely used and has been featured on TechTV’s The Screen Savers show several times, with Swirsky demonstrating its use . The popularity of anaglyph images from Mars, 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.
Production Company
In 2003, Swirsky started a production company, Swirsky-AO[citation needed], to produce and distribute short films and related media for the portable media player market. Swirsky-AO has a 20-acre (81,000 m2) lot adjacent to Walt Disney World in Florida. This property, known as Swampworth, is used as a filming location for many of Swirsky-AO’s productions, and serves as a residence and studio for Swirsky’s other projects.
References
^ Index of Creative Computing articles by Robert Swirsky
^ PopCult Magazine
^ a b Theme Park Photo, LLC
^ Walt Disney Imagineering
^ Robert Swirsky’s Callipygian 3D software demoed on TechTV
External links
US Patents for Robert Swirsky
System and method for automating the creation of customized multimedia content
Categories: 1962 births | Living people | American computer scientists | Pianists | Hofstra University alumniHidden categories: All articles with unsourced statements | Articles with unsourced statements from July 2007